Where to Go in 2026: This Island in the Bahamas Promises Pink Sand, Historic Hideaways, and Perfect Solitude

This month on Unpacked, we’re diving into Afar’s just-released Where to Go list—but this year’s picks are different. In 2026, we want to lessen the burden on overtouristed destinations and expand visitation to other parts of the world. Our editors carefully selected 24 emerging regions and overlooked locales that will inspire your next great adventure.

For the Bahamas, that means looking beyond Nassau’s cruise port crowds to discover what this nation of 700 islands and cays really offers.

In this episode, host Aislyn Greene talks with Terry Ward, a Florida-based writer who has spent years exploring the Bahamas. She traveled to Eleuthera—one of the Out Islands—where she found pink-sand beaches with barely a footprint, locally-owned guesthouses where Bahamian culture takes center stage, and wild dolphins in crystal-clear waters.

Transcript

Aislyn Greene: I’m Aislyn Greene and this is unpacked, the podcast that unpacks the world’s most interesting destinations and the deeper stories behind travel.

This month, we’re diving into Afar’s annual Where to Go list, and this year’s list is a little different because in 2026, we want to lessen the burden on overtouristed destinations and help expand visitation to other parts of the world. And that’s why our editors carefully selected 24 emerging regions and overlooked cities that, I promise, will inspire you to start planning your next great adventure. They’ve certainly done that for me.

On the list are places like Bucharest, Romania, aka The Little Paris of the East and Japan’s quiet and lovely Sado Island. We released the full list on December 4th and on Unpacked over the next two months, we’re going to be exploring fifteen of those destinations by talking with the writers who traveled to and shared our favorite new places.

In this episode, I’m talking with Terry Ward, a Florida based writer who has spent years exploring the Bahamas. But until recently she had never visited Eleuthera, a long, narrow island about seventy miles east of Nassau that offers the beaches and luxury of its neighbors with a much more laid back vibe.

Well, Terry, welcome to Unpacked. It’s so nice to meet you.

Terry Ward: It’s great to be here.

Aislyn: Are you in Florida now?

Terry: I am, with the air conditioning blasting. Doesn’t feel like fall at all.

Aislyn: Yes, well, we are here to talk today about your Where To Go story focused on Eleuthera in the Bahamas. But before we get there, I kind of wanted to step back and just understand how you wound up becoming an expert in the Bahamas in general.

Terry: Sure. Well, I guess scuba diving is what drew me at first to the Bahamas. It’s kind of my avid passion and something I’ve been writing about for a very long time, including for afar. So the Bahamas was always on my radar for its marine life. I also had the opportunity to live there many years ago. About a decade ago in Nassau, my ex-boyfriend was working in construction there, building houses. So I got to live there for a year. I didn’t get to travel as far afield as I would have liked to, but that’s kind of what brought me there in the first place. And also, of course, any cruise you go on usually stops in Nassau or Freeport.

Aislyn: What was it about it that kind of has kept you coming back?

Terry: What’s so fascinating about the Bahamas? I mean, a lot of people talk about very far flung places. For those of us in North America, like the Maldives. And we really have that same kind of water clarity here in many places in the Caribbean, in particular in the Bahamas. So that’s kind of the first thing for me. There’s just really incredible marine life, you know, and there’s so many islands to explore there too. We all know the big ones like New Providence where Nassau is, and the Abacos, the Exumas, the one you kind of get to pretty easily. Bimini, closest to Florida. Andros, one of the larger ones for Bonefishing. So scuba divers know many of the different islands here.

Aislyn: And how long have you been traveling there now, would you say roughly?

Terry: Oh, man. I mean, I guess the first time I went to the Bahamas was probably almost 20 years ago.

Aislyn: So probably an uncountable number of times.

Terry: It’s so close to us here in Florida. You know, it’s an easy place to get to. Even though I’m on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It’s just, you know, hop down to Miami and you’re less than an hour flight to these places or Fort Lauderdale.

