The Crossing
Seaplane to Nassau from Miami by Private Charter
Nassau is the capital of the Bahamas and it sits on New Providence, with Paradise Island across the bridge from it. Downtown Miami to Nassau is about 185 statute miles, just over 161 nautical and nearly all of it is open water.
A charter crosses that in one leg. No connection through another island, no waiting for a schedule that was built for somebody else and no morning spent at a terminal in Miami. The aircraft is amphibious, so it lifts off Biscayne Bay and lands on the runway at the far end.
That runway is the point most people get wrong. Nassau Harbour has no authorised seaplane landing area, so every seaplane into Nassau arrives at Lynden Pindling International. It is also the port of entry, which means you clear the border exactly where you land rather than somewhere else first.
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 one of several seaplane routes out of the city.
Plan Your Nassau Charter
How It Works
How a Seaplane Miami to Nassau Actually Works
Nassau 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 Nassau CharterDistance and Time
A hundred and eighty five miles of open water and one leg to cross it
Downtown Miami to Nassau Harbour is roughly 185 statute miles, just over 161 nautical and almost all of it is water. That is about an hour in the air. Your own block time moves a little with the aircraft and the departure point, so it comes back with the boarding time rather than off a table.
The Whole Aircraft
The aircraft is chartered whole, so your party flies to Nassau together and comes home together
The aircraft stays at Nassau rather than turning around, so six hours ashore means six hours.
Where It Lands
Nassau has no authorised seaplane landing area, so the arrival is a runway
A seaplane into Nassau lands at Lynden Pindling International, identifiers NAS and MYNN, like any other aircraft. There is no water landing in Nassau Harbour and nobody is set down at a resort dock on New Providence. The floats earn their keep on the next leg instead, which is what the water landing guide is about.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami means the passenger list 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 Nassau
Arriving in Nassau means clearing at the airport you were landing at anyway
Lynden Pindling is a designated port of entry, so the clearance happens on arrival and not at a stop somewhere else first: passports out, forms already filed from Florida and it is quick. Bahamian customs desks keep daytime hours, roughly 09:00 to 17:30 and a clearance outside them carries an overtime fee paid to the officers.
From the ramp it is a short drive rather than a boat: about fifteen minutes to the Cable Beach resorts and around half an hour over the bridge to Paradise Island. A car and driver or a meet and greet is arranged with the flight.
The Way Back
The way back is filed before you leave and it ends at US customs in Opa-locka
The return goes to US Customs in advance 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. The Nassau end is a runway, so the sunset rule that binds a water landing does not fix your departure there.
It applies again at the Miami end if the day is meant to finish back on Biscayne Bay: water landings run from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset. We take care of both ends of any chartered flight from Miami to the Bahamas.
Departure Points
Departure Points for a Seaplane Miami to Nassau
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 from Miami to Nassau
Chartering a seaplane is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Nassau 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 Nassau Seaplane Puts You Down
New Providence is small enough that the airport is never far from anything. Cable Beach is about fifteen minutes from the ramp and Paradise Island around half an hour, over the bridge, which is the whole reason a day here works without an overnight.
The resorts sit in two clusters, one along Cable Beach on the way in from the airport and one on Paradise Island across the bridge and almost everything else lies between them. What follows is what parties actually do with the hours in between, in the order they ask for it.
Plan Your Nassau CharterParadise Island and Atlantis
Most Asked ForMost parties are heading for the same strip of sand. Paradise Island sits across the bridge from downtown and carries the big resorts, the marina and the beaches that made the name. It is around half an hour from the ramp by road, so a car is arranged with the flight rather than found on arrival.
Cabbage Beach runs most of the ocean side of the island and the marina takes the larger boats. If the day is built around a hotel rather than the water, say which one when you send the date. A meet and greet on arrival and a chauffeur for the day are the two things guests add most often here and they are the difference between arriving and starting.
