Just fifty miles east of Miami, Florida, is the world-famous fishing destination Alice Town on North Bimini. Capital of the tiny Bimini island chain, Alice Town is also one of the most well-known party sites anywhere in the Bahamas. Popularized by Ernest Hemingway, who described it as a hard-drinking fishing refuge, the town's numerous hotels and marinas continue to provide plenty of activity for anglers, divers and snorkellers, as well as a freewheeling, somewhat ribald atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of the town's glory days.

With more than two hundred hotel rooms in a six-block-square area, Alice Town has a number of notable fishing clubs and resorts . Best known is the Compleat Angler Hotel , King's Highway (tel 242/347-3122; US$50-75), where Hemingway drank, fought and wrote the novel To Have and Have Not . It houses a collection of Hemingway memorabilia including rare photographs of the author. Almost as famous, the original Bimini Big Game Fishing Club and Hotel , King's Highway (tel 242/347-3391), has hotel rooms, two penthouse suites and twelve cottages, and offers marina services along with excellent food and drink. Both the Bimini Bay Guest House (tel 242/347-2171), an Art Deco treasure, and the Bimini Blue Water Resort (tel 242/347-3166), where Hemingway wrote in a cottage called the Anchorage, also offer comfortable surroundings and fine food.

King's Highway , the only paved road on the island, is lined with many good restaurants , swinging pubs , and garish souvenir stands. Primary air service to Alice Town is provided by Pan Am Air Bridges (1000 MacArthur Causeway, Miami, Florida; tel 242/347-3024 or 1-800/424-2557), although charter services to North Bimini, namely Bimini Island Air (tel 954/938-8991), operate out of Fort Lauderdale as well.