Private Jet from Miami to Nassau

Most parties are heading for the same strip of sand. Paradise Island lies across the bridge from the old town and carries the big resorts, the marina that takes the larger boats and the long ocean beach that made the name. It is roughly half an hour by road from where you clear, so a car is arranged with the flight rather than found afterwards. If the day is built around one hotel, say which: Atlantis and Baha Mar each have a page of their own. Cabbage Beach runs most of the ocean side and the marina behind it takes the larger boats, so a party can be on the sand in the morning and on a deck by the afternoon without moving hotels. A meet and greet at the steps and a car for the day are the two things added most often here, and together they are the difference between arriving and starting.

This is where onward flying in the Bahamas starts. A party that clears here in the morning can be a long way down the chain by the afternoon, and the aircraft is already yours for the day. The pigs at Big Major Cay, the grotto beside Staniel Cay and the sharks further along are Exuma days rather than city ones. Flagged with the date, that turns one stop into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. Those cays lie a couple of hundred miles beyond where you cleared, which is why they are an afternoon rather than a detour. The border work is already done at that point, so the second leg is simply another flight and what it spends is daylight. Flag it with the date and the fuel and the load are planned around it.

The beaches are the shortest answer of all. Cable Beach lies about a quarter of an hour from where you clear, which makes it the closest good sand to the start of the day, and it carries the newer hotels and most of the daytime life. Junkanoo Beach sits at the edge of the old town and is the one people walk to. Say how many are swimming when you send the date, and add water toys if the afternoon belongs in the water rather than on the sand. The ocean side of the island is the long stretch and the harbour side is the sheltered one, so the wind on the day decides which of them an afternoon happens on rather than the map. Parties who want a boat instead of a beach say so with the date, and it meets you where the day already is.

Rose Island lies a few miles east and is where the day goes when the party wants water without a crowd: a thin island with beaches on both sides and sandbars that dry out of the shallows around it. The rays come in shin deep over that pale sand, close enough to stand with, so a beach picnic is the easiest thing to add. It is well under an hour by boat, so it fits inside a single day, and a dock pickup puts your party on the water without a taxi in between. Nothing about it depends on the month, so it holds up whatever date is already fixed. What it needs is a boat and an hour, both arranged with the flight rather than found at the dock, and it is the version of the day that works with children along.

This is the half of the city that needs no booking at all. The Queen's Staircase is cut into the rock behind Fort Fincastle and the two are walked together, about a quarter of an hour uphill from the harbour front. Fort Charlotte stands a mile west of the centre and Fort Montagu at the east end of the harbour, so the three of them are a morning ashore rather than a full day. The wider city sits on the Nassau destination page, and a car with a driver turns four hours into two. Bay Street and the market behind it fill the flat part of the morning, and the whole of it sits within a few streets of the water. This is the half of the day that needs no booking at all, which is why it survives a late departure better than anything else on this list.

Arawak Cay, which everybody calls the Fish Fry, is the row of Bahamian kitchens west of the old town, and it is the answer to where to eat that people who live here actually give. Conch is the thing to order. It is minutes by car from the beach and from the field, so it sits between the two rather than out of the way. Parties who want a table held rather than found say so with the date, and anything beyond the usual list goes to custom requests. It is a walk from the cruise dock and a few minutes by car from the beach, so it lands naturally at the end of an afternoon rather than needing a slot of its own. Parties who would rather eat on board fly home with catering instead, and both are decided with the dates.

A good number of these flights exist because a boat is waiting. The harbour and the marina across the bridge take the larger yachts, and both are a short drive from where the day begins. Guests join the boat, crew change over, and the aircraft goes back the same afternoon. That is a yacht transfer, and it is the reason this route is flown at all in some weeks. Anything closer to the water than the marina is settled with the captain when you book. A helideck is a feature of the boat rather than a promise from us, so where exactly guests step aboard is agreed between the operator and the captain. What we hold is the aircraft, the hour and the car in between, which is the part that decides whether the boat leaves on time.

Blue Lagoon Island is the one that gets booked with children along: a small private island a short boat ride off the harbour, with a beach, shallow water and a dolphin programme. The snorkelling off Athol Island is the other easy one. A charter helps here more than anywhere, because the aircraft waits and nobody is running for a return time. Say the ages when you send the date: children count as passengers on an international list and the travel documents apply to them exactly as they do to everyone else. The shallow water around the nearer cays is the other easy one: rays come in shin deep over pale sand, close enough to stand with, and none of it is tied to a season. On a charter nobody is running for a return time, which on a day with children along is worth more than the hour the flying saves.