The Xanadu Beach Resort & Marina, also known as the Xanadu Princess Resort & Marina, is a resort and marina on the island of Grand Bahama in the Bahamas. Built in 1968, the resort was purchased by Howard Hughes in 1972 and was for several years the most celebrated resort in the Caribbean and served as a hideaway for the Hollywood jet set of the era. The resort comprises 20 acres (81,000 m2) of beachfront, 215 rooms and an 80 slip marina on the southern coast of Grand Bahama.
Since its opening, the resort and the events that took place within its grounds have appeared on the front pages of tabloids with visits from The Rat Pack, including Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin, as well as other celebrities of the era such as Cary Grant and Lucille Ball.
The resort was purchased by Howard Hughes in 1972 who moved into the penthouse floors of the resort and lived there until days before his death in 1976. While in residence, he rarely left the penthouse but was frequently seen looking out over the resort from the 13th storey balcony. He would order fishing boats which were docked in the resort's marina to go out to sea every day to catch him fresh fish.
After his death, the resort was sold. However, the penthouse floor in which he lived for the last four years of his life has remained empty for thirty years. The hotel is on sale for $45 million.
Famous quotes containing the words beach and/or resort:
“The seashore is a sort of neutral ground, a most advantageous point from which to contemplate this world. It is even a trivial place. The waves forever rolling to the land are too far-traveled and untamable to be familiar. Creeping along the endless beach amid the sun-squall and the foam, it occurs to us that we, too, are the product of sea-slime.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Before I finally went into winter quarters in November, I used to resort to the north- east side of Walden, which the sun, reflected from the pitch pine woods and the stony shore, made the fireside of the pond; it is so much pleasanter and wholesomer to be warmed by the sun while you can be, than by an artificial fire. I thus warmed myself by the still glowing embers which the summer, like a departed hunter, had left.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)