Sand and sea are the main draws on the Bahamas’ South Andros Island, where the living is laid back, cell phones are frowned upon and night life is watching the stars.

MCT / Tom Uhlenbrock

SOUTH ANDROS ISLAND, Bahamas After the drone of three flights on consecutively smaller planes and the hum of a 10-minute powerboat ride, we arrived at our destination to find — silence.

Nothing but the lapping of the surf and the soft rustling of the afternoon breeze.

There were no cars, no streets, no shops, no access except by water. Just a strip of bone-white beach and elevated buildings hidden in the palms, pines and sea grape. No people, either, until a staff member walked onto the dock and said, “Welcome to Tiamo.”

She wore a bemused smile, probably because of the familiar shell-shocked look of the newly arrived who had spent a grinding day traveling only to end up, at last, in Everyman’s vision of paradise.

We had glimpsed the resort while circling to land at Congo Town on South Andros, one of the Out Islands of the Bahamas. The resort’s 11 bungalows stood out in a grove of stately coconut palms lining the beach, the only sign of civilization on that side of the largely undeveloped island.

About 700 Bahamian islands are sprinkled in the waters east of Florida, with the turquoise Caribbean on one side and the emerald Atlantic on the other. On the 14 main islands, Grand Bahama and Nassau on New Providence are where the action is, with Exuma catching on fast and Johnny Depp among the celebrity homeowners.

We were headed to South Andros and Cat Island, which both boast a single beach-hugging road lined by modest native settlements. Tourists encounter few amenities, only a resort or two and guest houses for anglers who seek out the world-class bonefishing. Spend a week or more in these laid-back outposts and you’ll never want to put on shoes again.

The few bars and restaurants on South Andros and Cat Island are filled with locals, but visitors are welcome. The islanders’ homes are one-story structures built of concrete block to withstand the storms and painted the vibrant colors of the islands — the fiery pink of the sunset, the gaudy yellow of the butterfly fish, the iridescent greens and blues of the Caribbean.

When told that U.S. homes bore duller colors, a Bahamian woman replied with a poem recalled from childhood: “Tell me, if you know, the colors of the sea. Where can I find that wondrous dye, and take it home with me?”

Since opening in 2001, Tiamo Resorts has garnered a slew of awards for sustainable tourism because of its total solar power, energy efficiency and recycling of nearly everything. But don’t call it an “eco-resort” in front of creator Mike Hartman, a self-described “farm boy gone astray” from Indiana who found this special spot with the help of his Jamaican wife, Petagay.

“I’m not a big fan of that word,” Hartman said. “There’s a perception that everybody has to wear Birkenstocks and eat granola bars. Our job is to sell a great vacation. Composting toilets is not a compelling way to pick a destination.”

While Hartman, 38, can become passionate describing the water-saving benefits of a front-loading washing machine over a top loader — and once showed a handful of “dirt” that is the end product of his composting toilets to the Bahamian prime minister — he insisted the sustainable policy is inspired more by pragmatic business sense than environmental fervor.

“We wanted to provide comfortable accommodations, with good food and good service, on a beautiful island,” Hartman said. “And we wanted to do all that without ruining the place we were promoting.”

Sammy Thurston had a similar goal on neighboring Cat Island. After holding various jobs — in banking, as a casino croupier, as a cruise ship entertainer — he wanted to open a resort that offered quiet beauty. Let the sand and sea do the talking. He investigated several islands in the Bahamas, before settling on his own little slice of paradise near his father’s home in the tiny settlement of Bennett’s Harbour.

Shedding civilization

Our hostess led us off the dock and up a sandy path to the main lodge at Tiamo, where she offered a cold Kalik, the Bahamian national beer. A Bob Marley recording played sweetly in the background as she laid out the ground rules.

Meals are served three times a day in the lodge, or the staff will bring breakfast or dinner to your bungalow by request. Happy hour with hors d’oeuvres begins at 6. You can run up your bar tab with selections from the fine wine list. The sailboats, kayaks and snorkeling gear are at your disposal. The naturalists on the staff offer daily hikes and snorkeling outings to blue holes — underwater caverns that attract fish — and the reef, third largest in the world.

The cost for all this is $415 a person a night in the high season, January through April, and $315 in the low summer season. That includes lodging, meals and activities, except for bonefishing trips chartered with native guides.

