Great Exuma

Great Exuma runs about sixty kilometres from end to end and is rarely more than a couple of kilometres wide, so the sea is on both sides for almost the whole drive. George Town is the main settlement, sitting on Elizabeth Harbour, where cruising sailboats gather in numbers each winter; the National Family Island Regatta each April is the country's most important sailing event, contested in wooden Bahamian sloops built and raced to rules that have barely changed. Beaches are the reason most people come: Tropic of Cancer beach on Little Exuma is a kilometre and a half of empty sand, and dozens more have no name at all.

History

Exuma was settled around 1783 by American Loyalists fleeing the Revolutionary War, who brought a cotton plantation economy, and George Town, founded in 1793, was named after George III. John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle, a Loyalist settler, left all his Exuma lands to his slaves at his death in 1842, which is why towns on Great Exuma such as Rolleville and Rolletown carry his name (Wikipedia, Exuma).

What you'll find

• Tropic of Cancer beach - a long empty crescent on Little Exuma.
• Elizabeth Harbour - the anchorage that fills with sailboats each winter.
• The Family Island Regatta - Bahamian sloop racing each April.
• The Exuma sand banks - shallow water in extraordinary colours.

When to go

December to May is the dry season. The regatta is in April and fills every room in George Town. Summer is hot and humid with the hurricane season from June to November. Flights connect through Nassau and, in winter, direct from the United States.

What to expect

Prices here are high even by Bahamian standards, with limited competition in food and accommodation and everything shipped in. Public transport does not exist and a hire car is effectively compulsory. Beaches have no facilities. The regatta is the only week the island is genuinely busy, and it is booked a year ahead.

Nearby

Little Exuma is joined by a bridge; the Exuma Cays run northwest.

Key facts