On to the Exumas
Where the Floats Get Used
Nassau is where most onward flying in the Bahamas starts and it is the leg where the aircraft finally lands on water rather than tarmac. The swimming pigs at Big Major Cay, Staniel Cay and the grotto beside it and the nurse sharks a little further down the chain are the reason more people fly out of Nassau than into it.
The wrecked aircraft in the shallows at Norman's Cay is the other picture everyone has seen. A party that clears in Nassau in the morning can be on any of them the same afternoon. That is what turns one city into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day and Miami to Exuma is the version that skips the stop.
Cable Beach and the Sand
Closest to the Ramp
The beaches are the shortest answer of all. Cable Beach is about fifteen minutes from the airport, the closest good sand to where the aircraft stops and it carries the newer resorts and most of the daytime life. Junkanoo Beach sits at the edge of downtown and is the one people walk to rather than drive to.
Cabbage Beach is over on Paradise Island and is the long one. Say how many are swimming when you send the date. If the party wants the afternoon on the water rather than on the sand, water toys and a dock pickup are arranged with the flight.
Rose Island and the Sandbars
A Short Hop
Rose Island lies a few miles east of Nassau and is where the day goes when the party wants water without a crowd: a thin island with beaches on both sides and sandbars that dry out of the shallows around it.
The rays come in shin deep over that pale sand, so a beach picnic is the easiest thing to add to a Nassau day. It is reached by boat from Nassau in well under an hour, so it fits inside a single day rather than needing its own. A dock pickup puts your party on the water without a taxi in between.
Downtown and the Old Forts
On Foot
Downtown Nassau is the part you can do without a car. The Queen's Staircase is cut into the rock behind Fort Fincastle and the two are usually walked together, fifteen minutes uphill from the harbour.
Fort Charlotte sits a mile west of the centre and Fort Montagu at the east end of the harbour, so the three forts are the spine of a morning ashore rather than a full day.
From the harbour front the staircase is about a quarter of an hour on foot and Fort Charlotte roughly ten minutes by car, so the three of them fit into a half day with lunch afterwards.
This is the half of Nassau that does not need booking, so it goes on the Nassau destination page in full rather than here. A car and driver turns it into two hours instead of four.
The Fish Fry at Arawak Cay
Where People Eat
Arawak Cay, which everybody calls the Fish Fry, is the row of Bahamian kitchens west of downtown and it is the answer to where to eat that locals actually give. It is a walk from the cruise port and minutes by car from Cable Beach, so it sits between the beach and the airport rather than out of the way.
Conch is the thing to order. Parties who want a table booked rather than found take a fly and dine day and a private table on the aircraft is catering or a private chef.
Meeting a Yacht
Crew and Guests
A good number of these flights exist because a boat is waiting. Nassau Harbour and the Paradise Island marina take the larger yachts and both are a short drive from the ramp.
Guests join the boat in Nassau, crew change over there and the aircraft goes back the same afternoon. That is a yacht transfer and it is the reason the route is flown at all in some weeks.
Beyond New Providence the aircraft can set a party down alongside instead of at a pier, which is a seaplane yacht transfer. For a boat at anchor we pass the coordinates and the pilots decide whether they can put down there. A private yacht and fly day is the packaged version.
With Children Along
The Calm Version
Blue Lagoon Island is the one that gets booked with children along: a small private island a short boat ride off Nassau, with a beach, shallow water and a dolphin programme. The stingrays in the shallows around the nearby cays are the other easy one. They come in shin deep over pale sand, close enough to stand with and they are not tied to a season.
A charter helps here more than anywhere else, because the aircraft waits and nobody is running for a return time. Say the ages when you send the date: children count as passengers on an international list and the travel documents guidance applies to them exactly as it does to everyone else.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book Seaplane Flights from Miami to Nassau?
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 Nassau Add-Ons
Anything else you have in mind is arranged with the flight.