Aislyn: Seems dangerously close. In a good way. So how did you first hear about Eleuthera? Like, what is that story?

Terry: Right. I can’t remember the first time I heard its name, Eleuthera. It’s just kind of a name that’s hard to forget. And actually, when I looked into it, it means freedom in Greek. The word comes from Eleuthera, a Greek word. But the first time I heard about it was from my ex-boyfriend, who I was living with in Nassau because he’s super into surfing. The Bahamas doesn’t have a ton of surf, but Eleuthera is one of the most famous spots in all of the Caribbean. That’s how I first kind of heard about it. But yeah, it didn’t get there until really recently.

Aislyn: So what was it about this place that felt different to some of the other islands you’ve experienced?

Terry: Well, I mean, you look at Nassau. It’s 21 miles long and seven miles wide. Eleuthera is one 110 miles long. So, speaking from Bahamian standards, this is a large, large island. It’s very narrow, too. It’s only about a mile wide at its widest place. And it’s like 30 feet at its narrowest place. So you’re right. So there’s actually two airports. There’s North Eleuthera, which is near Harbor Island. If you want to go to Harbor Island, you fly into Eleuthera, North Eleuthera Airport. And then there’s Governor’s Harbor that’s about an hour’s drive south. So make sure when you’re booking that, you book the right airport depending on where you want to go. I’m sure many people have made that mistake.

Aislyn: So other than that, like what felt different?

Terry: Yeah, so you step off the plane. The airport is just tiny, you know, like four small walls and, you know, you’re in the Caribbean. There’s a ceiling fan turning lazily. It takes a while to get through immigration. Nothing too crazy, but you step out, within 5 minutes, you’re on a shuttle bus and then whisked away to a wharf, where you depart to cross the lagoon to reach Harbor Island, my first destination. So you have to get to it by boat. So that was just so instantly transporting, and immediately you just see this incredibly clear water. I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen water like that, like I saw in Eleuthera, including other places I’ve been in the Bahamas. It’s spectacular.

The other thing about it, Eleuthera is known for pink sand beaches. And, you know, we’ve heard of a lot of places with pink sand beaches. I have also never seen sand this pink. My kids and I were kind of like, what color is it, you know? Is it cotton candy? Is it strawberry sherbet? And my daughter was like, “It’s piglet skin.” And I was like, oh my gosh, that’s it. It’s like freshly scrubbed piglet skin, you know, it’s so pink. And I don’t know if that makes the water actually look like a swimming pool, but even if you just go there to swim, it is worth it.

Aislyn: You know, vibes wise, does it feel like you’re a little bit off the tourist trail in some ways?

Terry: So Eleuthera did get its first cruise destination. Disney built Lighthouse Point on the very southern tip of it, so it’s really only recently become a destination for cruise ships. So if you’re in North Eleuthera, you’re so far away from any sort of crowds down there. Plus they’re quite self-contained in Lighthouse Point.

I remember on the on the plane over from Miami, you know, this lady was just watching me with my two kids. When they can see it’s your first time because you’re excitedly looking out the window and seeing just the incredible blues of the Bahamian islands come into view and the sandbars and everything, she just said, I just have to ask you, how did you, why did you decide to come here? And I’m like, wow, you can tell the people who go regularly kind of see it as their secret.

Aislyn: How do you feel about sharing that secret, and how do you think people there feel about that?

Terry: Well, I heard that most people in Eleuthera were happy about Disney opening the cruise port there because it brought a lot of opportunity to the island that wasn’t there. It’s one of the out islands of the Bahamas. So a lot of people living on these islands have to go to Nassau for work. When we’re talking about overtourism, Eleuthera is a place that is definitely not suffering from it yet, and where you feel like you can find places to stay and really get in touch with the locals, where you’re supporting the people who live there.

Aislyn: Hopefully it will be done in a very sustainable and supportive way, this tourism idea. So what else did you do there? Like what did your time look like?

