Flights from Miami to Atlantis Bahamas

The small plane, the jet, the helicopter and the seaplane all arrive at Lynden Pindling International, on the western half of New Providence. The general aviation side is a separate building from the airline terminal, and that is where you step out. Because Nassau is an airport of entry, customs and immigration sit in that building, and the formalities take minutes, since the crew filed everything before departure. The desk keeps daytime hours, so a morning flight is the easier one. Tell us at the enquiry if anyone travels on a passport other than a United States one. The aircraft stays parked there for your return. On a day trip that means the same walk back in the evening and no check-in at all.

Nassau Harbour has no authorised landing area for a seaplane, so the floats come down on the runway like every other aircraft on this route. Paradise Island itself has had no runway since 1999. What the floats change is the Miami end: you leave off the water rather than out of a terminal, and the same aircraft can carry on to places with no runway at all once the clearance in Nassau is done. The details are on the seaplane from Miami to Atlantis page. The trade is the water. A seaplane needs a calm enough surface to lift off in Miami, so on a rough winter morning a runway aircraft is the safer plan, and we tell you that before you book rather than on the day.

Paradise Island is joined to the main island by two bridges over Nassau Harbour, and the road to them runs east from the airport along the coast, about twelve miles, and how long it takes depends on the hour of the day. It is the one part of the journey that is not in the air, so we arrange it rather than leave it at the kerb. A car is waiting when you clear the desk, booked with the flight and on the same quote. Ground transport covers what is available on both sides. Downtown Nassau is about ten minutes from the resort over the same bridge, so an evening in town fits into a stay without another flight.

Atlantis is not one hotel. The Royal is the pair of pink towers everybody pictures, the Cove and the Reef are the quieter towers at the western end, the Coral sits between them, Harborside is the villas on the harbour side and the Ocean Club is the separate, older property along the beach. Which one you are checking into changes the drive by minutes, but it changes what the day looks like once you are there. Tell us the house at the enquiry and the car goes to that entrance rather than to the main one. More on the resort is on the Atlantis destination page, and anything unusual goes to custom requests. For a day trip, the waterscape, the beach and lunch fit easily between the morning flight and the evening one. Longer stays pick their house first and the flight around it.

The last part of the flight from Miami is the best one. The deep blue of the Gulf Stream breaks into turquoise over the bank around New Providence, and from a low flying aircraft you see the flats and the sandbars clearly on a sunny morning. The towers of the Royal come up out of the haze long before you are down, with the harbour and the bridges below them. It is one of the reasons people ask for scenic flights on the approach. Ask the crew to come in low over the water if the day allows, and have a camera ready on the side facing the island.

Aquaventure is what most guests fly to Atlantis for. The waterscape covers 141 acres in the middle of the resort, with a river ride about a mile long running through it and more than twenty swimming areas around that. A family can spend a full day inside it without doing the same thing twice, which is why the return hour matters more here than the outbound one. The marine habitats run underneath it, and Dolphin Cay, with encounters booked by time slot, is on the resort's own ground. Access comes with a room. Day passes exist for visitors who are not staying, and those rates move from year to year, so that part is worth settling with the resort. Say how many are swimming and how old they are when you send the date: it changes the hour you want to be on the ground, not the flight.

What you can bring is a question of weight, and every aircraft answers it differently. Floats carry less than wheels, a helicopter less again, and a jet the most. Golf clubs, pushchairs, a week of suitcases: tell us at the enquiry and the right aircraft comes back with the quote. The baggage guidance explains the trade between passengers and weight. Anything bigger than luggage travels as island logistics instead. The simple rule: the more you carry, the more the runway aircraft make sense, and the lighter you travel, the more leaving Miami off the water becomes the easy choice.

Atlantis also works as the first stop of a longer trip. Once you have cleared in at Nassau, every leg after it stays inside the Bahamas. The same charter can carry on to Harbour Island, Andros, Staniel Cay or the Exumas. That is how one resort becomes island hopping or a Bahamas day. The ready-made version of a single day is the Atlantis getaway day trip, and the rest of the islands are on the Bahamas destinations page.