Private Jet from Miami to Crooked Island

Fish is the first reason parties come this far south. The shallows around Turtle Sound, along Long Cay and down through the Fish Cays are bonefish water, and the same flats carry on for roughly thirty five miles to the tip of Acklins. Scale is the whole appeal. There is enough water here that a skiff does not cross its own track in a week, which is why anglers who have already fished the better known islands keep coming down the chain to this one. Guides work out of the settlements on the north and west shore. Say how many are fishing and whether anyone is walking rather than poling when you send the date, and say it early: there are few guides and they book out. Rods travel within the payload for the aircraft on the day. The booked version is bonefishing and flats access. A jet is what makes a short fishing trip worth taking at all: the distance stops eating the days at either end.

A barrier reef runs some forty five miles along the northern shore, and behind it the bottom falls from about fifty feet into the deep water of the Crooked Island Passage. What makes it unusual is the distance. The wall sits a few hundred yards off the beach rather than a boat ride out, so an hour on it does not cost the rest of the afternoon. Divers come for exactly that arithmetic. Visibility is what brings people back, more than the marine life on its own. Say whether anyone is diving rather than snorkelling when you send the date: tanks and gear come out of the same payload as the passengers, and on a charter that is a conversation rather than a baggage rule.

Crooked Island, Long Cay and Acklins curve around a lagoon called the Bight of Acklins. It is shallow in a way that is hard to picture from a map: the water stays near knee height even five miles from any shore. From a boat it is slow going, which is exactly why the islands around the bight have stayed as quiet as they have, and it is the reason the flats inside it are still worth the distance. At low water the banks stand dry in the middle of the lagoon. The tide sets the hour for a day out on it rather than the aircraft. It is the one part of a Crooked Island day decided by the sea. Everything else on this page, including what time you arrive and what time you leave, is decided by you.

The lighthouse stands on a cay off Pittstown Point at the northwest tip, built in 1876 and standing 112 feet above the sea. It marked the northern entrance to the Crooked Island Passage in the years when that passage carried the mail route between Europe and Cuba. Nobody keeps it now and hurricanes have taken their share of it. Getting to it means a boat rather than a road, a short run from the northwest settlements, and it is one of the few fixed things to go and look at here. The passage it marks is the reason it is there. Shipping has used this water for as long as there has been shipping in this part of the Bahamas. Ask for a boat with the extras and it is a morning rather than an expedition.

Around three hundred people live on fifty seven square miles. Landrail Point sits at the northwest end with about seventy five residents who make their living from the sea, and crossing the island by road takes roughly thirty five minutes. There is no resort strip and no supermarket run. What there is, is a handful of small lodges, a few places to eat and people who know exactly where the fish were this week. Ground transport on an island this size means a vehicle arranged in advance rather than one waiting at a rank. Provisions are worth naming when you book: catering and a private chef both travel with the aircraft.

The west shore carries long runs of sand that are empty most days of the year. On an island with three hundred residents that is arithmetic rather than marketing. It is where a beach picnic goes and where a party that wants the afternoon on the water adds water toys. If a boat is meeting you, a dock pickup is arranged with the flight. Anything outside the usual list goes to custom requests.

Acklins lies on the far side of the bight, near enough to see on a clear day and slow to reach by boat. Long Cay sits off the northwest point and is smaller again, about eight square miles. Pompey Bay on Acklins carries one of the largest Lucayan sites in the Bahamas, excavated by archaeologists rather than built over. Acklins has a paved strip of its own, so the same aircraft reaches it as a private jet day of its own if you would rather have both ends of the lagoon than one.

A private jet charter from Miami to Crooked Island also works as the first leg. The same aircraft carries on to Long Island, Rum Cay, San Salvador, Cat Island or Great Inagua. Not every island down here has a runway a jet can use: the smallest cays are reached on a seaplane or a helicopter. Which islands take a jet is set out across the Bahamas jet routes. That is what turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas trip. Extra nights change the baggage, not the routing, and the baggage guidance sets out what goes in the back. If a yacht is meeting you, that is a yacht transfer, arranged with the flight. Anything larger than luggage is island logistics. The full island guide is on the Crooked Island destination page, the packaged version is the Crooked Island getaway and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.