Estate Details
The Delphi Club, Rolling HarbourBahamas
Sleeps - 16
Region - Abroad
Sporting
Bone Fishing
Activities
Beach
Facilities
Swimming Pool · Wi-fi
Features
Fully Catered
Rental
The Delphi Club on Abaco is a small luxury hotel and fishing lodge in an idyllic wilderness location. Its guests enjoy the best of Bahamas bonefishing, brilliant birding and a wide range other activities in one of the Bahamas’ hidden beauty spots.
Its top quality accommodation and food and its beautiful, unspoiled location attract nature lovers from all over the world. Add in world-class bonefishing, a stunning deserted beach, and charming pool garden, superb food and a great wine cellar, and you have the perfect tropical hideaway.
Surrounded on three sides by dense and pristine woodlands and coppice, the Delphi Club is a haven for wildlife. In the nearby mangrove wetlands may be found a huge expanse of unspoiled bonefishing flats and superb habitat for a wide array of wading birds and other wild life.
Designed in the style of an 18th century colonial plantation house, with large wrap-around verandahs, the 8-bedroom hotel stands on a high ridge to catch the sea breezes and panoramic ocean views. It’s a romantic getaway, a luxury bonefish resort and a birder’s paradise all rolled into one.
It is also available as a fully-staffed, luxury rental property for those seeking a private retreat away from the limelight and it has hosted private house parties of every kind, from small weddings to corporate retreats to special family celebrations.
The Delphi Club has attracted consistently favourable reviews from guests and from the press since it opened in 2009. As one guest commented: “It’s payback time for the fishing widow; she’ll love it just as much as him.” So bonefishers with non-fishing wives or partners to pacify need look no further.
This elegant beachfront retreat is half an hour south of Marsh Harbour, which has an international airport with many direct flights to and from the US and Nassau each day.
Most guests come for a week, but shorter stays are possible. There is a very high level of repeat visits.
The Club is close to the world-class bonefishing flats of the Abaco Marls, where large numbers of uneducated bonefish provide fantastic sport for fly-fishermen in uncrowded waters. There are also superb white-sand wading flats at Cherokee Sound, where larger and more seasoned bone fish and occasional permit present a special challenge, and at Cross Harbour. With the right conditions, there can also be great fishing off the Club’s beach.
For birding, Abaco offers a wide range of avian habitats – an extensive coastline that attracts many migrants, then miles of mangrove wetlands, ancient pine forests and dense hardwood coppice. Over 280 species of birds have been recorded on the island. The Club has published a large photo-book in the birds of Abaco.
There are many options for non-fishers and non-birders, both active and inactive. Diving over spectacular coral reefs; golf at Treasure Cay; guided snorkelling; big game fishing and miles of beachcombing along Abaco’s amazing sandy coastline.
For the less active, boat trips to the charming outer islands, with their picture-postcard colonial villages; massage and beauty treatments; shopping for local crafts in Marsh Harbour; or guided trips on sea or land to explore the amazing wild life and scenery of the Abacos.
Or guests can just completely chill out in the pool garden, on the beach or on one of the Club’s large verandahs, perhaps with a cool glass of Meursault, enjoying one of the world’s most pleasant climates and most beautiful seascapes.
Note that the Club is not a hotel in any conventional sense. Its atmosphere and the way in which it is run are more akin to a private country house party, elegant yet informal – and very relaxed. It’s the initiative of Peter Mantle, who created the multi-award-winning Delphi Lodge in Ireland – a glorious country house and fishing lodge that is listed in “A Thousand Places To See Before You Die”. The Delphi Club at Rolling Harbour is designed to bring the same standards of comfort, atmosphere, dazzling location and culinary excellence as its Irish counterpart, albeit with a tropical twist.
Getting There
Abaco is easily reached by air. There are regular direct flights, often more than once a day, into Marsh Harbour from the following:
Nassau – Bahamasair & SkyBahamas
Miami – American Eagle
Fort Lauderdale – Silver Airways
West Palm Beach – Silver Airways & Bahamasair
Orlando – Silver Airways
White Plains, NY – Wild Cat Touring (regular charter, twice a week)
All these options allow great connectivity with all the major US airlines’ domestic networks. Most flights are under one hour in duration.
From Europe, there are regular transatlantic flights into both Nassau and Miami. British Airways flies from London to Nassau five times a week, while there are daily flights to Miami by BA, American and Continental or, four times a week, by Virgin.
Airline schedules are subject to change, but the easiest route from Europe at present is the morning BA flight from London to Nassau, which allows for a comfortable connection to a BahamasAir flight to Marsh Harbour. You can be sipping cocktails at the Club before 7pm (local time) that same day. Return flights to London from Nassau are normally overnight. The Bahamas are 5 hours behind UK/Ireland.
The frequently cheaper Miami route (linking with flights to Marsh Harbour) currently requires an overnight stop in Miami on the way out (only). Within the Bahamas there is a well-developed internal flight network via BahamasAir and a large number of smaller airlines and inexpensive private charters.
Cars may be hired in Marsh Harbour, subject to advanced booking. The current rate is approximately $75 per day. However, it is envisaged that most guests will not require the use of a car. Club vehicles will distribute the fishermen each day and will make regular visits to Marsh Harbour. Taxis are plentiful in Marsh Harbour.