One of the Best Beaches in The Bahamas Comes With a World-Famous Blue Hole
It doesn’t look real at first. You step out from the pines and palms onto a curve of soft, white sand, and there it is—this perfect, impossible circle in the sea. A portal. The blue gets darker the longer you stare.
Dean’s Blue Hole isn’t just a geological wonder. It’s something deeper.
I got there during the day, just after noon. The air was still, heavy with salt and possibility. The only sounds were the rhythm of the waves, a few rustling birds in the bush, and my own breath, slow and steady as I walked toward the edge.
The sand drops off fast here. One moment you’re in waist-deep turquoise, the next you’re floating above 663 feet of pure blue abyss. This is actually the third-deepest blue hole in the world, and the deepest in this hemisphere, as I found out.
I let myself drift. It’s quiet out there. Not the kind of quiet you get in a hotel room, or even in the bush. This is elemental. The kind of silence that resets your mind. You experience the pull of the deep below, but also a strange stillness, a calm. I felt it.
There’s no lifeguard here. No jet skis. Just you and the ocean and the sense that you’ve stepped into another world. There are usually no other people. I didn’t see anyone when I visited here.
A very special corner of The Bahamas
Free divers come here to chase records. I was chasing something else—maybe perspective. Maybe nothing at all. And while the Blue Hole — deservedly — gets most of the attention, the beach itself is, well, stunning: perfect white sand, a spectrum of blues in the water, a ring of cliffs in the background.
If the Blue Hole weren’t here, it would still be one of the best beaches in The Bahamas.
If you ever find yourself on Long Island, make the trip down to the southern portion of the island. Go to Dean’s Blue Hole. Wade out past the shallow shelf and look down.
You’ll see blue. You’ll feel something you didn’t expect.
And you won’t forget it.
Getting to the Beach
How do you get to Long Island? There’s just one international flight, with nonstop service between Fort Lauderdale and the island’s Stella Maris airport (in the northern part of Long Island) on Makers Air, which I’ve traveled on many times across the Out Islands of The Bahamas. (It flies out of Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport, meaning you get a great private check-in experience). You also can fly Bahamasair to the island’s central Deadman’s Cay airport, but you’ll have to get to Nassau first.
As for where to stay, the signature hotel on the island is in the north — the Cape Santa Maria hotel, which has a mix of bungalows and villas on its own world-class beach. But it is not close to Dean’s Blue Hole. If you want to stay closer to this wonder of the Caribbean, you’ll need to find a room at the residential-style Harbor Breeze Villas on nearby Locharbar Beach (it’s about 15 minutes away from the Blue Hole), where I stayed and had a very good time. Just note that it’s really a do-it-yourself resort, meaning you need to stock your room and cook you meals. Down here, the Blue Hole is pretty much all there is. (Rooms from $152 per night).
