The Flight
Private Jet Miami to Iguana Island
Iguana Island is the name the Exumas give Bitter Guana Cay, about a mile of rock and scrub in the middle of the chain and 86 miles south of Nassau. One beach runs along its western shore, nobody lives on it, and its only residents are a protected colony of rock iguanas. No runway is built anywhere on it, so no aircraft lands on the cay itself.
The jet covers the long part of the day. It flies high over the Gulf Stream in one leg and sets down on the paved runway at Norman's Cay, at the top of the chain, where customs sits on the same field. A small plane or a seaplane then flies about thirty three nautical miles down to Staniel Cay, and a boat runs the last three miles or so south to the beach.
All of it is arranged from our side: the departure airport, the jet and crew, the connecting flight, the boat and the travel documents the Bahamas asks for. Your party brings passports and a hat. The cay is also reached by small plane, by seaplane, by private plane and by helicopter, and each of those turns the same beach into a different day.
Plan Your Iguana Island Charter
Miami to Iguana Island Private Jet
How a Private Jet Iguana Island from Miami Flight Actually Works
A Miami to Iguana Island jet charter involves more than the time in the air above the Gulf Stream. Here is what every trip includes, from your first message to the moment you step onto the sand at Iguana Island.
Plan Your Iguana Island CharterDistance and Flight Level
Two Hundred Miles of Water, Flown at One Level
Between Miami and the middle of the Exumas lie the Gulf Stream and the shallow bank, two hundred miles and more of water that builds cloud as the day warms. A jet climbs through it and holds one level rather than routing round each shower, so the morning you book for the iguanas is the morning you fly.
Where the Jet Lands
Jet to Norman's Cay, Then a Short Flight and a Boat
Iguana Island has no runway at all, so the jet lands on the paved strip at Norman's Cay. A small plane or a seaplane flies about thirty three nautical miles down to Staniel Cay, and a boat covers the three miles south to the beach. All three legs are booked together, before you leave Miami.
Both Borders
Customs at Norman's Cay, Then the Islands
The first landing in the Bahamas has to be at an airport of entry. At Norman's Cay customs and immigration sit on the field where the jet stops, so passports are dealt with before anything smaller takes over. We collect the passport details once and the travel documents are filed from our side.
The Whole Aircraft
Your Party and Nobody Else, on Every Leg
The jet carries the names you give us and no one else, and so do the connecting flight and the boat. Nothing scheduled reaches this cay, so a charter is simply how a group gets there together with its bags. Seats, catering and the hour are fixed before the day.
On Board and Ashore
Lunch, Shade and What Travels to the Beach
Nothing is sold on the cay, there is no shade and no fresh water, so lunch, drinks and an awning come with you. Chef catering on the jet and a cool box on the boat are ordered with the flight. The iguanas are watched rather than fed, and the crew says so before anyone steps ashore.
How Long the Day Runs
A Morning on the Beach or a Week in the Chain
Some parties spend the morning among the iguanas and fly home before dark. Others stay three miles north on Staniel Cay and take the boat down more than once. The aircraft works to the plan, and Big Major Cay with its swimming pigs is on the same stretch of water.
Departure Points
Departure Points for a Private Jet from Miami to Iguana Island
Miami has no single business airport, it has four and the right one is the one closest to where your day starts. Select one to see exactly where it sits.
Opa-locka Executive
Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, OPF
The executive airport north west of the city and the usual Miami departure for a private jet, with private terminal handling on both ends. It is also where a return from the islands clears US customs.
Miami International
Miami International Airport, MIA
The right one when the party is already at MIA, arriving on a commercial flight or connecting to one and the onward leg should leave from the same airport instead of crossing the city first. Arranged per flight rather than held, so it is confirmed with the operator before it is quoted.
Miami Executive
Miami Executive Airport, TMB, Kendall
Kendall-Tamiami, in the south west of the county and the shortest ground leg for Coral Gables, Pinecrest and the south of Miami-Dade. A general aviation field, so the walk from the car to the aircraft is short.
Fort Lauderdale Executive
Fort Lauderdale Executive, FXE
Fort Lauderdale Executive, thirty miles up the coast and the field a Broward or north Miami departure is quoted from. Its federal inspection station is where a US return from the islands is cleared when the day begins and ends in Broward.
