Runaway Hill Inn

This was our first visit to Harbour Island! We stayed in Room 11 (one king size bed, pull out sofa bed with trundle, two bathrooms and a kitchen). It was a nice size for our five day stay. There was a balcony in the back that was west-facing. In the front was another outside sitting area that had chairs and a loveseat with a table. The pool was on the small side but perfect for our kids and their cousins (10yo-14yo). To get to the pool or beach, you had to walk through the restaurant. It was a little strange, especially if people were eating there but eventually you get used to it. You have to walk down many stairs to get down to the beach but it is super lush and green on the way down to the beach. Once you get to the beach, a beach attendant will set you up with chairs, umbrellas, and towels. The beach is stunning. Crystal clear water that is the most beautiful turquoise color. We are at an area of the beach that is not overly crowded like it is near Coral Sands and The Dunmore. We had some wind while we were there so it made for some good boogie boarding and jumping over the waves. The water temp was perfection (not too cold but refreshing) and we could have stayed in it for hours. We went alternated between beach and pool throughout the day.
We rented a golf cart to go to the restaurants on the island. We had the best sushi at DaVine Sushi, a lovely meal at Malcolm 51, and an outstanding meal at the Landing Hotel. Acquapazza was ok, not great (the pizza part was closed the night we went). Remember that every place is on island time and meals are slow and relaxing.
Our hotel is very quiet with only 12 rooms. It was great for us as the kids just played cards after dinner in our room.
All in all, it was a lovely stay at Runaway Hill Inn. It's not luxurious, and sometimes you have to get your own drinks from the bar at the restaurant but the staff are friendly and kind, and we enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

Hotel Review: this hotel was a surprising lovely gem! It is absolutely beautiful, small, boutique, immaculately clean, with fashionable laid back elegance. I would come here again in a heartbeat. The staff, pool and beach service are great. The pool is gorgeous, the grounds lovely, and beach pink sands perfect. It's a wonderful classy alternative to the super high-end hotels like Coral Sands but you get the same feel of the island. We stayed in Luke - room size good, bed with luxurious linens is so comfortable. While on the island I checked out all the hotels and resorts and was so happy we stayed here.

Also, highly recommend the HAPPY HOUR! food and drinks great, beautiful restaurant with views.

Beautiful restaurant, food was delicious but $42 for one chicken thigh entree? Literally one thigh, with four-ish mandarin slices interspersed. Lovely decor and view but c’mon people. We know Harbour Island is pricey but that’s insane. It’s chicken, not foie gras.

Where to start? The View - way up on hill overlooking expansive ocean and pink pands. Excellent start. Ambiance - It has a small boutique feeling, from swings at the bar, colorful walls, small patio seating, every seat seems important. Food - the flavours on the chicken lettuce wrap were both interesting and savory. Bell peppers, fresh herb and mint, sweet and spicy Jelly remoulade, wrapped in lettuce. Very good. Coffee and desert were fantastic. Servers were more than courteous. My favorite bar and restaurant on Harbor Island.

We tried out the new and improved Thai’d restaurant…everything on the menu was authentic in taste ..the flavors from each dish popped.I especially loved the Drunken noodles with shrimp and also the lobster rolls .The lobster dish for my main was great and the portion size was delightful

The “ Thai” Restaurant at Runaway Hill Club is one if the worst Restaurants I have ever eaten at.
The food is total slop.
This was my second time after deciding to give them another chance.
If anything, the food was worse than the first time
The lettuce for the wraps was brown, the “fresh rolls” were iceberg lettuce , carrots and red onion, the dumplings were four deep fried burnt wantons and the noodle dishes had zero flavor and chicken so over cooked it was inedible.
The prices are ridiculously high !
Do not bother giving it a try.
There are better places to spend your money

Runaway Hill felt like home almost instantly. My mom and I stayed for 6 nights in the Sophia Suite. The grounds are enchanting and the house is gorgeous. Everything is incredibly clean, windows open with a breeze running through and a breathtaking view of the ocean. It’s the most peaceful atmosphere.

You will not find more genuine and hospitable staff. They felt like friends while maintaining unwavering professionalism.
Kendrick, the property manager was very attentive and there for any questions or needs we had. He treats the staff with such kindness - you can feel it in the way the team operates. His humility and “what can we improve” approach really sets this establishment apart from all other resorts.

Ashton and Ceon (the beach attendants) were the bomb. They kindly set up chairs for us and provided fresh towels and chair covers even when we were the only guests wanting to get on the beach at 8am. They checked on us regularly but never infringed - they brought us drinks right on the beach whenever we wanted to place an order. They went above and beyond!