Terry: So I stayed at three different hotels. We started on Harbor Island, which is the best known tourist destination there. It’s been a tourist destination for Americans and others since like the 50s, 60s maybe even earlier. So you meet a lot of people there, actually met a woman from Florida whose dad owned a house there, and she’d grown up going there. She was in her forties, and also people were kind of excited to see like, new tourists there. So she took me around her golf cart, like, gave me a quick tour. I met her in a boutique, and then we didn’t end up renting a car. This time we had a driver took us just across the lagoon to a hotel called The Farm. That’s new. It’s owned by the same couple who own the other side, which is kind of a famous oceanfront glamping resort. And it’s a Bahamian and his Scottish wife. So. And their kids. So this was a great place for us to stay because it’s a farm. They’re growing.

Aislyn: Everything legitimately is, okay.

Terry: It’s not like with cows and stuff, but they’re growing all kinds of greens that are hard to grow in the Bahamas and really trying to source a lot of their produce, they serve in the restaurant, from what they’re growing there. And they had kids who my kids instantly bonded with sat around the bonfire. We didn’t want to leave that place. It was super cool.

Aislyn: That sounds amazing. Would you say that the island is family friendly in that way?

Terry: I think it’s absolutely family friendly. The beaches are really calm and there’s so many beaches. I was driving around one day with someone from the farm and he was telling me, there’s probably beaches, you could just drive down a sandy road there that people haven’t been on in like 4 years. So the island is really long, 110 miles is long for like a sandy island with beach entries.

And the people also really friendly roadside stands. We would stop at them, like to buy the tropical fruit. It was mango season when we were there. It’s a lot more lush than other Bahamian islands you might be used to. It’s got a little bit more elevation. There’s like a ridge going down the middle of it. When I lived on Nassau, like you would only find the tropical fruits growing, maybe in like farms that were set up to grow it. But Eleuthera is a different island altogether.

Aislyn: The produce that you mentioned in your story sounded amazing, like that was enough for me to be like, I’m sold, I’m there, I’m getting a ticket.

Terry: They also had loquats, which are kind of interesting to try, too. Another fruit called Annuncio. I just know the Spanish name because my husband’s the one who introduced me to it. He’s from the Caribbean, from Cuba. It’s kind of like a grape sort of fruit. So you’ll find some really just if you see a stand on the side of the road, pull over, see what they’re selling, the prices are good. You’re not going to get mangoes like that back home unless you have a friend with a tree in Florida or something.

Aislyn: So you did this kind of big road trip, would you recommend that people do something, or do you think it’s easier or more satisfying to just kind of pick a corner and spend some time there?

Terry: It doesn’t take long to do a road trip. You could go for like a long weekend there. And in addition to the beaches, they have these blue holes that the Bahamas is famous for in the limestone. Extremely clear water. There’s a place called Sapphire Blue Hole that we had to ourselves one day until, well, for about 40 minutes until another family came. Then we had so much fun with them. I will say, if you take the leap into Sapphire Hole, be ready to climb up a super intense ladder from the bottom up to the top. There were some locals there who helped us. I was like so nervous about jumping in and the adrenaline, everything. And I got down there. I’m like, oh my gosh, how do I get back up? It’s sort of a rope ladder strung down from the top.

Aislyn: Oh my gosh. Okay. Yeah, that sounds like a true adventure and especially with your kids too. But that’s amazing.

Terry: They didn’t jump. They wanted to. I was like, absolutely not. We didn’t have life jackets, so there’s no way, you know, it’s like seventy feet deep plus the jump. I was like, no way.

Aislyn: But you did it.

Terry: I promised them next time. Yeah.

Aislyn: You mentioned some of the hotels that you stayed at, and I think there was another one that you wrote about in your story called the Potlatch Club.

