There’s a ship simply offshore known as “Escape.” It’s bobbing in among the most sensible, dynamic turquoise water I’ve ever seen, a couple of meters from a stretch of sand so vivid and so white it’s a must to squint to have a look at it.
Once you journey across the Caribbean, you see seashores, massive and small, crowded and secluded, stunning and nicely, less-beautiful.
You by no means see this.
That is Cape Santa Maria, a seashore on the northwest nook of Lengthy Island in The Bahamas that’s as good a seashore as I’ve ever seen — and that is from somebody who has seen extra seashores within the Caribbean than simply about anybody on the planet.
But it surely’s not an empty seashore. It’s the house of the hotel-and-villa resort that shares its identify, a traditional, important little 20-room retreat that merges effortlessly with this exceptional stretch of sand.
If this seems like plenty of superlatives, it’s as a result of it’s true. Each time I took the step from my bungalow to the sand and peered out on the seashore, I used to be awestruck. It’s a seashore I hold coming again to, even after my return, a seashore that has grow to be caught in my thoughts.
It’s simply that good — even with the small resort, it’s all the time deliciously uncrowded, the water exquisitely calm, the sand simply the suitable give for an prolonged stroll.
It’s the Caribbean you dream about – a Caribbean some might not imagine exists, the Corona business, the ethereal, castaway scene.
But it surely’s additionally the setting of a somewhat good resort, with an excellent all-day restaurant and bar, copious watersports (the paddleboarding right here is world-class), heat service, and cottages and villas which can be actually proper on the sand. Get up, step onto the seashore, repeat.
The perfect half, although, is that you just really feel like your individual non-public vacation spot, secluded, empty, surreal. It’s all yours, whether or not you’re right here for the day or every week or longer.
Once you mix this seashore and this resort you get an enviable mixture: the perfect seashore resort you’ve by no means heard of, set on the sparsely-populated, naturally beautiful, 80-mile-long island that continues to be a closely-guarded secret even amongst those that know the Out Islands of The Bahamas nicely.
After all, a part of its secrecy is that getting right here shouldn’t be simple, besides a method: Makers Air, the favored service that operates scheduled and constitution service from Fort Lauderdale Government Airport to a variety of smaller, harder-to-reach locations in The Bahamas, and now operates twice-weekly nonstop flights to Lengthy Island’s Stella Maris airport — about 10 minutes’ drive from the resort.
It’s what all of us need in our Caribbean fantasy: an escape. And I’m not speaking a few boat.
To study extra, go to the Cape Santa Maria Seashore Resort.