Andronic (Cash) and Big Al were so personable and very present. They honestly felt like our pals. They were always around asking if we had any needs, cracking good jokes here and there with us but also had insane professionalism where they never infringed. Ask Big Al to show you his platter spinning skills!

House keeping was like wonderful little fairies. Where I’m sure we would love to have met them - we hardly ever saw them! They came in at the perfect times. We would return to our room where fresh linens, towels a freshly mopped floor and clean bathroom greeted us. Truly magical. The linens all smell so good too - my mom and I are very sensitive to fragrance but their scents are so mild, fresh and light, we genuinely want to know what they use for cleaning!

The concierge both Bethany and Detarrior were the sweetest - everyone honestly was, and we failed to remember each name.
These women helped us figuring out how to rent a golf cart, how to return it, how to get a taxi, and when to get to the airport (which is very important if you are flying with Delta). They also helped us with reservations each time we ate at their restaurant (which was close to every night).

And Chef Krishna won our hearts. Her food is some of the best we have every had- we tried Dunmore and Pink Sands and Runaway Hill was far superior. Krishna knows how to take you somewhere with her creations.

Overall, we couldn’t imagine a better place to stay on Harbor Island! We hope to return one day soon!

Our family has been traveling to Harbour Island for 40+ years and we have enjoyed staying at Runaway Hill for many of those visits. This trip was special because the weather and beach were perfect and the stay at Runaway was relaxing and enjoyable in every regard. The staff, especially Detarrior, Kendrick, Big Al and Ashlyn were very welcoming and super helpful throughout our visit. We also enjoyed delicious breakfasts and dinners on the terrace with wonderful views of the ocean. All in all, one of our best visits to Runaway Hill and Harbour Island.

What an amazing luxury “get a way”
on one of the smallest islands I’ve ever frequented….Runaway Hill Inn on Harbour Island, Bahamas!

An easy, quick 30 minute flight from Miami to North Eleuthera and then a 6 minute boat ride to the port of Dunmore and there a golf cart, the main means of transportation on this island, awaits. Flo, from Majors Golf Cart rental who I highly recommend,
was helpful in booking our cart for our stay and less $ per day than the hotels offer.

First time visiting this island and our accommodations and staff at Runaway Hill Inn exceeded all of our expectations. The concierge staff, Detarrior, assisted us through email, prior to arriving with booking all of our recommended dining spots… to name a few The Rock House (amazing sunset views and ambience on the Bay side), DaVine for sushi lovers, and for us we decided the best food on the island was at our hotel.. The Runaway Hill Inn! Chef Krishna Higgs, has the experience and creativity to produce high quality entrees whether it be breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner! All of her entrees are superb with taste and perfect presentation which led us back night after night to dine with them on the back porch overlooking the ocean!

Early morning runs on the golf cart to our favorite place, Arthur’s Bakery, greeted by smiling Kaylee starts the day right! Grab your cup of hot Joe, a sticky bun or the BEST $17 bacon, egg and cheese sandwich you will ever find on the island! This island offers great dining but is not inexpensive …dinner for 2 without cocktails averages 200 US $ per meal so plan to spend money on the island!

Our beach concierge, Ceon, was attentive, social and provided us with exceptional care each day we arrived at the beach! Beach umbrellas and towels are always available on what feels like your own, private beach. Complimentary paddle boarding or kayaking available as well as a heated pool overlooking Pink Sand Beach (and for those inquiring, the sand offers light pink hues just not the filtered BRIGHT PINK you see on IG.) The bright aqua water and lovely tune of the waves crashing would put anyone at peace with an afternoon nap … if that’s the type of vacation you are looking for!

Kendrick, operations manager of Runaway Hill Inn, is engaging and ensures that your stay is above par and your expectations. Always asking what they can do better and sharing with us that treating the staff with kindness and setting high expectations is what sets this property apart from the others on Pink Sand Beach!

Night life is really non existent on this island so if you are a “partier” or “love a scene,” you will not find that vibe here. This is a quiet vacation for those that want beach, great food and tasty cocktails! For us, it was exactly what we both needed and we chose the perfect INN to accommodate all of our vacation requests!

