Private Jet from Miami to Grand Bahama

The island is limestone the whole way down, so the water it is known for is as much under it as around it. Lucayan National Park sits on the longest charted underwater cave system in the world, seven miles mapped so far, running out beneath the pine forest and the mangroves. Ben's Cave is the one most parties see: sixty feet of water, the top thirty fresh and the bottom thirty salt, with the line where they meet visible from above. Certified divers book it through the registered operators. Everyone else walks the boardwalks over the five ecosystems the park was made for. Say whether anyone is diving rather than snorkelling when you send the date. Cave access runs on permits and operator schedules, and those are fixed hours: it is the one thing on the island that a movable departure time cannot rescue afterwards.

Port Lucaya is where the in-water encounters run from, and it sits in the middle of the island, a short drive from the runway. The dolphin programme starts with a twenty minute boat ride out to a protected lagoon, which is the part that decides the morning: it is a half day rather than an hour. The shark dive is a separate thing and it is for certified divers only. Both are booked ahead rather than walked into. Add water toys if the afternoon is meant to stay on the water, or a dock pickup if a boat is meeting you at the marina instead.

The south side of the island drops into the Gulf Stream, the same water you crossed on the way over. Blue and white marlin, yellowfin and blackfin tuna and sailfish all run through it, and the deep water reputation here is older than any of the resorts. That is a full day on a boat rather than an afternoon, so it sets the return leg rather than fitting around it. The boats leave from the marinas at Lucaya, so say at the enquiry that the day is about deep water and the hour is built backwards from the dock. Rods and gear travel with the party. Tell us what is coming before the date is fixed rather than at the ramp, and what fits is set out in the baggage guidance.

The north side is the opposite water. Shallow flats run for miles behind the island and they hold bonefish, which is the quiet half of the fishing here and the half that suits a shorter day. Parties book bonefishing and flats access for exactly that reason: it starts where the water is, not where the terminal is. Say how many are fishing when you send the date, because guides and skiffs are counted per head rather than per party. The flats and the deep water are opposite sides of the same island, so a party that wants both is asking for two days rather than one long one. Tides move the useful hours through the month, and on a charter the departure time moves with them.

West End is the oldest settlement on Grand Bahama and its westernmost point, about ten miles closer to Florida than the town is. Its recorded history runs back to the early 1500s and through a long stretch of smugglers, wreckers and rum runners after that. Today it is the quiet end: a marina, a resort and very little road noise. It is also the longest drive on the island from the middle, which is why it comes up in almost every enquiry that starts with the words away from the crowds, and why the hour you land decides whether it fits. Parties meeting a boat at the western marinas go straight alongside on a yacht transfer rather than driving out to them. If the day ends there, say so and the ground transport is arranged around that end rather than the other.

Gold Rock lies about twenty six miles east of Lucaya inside the national park and is reached on a ten minute walk through it. At low water the sand runs out flat and shallow for a long way, which is the whole picture people come for. Low water is what decides the hour, not the one you would prefer. It is the single part of a Grand Bahama day that is set by the sea rather than by the aircraft, and that is exactly why a departure time you choose yourself is worth something here. The beach has its own page: Miami to Gold Rock.

Paradise Cove sits west of the town and it is the reef you can swim to. Deadman's Reef lies straight off the beach in shallow water, close enough that the snorkellers and the paddlers are looking at the same thing. Peterson Cay is the other one, about a mile offshore on the south side. It is the smallest national park in the country at an acre and a half, with a quarter mile of protected water around it, reached by boat rather than on foot. Both are shallow enough that a party with children in it is looking at the same reef as the divers. Add water toys if the afternoon stays on the water, or a beach picnic if it comes ashore.

A private jet charter from Miami to Grand Bahama also works as the first leg rather than the whole day. The island is the top of the archipelago, and the same aircraft carries on to Bimini, Nassau, Andros or Exuma and the Out Islands, each of which has a runway a jet can use. Further down the chain the runways run out, and that is worth saying plainly: the smallest cays are reached on a seaplane or a helicopter rather than on this aircraft. Which islands take a jet directly is set out across the Bahamas jet routes. That is what turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. An overnight changes the baggage, not the route. A date that has to look like something is where the catering on board and the extras come in. If a yacht is meeting you at one of the marinas, that is a yacht transfer, arranged with the flight. Anything larger than luggage is island logistics. The town in the middle of the island is Miami to Freeport, the full island guide is the Grand Bahama destination page, the packaged version is the Grand Bahama getaway day trip and the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.