Seaplane from Miami to Bahamas

Bimini is the closest Bahamian island to Florida, 56 statute miles from downtown Miami, which is about eighteen minutes in the air. That single number is why a Bahamas day trip exists at all: the Gulf Stream crossing is over before most people have settled.

South Bimini sits across the harbour from it and Cat Cay a few miles further down the chain. All three are shallow water on one side and the drop into the Stream on the other, which is the reason the fishing here is what it is.

South east of them the Berry Islands break the run to Nassau. Chub Cay sits at the southern end, about forty eight minutes from Miami, and Great Harbour Cay at the northern. Both are marina islands with more boats than buildings.

Between and around the two chains lie the cays nobody lives on. Gun Cay is a narrow cay 57 statute miles out, a shallow bay at the north end, a lighthouse at the south end and a working boat passage in between.

The Berry Islands run about forty miles from end to end with the two settled islands at the ends of them and water, sand and rock in everything between.

South west of the whole run Cay Sal is a ring of cays around a shallow lagoon 143 miles from Miami, with deep channels falling away on three sides, nobody living on it and nothing built on it.

Grand Bahama is the northernmost of the big islands, 107 statute miles from downtown Miami and about thirty five minutes in the air. It is the shortest crossing to an island with a town on it. Freeport is that town. It carries the harbour, the shops and the ground transport, so a day here needs less arranging than a day on a cay.

It is a port of entry, which means the clearance stop and the destination are the same place. That is the practical argument for Grand Bahama over the smaller islands on a short trip: one landing, one set of formalities and the rest of the day is yours.

East along the shore the town runs out at Gold Rock, 125 statute miles from Miami and some 25 miles from Freeport by road. There is a beach, a national park behind it and no town at all, which is why parties ask for this end of the island rather than the hotel strip.

Nassau is the capital, on New Providence, 184 statute miles from downtown Miami and about an hour in the air. It is the busiest arrival in the country and the one place where everything a party might need is within a few minutes of the water.

Paradise Island lies across the harbour, joined to the capital by two road bridges and carrying Atlantis with its water park and aquarium. Baha Mar sits on the Cable Beach side of New Providence and Blue Lagoon Island a short boat ride offshore.

Lyford Cay is the private gated community at the western tip of New Providence and Rose Island the narrow island a few miles east of the harbour, reached by boat and used as a beach day out of the capital.

For a first visit this is usually the recommendation, because the clearance, the beach and the ground transport are all in one place. The dedicated route page is the seaplane charter from Miami to Nassau.

The small cays around the capital are the part a float aircraft changes most, because not one of them has a runway. Athol Island is two miles of sand and scrub with nobody on it, three quarters of a mile east of Paradise Island.

Pearl Island is a third of a mile long with two beaches, a lighthouse and a reef fifty feet offshore, Salt Cay is small enough to walk end to end and Sun Cay is a private island with three beaches and nothing beyond the treeline.

The Abacos are an arc of cays in the north east, about sixty six minutes from Miami. Marsh Harbour is the main town and a port of entry, so it is usually both the clearance stop and the base for the rest. The cays are the point of coming here.

Elbow Cay carries Hope Town and its candy striped lighthouse, Green Turtle Cay and Great Guana Cay sit further along the arc and Treasure Cay holds the long beach on the mainland side. Sandy Point is the southernmost settlement on Great Abaco, a fishing village at the far end of the island.

This is sheltered water almost the whole way, the Sea of Abaco between the cays and the main island, which is why a float aircraft works here on days when the open ocean does not. The route page is the seaplane charter from Miami to the Abacos.

The arc holds more than the names above and most of it has no ferry. Man-O-War Cay is two and a half miles long and in places under a hundred metres wide, harbour on one side and open Atlantic on the other.

Tilloo Cay is long, narrow and almost entirely undeveloped, Scotland Cay private and residential from end to end and Manjack Cay a mile of beach, bush and mangrove with no road and no settlement on it. Montage Cay is a private island off Marsh Harbour with no bridge onto it.

At the two ends of the arc the distances change. Moore's Island sits in the middle of the Bight of Abaco, seven miles of low green land 168 statute miles from Miami. Walker's Cay is the northern tip of the whole country, a hundred acres at 151 miles with a marina at one end and its own barrier reef around the outside.

