Seaplane from Miami to Long Island Bahamas

About 345 statute miles from downtown Miami to Stella Maris at the north end, close to 300 nautical and nearer 375 to Clarence Town in the south. Almost all of it is open water.

The island itself is eighty miles long and about four wide, so the two ends are a genuinely different arrival: an hour and a half of driving separates them on the ground. The block time for your date is confirmed with the boarding time before you book.

Yes. Long Island 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.

At the island's airport of entry. Stella Maris, SML and MYLS, serves the north end and keeps Customs and Immigration on the field, so the clearance happens on Long Island itself rather than at a hub on the way. Deadman's Cay, LGI and MYLD, is the island's second field and serves Clarence Town, the capital.

North Bimini is the only dedicated seaplane port of entry in the country, so everywhere else a float aircraft clears at an airport first and moves to the water afterwards. Here that is a short step rather than a detour.

Whichever end you are sleeping on. The north around Stella Maris and Cape Santa Maria is the resort water and the long pale beach. The south around Clarence Town carries the harbour, the twin churches and Dean's Blue Hole a few miles away.

Eighty miles of Queen's Highway lie between them, so the wrong choice costs the drive rather than the flight. Tell us the address and the airport of entry follows from it.

It is possible and it is a long day. Out early, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting on the island rather than turning round, so the hours you book ashore are the hours you get.

At this distance the daylight window and the hours the officers keep matter more than they do on a short crossing, which is why the latest useful departure for your date comes back with the quote. Many parties fly it as an overnight instead.

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.

The officers on the island keep daytime hours and the daylight moves through the year, so the two clocks together set the return. Both are worked out for your date before you book. 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.

How many seats that is depends on which aircraft flies your date and on the payload once baggage and the fuel for a 345 mile return are 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.

Fly 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.

On a leg this length the fuel is in that sum too. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.

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. The island has a sheltered western shore and an exposed Atlantic side, which is why the landing water is chosen on the morning rather than in advance.

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.

Direct, on any day when the weather allows it. Long Island lies about 165 miles south east of Nassau, so a scheduled routing means a flight to Nassau, a wait and a second flight and the return has the same shape.

A charter flies the line once in each direction and clears on the island itself. The trade is that a scheduled seat is sold by the seat and this is not.

Yes. The island is reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the difference in distance between them is small against 345 miles. 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. Distance is inside the first of those rather than a separate line.

Tell us all three 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. Long Island sits in the middle of the southern islands rather than at the end of them and the same aircraft carries on to the Exumas, Rum Cay, San Salvador and Cat Island.

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.