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Haven in the Bahamas
by Karen Misuraca
At the eastern end of Paradise Island just across the bridge from Nassau, a former private jet-set hideaway, the One&Only Ocean Club, is now a secluded, tropical retreat for those desiring faultless personal service. Built in the 1930s, the Colonial mansion was purchased in the 1960s by Huntington Hartford, II, who added a 12th century French cloister and glorious Versailles-style gardens. After a $100 million restoration, today's Ocean Club is a posh compound of villas and low-rise buildings laid along a two-mile, pearl-pink sand beach--some call it the most beautiful stretch of sand in the Caribbean (http://www.oneandonlyresorts.com).
Based on Louis XIV's famous gardens, a half-mile of terraces rises in gentle levels of greenery and floral displays past classical marble and bronze statuary to the cloister on a hilltop, where guests linger above the ocean view. At the foot of the terraces, a flower-filled pool terrace is a serene scene.
Dark cherrywood floors gleam in the oversized guest rooms, where carved mahogany beds are heaped with down pillows and bolsters. Five-star rated, the 106 spacious beachfront and garden-view rooms, suites, cottages, private villas and spa villas are outfitted in gracious colonial Bahamian style. Jumbo tubs are embellished with mosaics, and wide plantation-shuttered doors open to private balconies or terraces where chaise lounges await the tuckered golfer. Hammocks swing beneath tall palms on greenswards above the cerulean sea. Round-the-clock butler service and luxurious touches such as champagne and strawberries in the afternoon and icy sorbet served on the beach are among the amenities.
 Breakfast starts the day on the beachfront deck, where waves roll at your feet. Evenings are breezy at the beach bar, a marble masterpiece illuminated by oil lanterns, a romantic setting for a "goombay smash" or a "yellowbird" rum drink. Candlelight glows in the sultry night at Dune, the sleek, Manhattan-style restaurant for which renowned New York chef, Jean-Georges Vongerichte, developed a French-Asian and Bahamian menu. Peekyboo crab salad, lobster in coconut curry sauce, and the molten, Volharona chocolate dessert are favorites. An ensemble plays nightly in the formal Courtyard Terrace, where American regional food fuses with classic French.
Tom Weiskopf designed the languorous links-style golf course here, a 7,123-yard beauty vigorously brushed by trade winds, a rather flat, sandy track, nearly surrounded by the pellucid Atlantic and well-watered by lagoons and ponds within. Generous fairways and five sets of tees mitigate the unpredictability of the winds and the abundance of water hazards. The sixth hole, "Breakwater", follows the beach from tee to green with a phalanx of palms. Bring a camera for the panoramic vista of the entire course and miles of azure ocean and Nassau Harbor from the twelfth hole, "Spyglass"; the tee shot asks for a carry over wetland habitat for sea turtles and shorebirds. The seventeenth plays right along Snorkelers Cove and one of the loveliest beaches in the Bahamas.
 Managed by the top notch American company, Troon Golf, the course is anchored by a parrot-yellow clubhouse with a breezy dining terrace, where movie stars and moguls get together for the annual Michael Jordan Celebrity Invitational. A frequent denizen of the club is South African golf superstar, Ernie Els, who is the resident pro.
A full-service Mandara spa is known for Indonesian-inspired treatments. Nine Har-Tru tennis courts and a tennis teaching staff and pro shop are on the property. Deep-sea fishing, scuba diving, windsurfing, sailing are offered, and Ocean Club guests have privileges at nearby Atlantis, Paradise Island, a flamboyant, showstopper of a resort with a thousand rooms, 40 restaurants, bars and lounges; a spectacular casino; a haute-couture shopping arcade, and The Dig, the largest outdoor aquarium in the world.
The Ocean Club topped the 2006 list of Condé Nast Traveler's Reader's Choice Awards Top Atlantic Resort. Limo transport is available from Nassau International Airport, a 40-minute drive away.
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