Eleuthera is a hundred miles long and rarely more than a mile or two wide, about seventy two minutes from Miami at its northern end. North Eleuthera is the port of entry and the gateway to the two islands beside it.

Harbour Island is the reason most parties come: three miles of pink sand beach and a settlement you cross on a golf cart. Spanish Wells sits off the other side of the northern tip and Governor's Harbour halfway down the long island.

The geography is the whole argument for arriving by air here. Both of the small islands are reached from North Eleuthera by boat, so the aircraft removes the drive that a runway arrival further south would add. The route page is the seaplane charter from Miami to Eleuthera.

Two more islands sit off the same stretch and both are reached from the water. Royal Island is 430 acres of private ground with a harbour cut into its south side, west of Russell Island and Spanish Wells. Little San Salvador lies further south, four square miles of low scrub, sand and a brackish lagoon of which 98 percent has never been built on.

The Exumas are the long chain of cays that runs south east from Nassau, about an hour and a half from Miami. Measured across the pages of the operators who sell this corridor, this is the single most written about part of the Bahamas.

Staniel Cay is the centre of it: the swimming pigs at Big Major Cay, the Thunderball Grotto and the nurse sharks a few minutes away at Compass Cay. Norman's Cay lies at the northern end with its wreck in shallow water, Black Point halfway down and George Town on Great Exuma at the southern end.

It is also the clearest case for a seaplane in the whole country. Staniel Cay has no customs and immigration processing at all, so a party coming from Miami clears at Andros or North Eleuthera first and flies on. The route page is the seaplane charter from Miami to Exuma.

Most of the chain has no settlement on it at all, which is what the floats are for. Shroud Cay at the northern end is not one island but a scatter of cays held together by tidal creeks with no building of any kind on them.

Pipe Cay and Little Pipe Cay sit in Pipe Creek, a maze of small cays and sandbars with deep cuts running through it.

South of Staniel Bitter Guana Cay carries a colony of Bahamian rock iguanas under its pale cliffs, Farmer's Cay is small enough to walk across and lived in all year and Sandy Cay is a low, empty cay at the bottom of the chain.

At the southern end the cays run into an island with a town on it. Great Exuma is 37 miles long with George Town about two thirds of the way down it, 318 statute miles from Miami.

Stocking Island lies across the mouth of Elizabeth Harbour a mile off the town, three miles of dune and sand with no road, no car and no airstrip on it. Moriah Harbour Cay is a national park in the water between Great Exuma and Little Exuma.

Andros is the largest island in the Bahamas and about fifty five minutes from Miami, yet it carries a fraction of the visitors of Nassau. West of it the water shallows into flats that run for miles, east of it the wall drops into the Tongue of the Ocean.

It is the clearance island for a good part of the country. Andros alone carries three ports of entry, San Andros, Fresh Creek and Congo Town, each with an airfield and a dock, which is why so many Exuma itineraries touch here first. Kamalame Cay sits off its eastern shore.

Mangrove Cay sits between two tidal channels in the middle of the island, with one road running from Moxey Town in the north east past the airstrip to Lisbon Creek at the southern end. The water arrival puts a party on that road rather than at the end of a transfer.

For anglers this is the destination rather than the stop: the bonefish flats are the reason people book the whole aircraft and bring rods. The route page is the seaplane charter from Miami to Andros.

Past the Exumas the country keeps going for hundreds of miles and the arithmetic changes. Cat Island and Long Island sit around 315 and 367 statute miles from Miami, San Salvador 374 and Great Inagua over 500.

At those distances the aircraft is a decision rather than an assumption, so we work it out for your date and your party instead of printing a flight time. Sometimes the honest answer is a small plane or a private jet into the nearest runway with a short leg after it.

What these islands buy is emptiness. Rum Cay has a settlement of a few dozen people. A beach here is routinely a beach with nobody on it. Parties come for exactly that, and they plan the day around the crossing rather than the other way round.

Further out again the settlements thin to almost nothing. Acklins and Crooked Island face each other across the bight with their settlements along the inner shores, which is where a water landing puts the party.

Mayaguana is 110 square miles with about two hundred people on it in three settlements, Flamingo Cay is two miles of rock and sand with nobody on it at all and Ragged Island sits 374 statute miles out at the bottom of a chain of more than a hundred cays, with forty four people counted at the 2022 census.