The Crossing
Seaplane from Miami to Bimini by Private Charter
Bimini is the closest Bahamian island to Florida and a seaplane to Bimini is the only way across that ends where you actually want to be. Alice Town on North Bimini lies about 56 statute miles from downtown Miami, just under 49 nautical and almost every mile of that is open water.
The crossing runs about 25 minutes in the air. The aircraft lifts off Biscayne Bay, turns east and flies it low enough to read the water. The deep blue of the Gulf Stream gives way to the turquoise of the Bahama Bank while you are still looking at it. Then the floats settle off Alice Town.
Everything between those two moments is ours: the departure point in Miami, the aircraft and the crew, both border filings and the travel documents the Bahamas wants before you leave Florida. Your party brings passports and a bag.
This is the shortest international crossing we fly from a seaplane base in Miami and one of several seaplane routes out of the city. The aircraft is a small plane on floats, eight seats and nine in some configurations.
Plan Your Bimini Charter
How It Works
How a Seaplane Miami to Bimini Actually Works
Bimini is a different country, so a day there is two border crossings in one day. Filed in advance it is paperwork. Left to the morning it is the reason an itinerary falls apart. The distance is the short part.
Two governments want the passenger list before the aircraft moves and both filings sit on our side of the desk rather than yours. What follows is the whole sequence in order, from the water at the Miami end to the ramp where the day finishes on the way home.
Plan Your Bimini CharterDistance and Time
Fifty six miles of open water, about twenty five minutes of it in the air
Downtown Miami to Alice Town is roughly 56 statute miles, just under 49 nautical, almost all of it water. On floats that is about 25 minutes airborne, plus the taxi out and the water landing at the far end.
The Whole Aircraft
The aircraft is chartered whole, so your party flies to Bimini together and comes home together
The aircraft stays on the island rather than turning around, so six hours ashore means six hours.
Water Landing
The floats land on the water at Alice Town, so there is no runway and no ferry
South Bimini carries the airstrip, identifiers BIM and MYBS, so every runway arrival lands on the wrong island and adds a taxi and a ferry. A seaplane lands beside North Bimini, where the marinas and the hotels already are. The mechanics sit in the water landing guide.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami for Bimini means the manifest is filed before you reach the dock
Every passenger needs a valid passport, children included and a driving licence will not do. What counts as valid is in the travel documents guidance. Names and numbers go in from our side, in advance.
Arriving in Bimini
Arriving in the Bahamas means clearing at a port of entry and North Bimini is one
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and the seaplane base at North Bimini is one. So the clearance happens where you were landing anyway: passports out, forms already filed from Florida and it is quick.
When the day ends somewhere that is not a port of entry, a private cay or an island further down the chain, the aircraft clears here first and flies the last leg afterwards.
The Way Back
The way back carries its own clock and it ends usually at US customs in Opa-locka
Water landings run only from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so nothing on floats arrives in the dark and the return leg carries a deadline from the moment the date is set. On Bimini the customs desk closes before the sun does, so in practice it is the desk that fixes your departure rather than the daylight.
The desk at the seaplane base is published as open daily from 08:15 to 16:30 and the daylight window moves through the year, so the two clocks together set the last useful departure for your date. A return that would arrive after dark needs a lit runway rather than water.
The return is filed with US Customs before you leave and that filing decides where the aircraft may put down in South Florida. Opa-locka Executive is where a return from the islands clears, so a day that started on the water often finishes on a ramp. We take care of both ends of any chartered flight from Miami to the Bahamas.
Departure Points
Departure Points for a Seaplane Miami to Bimini
A seaplane needs no airport at the Miami end, so the departure point follows your morning rather than the aircraft. Two of these four put you on the water, two on a ramp.
Miami Seaplane Base
555 NE 15th St, Miami
The water departure, on Biscayne Bay just north of downtown. Boarding is from the dock, so nothing between the car and the aircraft looks like an airport. The shortest ground leg for Brickell, downtown and the beach and the usual choice when a yacht is the other half of the day.
Opa-locka Executive
Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport, OPF
The executive airport north west of the city, with private terminal handling at both ends of the day. It is also where a return from the islands clears US customs, which is why an international day that leaves from the water often comes back here rather than to the dock it started from.
