Eleuthera Hotel Guide: Cotton Bay Estates & Villas

Where: Cotton Bay, Eleuthera, Bahamas

November 15, 2007 at 5:18 PM | by juliana | 0 Comments

At the behest of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Senior Editor Juliana spent four days roaming around the island of Eleuthera. Discovered in 1648 by shipwrecked adventurers, the island's name is derived from the Greek word for freedom. And freedom she found. Away from phones, TV and internet. Sadly, her emancipation from technology was shortlived and she's back to tell you about where to stay when you visit Eleuthera, one of the Bahamas' Out Islands that stretches for 110 miles.

What we love about Eleuthera is that the island is so peaceful. The two hotels that we stayed at in our first few days--The Cove and Pineapple Fields have both been fairly remote and quiet getaways on and near the beach with the lodgings in little villas and four-unit houses rather than at a mega-resort of 3,000+ hotel rooms (Cough, Atlantis, cough.)

But these types of quiet getaways aren't for everyone. Starwood Hotels' latest residential-hotel project Cotton Bay Estates & Villas, is located on the more southern end of Eleuthera in Rock Sound and will attempt to mix seclusion with the "anything you desire, we have it" mentality of a luxury resort.

Cotton Bay is still under some heavy construction (island time is more akin to Six Columbus time) but we were able to get a "hardhat" tour to see what the place will look like one day.

Starwood's Cotton Bay Estate & Villas, part of the brand's Luxury Collection, has a few phases of development. Right now, construction is happening on the first phase--which is to build the one, two and three-bedroom villas along with the main clubhouse, a sort of lobby/town square that sits on the beach and will also feature a pool area.

With the villas, you can have your seclusion but Cotton Bay will have more typical resort-style amenities with its expansive pool area, restaurants, spa, championship golf course, a marina in Davis Harbour, a Sentient jet service at the nearby Rock Sound International Airport and more.

The second and third phases include building 114 estates (mansions for Richie Rich) and a true hotel which will not have ownership options.

Naturally, the 73 villas will be the first to open, sometime next year. The villas will fall into the typical hotel-condo arrangement, meaning you can just stay for a few nights or you can buy the place, visit whenever you want and then rent it out to hotel guests whenever you aren't there.

Since construction pictures aren't that beneficial for guests looking to vacation this winter, we're not going to go crazy with the pictures or video. But we did tour a three-bedroom villa with spectacular views of both the ocean and the island and not one, but two hot tubs. We already started a "Cotton Bay" savings jar. It's only full of Bahamian coins but we'll get there someday.

View more of our Cotton Bay pics here.

Related Stories:
· Eleuthera Hotel Guide [HotelChatter]

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