We highly recommend The Runaway Hill Inn on Harbour Island, Bahamas and their exquisite, attentive staff…. We will definitely be back! ☀️

My husband and I had delighted in our yearly visit to Runaway Hill for five years. Following an unexpected hiatus of 3 years, (due to back surgery and COVID), we were so very eager to return again this year. We were greatly disappointed. In the past, the hotel afforded a gathering of kindred spirits, laughter, discussions and coffee shared in the mornings in the front room, a welcome by Jen (a most gracious hostess), an honor bar, and rooms open to the spirit of the beautiful Caribbean sanctuary that it was. This year, our room had all of the windows painted shut, and inoperable fan and air conditioning. (Incidentally, we were told that the windows are painted shut to avoid their being open while the air conditioner is running...seriously!) We were relocated to a lovely room for the next four nights; but, were required to move back to the first room (air conditioner fixed, but water main broken) since we were told that the rest of the hotel was totally booked. We are so totally disheartened to grieve the loss of the "original Runaway" that we loved. So many details have been neglected...especially a gracious welcome and the casual, charming beauty of the accommodations. While the staff are, for the most part, very friendly, we did not find the management to be very hospitable.

Runaway Hill has a very special feel to it. Love that it's a smaller inn, which makes for a nice quieter and intimate place to relax. The inn is nestled in the lush vegetation with a spectacular view of the ocean from the bar, inside and veranda dining areas. This view can't be beat. All staff were super friendly and always attentive. Detarrior, at the front desk and Kendra were great in finding restaurants with live music and local Bahamian dishes for us. We felt the restaurant at Runaway consistently had the best food of all the resort restaurants that we tried. Runaway HilI Inn really helps you slip into the islands's relaxing pace as soon as you arrive! Highly recommend this place.

Six of us had dinner here outside under the stars and it was fabulous. We had the lobster spring rolls, the conch chowder, lobster, curry grouper, pork chops and the pasta. Every dish was wonderful. I’d highly recommend. The service was spot on as well.

My husband and I hadn't been back for a meal here in many years.We decided to return for lunch.It is still our favorite, romantic place to go! Delicious food, friendly staff, amazing view.We always recommend it and sometime plan a short stay now that we live in Eleuthera.We came back in February 2022 with friends for a drink at the bar with the same welcome

My family and I traveled to Harbour Island for the first time this summer and all of our expectations of Runaway Hill were far exceeded. Kendrick the hotel manager personally greeted us with the warmest welcome and they were so kind to upgrade our room to have more space for our family. The accommodations are simple but perfectly clean, the location and views can not be beat, and the food..breakfast, lunch, and dinner were all absolutely delicious. The girls at the front desk BJ and Lachante and all the others were all so kind and accommodating and the waitstaff, bartenders, the cleaning staff, all wonderful and professional. They all became our friends and it was just an overall beautiful experience. The breathtaking pink sands beach outside your door has everything you need: lounge chairs, umbrellas, paddle boards, kayaks, and towels. The service was top notch. Overall just a wonderful experience for our family.

We love this place. Recent issues with the room we’ve occupied for the past five years were addressed expertly, professionally by Kendrick, the new manager here. We so loved Jen. Kendrick’s predecessor.
So impressed with him though. Kendrick met our every need.
He’s filling Jen’s shoes just beautifully!

Let me be clear: although there are multiple negative comments coming, they affect ratings in evaluation criteria that are unimportant in my mind in relation to the rest of the criteria. The entire experience therefore still results in a 4 star rating. After all, how much property neglect, and bad service, do you need to ruin paradise?

And this place is paradise. The 3 mile long, pink sand beach is rated one of the top 10 beaches in the world. The temperature during our stay varied between 23 and 26 degrees Celsius, tempered by a divine, steady Bahamian breeze (15-20 knots). The resort is located on top of a hill, providing spectacular perspectives on the beach from the dining area.

The location and orientation of our room (Alice 2), is absolutely magical. The bed faces East, with French doors opening onto a deck that overlooks the beach and ocean. The doors are screened, allowing an overnight sleep to the sound of rolling ocean waves gently splashing on the beach.

This alone is enough for a 5 star rating. Add to this the truly exceptional cuisine, frequented by resort guests as well as visitors from other resorts and oversized yachts, and you have the making of paradise on earth. Is it possible to ruin this?

Unfortunately, management and staff try their hardest (or softest). I have not travelled much, but in comparison to the service and positive energy my wife and I experienced in Jamaica and on the Holland Cruise line, the staff here are amorphous, indifferent and incompetent. Some are also criminally lazy. We caught a grounds worker hiding under our deck, which evidently was a better option to him that performing the tasks he had been assigned.