Miami Executive
Miami Executive Airport, TMB, Kendall
Kendall-Tamiami, in the south west of the county. When the aircraft for your date is already based at this field, the charter starts without a positioning leg. That matters most on a same day return, where an hour lost in Florida is an hour lost at the far end.
Miami International
Miami International Airport, MIA
A pickup rather than a base and the right one when the party is already landing at MIA and the onward leg should leave from the same airport. No aircraft is stationed here, so it is arranged per flight and confirmed with the operator before it is quoted.
How to Charter
How to Charter a Seaplane to Bimini from Miami
Chartering a seaplane is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Bimini Charter- 01
Contact Us
Write to us on WhatsApp or by email. Send your dates, how many guests, where you are coming from and where you want to travel. Tell us the hour you would like to leave. A seaplane lands on water and on runways. Your pickup can be a marina, a hotel dock or a beach, and an airport works just as well.
- 02
Get Aircraft and Prices Back
We check what is free on your date and send the seaplanes that fit. Seats, baggage and flight time for each one. Every aircraft costs a little differently, so we can find the best fit for you.
- 03
Confirm and Pay
You pick the aircraft, and we set the pickup point and the landing site. Then everything around the flight. Catering on board, a car or a golf cart waiting when you land, ground transport to your hotel or back to the airport. Flowers if the day is a special one. You approve it, you pay, and your boarding time, departure point and everything included come back to you.
- 04
Just Arrive 30 Minutes Early
You will have no terminal and no queue. Just make sure you are there 30 minutes before. Then you take off, land right at your destination, and enjoy the day.
On the Island
Where a Miami to Bimini Seaplane Puts You Down
North Bimini is seven miles of sand with one road down the middle and the water landing puts you at the top of it. Everything below is a golf cart ride away, which is the whole reason a day here works and a day further down the chain does not.
What follows is what parties actually do with the hours in between, in the order they ask for it.
Plan Your Bimini CharterSnorkelling and the Reef
Most Asked For
Most come for the water first. The reef sits close enough to the beach to swim to in places and drops into deep water a short run offshore. That is why snorkelling is the single most common thing guests ask to build a day around and why the island carries a diving reputation out of all proportion to its size. Visibility is what brings people back, more than the marine life alone.
The reef work itself happens from the island rather than from the aircraft. The boats leave from the marinas at the north end, minutes from where the seaplane sets you down, which is why half a day in the water and a long lunch ashore both fit inside the same visit.
Say how many are swimming when you send the date and say whether anyone is diving rather than snorkelling: a dive boat and a snorkel boat are not always the same boat.
Stingrays and Nurse Sharks
The Month Matters
Stingrays are the shallow water answer and the one that works with children along: they come in shin deep over pale sand, close enough to stand with. The nurse sharks gather in the same kind of water and are the calmer half of the island's shark reputation. Neither is tied to a particular month, so both hold up whatever date the party has already fixed.
The great hammerheads are the exception and they are the reason the month comes up at all. The window on Bimini runs roughly November through April: that is when the boats go out for them and it is the trip that fills first, because the boats are few and carry a dozen or so guests each.
A party that comes for hammerheads in June has come at the wrong end of the year for them, which is why they are worth naming when you send the date rather than after it.
The Drop Off and the Flats
Fishing Days
If the day is about fish rather than swimming, this is a serious address and has been since the 1930s, when Hemingway fished here and made the island's name.
The drop off falls away a mile offshore into deep water and the flats behind the island hold bonefish, which is why parties book bonefishing and flats access or a full fishing day by seaplane. Rods and gear travel, within the payload for the aircraft on the day.
The Sandbars
Low Water Only
The sandbars are the other half of it. At low water the bank dries into open sand in the middle of the sea, with nothing on it and nothing around it.
That is where a beach picnic goes and where the rays come in shin deep. Add water toys if the party wants the afternoon on the water rather than on the sand, or a dock pickup if a boat is meeting you at the marina.
The bank that dries at low water sits on the same southward line as the wreck and the cays below the island, so a boat afternoon here runs as one loop rather than three separate errands. Low water is what decides the hour, not the one you would prefer and it is the single part of a Bimini day that is set by the sea rather than by the aircraft.
King's Highway and the Bimini Beaches
A Short Walk
On land it is a short walk rather than a drive. The resort strip and the big marinas sit at the north end of the island, the older game fishing club and the bars of Alice Town along King's Highway and the ocean-side beaches lie a few minutes apart.
