I was so excited to get to Hope Town. From everything I heard, it was going to be a cool little stop, and I wasn’t disappointed. Much of Hope Town was devastated during Dorian, but I found it interesting that here, my first impressions were those of all the rebuilding and growth. The streets in town are lined with adorable, brightly-colored houses, most of which are completely rebuilt, while several others are under construction. Lighthouse Marina is still getting back on its feet after Dorian, but during our time here, they’ve been working hard to get the showers and laundry back in service, and their shop and fuel docks are fully operational.
The Elbow Reef Lighthouse is the last remaining manned, hand-cranked, kerosene fueled lighthouse in the world. Built in the early 1860s, the 325,000 candlepower light is visible for 17 miles. It was saved from automation by the Bahamas Lighthouse Preservation Society (now the Elbow Reef Lighthouse Society) in 1992, which has taken over maintenance (and post-Dorian restoration) of the lighthouse and its nine historical outbuildings. We visited later in the day on a Saturday and had the whole place to ourselves. The view was breathtaking and totally worth fighting through my fear of heights for. I loved getting to watch the light get lit each night and extinguished each morning from my slip, and I think it would be so cool to get to actually go up and see the process in person.
On our first day here, we found a path to the beautiful ocean beach with an amazing reef along it. The path along the beach quickly became our daily walk, and we even had a morning that was calm enough for us to snorkel. This was my first time snorkeling from a beach that wasn’t flat calm, so it took me a bit to get in the water and get comfortable (especially since we’d seen a small shark cruising through the surf break a little earlier!). We didn’t get to stay in long, but we did see some cool fish, and it was just a nice way to start a morning. Later in the week, a friend pointed out a little memorial garden with a view over the beach, and it turns out to have my favorite view on the entire island.
Chris’s parents came to visit, and it was fun to show them around. We had dinner at the Abaco Inn and at Firefly, spent a day relaxing poolside, and chartered a boat to go explore. If you’re looking to go fishing or hit up some fun spots on neighboring islands, look up JR on No Bananas. He took us over to No Name Cay to visit the pigs, and then to Grabbers and Nippers over on Great Guana. Along the way, we saw some dolphins and giant starfish too.
We spent a lot of time walking around and even ended up walking all the way to the Abaco Inn one weekend. But the one place we didn’t make it to was On Da Beach, so we’ll have to make sure to get there next time we visit.
When we first arrived, we noticed so many boats we knew from Green Turtle, and during our time here we got to make new friends too. We had fun going out for dinner, drinks and music and meeting new people.
You can’t really get to anywhere from Lighthouse Marina by land, other than the Hope Town Inn & Marina. Everywhere else is a dinghy ride away, so in our two weeks here, we’ve certainly put the family car through her paces. There are public docks everywhere, so it makes getting around really easy.
Vernon’s Grocery is a pretty small store, but they have good produce and amazing coconut bread (and if you visit, definitely read the signs – they’re good for a chuckle). They get stock a few times a week, so we were always able to find something good to cook. And it’s just a quick walk from the dinghy dock by Cap’n Jacks, so we didn’t have to lug our bags very far.
I’ve loved our time in Hope Town – this post doesn’t begin to do it justice – and we’ll definitely be back!
