Seaplane from Miami to South Andros Bahamas

Congo Town lies roughly 198 statute miles southeast of downtown Miami, about 172 nautical, almost all of it open water. On floats that is a little over an hour in the air, so a morning departure still leaves a full day on the flats. Block time belongs to the aircraft and the date rather than to a page, so it comes back with the boarding time before you book.

Yes. South Andros 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.

On the water off the eastern shore, near whichever settlement your week is built around. The settlements run from Driggs Hill in the north through Congo Town, Deep Creek, The Bluff and Kemps Bay down to Mars Bay in the south and the flats sit right off that coast.

South Andros Airport at Congo Town has a single asphalt runway of 5,325 feet, so a runway arrival is possible too and is sometimes the honest answer when the water is rough.

Better here than almost anywhere in the chain. The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated airport of entry and Andros carries three of them. Which one your flight uses comes back with the quote. San Andros sits in the north, Fresh Creek in the middle and Congo Town in the south.

Congo Town is the only one of the three on South Andros itself, so an amphibian can clear there and fly the last minutes to the water rather than stopping on another island first. Customs hours in the Bahamas run 09:00 to 17:30 and a clearance outside them carries an overtime fee. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings.

You can and some parties do, although almost nobody who comes to fish wants to. At a little over an hour each way the flying is not what limits the day, the daylight window for water landings is.

Out early and back before the light goes leaves a real day on the island rather than a token one. Parties who come for the flats stay, usually three or four nights, because the tides rather than the flight decide when the fishing is good.

A seaplane needs daylight on the water. Landings run from 30 minutes after sunrise to 30 minutes before sunset, so there is a hard end to the flying day rather than an open one. That window moves through the year, so the latest useful departure for your date comes with the quote. A return arriving after dark lands on a lit runway in South Florida 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 fuel 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.

Yes and most parties do, which is exactly why the limit is a weight rather than a bag count. A float aircraft is payload limited and fuel comes out of the same calculation, so rods, hard cases, coolers and boxes are declared when you book rather than weighed at the dock.

Shopping on South Andros is small and local, so provisions are worth naming early. 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 and summer afternoons move legs more often than mornings do.

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.

Bonefishing first and for many parties only. Andros is called the bonefish capital of the world and the southern flats are the part anglers name.

After that it is water and quiet: blue holes inland and offshore, the reef along the eastern shore with the Tongue of the Ocean dropping past 6,000 feet just beyond it, the boat yard at Kemps Bay where the island's fishing sloops are still built and empty beaches almost anywhere you ask to be put down. The full island guide sits on the destination page.

Yes. South Andros is reachable from every departure point in the corridor and the few miles between the Florida departure points make little practical difference on a leg this length. 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 is held for you.

Tell us those and you get one all-in number, with the departure point and the boarding time it is based on, before anything is due. Bahamian and US entry fees are inside that number rather than added at the end.

Yes. Mangrove Cay sits across the bight to the north and is a ferry ride or a few minutes in the air. Fresh Creek, Kamalame Cay and the northern flats follow. Nassau lies across the Tongue of the Ocean with the Exumas beyond it.

Say so when you send the date, because a second leg changes the aircraft and the timing. For a boat or a beach 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.