Customs and immigration sit at the seaplane base at the north end of the island, so the walk into town happens after the formalities rather than around them and the officers keep daytime hours. That is the one thing shaping a day here from the outside: it is why an early departure is worth more than a late one and why the return is planned against the clock ashore rather than against the flight.
Guests who want a table rather than a boat book a fly and dine day and a party that fills the aircraft books it on one booking, whoever is travelling. Anything outside the usual list goes to custom requests.
The Sapona and the Bimini Road
Snorkel Depth
The odder things are close too and they are what people photograph. The wreck of the Sapona, a concrete ship left where she grounded, stands out of the water south of South Bimini in about fifteen feet, shallow enough that the snorkellers and the divers are looking at the same thing from different depths.
The Healing Hole is a spring back in the mangroves. The Bimini Road, a line of squared stone blocks in about three fathoms off the north west point, is the reason a certain kind of diver comes at all.
Cat Cay and Gun Cay, South of Bimini
Minutes South
Cat Cay and Gun Cay lie a few minutes further south by air and about ten miles by water and the lighthouse on Gun Cay is usually the turn. Honeymoon Harbour, on the Gun Cay side, is the beach the rays are photographed at and it sits on the same line south as the wreck and the sandbars.
Cat Cay itself is a private club. The marina and the houses there are for members and their sponsored guests, so for everyone else it is a stop seen from the water rather than a place to book into. Worth knowing before an afternoon gets planned around it.
Onward Down the Chain
Same Aircraft
A private seaplane charter Miami to Bimini also works as the first leg rather than the whole day. The same aircraft carries on east and south to Grand Bahama, Nassau, Harbour Island, Andros or Staniel Cay and the Exumas. That is what turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day.
Overnight changes the baggage rather than the route. If a yacht is meeting you, the aircraft can set the party down alongside instead of at a pier. That is a yacht transfer and it is the reason a good number of these flights happen at all.
The full island guide sits on the Bimini destination page, the packaged version is the Bimini getaway day trip and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book Seaplane Flights from Miami to Bimini?
Send the departure point, the number of guests and from when to when. You get back what is free on your dates, the boarding time and what the day costs, before anything is booked.
Add-Ons
Seaplane to Bimini Add-Ons
Anything else you have in mind is arranged with the flight.
In Detail
Seaplane from Miami to Bimini: The Gulf Stream, the Bank and a Water Landing
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the crossing, the two borders, the departure points and what charter and private actually change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Seaplane Miami to Bimini: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Miami to Bimini seaplane
The crossing is not dead time between two airports. A seaplane runs low and slow, so the water under the wing is the first thing the day gives you. The bank comes up turquoise, the drop off falls away dark in the space of a minute, and the Sapona sits in about fifteen feet of water off the south end, plainly visible from above on a clear morning. Everything between those two moments is ours: the departure point in Miami, the aircraft and the crew, both border filings and the travel documents the Bahamas wants before you leave Florida. Alice Town on North Bimini lies about 56 statute miles from downtown Miami, just under 49 nautical and almost every mile of that is open water. Over sand that shallow the flats show what is on them: rays, turtles and the sharks Bimini is known for. Every seat is a window seat on seaplanes in the fleet of this size, so nobody watches the crossing over someone's shoulder. Other seaplane routes from Miami fly the same way.
Seaplane to Bimini from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a seaplane to Bimini
Nobody hands you a timetable on a charter. The day is built around the hour you name. You name the hour you want to lift off, the hour you want to be standing on Bimini and which water in the city suits your morning. The aircraft belongs to your party for the day, so all three are your decision rather than a departure somebody else set, and a change the week before is a message to us. If the drive is shorter the other way, the same day runs out of Fort Lauderdale. Half an hour before the lift-off is the whole of the check-in. Your party walks from the car to the aircraft, the bags go on in front of you, and the list for that flight carries your names and nobody else's. Nothing about the morning waits on a stranger. A seaplane needs no airport at the Miami end, so the departure point is chosen for your ground time rather than for the aircraft. Send the departure point, the number of guests and from when to when. And the half hour across is a reason in itself. The windows are deep and the aircraft crosses low, so there is room for everybody to sit and watch the water change instead of taking turns at one of them.
