Pink Sands Beach
Harbour Island · the Bahamas · the Atlantic Ocean
Coloured-Sand · long strand · coloured sand · reef-protected · low-density resort
Crushed foraminifera shell gives five kilometres of sand a genuine pink cast.
Pink Sands runs the entire Atlantic side of Harbour Island, a small island off the north-east of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. The island is five kilometres long, has no cars to speak of — golf carts are the transport — and the beach is its eastern edge, uninterrupted from end to end.
The colour is real and has a specific cause. Foraminifera, single-celled organisms with pink and red shells, live on the reef offshore; the shells break down, wash ashore and mix with white coral sand. The effect is subtle at midday and pronounced in low light, particularly at the waterline where the wet sand concentrates it. Photographs that show hot pink are exaggerating; photographs that show white are taken at noon.
The shore is fine, soft sand with a reef offshore that takes the Atlantic swell down, leaving water that is calm at the northern end and livelier at the southern. The slope is gentle and the swimming is straightforward. The reef is far enough out that snorkelling from the sand is limited, but the walking is exceptional — you can do the full five kilometres and pass few people.
Development is unusually restrained. Small hotels and private houses sit behind the dune line, low and set back, with beach clubs attached to some of them; there is no strip and no high-rise anywhere on the island. Dunmore Town on the harbour side, a colonial settlement of clapboard houses, is a short cart ride away.
The colour is real, it is foraminifera, and it is clearest at the waterline in low sun rather than at noon under a saturated filter. Harbour Island is three and a half miles long, runs on golf carts and has no cars worth mentioning, and that is as much the point as the sand.
Watch Pink Sands Beach
The record
- Setting
- Harbour Island · the Atlantic Ocean
- Shore
- long strand · coloured sand · 4.8 km
- Water
- reef-protected
- Development
- low-density resort
- Access
- walk-in
- Facilities
- Dining · Sunbeds
- Best for
- Swimming · Long Walks · Romantic
- Season
- Year-round · Monsoon-sensitiveHurricane season June to November. Winter and spring are the settled months and the busiest.
- Position
- 25°30.000′ N · 76°37.002′ W
Questions
Is the sand actually pink?
Yes, though subtly. It is most visible in early morning and late afternoon light and at the waterline. Midday photographs make it look white; heavily saturated ones exaggerate it.
What makes it pink?
Foraminifera — microscopic organisms with pink and red shells that live on the offshore reef. Their broken shells mix with white coral sand.
How do you get to Harbour Island?
Fly to North Eleuthera and take the short water taxi across. On the island, golf carts are the normal transport; there are very few cars.
Is the water calm at Pink Sands?
Generally, especially at the northern end, where the offshore reef takes most of the swell. The southern end is more exposed.
Are there facilities on the beach?
Almost none. A few hotel beach clubs serve their guests; otherwise the sand is empty for its full length.
