Governor's Harbour, The Bahamas

Governor's Harbour is a gracious seaside town and fishing community of a few hundred residents with a distinctly colonial feel and a tangible expatriate presence. Located at the midpoint of Eleuthera, with plentiful and charming accommodations and restaurants and several beautiful beaches close at hand, it makes a good spot to base yourself to explore the island. Daintily painted wooden cottages with gingerbread trim line the steep lanes which climb the hillside, surrounded by stone walls overflowing with hibiscus and oleander blooms. The harbour, dotted with fishing boats and pleasure craft, is enclosed by a curve of white sand joined to Cupid's Cay by a narrow causeway. Cupid's Cay, a small hunk of flat rock, was the site of the first settlement on Eleuthera, by the Company of Eleutheran Adventurers, exiles from Bermuda in 1648 (although a big sign proudly declares it to have been 1646). A church, a few cottages and the ruins of nineteenth-century wooden houses remain. The mailboat and passenger ferries dock at the north end of the cay.

On the south side of the harbour in front of the candy-pink library is Arthur's Beach, where a community fish fry is held every Friday and Saturday night. To reach the beach from the centre of Governor's Harbour, take Haynes Avenue up the hill from the Queen's Highway, past the Cigatoo Resort and down the other side, where you come to a T-junction. From here, take the wooded path just to the right of the junction, which arrives after 200 yards or so at the beach.