Seaplane from Miami to Abaco Bahamas

Marsh Harbour lies roughly 201 statute miles from downtown Miami, about 175 nautical. Treasure Cay is some fifteen miles closer and Hope Town on Elbow Cay about six further out. Almost all of it is open water and it is the longest crossing we fly.

The block time depends on which of the four Miami departure points you leave from and on the aircraft flying your date, so it is confirmed with the boarding time before you book.

Yes. The Abacos are 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 cays are where most parties are going and they are reachable, with one step in between. An arriving aircraft has to clear on Great Abaco first, at Marsh Harbour or Treasure Cay, because those are the entry points for the chain.

After the clearance the party gets back in the aircraft and the last leg flies out to the cay. It is a few miles, it is planned into the day rather than added to it and it is what replaces the ferry.

The Bahamas lets an aircraft arrive only at a designated port of entry. In the Abacos those sit on Great Abaco, at Marsh Harbour and at Treasure Cay. You clear there: passports out, forms already filed from Florida.

If the day ends on one of the cays, at a resort dock or alongside a boat, the aircraft clears on the main island first and flies the last leg afterwards. None of the paperwork is yours. We make both filings and arrange the clearance.

Yes and the length of the crossing is the reason to fix the hours early rather than late. Out in the morning, back before dark, with the aircraft waiting in the islands 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. Parties who want the cays and the main island usually stay the night instead.

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 Bahamian desk keeps daytime hours of its own and closes before the light does, so in practice it is the desk that sets the return. On the longest crossing we fly both clocks bite earlier, which is why the latest departure for your date comes with the quote rather than after it.

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.

Rods, 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.

The Abacos are a fishing and diving chain, so this comes up more here than on most routes. 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. Summer afternoons move return legs more often than mornings.

This crossing is open Gulf Stream and bank water for most of its length, which is why the call belongs to the operator rather than the guest. You are told before you book how a moved departure is handled and a new slot is agreed with you rather than assigned to you.

It depends on the day you want. Hope Town on Elbow Cay is the postcard one, a settlement with no cars in it and a striped lighthouse above the harbour. Green Turtle Cay is the Loyalist village and the quiet water.

Great Guana Cay is the long beach and the beach bar. Man-O-War Cay is the boatbuilding one. Treasure Cay is the three and a half mile beach on the main island. Say which of those sounds like your day and the set-down point comes back with the boarding time.

Yes. Both are north of Miami, so both are marginally shorter and on a crossing this long that matters less than where your morning starts. The right departure point is the one closest to where you are staying, not the one closest to the islands. Say where the day begins and the answer comes back with it already chosen. The same routing applies from all of them: clearance on Great Abaco, then the cay.

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 in the islands.

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.