The Crossing
Seaplane from Miami to Paradise Island by Private Charter
A seaplane from Miami to Paradise Island is the short way onto the strip of sand that sits across the harbour from Nassau, close enough to town to walk it and far enough to feel like somewhere else. Paradise Island lies about 186 statute miles from downtown Miami, a little over 161 nautical and almost every one of them is open water.
The crossing runs about an hour in the air. The aircraft leaves the water or the ramp in Miami, turns south east and crosses the Gulf Stream into Bahamian water within the first twenty minutes. From there the bank underneath goes pale and stays pale, all the way to New Providence.
Nassau Harbour carries no authorised seaplane landing area, so the arrival is on wheels at the airport of entry on New Providence rather than on the water at the island itself. That is not a detour. It is the reason this crossing is not tied to daylight the way a water landing is and the bridges onto the island are a short drive from the ramp.
Everything in between 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. It is one of several seaplane routes out of the city, flown from a seaplane base in Miami.
Plan Your Paradise Island Charter
How It Works
How a Seaplane Miami to Paradise Island Actually Works
Paradise Island 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 Paradise Island CharterDistance and Time
A hundred and sixty one nautical miles of open water, about an hour of it in the air
Downtown Miami to Paradise Island is roughly 186 statute miles, a little over 161 nautical and almost all of it water. That is about an hour airborne, plus the taxi out at the Miami end and the drive over the bridge at the far one.
The Whole Aircraft
The aircraft is chartered whole, so your party flies to Paradise Island together and comes home together
The aircraft stays on the island rather than turning around, so six hours ashore means six hours.
Where It Puts Down
A seaplane Miami to Paradise Island arrives on wheels, because the harbour has no landing area
Nassau Harbour carries no authorised seaplane landing area, so an amphibious aircraft comes in on the runway at the airport of entry on New Providence. The floats earn their keep afterwards, on the legs to Rose Island and the sandbars or on down the chain. The mechanics of a water arrival sit in the water landing guide.
Leaving Miami
Leaving Miami for Paradise Island 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.
Arriving on New Providence
Arriving in the Bahamas means clearing at an airport of entry and this is the country's busiest
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only where customs and immigration sit and the international airport on New Providence is the largest of them. Passports out, forms already filed from Florida and the desk keeps published hours of nine in the morning to half past five.
From the ramp it is a short drive around the harbour and over the bridge. If the day ends somewhere that is not a port of entry, a private cay or an island further down the chain, the aircraft clears here first and flies the last leg afterwards.
The Way Back
The way back is less tied to daylight than a water landing and it ends at US customs in Opa-locka
This is the part where Paradise Island differs from the small islands. A water landing has to be finished before sunset, so a day built on one ends early. Nassau is one of only two airports in the country with an instrument approach, so an evening departure is a question about your date rather than a flat no.
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 began 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 Paradise Island
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 Paradise Island from Miami
Chartering a seaplane is not booking a seat. There are four steps, and only the first one is yours.
Plan Your Paradise Island 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 Paradise Island Seaplane Puts You Down
Paradise Island is a narrow strip of sand and hotels across the harbour from the capital, joined to it by two road bridges. The beach runs along the ocean side, the marina and the town along the harbour side and the whole thing is small enough to cross on foot.
What follows is what parties actually do with the hours in between, in the order they ask for it.
Plan Your Paradise Island CharterThe Resort Strip and the Water Park
Most Asked For
Most parties are heading for the same half mile. The resort strip runs along the ocean side of the island and the towers of Atlantis are the thing everybody recognises from the air on the way in.
The water park, the aquarium and the lagoons sit behind it and they are the reason a family day here is booked rather than a day on a quieter cay. Access is arranged with whoever you are staying with rather than with the aircraft, so the useful thing to send us is the time you want to be on the island rather than the ticket.
It is also why the island fills at the same hours every day. An early departure from Miami buys the morning on the sand before the tour boats arrive, which is worth more here than on any of the small islands.
Cabbage Beach and Paradise Beach
Where the Sand Is
Cabbage Beach runs about two miles along the northern shore and is the one most guests mean when they say the beach. It is the biggest and the busiest, with water sports along it and shade under the palms at the back. Paradise Beach, about a mile along the north western shore, is the quieter end of the same sand.
