Seaplane from Miami to Sun Cay

About an hour in the air. Sun Cay lies roughly 190 statute miles from downtown Miami, about 165 nautical, with open water under nearly all of it. 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.

Sun Cay sits off the north east corner of New Providence, about a mile east of Paradise Island and roughly three miles from Nassau harbour. By water it is a twenty to thirty minute boat run from the city, which is how almost everybody gets there.

By air it is a few minutes, because the airport of entry on New Providence is on the same island as the harbour and the cay is just off it.

Yes. The cay is known by both names and you will see the same three beaches, the same sculptures under the water and the same iguanas described either way. A flight booked to Sun Cay lands at exactly that island. Nothing about the crossing, the clearance or the water landing changes with the name.

Yes. Sun 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.

The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry and Sun Cay is not one, so the flight clears somewhere that is and lands at the island afterwards. The country has a single seaplane port of entry at North Bimini and New Providence carries an airport of entry a few minutes west of the cay.

Which of the two your flight uses is decided by the aircraft and the routing on your date and it is named in the quote. None of the paperwork is yours: we make both filings and arrange the clearance, so your part is the enquiry.

Yes and it is the most common way parties do it. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting at 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 stop is planned into the hours the officers keep, so the day needs nothing on your list. Nothing about the aircraft is shared with anyone.

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 clearance stop on the way home has its own opening hours as well and the daylight window moves through the year, which is why the latest useful departure for your date comes back with the quote rather than as a general rule. 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 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.

The island is built around its water. There is a sculpture garden on the sea floor with six hand carved figures standing in snorkelling depth, a sunken boat and a small aircraft on the reef beside them, an iguana habitat with a guided walk of about fifteen minutes, three beaches, two pools and four bars.

It is small enough to cross on foot, so a day here is swimming, lunch and the water rather than a programme to keep up with.

It depends how long you are staying. The boat from Nassau runs twenty to thirty minutes each way and leaves on somebody else's departure time, so on a single day it costs you the first and the last hour of the part you came for. On an overnight in Nassau that trade is defensible. A seaplane removes the boat from both ends and the island is the same one either way.

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.

Yes. The cay 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.

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 at 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.

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.