How to Charter
How to Book a Private Jet Charter Miami to Iguana Island
Chartering an aircraft takes four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Iguana Island Charter- 01
Contact Us
Write to us on WhatsApp or by email. Send your dates, how many guests, which airport suits your morning and where you want to go. Tell us the hour you would like to leave, and whether the iguanas are the whole day or one stop among the pigs, the sharks and the grotto, because that sets how long the boat stays.
- 02
Get Aircraft and Prices Back
We check what is free on your date and send what fits your party. Seats, baggage and flight time for each option. You price the aircraft rather than the seats, so four people cost what eight do. The landing at Norman's Cay, the connecting flight and the boat to the beach are all written into the routing we send back.
- 03
Confirm and Pay
You pick the aircraft, and we set the departure airport. Then everything around the flight: catering on board, lunch and shade on the beach, the boat on to Big Major Cay, ground transport to the airport at home.
Flowers if the day is a special one. You approve it, you pay, and your boarding time, departure airport and everything included come back to you before the day.
- 04
Just Arrive 30 Minutes Before Departure
There is no terminal queue to join. Just be there 30 minutes before. Then you lift off, climb out over the bay, and the day starts.
On the Island
Where a Private Jet Charter from Miami to Iguana Island Puts You Down
The jet is where an Iguana Island day really begins. A flight high over the Gulf Stream, a short hop down the chain from Norman's Cay and a boat to one beach under white cliffs, with iguanas walking out across the sand and the pigs, the sharks and the grotto a few miles north. Below is what a day out there can look like.
Plan Your Iguana Island CharterThe Iguanas on the Beach
Why You Came
The colony is why the cay carries a second name. Exuma rock iguanas spend the night in the low scrub behind the sand, come out as the sun warms the beach and walk down to meet a boat when it runs in. They live on seven cays in the middle and southern Exumas and nowhere else, grow to about a metre from nose to tail and are listed as endangered. Boats have taught them to come close, so you can stand on the beach among them, and a party arriving early tends to find them most active. They have been protected in the Bahamas since 1968. Dogs are not landed and the animals are not fed by hand, which is why the colony is still here to visit.
The Beach and the White Cliffs
One Long Beach
The cay has a single beach, and it runs down the whole western shore: pale sand going out into water shallow enough to stand in far from the edge. At its southern end the sand stops against a wall of white limestone. That wall is what sets this cay apart from the rest of the chain. There is no path inland, no shade and nothing to buy, so the afternoon is built around the water and what you brought. A beach picnic is laid out before you land for exactly that reason.
The Swimming Pigs at Big Major Cay
Minutes North
About three miles north, on Big Major Cay, live the swimming pigs, the best known sight in this part of the Exumas. Almost every party that comes for the iguanas asks for the pigs on the same boat. Both beaches fit into one trip, so the useful question when you send the date is the order rather than whether. It moves the hours and decides what the boat does while you are ashore.
Staniel Cay and the Yacht Club
Three Miles North
Everything with a roof in these few miles is on Staniel Cay, three miles north: the yacht club, two small grocery stores and the fuel dock. It is also where the connecting flight lands and the boat to the iguanas starts. It is the practical half of the day: lunch, ice and somewhere to walk. Guests who prefer a table to a beach book a fly and dine day, and anything off the usual list goes to custom requests.
The Nurse Sharks at Compass Cay
A Short Run
Further north, at Compass Cay, nurse sharks gather in the shallows around the marina dock. They are the gentle side of the Exumas' shark reputation and the encounter that works with children along. It is the third stop on the usual loop after the iguanas and the pigs, and all three fit between a morning arrival and an afternoon flight home if the boat is planned for them from the start.
Thunderball Grotto
Slack Water
The grotto lies just off Staniel Cay, a hollow rock you swim into through a low opening, lit by holes in its roof. It took its name from the James Bond film shot inside it. The swim in is easy at slack water and hard against the current, so the sea sets the hour. Mention it with the date, because it is the one stop here that has to be timed, and a flight you can move by an hour makes that simple.
The Plane Wreck and Pipe Creek
Snorkel Depth
A small aircraft lies broken up in shallow water off Staniel Cay, at snorkel depth rather than dive depth, and it is on nearly every boat run through these few miles. North of it the chain opens into Pipe Creek, sandbars, cuts and empty anchorages between small cays. It is where boats go when the pig beach is busy, and the quiet end of a morning spent around other people's tenders.
