The Crossing
Seaplane from Miami to Lyford Cay by Private Charter
Lyford Cay sits on the western tip of New Providence behind one gate and a seaplane to Lyford Cay from Miami is the way across that ends at the quiet end of the island rather than in the arrivals hall at Nassau. Downtown Miami to the western tip is about 174 statute miles, just over 151 nautical and almost every mile of it is open water.
The crossing runs just under an hour in the air. The aircraft lifts off Biscayne Bay, turns southeast and crosses the Gulf Stream before the bank underneath turns pale. New Providence comes up as a long low green line with the west end nearest to you, which is the end you are going to.
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 and the address at the far end. Whether the day finishes at a house, at the marina or alongside a boat changes how the arrival is planned rather than what it costs you in effort.
Lyford Cay is one of several arrival points we fly on New Providence, alongside Nassau and Paradise Island, from a seaplane base in Miami and one of many seaplane routes out of the city. The aircraft is a small plane on floats and which airframe flies your date comes back with the quote rather than being promised in advance.
Plan Your Lyford Cay Charter
How It Works
How a Seaplane Miami to Lyford Cay Actually Works
The Bahamas is a different country, so a day at Lyford Cay 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 Lyford Cay CharterDistance and Time
A hundred and seventy four miles of open water, just under an hour of it in the air
Downtown Miami to the western tip of New Providence is roughly 174 statute miles, just over 151 nautical, almost all of it water. On floats that is just under an hour airborne, plus the taxi out at the Miami end and the set-down at the far end.
The Whole Aircraft
The aircraft is chartered whole, so your party flies to Lyford Cay together and comes home together
The aircraft stays on the island rather than turning around, so six hours ashore means six hours.
The West End
The west end of New Providence is the point of the exercise, so the arrival is planned around it
Lyford Cay lies at the far western tip of the island, about thirteen miles from downtown Nassau and clear of the cruise port traffic entirely.
The community takes its name from Captain William Lyford, who received a 448 acre grant at this end of the island for his loyalist service in the American Revolutionary War and it has been a quiet address ever since. The mechanics of a water arrival sit in the water landing guide.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami for Lyford Cay 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, so there is no counter to reach and nothing to hand over at the slip. The one thing worth sending early is the headcount, because it decides the airframe before it decides anything else.
Arriving on New Providence
Arriving in the Bahamas means clearing at a port of entry and on New Providence that is the airport at Nassau
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry. On New Providence the airport of entry is Lynden Pindling International, which sits between Lyford Cay and town, roughly four miles east of the gates.
Customs keeps daytime hours, published as 09:00 to 17:30. So the sequence is clearance first, the last short leg afterwards. It is the same order every private arrival on the island follows and it is planned into the day rather than discovered on it.
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.
The customs desk closes before the sun does, so in practice it is the desk that fixes your departure rather than the daylight. Both clocks move through the year. 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 Lyford Cay
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 Lyford Cay from Miami
Chartering a seaplane is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Lyford Cay 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 Lyford Cay Seaplane Puts You Down
Lyford Cay is the western tip of New Providence behind one gate and the arrival puts you at the quiet end of an island whose other end is a cruise port. Everything below is a short drive rather than a crossing and the difference shows up in the hours: what would be a half day of traffic from a hotel further east is twenty minutes from here.
What follows is what parties actually do with the hours in between, from the gates outwards.
Plan Your Lyford Cay CharterThe Gates and the Club
Most Asked For
Lyford Cay is a private gated community rather than a resort, laid out in the 1950s by the Canadian industrialist E. P. Taylor, who bought the land at the western tip from Sir Harold Christie in 1954. The club opened in 1959 and the place has been quiet ever since, which is most of the point.
Behind the wall sit roughly 450 homes, an eighteen hole course at par 72 over 6,610 yards, a dozen tennis courts and about half a mile of private beach, plus a school, a church, a post office and the island's heart institute.
The golf, the tennis and the beach are for members and their sponsored guests, so entry through the gates is arranged by whoever you are visiting rather than by us. John F. Kennedy stayed here in December 1962 for his talks with Harold Macmillan, which gives some idea of how long the address has meant what it means.
What that changes about the flight is only the address at the far end. Say in the enquiry whether the day ends at a house, at the marina or alongside a boat and the arrival is planned around it. A golf cart or a car at the gate is the add-on that follows most often.
Lyford Cay Marina
74 Berths
The marina is the anchor of the west end: 74 berths, an outer limit of 235 feet along the wall and about ten feet of water alongside. It is a private harbour for the membership rather than a transient dock, so a berth is arranged ahead of the date rather than found on it.
That is why a yacht transfer is the most common reason this flight is booked at all. A crew joining a boat, an owner arriving for a week aboard or guests coming out for a single night all have the same problem: the boat is here and the airline lands thirteen miles east. Floats set the party down at this end instead.
A dock pickup covers the case where the boat is meeting you rather than waiting and water toys travel with the party if the afternoon is going to be spent off the transom.
Old Fort Bay and the West End
Next Door
Old Fort Bay lies directly northeast of the gates, a second residential area of the same kind with its own shopping centre that is open to everyone. Between the two sits the Lyford Cay shopping centre, also outside the wall, with a supermarket, a bank and a handful of shops.
This matters more than it sounds. It means the west end of the island works as a base rather than as an enclave you have to leave for every errand, which is what makes an overnight or a week here different from a day at a hotel further east.
Clifton Heritage and Ocean Atlas
Two Miles South
Clifton Heritage National Park covers 208 acres on the southwestern tip of the island, about two miles from the gates. Coastal woodland, low cliffs, beaches and reef, opened to the public in 2009 and quiet most days.
