Seaplane from Miami to Bitter Guana Cay

Yes. Bitter Guana Cay is the name on the chart and Iguana Island is the name the day trips use, after the colony of rock iguanas that lives on it. One island, one beach, two names, and guests search for both.

We keep a page under each, so if you arrived here looking for the iguanas the run to Iguana Island covers the colony itself in more detail. The flight, the crossing and the customs stop are identical either way.

Close to an hour and a half in the air. Downtown Miami to the cay is about 262 statute miles, roughly 228 nautical, almost all of it open water across the Gulf Stream and the Great Bahama Bank.

Add the customs stop on the way in, because the island is uninhabited and cannot clear you. The exact block time depends on the aircraft and the departure point and it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book.

Yes. The Exumas are 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.

On the water off the beach, on the western side of the cay under the white limestone cliffs. The island has no dock, no marina and no airstrip of any kind, which is exactly why floats suit it. The nearest hard runway is on Staniel Cay about three miles north, and landing there means finishing the journey by boat. The state of the water on the day decides the approach and that call belongs to the pilots.

A private aircraft has to make its first landing in the Bahamas at a designated airport of entry, and an uninhabited cay is not one. So the flight clears somewhere else first and then flies the last short leg to the water.

Andros carries three ports of entry, at San Andros, Fresh Creek and Congo Town, and Fresh Creek sits almost exactly on the line from Miami. Staniel Cay, the nearest strip, does not clear aircraft. None of the paperwork is yours.

Yes and it is the usual way parties do it. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting rather than turning around. The customs stop is planned into the hours the officers keep, so it costs a little of the morning rather than the day. Because the island has nothing on it, what you want ashore is arranged with the flight: a picnic, a tender, shade. Nothing about the day is shared with anyone else.

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. Bahamian customs desks are published as open 09:00 to 17:30 and both clocks move through the year, which is why the latest useful departure for your date comes with the quote. A return that would arrive after dark lands on a lit runway instead of on water.

No. Bitter Guana Cay is uninhabited: one beach, the cliffs behind it and low bush on top. No bar, no bathroom, no fresh water and very little shade once the sun is high.

The rock iguanas that live here are a protected species, they are not fed by hand and dogs are not landed at all. So everything the party needs travels with the aircraft, which is worth saying when you send the date rather than working out on the sand.

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.

Yes, and most parties build the day that way. Big Major Cay with the swimming pigs, the yacht club at Staniel Cay, the nurse sharks at Compass Cay and Thunderball Grotto all sit within a few miles north of the beach.

Getting between them is a boat rather than the aircraft, so a tender has to be arranged with the flight. Say which of them matters most when you send the date, because the tide moves some of them more than the clock does.

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. On an uninhabited cay the operator is conservative for a reason: there is nowhere to wait it out. The call belongs to them rather than to the guest and you are told before you book how a moved departure is handled.

Yes. The cay is reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the difference in crossing time between them is small once the drive to the water 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, along with the port of entry the flight will use on the way in.

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 at the cay.

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.

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.