Helicopter from Miami to Little Pipe Cay

Pipe Creek is not one channel but a lattice of them, running between small cays with banks of sand rising between the cuts. Little Pipe Cay sits in the middle of it, thirty eight acres of private ground with the creek on every side. From the air the shape of it is the whole point. The banks read as pale blocks against the darker cuts, and on the way in you see the geography a boat spends an afternoon learning. Parties who have come here by water before tend to spend that part of the flight at the glass. Half of what the creek offers only exists at certain states of the tide. Say roughly what the party wants out of the day when you send the date, because a sandbar that is dry at eleven is under two feet of water by three, and the hour you leave Florida is what decides which one you get.

Five nautical miles south of the creek is the nearest thing to a village in this stretch of the chain. Staniel Cay has the yacht club, a shop, a couple of places to eat and the boat traffic that goes with all three. It is where a day out here usually gets its lunch and its fuel, and where a party that wants an hour among people rather than an hour alone tends to go. The run down is short enough that it fits inside an afternoon without deciding the shape of it. The cay has its own page at Miami to Staniel Cay, because plenty of flights end there rather than pass through. From the creek it is the other half of the day rather than the destination, and it is close enough that a party can take it in the morning and be back on the water by early afternoon.

North of Pipe Creek the chain runs into the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, the oldest protected area of its kind in the region. It was established in 1958 and has been a no take zone since 1986, which means nothing is fished or removed anywhere inside it. That is why the water up there looks the way it does. Decades without pressure show in the size of the fish and in how little they move when somebody swims past, and the reefs inside the boundary are the reason boats come down the chain in the first place. Flying in from the north puts a good stretch of it under the cabin on the way to the creek. What you can do inside the park is regulated rather than arranged by us, so it is worth saying at the enquiry if it is the reason for the trip.

Big Major Cay is about four nautical miles south of the creek and carries the swimming pigs that most people have seen a photograph of before they know where the Exumas are. From the creek it is a short run south, so an afternoon can hold the pigs and a stop on a sandbar without either of them feeling rushed. The animals wade out to meet a boat rather than waiting on the sand, which is the whole trick of it: the water is shallow and pale, so they are standing in it rather than swimming past you. It is the single thing most parties ask to build an afternoon around. Say how many children are travelling when you send the date. The beach is easy but the animals are large, and the crews who work it handle the feeding rather than the guests. The island has its own page at Miami to Big Major Cay.

Thunderball Grotto sits off Staniel Cay, a hollow rock with light coming through openings in the roof and fish moving through it in numbers. It has been filmed enough that people recognise it from inside. It is snorkel depth rather than a dive, which makes it one of the few things down here a mixed party can do together. The catch is the tide: the cut runs hard on either side of slack water, so it is swum in a window rather than whenever you arrive. That window is one more reason the departure hour out of Miami is worth saying early. It is a short run from the creek, and an afternoon that includes it is usually built around it rather than the other way round.

Compass Cay is two and a half nautical miles north of the creek and its marina is where the nurse sharks live. They gather along the dock in water shallow enough to stand in, and people get in with them. Nurse sharks are bottom feeders and slow, which is why this works at all, and the ones here have been around boats their whole lives. It is the second thing parties ask for after the pigs, and the two sit close enough together that an afternoon can hold both. The marina charges day visitors to come ashore, so it is worth knowing before you arrive rather than at the dock. Whoever runs your boat for the day handles that alongside the rest of it. Say at the enquiry whether anyone in the party wants to get into the water with them, because that decides how long the stop takes.

At low water the creek grows sandbars that are not there at any other time of day, flat pale ground in the middle of open water with nothing built on it and nobody else standing on it. That is where a beach picnic goes out here, and it is the version of a Bahamas afternoon that a resort shore cannot do. Add catering on board or a private chef if lunch is part of it, because there is nothing out there to feed you. Everything travels with the party and comes home with it, including what is left over. Anything outside the usual list goes to custom requests, and the timing is set against the tide rather than against the clock.

Helicopter rides Miami Little Pipe Cay also work as the first leg rather than the whole day. The same aircraft carries on to Harbour Island, Andros or further down the chain toward Great Exuma, and comes back for you when you say. That is what turns one cay into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. Staying over changes the baggage rather than the route, and a party that wants two cays in a day says so when the date goes in, because the aircraft and the boat have to be arranged around each other. The full island guide sits on the Little Pipe Cay destination page, the packaged version is the Little Pipe Cay getaway day trip, freight runs through island logistics and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.