Seaplane Miami to Exuma

Longer than the map suggests, because the clearance stop is part of it. Staniel Cay is roughly 260 statute miles from downtown Miami, about 226 nautical and George Town is 318.

The operator's usual routing runs about an hour and ten minutes to the clearance airport, half an hour on the ground and then the last leg, so one hour forty five to two hours door to water is the shape of it. Your exact block time comes with the boarding time.

Yes. On this route the paperwork is used twice rather than once. The Exumas are in the Bahamas, so every passenger needs a valid passport, children and infants included and the clearance happens at a port of entry on the way rather than at the cay you are heading for.

After that stamp the aircraft moves between islands on the cleared paperwork. Names, passport numbers and body weights go in when you book: a float aircraft is payload limited and the party, the bags and the fuel are one sum.

Not without clearing customs on the way. That is a rule rather than a preference. Staniel Cay has a paved strip but no customs desk and the Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry. So the flight puts down at a port of entry first, clears in about half an hour and then flies the last leg to the cay. You are not queuing at a terminal while that happens.

At a Bahamian port of entry chosen for your day. Exuma International at George Town is one and clearing at Bimini on the way across is the other common routing.

Which of them your flight uses depends on the departure point, the party and the cay you are heading for and it is decided by us and written into the itinerary rather than left to the morning. Norman's Cay and Staniel Cay cannot clear you, whatever the strip looks like.

Yes. Parties do it, but it is a full day rather than a morning out. The crossing plus the clearance stop is close to two hours each way and the return has to be on the water before dusk. That leaves a good afternoon in the islands if the day starts early. If you want the pigs, the grotto and a long lunch without watching the clock, an overnight is the honest answer and we will say so.

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. Both ends move through the year and the customs desk closes before the sun does, so in practice the desk sets the return. The latest useful 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. A small plane on floats carries eight, nine in some configurations and how many that is for your date depends on the payload once bags and fuel are aboard on a crossing this long. Send the headcount and say whether children are travelling: they count as passengers on an international manifest.

That is what most parties come for. The pigs are at Big Major Cay, a few minutes by boat from Staniel Cay and Thunderball Grotto and the nurse sharks at Compass Cay sit in the same short run of water.

A seaplane that sets you down in the middle of the chain puts all three inside one afternoon. Landing at George Town instead puts them an hour away by boat, which is why the set-down point is worth deciding before the date.

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. This route has two weather windows rather than one, the crossing and the leg out of the clearance airport, so the decision falls earlier here than on a short hop and summer afternoons move the return more often than the morning.

The call is the operator's. Because the aircraft carries only your party, a new slot is agreed with you rather than assigned to you and you are told how that works before you book.

It depends on the far end. A connection through Nassau puts you on a second aircraft with a second schedule and lands you on a strip, which is fine if you are staying at George Town.

If the day is about the cays in the middle of the chain, the strip is not where you want to be and a chartered seaplane that clears on the way and sets down beside the cay saves the boat leg at the end rather than adding one.

Yes. The Exumas are reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the difference in flying time between them is small next to a crossing this length. The right departure point is the one closest to where you are staying, not the one closest to the islands. Say where the morning starts and the answer comes back with it already chosen, along with where the clearance stop falls on that routing.

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 in the islands.

The clearance stop is the fourth on this route, because it adds ground time and a second departure and it sits inside the number rather than appearing later as a surcharge. So do the Bahamian and US entry fees. You get one figure with the routing it is based on, before anything is due.

Often. It is one of the reasons this route is flown at all. For a yacht 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. For a private cay the same rule about ports of entry applies: the aircraft clears first and flies the last leg afterwards. Say so when you send the date, because it changes the routing rather than just the destination.

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.