Seaplane from Miami to Baha Mar

About an hour in the air. Downtown Miami to New Providence is roughly 185 statute miles, a little over 160 nautical and the resort puts itself at some 180 miles south of Florida.

The exact block time depends on the aircraft and the departure point and it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book. What sets the length of the day is not the flight. It is the two border filings and how long the aircraft waits for you.

Yes. Baha Mar is in the Bahamas, so this is an international flight and every passenger needs a valid passport, children and infants included. Full names and passport numbers go in when you book rather than at the dock, because both border filings are made in advance from our side. There is no check-in desk on this route and nothing to hand over at the slip.

Nassau and then a short drive. Every water landing in the Bahamas is approved one place at a time by the Civil Aviation Authority and there is no authorised landing area in Nassau Harbour at present, so the amphibious gear arrives on the runway at Nassau, where customs and immigration already are.

The resort publishes a ten minute drive from the airport to Cable Beach, other sources call it six or seven miles and about fifteen minutes with traffic. The transfer is booked with the flight.

The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Nassau is the busiest of them, so you clear where you were landing anyway. Customs keeps daytime hours rather than round the clock and a clearance outside them on a chartered flight carries an overtime fee paid directly to the officers. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance, so your part is the enquiry.

Yes and parties do. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting on the island rather than turning around, so six hours at the resort means six hours. Both borders are filed in advance from our side and the clearance is planned into the hours the officers keep, so the day needs nothing on your list. Nothing about it is shared with anyone.

A seaplane needs daylight on the water at the Miami end. Landings run from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so the day has a hard end rather than an open one and Bahamian customs closes earlier than the sun does. Both clocks move through the year, which is why the latest departure for your date comes with the quote. A return arriving after dark lands on a lit runway instead of on water.

The aircraft is chartered whole rather than sold by the seat, so your party travels together on one booking and comes home on the same aircraft. Up to nine seats fly and how many of them your date actually carries depends on the payload once baggage is aboard, so it is confirmed with the quote rather than promised in advance. Send the headcount and say whether children are travelling: they count as passengers on an international manifest.

Golf bags, dive gear and hard cases all travel regularly, within the payload for the aircraft on the day. The limit is a weight rather than a bag count, which is why bulky equipment is declared when you book rather than weighed at the dock: it comes out of the same payload the passengers do.

Say at the enquiry how many sets of clubs are coming, because on a full party that is the number that moves the airframe.

Water operations depend on wind and sea state as well as visibility, so a departure can move on a day that looks clear from the beach and summer afternoons move return legs more often than mornings.

The call belongs to the operator rather than the guest and you are told before you book how a moved departure is handled. Because the aircraft carries only your party, a new slot is agreed with you rather than assigned to you.

It depends what the morning is worth to you. Scheduled service into Nassau is frequent and cheap and it comes with a terminal at both ends, a fixed departure and a bag belt.

A charter leaves from a dock in Miami at the hour you name, carries your party alone and is met at Nassau. On a week away that trade is arguable. On a short stay it is the difference between arriving at the resort before lunch and arriving after it.

Yes. Nassau is reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the crossing from Fort Lauderdale is marginally shorter than the one from Miami, which is worth very little once the drive is counted. The right departure point is the one closest to where you are staying, not the one closest to the island. Say where the morning starts and the answer comes back with it already chosen.

A charter is priced as a whole aircraft, not per seat, so the number moves with three things: which aircraft flies your date, how many of you there are once bags are aboard and how long the aircraft waits on the island.

Tell us those and you get one all-in number, with the departure point, the boarding time and the hours at the resort it is based on, before anything is due. Bahamian and US entry fees are inside that number rather than added at the end.

Yes. New Providence is the hinge of the chain rather than the end of it and the same aircraft carries on to Paradise Island, Harbour Island, Andros and the Exumas. Say so when you send the date, because a second leg changes the aircraft and the timing and the clearance is planned around the port of entry rather than the stop you want.

For a yacht or a private cay we pass the coordinates, the pilots decide whether they can put down there and a tender has to be in the water to collect you.

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.