Elbow Cay - Bahamas

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Elbow Cay, with beautiful beaches and fine hilltop views, is the proud home of a candy-striped lighthouse standing guard over a picture-book harbour. A guide will show you around and tell you how the lighthouse operates. Nearby Man-O-War Cay (named after the bird) has always depended on shipbuilding for its livelihood. Some boats are still handmade-without-plans in a tradition that has been passed down for centuries. The town here resembles a New England sea-side village, save for the palm trees and tropical breezes. 

Hope Town is a quaint, 18th century fishing village on Elbow Cay, (six miles long by a quarter mile wide) located on the outer reef of a string of emerald isles, known as the Abacos. Surrounded by a translucent turquoise sea and known for being one of the most protected areas in the Caribbean for small boat exploring. The historical settlement of Hope Town wraps around a protected harbour, only three blocks wide from ocean side to harbour side, it is also known for its famous candy striped lighthouse. Visitors are free to climb the lighthouse for splendid views of the adjacent islands and barrier reefs. Island life is notably unhurried, locals and visitors stroll the traffic free streets of Hope Town with its brightly painted clapboard houses, picket fences and flowering gardens. Original settlers were Loyalists who relocated to these islands after the American Revolution. Plantations, sponging, fishing, boat building, piracy, smuggling and wrecking became ways of past life. A close knit community of 300 people populate the island year round.

Map of Elbow Cay - Abaco, Bahamas