Onward Down the Chain
Same Charter
A private jet charter from Miami to Iguana Island can also be one part of a longer trip. Great Exuma lies further down the chain, Nassau is 86 miles north, and Norman's Cay, where the jet lands, has its own page. That is how one beach becomes island hopping or a wider Bahamas day by air. Staying over changes the bags rather than the route. The full island guide is on the Iguana Island destination page, the short version is the Iguana Island getaway and the rest of the islands are on the Bahamas destinations page.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book a Private Jet Miami to Iguana Island?
Send the date and the number of guests. You get what is free, what it costs and the hour it can leave, and nothing is held until you say so.
Add-Ons
Private Jet to Iguana Island Add-Ons
Name the ones you want with your dates and they come back priced next to the aircraft.
In Detail
Private Jet from Miami to Iguana Island: The Gulf Stream, Norman's Cay and a Beach of Iguanas
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: why a jet is the aircraft that ignores the afternoon over the Stream, how late the hour can still move, where the border is cleared on the way down the chain, and what a date worth marking looks like on a flight to the Bahamas.
Private Jet Iguana Island from Miami: Flying High and Fast Over the Gulf Stream
Over the Gulf Stream on a private jet from Miami to Iguana Island
The hard part of reaching a beach in the middle of the Exumas is not the distance. It is what the sky does on the way in the afternoon, and the fact that no airline flies anywhere close. Cloud builds over the Stream from late morning and more of it forms over the bank, which is two hundred miles of weather to get round. Lower aircraft go under it or wait it out. A jet climbs through the layer and stays at one level to Norman's Cay, which is why a morning with the iguanas can be booked weeks ahead and still happen on the date it was booked for. Below, the water turns from deep blue to the pale green of the bank. The second half is the clock. Customs, the short flight and the boat take the same time whatever brought you, so a quicker long leg is more of the day spent on the sand. Your party is the only one in the cabin on jets in the fleet of this size. Other private jet routes from Miami work the same way.
Private Jet to Miami from Iguana Island: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a private jet to Iguana Island
A charter comes without a timetable. The day is set around the hour you choose, and nothing scheduled reaches Iguana Island to set one for you. You name the hour you leave Miami, the hour you want to be on the beach and the airport in the city that suits your morning. The short flight from Norman's Cay and the boat from Staniel Cay are timed to the jet, never the reverse. A change in the week before is a message to us. If the drive is shorter north, the same day leaves from Fort Lauderdale. Check-in at the Miami end is thirty minutes and nothing more. There is no desk to look for and no queue: the bags go aboard in front of you and the jet leaves once your party is on it. The flight home moves on the same terms. The iguanas are out in the morning sun and the grotto off Staniel Cay is swum at slack water, so a day that ends when the beach is done rather than at a printed time is the usual pattern here. Say which stop matters most and the boat is planned around it.
Private Jet Charter Miami to Iguana Island: The Crew Handles Both Borders
Passports are all your party carries on an Iguana Island crossing
A private jet from Miami to Iguana Island crosses an international border twice, and both crossings are filed in advance rather than on the morning. The crew files all three: the declaration out of Florida, the clearance on arrival and the US return. The first landing in the country is Norman's Cay, where customs and immigration share the field with the jet, so passports are seen there before the short flight and the boat carry on. Passports for everyone, children included, per the travel documents guidance. What may travel sits in the baggage guidance, and a departure moved by weather runs under the weather and delays policy. A change to the party before the day is a message to us and a refiling on our side. The connecting flight and the boat need no second clearance, because both stay inside the Bahamas once Norman's Cay has seen the passports. Nothing about the paperwork waits for you at the steps in Miami.
Private Jet Charter from Miami to Iguana Island: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A birthday, an anniversary or a week down the chain at Iguana Island
A private jet from Miami to Iguana Island is booked for the day that cannot slip: a proposal on an empty beach under white cliffs, a birthday among the iguanas, a family that wants the iguanas and the pigs in one morning. With a stop, a second aircraft and a boat on the way, the jet is what keeps the date intact. Some stay a week further up the chain. Others fly down for a long weekend and are home when they said they would be. Both are the same charter, and nobody in the group travels separately. If there is something to celebrate, say so when you book: catering, a private chef, premium beverages and flowers travel with you. On a cay where nothing is sold, that is the only way the afternoon happens as planned. All of it is aboard before you leave Miami. A date built around an occasion has the least room to slip, which is the other reason it goes on this aircraft. That is what a Private Jet Charter from Miami to Iguana Island is for.
Questions
Private Jet Miami to Iguana Island: Questions Answered
How long is the private jet flight from Miami to Iguana Island?