All beaches in the Bahamas are public, so the difference between the two is the crowd rather than the entrance. If the party wants a beach with nothing on it at all, that is a boat afternoon rather than a walk. A beach picnic or a set of water toys is arranged with the flight and it goes out to the sandbars east of the harbour.
The Marina and a Boat Alongside
Crew and Guests
The marina on the harbour side takes vessels up to two hundred and forty feet, which makes it the address in the country for a large boat and the reason a good share of these flights are people joining one. Owners fly in the morning the boat arrives, crew rotate in and out and guests join for a leg.
The aircraft can hand a party straight to the dock on a yacht transfer or collect them from one on a dock pickup. Say in the enquiry whether a boat is part of the day, because it moves the set-down and sometimes the departure point in Miami too.
Over the Bridges into Nassau
Ten Minutes Away
The two bridges are the whole reason a day here works. Downtown sits minutes away on the other side of the harbour, so lunch on the island and an afternoon in town is one taxi rather than a plan.
Under the bridge on the far side is Potter's Cay, the local fish fry, where the boats land and the conch is cleaned in front of you. Further into town the Queen's Staircase is cut sixty six steps deep into the limestone and Fort Fincastle stands at the top of it.
Guests who want a table rather than a boat book a fly and dine day and the full picture of the capital sits on the Nassau destination page. Anything outside the usual list goes to custom requests.
Versailles Gardens and the Cloisters
A Short Walk
The quiet end of the island is a set of terraced gardens climbing away from the harbour, with a French cloister at the top of them that was shipped over stone by stone and rebuilt facing the water.
They stand on private hotel ground and are visible from the public street, so they turn up in more wedding photographs than almost anywhere else in the Bahamas. A wedding or an elopement that starts with a flight from Miami usually ends up here for the pictures.
Rose Island and the Sandbars
Where the Floats Get Used
East of the harbour the water opens into shallow banks and a line of small cays. Rose Island is the near one, a few miles out, with beaches that are empty on a weekday and a sandbar that dries at low water.
Blue Lagoon Island lies on the same run and is where the dolphin and sea lion encounters are. Both are a boat ride from the marina or a short hop by air and this is the stretch where the floats are actually used rather than the runway.
Low water decides the hour for a sandbar rather than the hour you would prefer, so it is worth naming in the enquiry. It is the one part of a day here that is set by the sea rather than by the aircraft.
On to the Exumas and the Pigs
Same Aircraft
The swimming pigs are the single most asked for thing in the whole country and they are not here. Big Major Cay lies about eighty two miles south east, in the Exumas. The same aircraft carries on the same afternoon.
The rest of that stretch is on the same line: the grotto that was used as a film set at Staniel Cay, the nurse sharks in the shallows at Compass Cay and the iguanas on the cay in between. A day that clears customs on New Providence in the morning can be down there by lunch.
That is what turns one island into island hopping or a wider Bahamas day. The long version of this crossing has its own page, Miami to Exuma by seaplane.
Harbour Island and Eleuthera
Fifty Four Miles North
North east of here the pink sand of Harbour Island lies about fifty four miles away, close enough that parties who came for one island end up seeing two. Eleuthera runs alongside it, long and thin, with the blue hole country and the cliffs on the Atlantic side.
Overnight changes the baggage rather than the route and the whole reach is on the seaplane charter to the Bahamas page. The island guide for the strip itself sits on the Paradise Island destination page, the packaged version is the Paradise Island getaway day trip and the rest of the chain is on the Bahamas destinations page.
Ready When You Are
Ready to Book Seaplane Flights from Miami to Paradise Island?
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 Paradise Island Add-Ons
Anything else you have in mind is arranged with the flight.
In Detail
Seaplane from Miami to Paradise Island: The Gulf Stream, the Bridges and a Runway Arrival
Everything above is the day. What follows is the detail behind it: the crossing, the two borders, where the aircraft actually touches down and what charter and private change about a flight to the Bahamas.
