Small Plane Charter West Palm Beach

A big island with a working harbour, lunch at Port Lucaya Marketplace, music in the evening at Count Basie Square and the fish fry on Taino Beach. It is a full island day for one of the shortest crossings there is. Seventy four nautical miles from downtown West Palm Beach. Grand Bahama International is an airport of entry with customs on the field, so the first landing clears there and the rest of the day belongs to the party. It works as a half day or as a long weekend, and a morning departure leaves the afternoon for the harbour and the beach. The island has its own Grand Bahama destination page and the city has the Freeport page.

The island that sits on the edge of the Gulf Stream, with a harbour you can walk around and nothing that needs a car. Nurse sharks and stingrays are what most guests come for, and both are a short boat ride from the dock. Seventy two nautical miles, the shortest of all the Bahamas crossings from this coast. Bimini is a port of entry, so the small plane clears there with everything else and the day starts where the boats are. Miami is 49 nautical miles from the island, so a party staying in Miami has the shorter crossing from the small plane hub in Miami and one staying in Palm Beach County starts here. The island itself sits on the Bimini destination page.

The northernmost island in the Bahamas, just under a hundred acres, ringed by its own barrier reef and surrounded by a national park. It has been a fishing address since the 1930s, and the marina is open again. Ninety five nautical miles. Walker's Cay is a port of entry in its own right, but customs on the island works by invitation and appointment only, so the clearance is arranged before the date. Divers come for the reef and the sharks, anglers for the water around it, and the island suits a short, remote day better than a long one. It has its own Walker's Cay page.

Treasure Cay is a beach, a marina and a golf course on Great Abaco, and Green Turtle Cay is a small settlement across the water that is reached by boat. The two share one crossing and one way in. One hundred and forty three nautical miles to Treasure Cay and 146 to Green Turtle Cay. Treasure Cay has its own airport, seven miles from the beach, and the first landing in the country clears at a port of entry before the party carries on. That makes it a long morning and not a short hop, so a night on the cay suits it better than a day. See Treasure Cay and Green Turtle Cay.

Marsh Harbour is the town the rest of the Abacos is reached through, with the harbour, the ferries and the Sea of Abaco on its doorstep. Hope Town lies twenty minutes across that water, with a red and white striped lighthouse built in 1863 that is still worked by hand. One hundred and sixty one nautical miles. Marsh Harbour is a port of entry, so the clearance happens on arrival and the cays are minutes beyond it. A night in Hope Town makes the ferry the easy part of the plan. Each has a page, Marsh Harbour and Hope Town, and a boat meeting the aircraft is a yacht transfer.

The capital, with the old town, the harbour and the resorts on the far side of the bridge. It is the biggest choice of hotels, tables and boats in the country, and it works for a long weekend as well as a day. One hundred and seventy seven nautical miles. Nassau is a port of entry with full customs and immigration, which makes it the simplest long crossing to file. The crossing is long enough that a party staying a night loses nothing, and one flying home the same day should leave early. The city has its own Nassau page, and the resort island has the Atlantis page.

Harbour Island is a small island with a pink sand beach and a small town that is walked, not driven. Eleuthera, across the narrow channel, is the long thin island behind it. One hundred and ninety six nautical miles to North Eleuthera. Harbour Island has no customs desk of its own, so the first landing is at North Eleuthera, a port of entry, and a short transfer by boat finishes the trip. That makes it the farthest of the common destinations from this coast, and the one most often turned into a weekend. The islands sit on the Harbour Island page and the Eleuthera page.

Key West is the end of the chain, with the old town, the harbour and the sunset on the waterfront. Islamorada is a long way short of it and a favourite for fishing, with the reef on the doorstep. One hundred and fifty nine nautical miles to Key West and 112 to Islamorada, and both ends are in Florida. There is no border, no passport and no customs hour to plan around, only the light. It is popular as a one way flight with a slower return by road or by boat. The towns are on the Key West page and the Islamorada page, and the chain as a whole is on the Florida Keys small plane page.

These eight are the ones asked for most often, not the limit. Chub Cay, Great Harbour Cay and Staniel Cay are 141, 130 and 248 nautical miles out, and the same aircraft reach all three. The whole list sits on all small plane routes. A day that moves between cays is island hopping, a wider crossing is a Bahamas day, and a boat meeting the aircraft is a yacht transfer. Overnight changes the baggage and not the route. The country guide sits on the Bahamas small plane page, and where an island has no strip we say so and offer a seaplane from West Palm Beach instead.