This island is still devastated by a hurricane hit 5 yrs ago. Trash, abandoned and falling down homes everywhere you looked, downed power lines etc. The water and some of the beaches are beautiful, but there are no services near by any of them. Only place we found service by a beach was around Cape Santa Marie where the mosquitoes were so bad we ran for the car. I was able to keep the no-see-um bites to a minimum with Picardin and coconut oil, but I did not escape without being bitten a dozen times on the beach after snorkeling.
There is no one anywhere on this island. It is almost spooky. All the resorts were empty. Mostly locals and a few fisherman at the restaurants by the marina. It appears most of the residents on this island left with no way to recover from the devastation .

We had a fun snorkel trip with Teresa & Charles from Discovery Quest which made the trip worthwhile. Not tons of fish like Roatan or Playa though.
Hans at Gems is such a gentleman and very helpful and the view from our room balcony of the amazing blue waters was beautiful. The meals were expensive so we opted to find food out at other local restaurants ( which there were only 2) We had breakfast made for us at Gems 2 x out of the 5 day stay which was ok. No air conditioning in the dinning room and lobby where you had to go to eat and change channels if you wanted to watch TV in your room as well. There was a bar there where you could find some drinks on the honor system, but the bar stools were so short you could barley reach the bar so not comfortable to hang out there at all. We had an upgrade to a full kitchen, but the only part of the unit that was air conditioned was the bedroom unit. The window in the bathroom would not close so it remained quit warm so we closed the bath door for sleeping. This resort needs a renovation badly.
We found some bagels and cream cheese at the grocery store which was closer to the airport and had PB&J for our lunches on the beach.
The Lighthouse is a new restaurant close by at the marina and it had very good food and a lovely view of the ocean. SHARKS perused the dock area around the marina , which was fascinating , but frightening. Rowdy Boys was good too, but never knew when it would be serving regular meals. The Pig roast on Fri night was fab, But another day we called and they only offered buffet for $40 per person!! We visited Max's Conch bar several times on our visit which is near the airport and my husband could not stop eating the conch salad. Max and his wife are Such nice people !! All in all we would not go back , but it was the first time in our lives we had a 3 mile powder white sandy beach completely to ourselves! Now we know why.

I have stayed 4 days at Gems with my girlfriend in April 2019. Hance, the owner, has welcomed us at our arrival. Hance has been so friendly and careful with us from the minute we arrived. The room we had had an amazing view facing the ocean with a balcony from where you can see the sunset around 7.30PM.

The room had a fully equiped kitchen, a nice bedroom with a big bed (like a king size one), and the wifi was working perfectly. We were almost alone at the hotel as it was low season in the Bahamas.

We enjoyed the hotel private little beach that comes with 4 deck chairs.

A kayak was at our disposal for free so as the snorkelling material.

We stayed the 4 days without leaving the hotel (more like a bed & breakfast) but if you like to enjoy Long Island, you will need for sure to rent a car.

By the way, there also is a shared kitchen for the room that don't have one and you can pick stuff from the fridge (sodas, beers, water...) you'll pay during the check-out.

Thank you again for everything Hance !!

Thomas & Héloise