Terry: That’s a really, really beautiful property that used to be a social club back in the 60s. It was kind of like the place to see and be seen in Eleuthera. And actually Paul McCartney honeymooned there. So it’s got a lot of lore and legend. And it was reopened last year by a Bahamian and his Jamaican business partner. And it is just a stunning property. It’s got 11 suites. Most of them are standalone. It’s got a 4 bedroom villa that you can rent to if you’re traveling. Like the multi-generational family, the beach is absolutely stunning. It’s another pink sand beach.

The beach with the name Pink Sand Beach is actually on Harbor Island, but there’s pink sand beaches all over Eleuthera. So really quiet stretch of beach. And we were there in a busy season and there was maybe like two other families on the beach, and you could walk down, you know, barefoot to like Beach bar. And they didn’t manage to restore all parts of the old building, but the entry lobby and some other really key structures are how they were, you know, just restored to their former glory. And the site was a former pineapple plantation. So the owner has, he’s really into plants and he’s brought in 70,000 plants.

Aislyn: Wow.

Terry: It’s so lush. It’s so beautiful.

Aislyn: So do you see it when you. Is it mostly interior or is it on the exterior?

Terry: They’re in. They’re inside. You kind of walk in from where you drop the car at the front. It’s kind of unassuming, the entrance to Potlatch Club, and then you walk in through the lobby and you see the ocean just on the distance in this amazing like rock stone path down to it to pools. And it’s very, very grand entrance.

Something super fascinating there that really surprised me. The chef is from Bhutan and when she heard I was kind of fascinated, she’s like, “You want me to cook you Bhutanese food tonight?” So here I was trying Bhutanese food for the first time ever in the Bahamas.

Aislyn: What did you have and what did you think?

Terry: It was a lot of cheese. Like some kind of. I don’t even know how to describe it because it tastes like nothing I’ve ever tasted before. I’ve never been to a Bhutanese restaurant, and I’ve never been to Bhutan. So it was a lot of small dishes that you put together to make your own plate with meats and cottage cheese and potatoes, and the flavors were like, I can’t even equate them to any other sort of cuisine I’ve tried in the region.

Aislyn: Wow, what a treat.

Terry: Yeah, it was. It was something really cool.

Aislyn: Well, outside of your Bhutanese meal, what would you say the kind of culinary life is like on Eleuthera?

Terry: The national dish of the Bahamas is conch salad. I really, really love it. And there you’ll find a lot of conch salad stands around Eleuthera, especially in Harbor Island. There’s a famous one down on the harbor called King’s. It’s just really simple. It’s like their version of ceviche. You can see them crack the conch if that makes you queasy, you might not want to watch the process. They crack the shell and pull the animal out and then slice it up while it’s alive. So it’s extremely fresh, and then it’s mixed with, as you would make, ceviche with citrus juices. And everyone kind of has their own recipe. You can order it spicy. It often comes with tropical fruit tossed in too. So I love a big bowl of conch salad. That’s just my favorite. But you’ll also find Caribbean Spiny lobster on the menu. Typical fish that you find in Caribbean like snapper, grouper, mahi mahi. So if you’re into seafood, this is a great place to come to.

Aislyn: Seafood and good produce. Did you go scuba diving on this trip?

Terry: I was disappointed that I couldn’t because I had my two kids. It was just me and them, so I wasn’t able to. But I did hear that out of Harbor Island, you can go out of the Marina there. It’s called Valentine’s with a dive shop there. And there’s a famous drift dive. So that’s the kind of dive. When you go in, you get pushed with the current and the boat picks you up somewhere else. And everyone was telling me, you got to come back to dive that drift. Some of the best diving in the Bahamas. So that was definitely something I plan to come back for.

But let me tell you about the snorkeling. I don’t know if you’ve heard of like the swimming with the pigs they do, I believe in the Exumas, in the Bahamas. So that was of course on the list of things to do when we were staying at one of the hotels.