Kudos to the grounds supervisor and the hostess for addressing this promptly. Unfortunately, it was one (too few) displays of caring throughout our 5 day stay. Here’s a sample of a few infractions that caught our attention:

Upon arrival, no verbal greeting; staff points at the table they want us to sit at, like we just disrupted their leisure;
“What you want?”, asks the waitress to solicit our order;
Net zero familiarity with the menu;
Unordered items served;
Ordered items not served;
Complimentary items charged;
Eternal wait times (even with 2 wait staff and 7 patrons over 3 tables);
Refusal to light our candle in a hurricane vase, under the pretext that the wind would blow it out (we light it ourselves and it lasted all dinner);
If they wanted us to leave they could hardly have a better blueprint.

And what to say about the bar. OMG. This bar has a view overlooking the ocean. A perfect place for a happy hour. Drinks with umbrellas. Steel drum music (ok I show my age). But my age has nothing to do with the fact that this bar was empty for the whole week of our stay. The bartenders avoid eye contact; play uninspiring music (the music is better when they clean the place between service hours); don’t engage with patrons. What a waste.

Finally, the neglect in this place is epic. How many dead banana trees does it take before you rent a chainsaw? How many broken drawer knobs before someone takes a trip to the hardware store, as far as it may be on an island? How severe a wobble on a toilet bowl before someone applies a wrench to it? And finally, the icing on the cake, how warped does a French door have to be before it’s attended to? You can see the warp in the pics we attached, complete with the salamander barrier we had to improvise using towels to make sure we filled the gap.

In the end, we had a very relaxing time over the 5 days, much of which was due to our resolve not to let the almost disdainful service and the decomposing buildings/landscape ruin our stay. But this should not be. Not in pure paradise. Not at these prices.

We kept asking ourselves through the week: how is this possible? Did COVID destroy morale on the island? Is the mandatory gratuity fostering indifference? Are the owners guilty of advanced neglect and gross mismangament? All of the above? If you still own the place Mr Messier, are you paying attention? If your game plan is to milk the cow, the cow’s getting old. If it’s not the plan, a prolonged visit might be fruitful.

I just completed a 4 night stay at The Runaway Hill Club and am already planning my next trip back. This is smaller boutique hotel complete with a tiled pool, oceanfront property, amazing restaurant and lovely staff.

There is a fantastic little bar that looks out onto the ocean and the food was the best that I ate on Harbor Island an that included meals at all of the other resorts (Dunmore, Pink sands, Coral Sands etc...) all had good food but runaway Hill was my favorite. It's quiet and low key and the perfect getaway.

This is my favorite place to stay on Harbour Island. It's on the beach, it has a pool, and it's small enough to be cozy and not feel like a huge hotel. I think there are only 11 rooms.They have kayaks, paddle boards, and other fun beach toys. Also, there's a great reef in front of the resort that offers excellent snorkeling! Beautiful clown, trigger, angel, and parrot fish! We always feel like we're staying with friends when we stay here. We love the staff and look forward to seeing them each year. I cannot say enough about Jenny Messier, the manager. She's so friendly, down-to-earth, and accommodating. She really makes our stay special year after year and is happy to offer recommendations for excursions, like fishing, jumping into the sapphire hole, or swimming with the pigs. My husband and I came alone this trip, but we usually come with our kids and they love it!

I booked this hotel through Bahamago.com for two nights in February. Booking was confirmed so subsequently booked other hotels before and after those dates on other islands as part of a two week island hopping vacation. The following day, the hotel cancelled my reservation with no explication. After calling the hotel, I was informed that it has a three day night minimum - though no mention of this on the travel website. I explained that if I had known this I could have reserved three nights, however, I was now locked into other hotel reservations and only had two nights available. I asked if they could make an exception while it was not my fault that this predicament had arisen. While I do appreciate the hotel policy of a three night minimum, they shouldn’t then offer the possibility to reserve less than three nights on an external websites. I was informed by the person I spoke to that they would need to speak to their manager for approval and would call me back. After three days of no news, I called the hotel and was informed now there was no availability for those dates. Was genuinely surprised by the absolute lack of interest in helping me find a solution. Very disappointing experience, especially since after waiting so many days for a response, there is very little availability in other hotels on the island. Will not book again.

Peaceful. Breathtaking views. Delicious meals. Courteous staff. Outstanding. We will definitely be back and recommend without reservation. Beach access and pool were wonderful too! Jen and her staff do an outstanding jon to make you feel welcome.