Offshore lies the reason people photograph it: Ocean Atlas, a sculpture of a Bahamian girl by Jason deCaires Taylor standing about five metres off the seabed and weighing over sixty tons. It is shallow enough that snorkellers and divers are looking at the same thing from different depths, so it works with a mixed party.
Jaws Beach and the Plane Wreck
Snorkel Depth
Jaws Beach sits inside the same park at the southwest corner, named for the 1987 film that was shot there. It is a low key beach for swimming and snorkelling rather than a club beach, with reef close in.
Just offshore lies the aircraft wreck used as a prop in that film, sitting in shallow water and reachable on a snorkel. It is the one thing on this end of New Providence that guests ask for by name and it is a boat afternoon rather than a stop on a drive.
Nassau and Cable Beach
Thirteen Miles EastDowntown Nassau is about thirteen miles east along West Bay Street, with Cable Beach and the resort strip in between. From the west end that is a drive rather than an expedition and it goes in the opposite direction to the cruise crowds coming out of the port.
The whole eastern end is a separate arrival rather than a separate flight: if the day is really about town, the water at Nassau or Baha Mar is the closer set-down and we will say so when you send the date.
Paradise Island and Atlantis
Across the Bridge
Over the bridge from Nassau sits Paradise Island, with the beaches on the north shore and the resort that gives the island its second name. From Lyford Cay it is the far side of everything, about half an hour by road on a clear morning.
Parties whose day is built around that end usually fly to Paradise Island or Atlantis directly rather than to the west end and drive back. Which one makes sense depends on where you sleep, not on where you land.
Onward Down the Chain
Same Aircraft
A private seaplane charter Miami to Lyford Cay also works as the first leg rather than the whole day. New Providence sits in the middle of the chain and the same aircraft carries on east and south to 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 somewhere other than the marina, 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 Lyford Cay destination page, the packaged version is the Lyford Cay getaway day trip and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page. Whichever way the week is shaped, the west end is the address that stays still while everything around it moves, so parties keep coming back to it rather than treating it as a stop.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book Seaplane Flights from Miami to Lyford Cay?
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 Lyford Cay Add-Ons
Anything else you have in mind is arranged with the flight.
In Detail
Seaplane from Miami to Lyford Cay: The Gulf Stream, the Bank and the West End
Everything above is the day. What a seaplane from Miami to Lyford Cay changes is where the day begins and ends, not how long it takes. What follows is the detail behind it: the crossing, the two borders, the west end itself and what charter and private actually change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Seaplane Miami to Lyford Cay: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Lyford Cay 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. Downtown Miami to the western tip is about 174 statute miles, just over 151 nautical and almost every mile of it is open water. Lyford Cay sits on the western tip of New Providence behind one gate and a seaplane to Lyford Cay from Miami is the way across that ends at the quiet end of the island rather than in the arrivals hall at Nassau. Behind the gates sit an eighteen hole course at par 72 over 6,610 yards, a dozen tennis courts and about half a mile of private beach, all of it a few minutes from where the day starts rather than an hour. Charter the aircraft and it is yours alone: the crew and the day belong to your party. 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 Lyford Cay from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a seaplane to Lyford Cay
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 Lyford Cay 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 chartered aircraft waits until your party is finished, so six hours ashore is six hours. And the crossing 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 Lyford Cay Seaplane: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Lyford Cay crossing
A seaplane from Miami to Lyford Cay 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. 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 Lyford Cay: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a weekend or something to celebrate on Lyford Cay
A private seaplane from Miami to Lyford Cay 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 Lyford Cay charter is for. The aircraft is a small plane on floats and which airframe flies your date comes back with the quote rather than being promised in advance. There is no terminal to walk through and no queue at either end, so the party stays together from the car to the cabin. 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 Lyford Cay: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Lyford Cay?
Just under an hour in the air. The western tip of New Providence lies roughly 174 statute miles from downtown Miami, just over 151 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 Lyford Cay?
Yes. Lyford Cay 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 exactly is Lyford Cay and how far is it from Nassau?
Lyford Cay is a private gated community on the western tip of New Providence, about thirteen miles west of downtown Nassau along West Bay Street. The airport sits between the two, roughly four miles east of the gates. That geography is the reason the crossing is worth flying: the west end is the quiet end of an island whose eastern end carries the cruise port and most of the traffic.
How does customs work on a seaplane flight to Lyford Cay?
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry. On New Providence that is Lynden Pindling International, a few miles east of the gates, where customs keeps daytime hours published as 09:00 to 17:30.
So the clearance happens first and the last short leg follows, which is the order every private arrival on the island uses. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance, so your part is the enquiry.
Can you do Lyford Cay as a day trip from Miami?
Yes and it is a 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 Lyford Cay 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. The customs desk closes earlier than the sun does, which in practice means 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 Lyford Cay 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.
Can we bring golf clubs or dive gear to Lyford Cay?
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. Valuable gear leaving the United States can be registered with US Customs in advance.
Do we need to be a member of the club to visit Lyford Cay?
The community itself is gated and the club, the golf course and the marina are private, so entry through the gates is arranged by whoever you are visiting rather than by us.
What we arrange is the flight, the clearance and the ground move at either end. Say in the enquiry where the day ends, a house, the marina or a boat alongside and the arrival is planned around that address.
What happens if the weather stops the Lyford Cay 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.
Can you fly to Lyford Cay from Fort Lauderdale or the Florida Keys instead?
Yes. New Providence is reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the difference in crossing time between them 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 Lyford Cay 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 Lyford Cay to another island the same day?
Yes. New Providence sits in the middle of the chain rather than at the end of it and the same aircraft carries on to Harbour Island, Eleuthera, 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 Lyford Cay?
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 Lyford Cay day costs.
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