In Detail
Seaplane to Nassau from Miami: The Crossing, the Border and the Runway
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the crossing itself, the two borders either side of it, where the aircraft actually touches down on New Providence and what the words charter and private change about a flight to the Bahamas. None of it is new information, it is the same day looked at from the side that matters once a date is fixed.
Seaplane Miami to Nassau: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Miami to Nassau 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 resorts along Cable Beach are about fifteen minutes from the airport and Paradise Island is around half an hour, over the bridge. Downtown, the harbour and the beaches sit in between. That is why a day here works without an overnight and why a car and driver or a chauffeur for the day is booked with the flight rather than found on arrival. The Bahamian declaration goes in from Florida, the aircraft clears at Lynden Pindling on arrival because that is the port of entry and the US return is filed before you leave, which is what sets where you may land coming home. 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 from Miami to Nassau: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a seaplane to Nassau
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 Nassau 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. 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. Send the departure point, the number of guests and from when to when. 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 Nassau Seaplane: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Nassau crossing
A seaplane from Miami to Nassau 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. A return clears at Opa-locka Executive, and a weather delay 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 Nassau: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a long weekend or something to celebrate on Nassau
A private seaplane from Miami to Nassau 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 Nassau charter is for. The hold is yours too, so seaplanes in the fleet are matched to the load and the wheeled Small Plane is the honest answer on a date when it is not. None of it is new information, it is the same day looked at from the side that matters once a date is fixed. 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 to Nassau from Miami: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Nassau?
Nassau Harbour lies roughly 185 statute miles from downtown Miami, just over 161 nautical and almost all of it is open water. The time in the air depends on which aircraft flies your date and which departure point you leave from, so it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book rather than quoted off a table.
What sets the length of the day is not the flight anyway. It is the two border filings and how long the aircraft waits for you.
Do I need a passport to fly to Nassau?
Yes. Nassau 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 Nassau?
At Lynden Pindling International, identifiers NAS and MYNN, on the runway like any other aircraft. Nassau Harbour has no authorised seaplane landing area, so there is no water landing on New Providence and nobody is set down at a resort dock or beside Paradise Island.
The aircraft is amphibious, which is why it can leave Miami off the water and still arrive on wheels. The floats come into their own on the next leg, out into the cays.
How does customs work on a seaplane flight to Nassau?
Lynden Pindling is a designated port of entry, so you clear where you were landing anyway rather than stopping somewhere else first. That is the difference between Nassau and most of the Out Islands.
Bahamian desks keep daytime hours, roughly 09:00 to 17:30 and a clearance outside them or on a public holiday carries an overtime fee paid directly to the officers. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance.
Can you do Nassau 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 at Nassau 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 Nassau on the same day?
The Nassau end is a runway, so the daylight rule that governs a water landing does not fix your departure there. It applies at the Miami end if the day is meant to finish back on the water: landings run from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset and that window moves through the year.
The latest useful departure for your date comes with the quote. A late return simply finishes on a runway in Florida instead.
How many people can fly to Nassau 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 list.
How much luggage can we take to Nassau and can we bring golf clubs or dive gear?
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.
What happens if the weather stops the Nassau 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 a seaplane better than a scheduled flight to Nassau?
It depends what the day is for. Nassau is well served by airlines, so the argument is not distance, it is the two hours around the flight: no terminal in Miami, no bag drop, no queue and an aircraft that waits for you instead of leaving without you.
On an overnight with a fixed schedule the scheduled seat is defensible. On a single day, or when the trip carries on into the cays afterwards, the charter is the whole point.
Can you fly to Nassau from Fort Lauderdale or the Florida Keys instead?
Yes. Nassau 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.
Can the seaplane take us on to the Exumas the same day?
Yes and Nassau is the usual place to start that leg rather than finish. Once the aircraft has cleared at Lynden Pindling it can carry on to Staniel Cay, Norman's Cay, Eleuthera or Harbour Island and on that leg a water landing is back on the table.
Say so when you send the date, because a second leg changes the aircraft and the timing. 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 Nassau?
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 Nassau day costs.
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