Iguana Island lies in the middle of the Exuma chain, 86 miles south of Nassau. The jet flies to Norman's Cay, customs is cleared there, a small plane or a seaplane covers about thirty three nautical miles to Staniel Cay, and a boat runs the last three miles.
The real figure is all three legs plus the time on the ground between them, and the exact block time comes back with the quote.
Why does the jet land at Norman's Cay and not at Iguana Island?
Because Iguana Island has no runway at all, and the strip on Staniel Cay next door is too short for a charter jet. Norman's Cay, at the top of the chain, has a paved runway long enough for one and customs on the same field. From there a connecting flight reaches Staniel Cay and a boat goes on to the beach, all booked together.
Why take a jet rather than fly to Nassau and connect?
Because the connections are where the day disappears. Nothing scheduled lands anywhere near Iguana Island, so the usual way is an airline seat to Nassau and then a boat or another aircraft, each on its own timetable. A charter flies high over the Stream to Norman's Cay, clears customs there and hands you to a connecting flight and a boat timed to the jet.
Where do we clear customs on the way to Iguana Island?
At Norman's Cay. A Bahamas flight must make its first landing in the country at an airport of entry, and the jet lands on a field where customs and immigration sit. Passports are seen there, the short flight and the boat carry on afterwards, and the crew does the talking. It is part of the routing that comes back with the quote.
Which airport does the jet leave from in Miami?
Miami has several business airports rather than one, and the right one is whichever puts the least driving between your morning and the aircraft. An hour in traffic is an hour less on the beach.
The same choice decides the return, because a flight home from the Exumas clears US customs where there is a federal inspection station. Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach work the same way and both have their own pages.
Can we choose our own departure time?
Yes, within daylight and within what the crew is allowed to fly. Nothing scheduled goes to Iguana Island, so there is no timetable to work around. You fix the hour when you confirm, and the connecting flight and the boat are set to it.
Moving it later is a message rather than a rebooking, and the hour home works the same way, which matters when the iguanas are out in the morning sun.
Is anyone else on the jet?
No. A charter carries the people you name and nobody else, on the jet, on the connecting flight and on the boat. Nothing is assigned, nobody shares the cabin, and nothing leaves while half the group is still in the car park.
The list can change close to the day as well: adding or dropping a name is paperwork on our side and not a rebooking on yours.
Do I need a passport for Iguana Island?
Yes, for every passenger including children. Iguana Island is in the Bahamas, and the passports are checked at Norman's Cay on the way in.
The details are taken once at the enquiry and filed for both sides before you go, and the travel documents page sets out what each passenger hands over and when. The same passports are shown again when the flight home clears US customs.
How early do we need to be there?
About thirty minutes. There is no terminal to walk through at the Miami end. You park, walk out to the aircraft and go, because the outbound filing was sent from our side well before you arrived. There is nothing to print and nothing to hand over at the steps.
What if the weather turns on the day?
Less often than on anything else we fly this route with, and over two hundred miles of open water that is the point of the aircraft. A jet works above the layer that keeps the rest of the fleet on the ground.
When the weather is bad enough to matter anyway, the day moves: we would rather rebook a flight than fly it badly, you are told as early as we know, and because the aircraft was held for your party it is a conversation rather than a wait for the next seat.
Can we feed or touch the iguanas?
No. The Exuma rock iguanas live on seven cays in the middle and southern Exumas and nowhere else, they are listed as endangered and they have been protected in the Bahamas since 1968.
They walk down the beach when a boat comes in and you can stand among them, but they are watched, not handled and not fed by hand. Dogs are not landed on the cay.
How do we start?
Send the date, the headcount, the airport that suits your morning and the hour you would like to go. Back comes what is available, the price, the boarding time, the routing with the stop at Norman's Cay, the connecting flight and the boat in it, and everything included, and nothing is held until you say the word.
If the day has anything else in it, the pigs at Big Major Cay, the grotto or lunch at the yacht club on Staniel Cay, say so at the same time and it comes back priced alongside the aircraft. The reply comes back the way you wrote, on WhatsApp or by email.
Can I bring a pet on a private jet charter?
Yes, pets travel in the cabin with you. The one thing we ask is that you tell us at the enquiry, with the type of animal and its weight, so the seating and the load plan are right from the start.
Next Step
Ready to Book a Private Jet Charter from Miami to Iguana Island?
Send the date, the number of guests and the hour you would like to leave. You get what is free, what it costs and what is included, before anything is booked.
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