Miami to Bimini Seaplane: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Bimini crossing
A seaplane from Miami to Bimini crosses an international border twice in a day. It is the part that goes wrong when nobody files it in advance. Entry into the Bahamas asks for a declaration filed from Florida, clearance at a port of entry on arrival and a US return filed before you leave, which is what sets where you may land coming home. On a Crown Air charter the crew files all three. Your party carries a valid passport and nothing else. Passports for everyone, children included, per the travel documents guidance. What may travel sits in the baggage guidance. That same filing sets where you land coming home: a return from the islands clears at Opa-locka Executive, so a day that began on the water finishes on a ramp and a departure moved by weather runs under the weather and delays policy. What may travel sits in the baggage guidance. If the party changes before the flight, the crew refiles. A name added, a name dropped: that is a message to us rather than a problem for you.
Seaplane Miami Bimini: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a long weekend or something to celebrate on Bimini
A private seaplane from Miami to Bimini is booked when the day is worth marking: a birthday, a proposal, a graduation, a weekend away with the people who matter. The flight is short enough that the occasion, not the travelling, is what the day is about. That is what a seaplane Miami Bimini charter is for. There is no terminal to walk through and no queue at either end, so the party stays together from the car to the cabin. The aircraft waits rather than turning around for its next departure, so an afternoon that runs long is simply an afternoon that runs long. Some parties fly over for the day and are home the same evening. Others stay on and book the return for the day they want. Both are the same charter, and the whole group travels together on one booking. If there is something to celebrate, say so when you book: catering, a private chef, premium beverages and flowers travel with you. Everything is in place before you board in Miami.
Questions
Seaplane from Miami to Bimini: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Bimini?
About 25 minutes in the air. Alice Town on North Bimini lies roughly 56 statute miles from downtown Miami, just under 49 nautical, almost all of it open water.
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.
Do I need a passport to fly to Bimini?
Yes. Bimini 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.
Where does a seaplane land in Bimini and what is the difference from South Bimini?
A seaplane lands on the water at Alice Town on North Bimini, the side with the beach clubs, the resort strip and the marinas. South Bimini is a separate island and carries the airstrip, BIM and MYBS, so a runway arrival lands there and then needs a taxi and the ferry across the channel. That crossing is short, but it falls at the wrong end of the morning.
How does customs work on a seaplane flight to Bimini?
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and the seaplane base at North Bimini is one, so you clear where you were landing anyway. The desk sits at the base itself, open daily 08:15 to 16:30 and a clearance outside those hours or on a public holiday carries an overtime fee paid directly to the officers.
If your day ends somewhere that is not a port of entry, the aircraft clears here first and flies on. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance, so your part is the enquiry.
Can you do Bimini as a day trip from Miami?
Yes and it is the most common way parties do it. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting on the island rather than turning around, so six hours ashore 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.
How late can we fly back from Bimini on the same day?
A seaplane needs daylight on the water. Landings run from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so the day has a hard end rather than an open one. On Bimini the customs desk closes earlier than the sun, open daily 08:15 to 16:30, so in practice the desk sets the return.
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.
How many people can fly to Bimini on one charter?
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. How many seats that is depends on which aircraft flies your date and 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.
How much luggage can we take to Bimini and can we bring rods or dive gear?
Rods, 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. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.
What happens if the weather stops the Bimini flight?
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.
Is it better to fly or take the ferry to Bimini?
It depends how long you are staying. The fast ferry leaves from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale rather than Miami, takes about two hours each way and sails only a few days a week, so the date has to fit its timetable.
It does land at Alice Town, so the island is the same one. On an overnight that trade is defensible. On a single day the crossing costs the part of the day you came for.
Can you fly to Bimini from Fort Lauderdale or the Florida Keys instead?
Yes. Bimini 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.
What does a private seaplane charter from Miami to Bimini cost?
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 ashore it is based on, before anything is due. Bahamian and US entry fees are inside that number rather than added at the end.
Can the seaplane take us on from Bimini to another island the same day?
Yes. Bimini is the first island in the chain rather than the last and the same aircraft carries on to Grand Bahama, Nassau, 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.
Can I bring a pet on a seaplane 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 Seaplane Charter Miami to Bimini?
Send the departure point, the party size and from when to when. Nothing else needs planning: you get back what is free on your dates, the boarding time and what the Bimini day costs.
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