But the owner was like, you know what? Why don’t you do this other activity? He said, there’s this bay where juvenile sea turtles are, and you just stand in really shallow water. And if you go with the right operator, I went with a charter from the farm. They put you in the water, and the juvenile sea turtles are kind of like in this sheltered bay. And you’re not feeding them. You’re just putting on your mask and dipping your head in the water. You’re not allowed to touch them. So that was just something so beautiful. I’ve been in a lot of places but never seen, you know, they’re about the size. Some of the size of a dinner plate. Some of them are a little bit bigger.

Aislyn: What a cool opportunity and like a way to have a great experience. But it’s not the traditional.

Terry: We did go snorkeling too. You can see all the typical reef fish that you would see. And uh, I gotta say, I didn’t snorkel much because I was chasing my kids all over because they were so keen and head down and kicking, and it was just like, I’m not going to see anything. I’m just going to make sure you stay alive.

Aislyn: That seems like the right priority order. Well, you also mentioned in your story that there’s a Seahorse National Park. I think it’s temporarily closed to the public, but can you tell me more about it and what’s so unique about it?

Terry: So I heard about that again from someone I met on the island, and he years ago had had the chance to snorkel in this landlocked pond that’s north of Governors Harbor. As you’re heading south from Harbor Island, down Eleuthera spine, and it’s thought to have the densest population of seahorses in the world. I’m not sure how to calculate it, but they’re definitely studying it and that’s why it’s closed now. And it was offered years ago through some hotels to go snorkeling there, but now they’re doing like sustainability studies and really trying to figure out how to open it in the most responsible way so that people can put on a snorkel and see the incredible sight of these seahorses growing in this sheltered area with the grass that they like to live in. And they’re extremely fragile animals, and you’re very lucky to see one on a dive or snorkel as a scuba diver or a snorkeler. So to think that there’s this freshwater lake that’s that’s full of them is quite amazing.

Aislyn: Well, maybe it will reopen for tours at some point. Once we know that they’re safe and their future is secure. Well, Terry, I would love to end with what should travelers know? Is there a good time of year to visit? A good time of year to avoid perhaps? Best ways to get around things like that?

Terry: I went in early June. It was actually a really great time to be there. I was surprised, but it makes sense that most of the resorts shut down in late July, August, September? That’s hurricane season in this part of the world. It gives them time to, well, the owners to do repairs. It’s also extremely hot and kind of stagnant. So winter is high season. It’s going to be really, really crowded for everybody. It’s kind of like spending the season, snowbirding there. They’re coming down to escape the cold up north. I can say that the beginning of June, when I went was absolutely perfect, was not crowded at all. I would think May would be similar. Your high season is going to be December through March, especially on Harbor Island.

Aislyn: And would you recommend at least a week?

Terry: Yeah, I mean a week you’re deaf. You can see a lot like it’s the kind of place, like I was thinking I would easily go there for like 3 or 4 nights to if you kind of hone in on one area, I would say if you’re looking to get away from the crowds, then you want to go south from Harbor Island.

Harbor Island is beautiful because it’s got like this very tidy grid of streets and a village feel and like pastel colored homes. There’s a lot of vacation rentals you can rent there with, like sort of a Key West The meets New England vibe, and bars and restaurants and shops to walk to. It’s got the liveliest scene on the island if you’re looking for nightlife and that kind of thing. Governor’s Harbor is sleepier. Once you go south from Harbor Island, things get really sleepy, and that’s what a lot of people are looking for.

Aislyn: That’s probably what I would be looking for. Well, thank you so much. Thanks for your time and your expertise, and just for inspiring us all to go head for the Bahamas.

Terry: No problem. Happy to be here.

Aislyn: Thank you so much for joining this special episode of Unpacked. In the show notes, you’ll find links to the full Where To Go list, as well as to the places Terry suggested. We’ve also included links to Terry’s social handles and her website, as well as to other travel resources, so you can jump start your 2026 travel planning, or maybe just your travel dreaming. From now through December nineteenth, we’ll release more Where To Go episodes and then again starting on January 1st. See you then.