After our shelling trip last week to the beautiful island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas, I’m gonna rename it “Shelleuthera”!
In a week’s time, we explored probably 20 beaches or more … finding everything from SEA GLASS, to POTTERY SHARDS, to SEA BEANS, to SEA URCHINS and SEA BISCUITS, to CORAL and of course SEA SHELLS.
Each beach being so unique with it’s own little treasure hunt for us.
Clark and I were excited to have expert beach combing friends with us to make this an even more fun adventure… Lee and Susan (who we visited to shell with in Guantanamo Bay Cuba ) and long time friends John and Jane (Abaco Islands, Cat Island and Turks and Caicos). With this group, of course we found shells!
Beach combing is the favorite thing to do for all six of us so it’s very cool to find friends that get excited when walking the beach to find a KING HELMET, HAWKWING, SEA BISCUIT and a little empty “ROLLER” like these.
But shelling was just half of the fun. We had an adventure getting to the island as well!
When we go on vacation, Clark normally does the research to find the best way to fly to our destination. This time he found Aztec Airways with a straight flight from Fort Lauderdale to Governors Harbor, Eleuthera at basically the same price as the other airlines. Nice flight, Pilot Don!
But on this airline we felt like rock stars! hahaha We checked in at the “executive airport”, had the whole plane to ourselves and… OMG I was the co-pilot. It was So. Much. Fun.
We arrived in style to beautiful turquoise water, blue skies and fluffy white clouds. Wow. Its dreamy! This was the view looking out from the porch of our rental house Hamilton House on Windermere Island.
We rented a perfect 4 bedroom house each having our own bathroom and sooooo many windows to look out at that beautiful water. And as you can see we had 3 fabshellous porches to wash and dry our shell-loot every day. Uhhh…. yea, I know…. we’re a little messy so if you want to see any of the photos inside the wonderful house CLICK HERE. But I’m sure you completely understand what happens if you’re a sheller. We’ve got “stuff” everywhere! Not only our beach combing stuff but John cleans up the beach every morning by bringing home piles of washed up rope, wood and huge buoys (great bling- ha). We love that and we loved the house since it had so much room for all of us.
Then we were off to find shell-loot like this amazing TUN SHELL and TRUE TULIP Lee found one day.
We explored miles and miles of beaches from the north west Glass Window Bridge to the south point of Cape Eleuthera. Our favorite beaches for finding shells were on the west side at Tarpum Bay, James Cistern, Millars Beach (or is it Miller’s? E or A? We couldnt figure it out haha) and Cape Eleuthera (near the restaurant). Every day the six of us hopped in this 7 seater SUV from Big Daddy Rental Cars to take us on a crazy adventure to explore this gorgeous island one beach at a time.
We not only found gifts from the sea, we found memories of a lifetime.
We would have never have found most of these beaches, shells and memories if it hadn’t been for the big hearted Texas sisters Lisa, Sunnye and Suzanne who have talked to us about shelling in Eleuthera for years. I originally met them during Shellabaloo 5 and our paths have since crossed so many times. The last time was at the 2016 Sanibel Shell Festival where they displayed exhibits of their winning shell finds from Eleuthera. From that day, Eleuthera has been on our bucket list. I’m feeling so grateful for these gals who gave us so much information and suggested we buy The Beach Book: Eleuthera, Bahamas Edition . It displays photos, detail and directions to each beach on the island. Oh yea- seriously its amazing.
I’m feeling so much gratitude for such lovely friends, our gracious hosts on Eleuthera and for so many of you who sent such beautiful notes on my last post. My heart is full today. Thank you.
PS- I hope to take some more detailed photos of our shells for my next post to give you ideas on which shells and bling we found on which fave beach.
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Ah, how lovely!
How beautiful! The island and the shells!
Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip with us.
Amazing! What a wonderful trip for you and Clark.
Thank you for sharing your photos,shells, and vacation with a of us.
Happy dance for you!!! I loved the shelling on the Caribbean side, near Tarpum Bay, too. There were so many miniatures & coral pieces & sea glass right at the shoreline! Plus tons of milk conchs in the water-we had to get choosy with the keepers, lol. Did you have any ‘potcakes’ to keep you company? :)
Yes Jo! Several different pups on different beaches. So sweet!
Just gorgeous! So glad you had a great time. Love the shells!!!!
Pam, so glad you liked Eleuthera and glad we could share some of our favorite beaches with you. We love going there.
Awesome post, Pam! So, were the majority of your finds from beach combing or snorkeling? Someone told me Eleuthera was mainly for shelters who snorkel.
I am Planning a trip to the Bahamas for shelling and am trying to pick which island(s) to visit. We can get a place on Grand Bahamas in Freeport or Guana (sp) Cay in the Abacos through our vacation club membership and only have to pay for airfare…yay! Which one would you recommend for first timers??? Any info is greatly appreciated😊
Thanks,
April
Uh…. that’s “shelters” who snorkel. Darn auto correct!!
SHELLERS….lol
Pam, you should put together a shellabaloo to the islands for a shelling tour! 🐚
I’m in!!! That would be amazing😊
April and I are putting our reservations in!! 😀
Looks like you had a wonderful trip…you found some of our favorite spots for hunting shells and beachy treasures. We’ve been going to Eleuthera for the last 9 years (10th trip coming up in March) and we LOVE it. Eleuthera isn’t for everyone, though, since it’s a bit rough and not very developed (part of its charm). Hubby says that he can just look at people at the airport and know who will hate it and who will be back. If you’re up for a bit of an adventure, it’s a blast.
Hi Ann, We are thinking about shelling in Eleuthera and would love your input. We saw a resort called The Cove, but it’s in the northern part of the island. Do you know anything about it? Is there good shelling near there or where should we stay? Which beaches do you recommend? Thanks
Awesome trip and article. My Sis and her hubby love the island.
Happy Trails
Skip
Yes I think it is great that you share all your adventures, so we can enjoy your Beautiful Treasures!
Can you bring back all the shells you want from the Bahamas?
We are from Sarasota and just signed up for one of your shelling trips on May 15!!
Really look forward to it and to meeting Pam!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I’d always wanted to go to Eleuthera, and now it is confirmed!! Had no idea it was great for sea glass as well. Do you have any recommendations for accomodations for a couple? I’d love to rent a house, but we don’t really need that much room I guess.
Hi Pam. We are planning a trip to Eleuthera Island in 2 weeks. We loved your blog and pictures of the beautiful shells that you collected when you were there last December. We would appreciate any information on the beaches that you had success with finding shells, restaurants that you liked and anything else that was of interest. We are staying on Windermere Island.
Thanks !!!
Lori Murphy
Thanks for all the great info! My sister and I are planning a trip there soon to do some shelling. Are all areas safe? Do you recommend a specific portion of the island for shelling/lodging? We got the shelling book on Eleuthera but it did not go into details about which beaches were best for shells. Of course part of the fun is finding this out yourself and the conditions always change. Also, I assume its worth it to bring snorkeling equipment for shell searching, as they are not just on the beach? Thank you so much for the great info you already provided. Thanks!
Mariner