Harbour Island: Introduction: Overview

Change comes slowly to this small Bahamian island, and that’s just how locals and loyal visitors like it. Harbour Island—220 miles southeast of Miami, and only a fisherman’s cast north of Eleuthera—is known for its three-mile pink sand beach, its pastel British-colonial cottages enveloped in bougainvillea, and its easy pace. Resident celebrities like India Hicks, Diane von Furstenberg and Barry Diller, and the Miller sisters, Pia Getty, Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece and Alexandra von Furstenberg are still outnumbered by such local legends as Sarah Hutchison, who runs a straw market at the end of Government Dock; Bonefish Joe, a guide who talks fish into his boat; and Percy, who runs a drugstore, opening and closing it as the mood dictates. Brilanders (as islanders here refer to themselves) tend to consider abhor development. So they were happily surprised recently when arriviste Ron Perelman moved into the cottage he’d purchased on the northern tip of the island without—as of yet—tearing it down to build a mansion, as many had feared. But lately even old-timers are endorsing some of the essential improvements hotels and restaurants have been making on the island.