Seaplane Miami to Paradise Island: Flying Low Over the Reef and the Flats
Room enough and a window each on a Paradise Island 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. Paradise Island lies about 186 statute miles from downtown Miami, a little over 161 nautical and almost every one of them is open water. A seaplane from Miami to Paradise Island is the short way onto the strip of sand that sits across the harbour from Nassau, close enough to town to walk it and far enough to feel like somewhere else. The marina sits on the harbour side and takes vessels up to two hundred and forty feet, so a good number of these flights are a crew or an owner joining a boat rather than a beach day. Paradise Island is a different country, so a day there is two border crossings in one day. 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 Paradise Island from Miami: You Decide the Departure Time
Your hour, your names and a seaplane to Paradise Island
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 Paradise Island 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. 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 Paradise Island Seaplane: The Crew Files Both Borders, You Carry a Passport
Passports are all your party carries on a Paradise Island crossing
A seaplane from Miami to Paradise Island 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 Paradise Island: Milestone Days and Bahamas Weekends
A day trip, a weekend or something to celebrate on Paradise Island
A private seaplane from Miami to Paradise Island 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 Paradise Island charter is for. A chartered aircraft sits on the island until your party is finished, so six hours ashore is six hours. Other seaplane routes from Miami work the same way. A scheduled seat leaves when the schedule says. 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 Paradise Island: Questions Answered
How long is the flight from Miami to Paradise Island?
About an hour in the air. Paradise Island lies roughly 186 statute miles from downtown Miami, a little over 161 nautical and almost all of that is 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 Paradise Island?
Yes. Paradise 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.
Where does a seaplane land for Paradise Island?
At the international airport on New Providence, not on the water. Nassau Harbour carries no authorised seaplane landing area, so an amphibious aircraft arrives on its wheels at the airport of entry, clears customs and immigration there and the party drives on.
Two bridges cross the harbour to Paradise Island, so there is no ferry in the chain and no second flight. The floats matter on the legs after it, out to Rose Island, the sandbars and on down the chain.
Is Paradise Island the same place as Nassau and how far apart are they?
They are two islands with a harbour between them. Nassau is the capital and sits on New Providence, Paradise Island is the narrow strip across the water with the beaches, the resorts and the marina.
Two road bridges join them and the crossing takes minutes, so guests routinely eat on one side and sleep on the other. The airport sits on the far side of New Providence, roughly twelve miles away and about half an hour by road.
How does customs work on a flight from Miami to Paradise Island?
The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only where customs and immigration sit and the international airport on New Providence is the busiest of those places, so you clear where you were landing anyway. The desk keeps published hours of nine in the morning to half past five.
If your day ends somewhere that is not a port of entry, a private cay or an island further down the chain, the aircraft clears here first and flies on. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings, so your part is the enquiry.
Can you do Paradise Island as a day trip from Miami?
Yes and it is a common way parties do it. Out in the morning, back in the evening, with the aircraft waiting 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. An overnight changes the baggage rather than the route.
How late can we fly back from Paradise Island on the same day?
Later than from the small islands, which is the practical difference between this crossing and a water landing. A landing on water has to be finished before sunset, so a day built on one ends early. Nassau is one of only two airports in the Bahamas with an instrument approach, so an evening departure is a question about your date and the crew rather than a flat no. The latest useful departure comes back with the quote.
How many people can fly to Paradise Island 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.
How much luggage can we take and can we bring dive or golf gear?
Hard cases, dive gear and golf bags 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 weather stops the flight to Paradise Island?
Water operations at the Miami end 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 charter worth it when there are scheduled flights to Nassau?
It depends on the day rather than the fare. A scheduled flight lands at the same airport and then hands you a terminal, a queue and a timetable that decides when you go home.
A charter is your hour out, your hour back and the aircraft waiting in between, with the manifest and both filings handled. On an overnight the scheduled trade is defensible. On a single day the timetable usually costs the part of the day you came for.
Can you fly to Paradise Island from Fort Lauderdale or the Florida Keys instead?
Yes. The island is reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the difference in crossing time between them is worth very little once the drive to the departure point 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 from Paradise Island to another island the same day?
Yes. Paradise Island sits in the middle of the chain rather than at the end of it and the same aircraft carries on to Rose Island, Harbour Island, Eleuthera, the Exumas and Andros.
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.
What does a private seaplane charter from Miami to Paradise Island 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 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 Paradise Island?
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 day costs.
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