The cays are the point.
Conch cracked at Arawak Cay, the powerboat run south to Pig Beach, an afternoon of loungers twenty minutes out of the harbour. What each trip costs, how long it takes, and which one is worth your one free day.
What Nassau does best.
A plate of cracked conch on a walking tour, the fast boat out to a private cay, an ATV loop past Fort Charlotte to Cable Beach. These are the bookings that fill first once the ships are in.
Bites of Nassau Food and Walking Tour
Small-group Nassau food and walking tour with five tastings, rum cocktail, and colonial landmarks, including Graycliff and John Watling.
From $99 per person
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★ 4.3All-day trip3 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & LunchFrom $1362,585 reviews
★ 5.0Whole family aboardPirate Jeep Sightseeing Adventure!From $1651,307 reviews
★ 4.5High-season favouriteSwimming Pigs and Private Beach Club EscapeFrom $1491,238 reviews
★ 4.5Worth the boat ridePigs, Snorkel, Turtles, Lunch, Private Beach ClubFrom $1391,116 reviews
★ 5.0Easy afternoonRum Tasting and Food Walking Tour in Nassau BahamasFrom $981,030 reviews
★ 4.5Cruise-day pickATV Island Tour with Beach Break (Everyone Drive their Own ATV)From $100906 reviews
Down the chain to the sandbars.
Ninety minutes at speed from Nassau, or twenty in a small plane, and the water turns the colour the brochures get accused of faking. Sandbars that surface at low tide, iguanas on their own beach, nurse sharks at the dock at Compass Cay, pigs swimming out to meet the boat. Home before the light goes.
Harbour day, cay day, or the pigs?
Most visitors get one clear day, sometimes two. Nassau on foot is the cheapest and the most surprising. A boat out to the cays buys water no photograph does justice to. Pig Beach is the one the children will still be talking about at home. Pick the day first, then pick from what is already priced and reviewed.
No boat required
The Nassau day
from $80 · 1,476 reviews
Rawson Square, the Straw Market, sixty-six steps cut by hand up the Queen’s Staircase, then conch salad chopped in front of you at the fish fry. Half a day covers the old town on foot. A jeep or an ATV adds Fort Charlotte and Cable Beach before lunch.
See the Nassau tours →
Boat leaves at nine
The cay day
from $140 · 783 reviews
Out through the harbour mouth to Rose Island, Pearl Island or a string of Exuma cays. Snorkel stop, a beach with loungers waiting, lunch on board or under a palm. Check the forecast the night before: the small boats feel every bit of chop.
See the cay cruises →
The one they came for
The pigs
from $299 · 640 reviews
Twenty minutes to Rose Island for the short version, or the full run to Big Major Cay in the Exumas for the famous one. Both put you waist-deep with swimming pigs. The Exuma trip eats the whole day and charges for it, and nobody regrets it.
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The last hour is the good one.
Catamarans push out past the harbour mouth around six with rum punch in hand and Paradise Island turning pink behind them. Nassau does long evenings rather than late nights: a sunset sail, a tasting of Bahamian rum on Bay Street, goombay drums somewhere down the road.
Cracked conch, then rum cake.
The food tours run Bay Street and the lanes behind it, then out to the fish fry at Arawak Cay: conch salad chopped at the stall, guava duff, johnnycake, a pour of something local halfway round. Three hours, and dinner becomes optional.
Turtles, then the reef.
Green turtles come to the boat in the shallows off Rose Island, close enough to count the barnacles on a shell. Further out, the reefs and the old wreck sites hold sergeant majors, rays and the occasional nurse shark. Buy reef-safe sunscreen before you board.
Nassau kept its stone.
Three forts built to watch for the same enemy, a staircase cut into limestone by hand, and a pastel colonial grid that still runs the country’s business at nine on a Monday. An hour with a guide turns Bay Street from a shopping street into a two-hundred-year-old port.
The map is mostly water.
Nassau and Paradise Island share one harbour. Rose Island and Pearl Island are a boat ride out of it. The Exumas are a fast run or a short flight south, Grand Bahama a hop north, and Bimini sits closer to Florida than to any of them.
Water, wheels or a table.
A mask and fins, a jet ski off Cabbage Beach, an ATV with a beach stop halfway, or a plate and a rum in the shade. Pick how you want to spend the hours and everything behind it is priced.
Ashore by nine, back before sailaway.
Prince George Wharf puts you five minutes from the old town and fifteen from a beach club by boat. These are the bookings that fit between the gangway and the last tender without a taxi panic at four.
The order that works.
Nassau first, while you are still working out the geography. The water on day two. The long run south on day three, once you have seen a forecast you trust.
Day 1
Old town, and a plate
Bay Street and the Queen’s Staircase before the heat, then a food walk out towards Arawak Cay. Cheap, flat, walkable, and the day you find out what conch actually tastes like.
Plan day one →
Day 2
Out to Rose Island
A short crossing for a snorkel stop, a lounger and lunch under a palm. Back in the harbour by four with enough sun left for one more swim off the hotel beach.
Plan day two →
Day 3
The run to the Exumas
Powerboat or a small plane, then sandbars, iguanas, nurse sharks and Pig Beach. It is a full day and the best money on this page. Move it to the calmest forecast you can find.
Plan day three →
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