At a Glance
Arguably Harbour Island’s most creative property, Ocean View Club is an intimate home turned guesthouse.
Review
Staying at the Ocean View Club is like being a guest at a sophisticated house party. Ever since the 1970s, when nineteen-year-old Pip Simmons, a recent graduate of Paris’s Le Cordon Bleu, took over the Ocean View Club, she’s been attracting a rarefied crowd of international media execs and magazine executives and famed photographers like Bruce Weber. Treasures that Simmons has collected on her travels and lots of Irish furniture (they own a house in Ireland as well) adorn the public areas and guest rooms—just as you might find them in the house of an eccentric aunt.
Patrons fill the tiny bar at sunset before the call to dinner is sounded, and you might hear tales of some memorable past guests and their legendary antics. Now her handsome son, Ben, is in charge, but the place is still under his mother’s watchful eye. Travelers looking for privacy and quiet time (and who do not appreciate creative spirits) should stay elsewhere.
Who Should Stay
Anyone who likes the idea of being thrown into a house-party mix. Your fellow Ocean View Club guests might include a photo crew on a shoot, a supermodel or a struggling poet.
Written by Jennifer Ash Rudick