In keeping with the subdued ambiance of the lodge, our bungalow was made of wood and screen, simple yet elegant, with bird songs filtering in from the surrounding trees. The sitting room had a view of the beach, and the bedroom had a king-size bed. Pieces of coral and shell were imbedded in the concrete floor of the walk-in shower. The composting toilet, which produces fertilizer for the gardens, had a flush pedal and differed little from the porcelain potty back home.

Within seconds, we had traded shoes for sandals, clothes for swimsuits, and were strolling the beach. The sand bore the rake marks of a recent grooming. Visitors had decorated the stumps and snags at the shoreline with bleached conch shells, like ornaments.

That conch, a large sea snail with a distinctive shell that is the mainstay of the Caribbean menu, can be found in the waters is one of Hartman’s victories. The meals at Tiamo do not include conch, lobster or grouper, all species in danger of collapsing in the Caribbean.

“When the fishermen come to us with those species to sell, we want to make a point,” Hartman said. “When we came here, there were no conch out there. Now, there are so many, you have to watch where you walk. It’s proof if you let nature do what it’s supposed to, it’ll work.”

Flights to the outer islands begin in Nassau, the city that covers New Providence Island. From South Andros, I flew back to Nassau and took a taxi tour before catching the afternoon run to Cat Island. At 21 miles long and seven miles wide, Nassau is one of the smallest of the major islands but has the largest population with about 180,000 people. Those boarded-up homes on South Andros and Cat Island are owned by islanders who abandoned them to find jobs in Nassau.

Nassau was bustling with cruise ships, the Paradise Island resort and a straw market crowded with tourists. Traffic was at a standstill around the ancient forts that the British built to ward off Napoleon, who never arrived. The city is at its loudest on the days after Christmas during Junkanoo, the national festival that rivals Mardi Gras with its costumes and competing groups of marchers.

Nassau was fun, but a few hours of hubbub made me appreciate my arrival at Sammy T’s on Cat Island. I shared the plane ride over with locals carting back savory stacks of pizzas and tubs of fried chicken, and shared the taxi ride to the resort with a couple from Michigan who came to one of the quietest islands in North America to get married, sans family.

Sammy T’s was a bit noisier than Tiamo, but only because its owner had landscaped the walk from the villas to the beach with flowering trees and shrubs that attracted birds, including a Bahama woodstar, a hummingbird that was as bold as it was beautiful.

Nightly rates at Sammy T’s are $165 for a one bedroom and $255 for two in wood cottages with small porches and vaulted ceilings, each decorated in native art. Paintings and a mannequin wearing a spectacular Junkanoo costume filled the resort’s Sapodilla Restaurant, which served excellent island dishes.

A gazebo gazed out to sea, and a broad stairway ended at the sand. Thurston is threatening to turn a small swimming pool into a pond with freshwater fish. “Nobody uses it,” he said. “My guests come for the beach.”

Cat Island has a rich history as the spot where islanders say Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World, and as a center of the slave trade in the 1800s. The isolated island also served more recently as a drop-off point for drug dealers, which was in evidence on one balmy night during my stay when the whir of low-flying helicopters, followed by gunfire, drowned out the waves slapping the beach.

The next morning, my taxi driver explained the excitement: “DEA choppers chased a boat and shot out its engines. They got the drugs and had these guys handcuffed. They like to move in on these laid-back islands.”

The sounds of silence were much better.If you go

Tiamo: The resort has no TV and asks that guests who have cell phones use them only in the office area. In dire situations, guests can use the resort phone, fax or e-mail. The resort uses 100 percent solar power, with a bio-diesel generator as a backup. Careful, solar-heated water in the shower can be very hot! Drinking water comes from a shallow well and passes through a filtration system. Laundry service is available.

Recycling: Tiamo asks that you return home with any plastic and batteries you bring. If you will, the resort also will present you with a tidy bundle of its plastic to take to your recycling center back home.

Contacting Tiamo: (242) 357-2489 and www.tiamoresorts.com.

Cat Island: The island’s claim to fame is the birthplace of a style of music called “Rake ’n’ Scrape.” The vocalists are backed by musicians playing goatskin drums, guitars, accordions and handsaws. The Rake ’n’ Scrape Festival, which features a battle of the bands at several venues, is June 1-6.

Contacting Sammy T’s: (242) 354-6009 and www.sammytbahamas.com.

The weather: The high season, when the trade winds make for pleasant weather, is January through April. Rain can be expected May to October. However, many visitors come during the off-season to get discount hotel rates. The hurricane season is July through November.

Ministry of Tourism: (242) 302-2000 and www.bahamas.com.