I spent seven nights at the Coral Sands hotel last month with my boyfriend and another couple. My experience was excellent and I highly recommend the hotel and spending time on the island. The Coral Sands has been recently redone and the rooms are well appointed and stylish. Hardwood floors, soft bedding, beautiful wood furniture, large bathroom, and strong air conditioning. The staff was constantly replacing towels. We were in the cheaper "garden view" room, but although we didn't view the beach, we were as close to the beach as any of the other rooms could be. The beach is gorgeous. It has pink-ish sand, the water is clear and warm, and the sand is so very soft. The water is like a bath or good for some easy boogie boarding. The hotel provides nice fluffy beach towels, huts that offer 100% shade, extra umbrellas, and lounge chairs. It wasn't high season, but as someone very concerned about sun exposure, I felt the hotel was certainly catering to me and always had shade available. The only people that approach you on the beach are the servers from the beach bar, and the drinks at Coral Sands are delicious. As soon as you get onto the beach you know there will be no vendors -- Harbour Island is not that type of place. We didn't get a golf cart and were able to walk basically anywhere on the island. Next time I would get one just because it seems like fun. But it's unnecesary if you're willing to walk. We had dinner at our hotel (delicious), the Rockhouse (our favorite), The Landing (excellent), and some local places -- Angela's Starfish (nothing special but inexpensive), Ma Ruby's (burger isn't good at all; not worth it), Harbour Lounge (good). Breakfast we did every day at Arthur's (inexpensive and good, try the loaves of bread as a beach snack). Lunch was divided between Sip Sip (excellent and expensive), our hotel (good), and Dunmore Deli (fine). We also did drinks at Valentine's, which wasn't nearly as nice as the drinks at our hotel or the Rockhouse, which we also did for drinks. Our hotel bar was excellent. I absolutely adored this trip. I would definitely place Harbour Island at the top of my beach list. The island has personality and the weather was perfect. The transportation was painless -- the drivers (boat, taxis, etc.) have this down to a science. Coral Sands is next to the Pink Sands, which I have been dying to go to for over 10 years. In my opinion, after touring the PS grounds, the Coral Sands is less private but much nicer and much less expensive. Of course, if the Pank Sands had a renovation, I'd have to return to do another comparison. ;)

Harbour Island and Coral Sands are very beautiful, no doubt. The hotel is clean, the rooms cool and comfortable, the bar areas, restaurant, pool area and beach are all pristine and lovely. My only complaint is that there was a definite lack of personal and attentive service from the bar and wait staff, in particular. For the amount of money one spends to stay at a place of that caliber, you would expect that they would be stumbling over themselves to make sure you have everything and anything you could need or want. For instance, on several occasions, we were sitting outside on the patio area just enjoying the breeze and view and we would have LOVED to have had a drink, but NOBODY came over to ask us if we wanted one. You'd think, at almost $10/drink they'd be anxious to offer you as many as you want, but nobody was available to take our order. If we wanted a drink we had to get up and walk into the hotel itself to the bar and order it ourselves. What happened to poolside service? Same on the beach -- how nice it would have been not to have to get up and walk all the way up the steps to the beach bar in order to get a refreshing drink...how nice it would have been, even once, for someone to come down and take our order... I also heard the words, "I'm sorry, No" a bit to often. For instance (again with drinks...no, I'm not a lush!) we were waiting for our taxi at 11:15 on the day of our leaving, and I really wanted one more Miami Vice from the bar (delicious, by the way) and went up to the bartender who was standing there IDLE and asked him for a coke for my traveling partner and a Miami Vice for me. He said he couldn't make me a drink at that bar right then, but that I'd have to go down to the beach bar and get one. WHY? Why if he's got the stuff there (which he did) couldn't he spend 2 minutes of his IDLE time to make me a drink, and earn some money for his hotel?? WHy was that such an imposition on him? I was annoyed. One more complaint -- the fruit platter for $11 was nothing special. The fruit wasn't even ripe and juicy -- we bought Bahamian fruit from a local vendor on one of our jaunts and enjoyed the most delectable fruit...I specifically asked why he doesn't supply the resorts with his yummy fruit -- he says they get their fruit mostly from the states! WHY??? Anyway, despite these complaints, I did enjoy the facilities and the beach is the prettiest I've ever seen. I just would have liked to have been pampered a bit more, especially at those prices.

Certainly one of the most beautiful beaches I have been to throughout the world. Staff is responsive yet unobtrusive. I have traveled to the Bahamas frequetly but it is my first trip to Harbour Island and loved the relaxed pace. Dinner on the porch with the lovely breezes overlooking the ocean was absolutely heavenly. Would return in a heartbeat.

I went with my husband and three small children to the Coral Sands and stayed in the master suite. Very nice room... only complaint is the bathrrom was crawling with ants. Now to the real problem that this hotel has... lack of good service. Almost all (Thelma was nice) the waitresses were very rude, depressed, grumpy, incompetent.... need I go on! The woman at the front desk looked like someone from here family had died. Very incompetent and a VERY rude person. I think smiling was a crime at this hotel. The bartender was a jerk, barked at my kids to get off the bar and altogether a very unpleasant person. I actually got to see the manager, YAY ME!! But, just once and when I saw her as we were checking out she asked if we were checking in! I loved the location and the hotel and the rooms and the food was pretty good. But, what really ruined it was the whole atmosphere of the staff of this hotel. SOUR AND GRUMPY!!!! Beautiful island and beach but water very cold and windy ALL the time!