After 64 Years, The Ocean Club, a Four Seasons Resort, Bahamas Remains a Luxury Caribbean Icon

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The eight-kilometer stretch of white sand beach at The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort, has been drawing the world’s most discerning travelers to Paradise Island since 1962

The Versailles Gardens, built by founder Huntington Hartford and still among the most extraordinary outdoor spaces in the Caribbean, cascade toward the sea in seven terraced levels.

The Ocean Club opened in 1962 with visitors like Jackie Onassis, Winston Churchill, Salvador Dali, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, the Beatles.

The Ocean Clubs is around 100 suites and villas, making the property feel intimate and calm.

Ocean Club’s guest rooms and suites offer some of the most generous layouts in the Caribbean, with private patios that blur the line between room and resort.

The serene adults-only pool at The Ocean Club overlooks the iconic Versailles Gardens.

The bar at DUNE by Jean-Georges: a front-row seat to the Atlantic.

The views at The Ocean Club’s restaurants are as delightful as the cuisine.

As I sipped my morning coffee on the balcony of my ocean view suite at The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort in the Bahamas, I flipped through the pages of the resort’s own Assouline coffee table book. The pages were just as stunning as the iconic property itself and its storied past as an oasis for starlets, dignitaries, and the glamorous traveling set. Ocean Club is a place that has been drawing celebrities and discerning travelers to Paradise Island since 1962.

As the turquoise water crashed below me and the palm trees cast shadows on the book’s pages, I was reminded, in the best possible way, of the storied grandeur of where I was sitting.

What the Ocean Club can boast about, aside from its storied standing as an iconic hotel, is that it has been brought gracefully into modern times with elevated food and beverage, ultra-curated experiences, a spa on Vogue‘s global list, nods from Michelin, Forbes, and AAA – all while paying constant homage to its own history.

Under the Four Seasons brand since 2017 (previously part of the One & Only portfolio) the property sits in an ongoing conversation between what it has always been and what it is still becoming. And alongside other Nassau institutions like the legendary Graycliff Restaurant, it continues to define what Bahamian luxury actually means.

Whether you come for a romantic long weekend, a family escape, or a lively trip with friends, The Ocean Club is still one of the most coveted addresses in the Caribbean. After years of hosting celebrities, royalty, and James Bond himself, the resort shows no signs of slowing its iconic momentum.

The Ocean Club Was Built to Be a Bahamian Icon

The Ocean Club was born from the vision of G. Huntington Hartford II a notable personality of the mid-century American jet set, who in 1959 bought a five-mile-long sandy cay off the coast of Nassau, petitioned the Bahamian government to rename it Paradise Island, and set about building something the Caribbean had never seen.

He inaugurated The Ocean Club in 1962 with visitors like Jackie Onassis, Winston Churchill, Salvador Dali, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando, the Beatles. Walk through the lobby today and see the framed faces of past visitors confirming that this was always a place where the world’s most notable people came to exhale.

The Versailles Gardens Hartford built still unfold in seven terraced levels of manicured French splendor, punctuated by classical statuary and 12th-century Augustinian cloisters imported stone by stone and reassembled on the grounds. They remain among the most extraordinary outdoor spaces in the Caribbean and still today the backdrop to some of the most sought-after wedding ceremonies.

And then there is James Bond. In 2006, the Ocean Club served as the filming location for Casino Royale in the Daniel Craig era of the franchise. The crime-fighting hunk pulls up to the hotel’s roundabout with his signature smooth strategy for a poker game in the hotel’s Library with a foe.

The Martini Bar, which appears in that scene, still serves the Vesper Martini. Keith Cash, the award-winning bartender with an Ocean Club tenure of more than 35 years will shake it properly.

Today, with nonstop flight service from Dallas (via American Airlines) and Houston (via United) and a quick 30-minute drive from Nassau’s Airport, Texans can be sipping like Bond in no time at all, making the Ocean Club a convenient getaway.

Adjacent to the scale and spectacle of the neighboring Atlantis Resort, the Ocean Club is quiet and quaint by comparison, though guests do have complimentary access to the waterpark and the casino when the mood for something louder strikes.

The Ocean Club Experience

The resort comprises around 100 rooms, suites, and villas across two low-rise wings set within 35 acres of lush tropical grounds, all boasting spacious layouts, private patios, and soaking tubs. The beachfront villas and bungalows with private plunge pools offer a deeper level of seclusion.

The Martini Bar and lobby lounge set the tone from arrival – sophisticated, storied, and elegant, all with its signature art by the property’s beloved resident artist Jane Waterous and her two sons.

DUNE by Jean-Georges sits above the water with floor-to-ceiling windows flooding the room with the turquoise blue of the Atlantic. Bahamian-born Executive Chef Lester Dean now leads the kitchen, bringing a meaningful local dimension to the cuisine.

Ocean Blu is the beachfront poolside eatery, while the Versailles Terrace brings Italian specialties al fresco to the hotel’s serene adult pool overlooking the iconic gardens. It’s the ideal complement to the new cherry-red lounge chairs and parasols umbrellas drawn from Slim Aarons’ iconic 1968 photograph.

The gym, tennis, and (new) padel center round out the active offerings. And the Spa, housed in Balinese-style treatment villas with private gardens and outdoor baths, has a lengthy menu of indulgent treatments ready to relax.

Service throughout operates at the beloved Four Seasons standard with added Ocean Club warmth – whether you are here as Jackie O or James Bond, the treatment is the same.

The Bahamas’ History of Luxury

No visit to Nassau is complete without an evening at Graycliff, the classic restaurant in the historic estate built in the 1700’s, that functions as the Ocean Club’s natural counterpart on the main island. The property has spent nearly three centuries collecting history. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor dined here, while Lord Mountbatten and Winston Churchill stayed at Graycliff. In 1973, the Italian-born Garzaroli family purchased it and turned it into the Caribbean’s first certified five-star restaurant, a distinction it has held ever since.

The wine cellar alone is worth the trip across the bridge. Holding over 250,000 bottles and a recipient of the Wine Spectator Grand Award, it is one of the most significant cellars in the world, and the sommelier-led tour is a must – after a quintessential Graycliff soufflé for dessert, that is.

Coming Soon: The Ocean Club, Four Seasons Residences

The Ocean Club, Four Seasons Residences, Bahamas is now under construction on Paradise Island with a target completion of 2028. A collection of 67 private residences spread across four beachfront buildings will offer two- to four-bedroom offerings, along with five-bedroom beach villas topping out at nearly 7,500 square feet of interior space. Pricing runs from approximately $8.9 million to $22.9 million.

Residents will have full access to the resort, alongside a private amenity suite that includes an oceanfront pool with cabanas, a private cellar with individual lockers for wine, spirits, and cigars, co-working space, spa, and a beachfront restaurant with private dining and much more.

The Ocean Club is a resort that functions simultaneously as a piece of Caribbean history and as a genuinely excellent modern hotel, just as its own Assouline book boasts.