The pigs are real. So is the boat ride out to them.
What a swim with the Big Major Cay herd costs once the crossing is in the price. Which Rose Island day feeds you. Whether Grand Bahama earns the second flight. Reviews of every tour you can book in the Bahamas.
Four days a first Bahamas trip gets built around.
One boat day, one walk, one long run south and a morning on wheels. What each one costs and who it actually suits.
01The boat day3 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & LunchPigs, turtles and a reef stop on one crossing out of Nassau. The day that ends up on everybody’s camera roll.
02The walkBites of Nassau Food and Walking TourCracked conch, guava duff and a rum cake counter, across downtown on foot. Skip breakfast.
03The long way southOriginal Exuma Powerboat AdventuresOpen water down to Staniel Cay and the sandbars around it. A whole day, and the boat leaves early.
04The morning on wheelsATV Island Tour with Beach Break (Everyone Drive their Own ATV)Your own machine along the north shore with a beach stop. There is a minimum age and a licence check.
Pigs, turtles or a reef. The Bahamas sells the water by what is in it.
Nearly every crossing out of Nassau is priced on the animal at the other end. They sit on different cays and they cost different money, so the real question is how far south you are willing to go.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 3 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch
Swimming pigsBig Major Cay, or the Rose Island herd twenty minutes out.
Green turtlesSea-grass flats, calm water, and turtles that come to the boat.
Rose Island daysThe closest cay to town, usually with lunch and a beach club.
Exuma day tripsThe long run south for sandbars and the original herd.
All 63 swimming-pig tours →
Nassau, Grand Bahama, and the cays you reach from them.
Almost everything bookable sits within a boat ride of Nassau harbour. Freeport is a second island with its own sand, and the Out Islands are the long, quiet version of the whole country. Six starting points, and the best day out from each.
Nassau: the harbour does the work, the old town is the walk.
Everything in Nassau →
Every ferry, catamaran and powerboat leaves the same stretch of water, and the old town is small enough to cross on foot between departures. These three carry more travellers than anything else on the island.
Conch, guava duff and a rum cake stop
Downtown on foot between kitchens: cracked conch, a bowl of souse, guava duff at the end, and a rum cake counter on the way past. Take it early in the trip and it tells you where to eat for the rest of it.
Fort Charlotte and the Queen’s Staircase
Sixty-six steps cut down through limestone by hand, a fort that never fired a shot in anger, and the straw market waiting at the bottom. The cheapest half day on the island by a distance.
A day pass instead of a hotel
Most Nassau beach clubs sell a lounger, a swim and a plate to people who are not staying there. It is the standard answer to a hotel with no beach of its own, and to a wharf with four ships on it.
The most popular days out in the Bahamas.
Every Bahamas tour we have reviewed →More travellers take these than anything else in the country. What each one is, what it costs, and why it keeps selling.
1
Bites of Nassau Food and Walking Tour
Walk through old Nassau with a local guide such as Princess, Lisa, Mark, Pierre, or Lelly, stopping at five independent food businesses for conch fritters, soul food, sweets, and a rum cocktail. You’ll visit Graycliff, John Watling’s Distillery, Government House, and downtown landmarks. Come hungry and wear good shoes.
From · $99
Read our review →
2
3 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch
from $136
3
Nassau Island Highlights Sightseeing Tour
from $80
4
Pirate Jeep Sightseeing Adventure!
from $165
5
Swimming Pigs and Private Beach Club Escape
from $149
6
Sandy Toes The Original Rose Island and Swimming Pigs Tour
from $258
7
Pigs, Snorkel, Turtles, Lunch, Private Beach Club
from $139
8
Rum Tasting and Food Walking Tour in Nassau Bahamas
from $98
A Bahamian day starts at a dock, not a bus stop.
Catamarans over the banks, powerboats running south to the Exumas, clear kayaks through the mangroves, and reef close enough to Nassau to snorkel before lunch. The water here is shallow, warm and the entire reason to come.
Grand Bahama and the Out Islands are the quiet half of the country.
Freeport has beaches with nobody on them and a day pass that costs a third of a Nassau boat trip. The Out Islands are further again, thinner on operators, and the reason people come back for a second week.
Every Grand Bahama day out →
Cracked conch, guava duff, and a rum board that explains the rest.
The food here is a short list done properly. Conch three ways, a fish fry that only really happens after dark, and rum blended on these islands for two hundred years. All of it is bookable as a morning or an evening.
What a day out in the Bahamas actually costs.
Boats are the product here, and boats are not cheap. Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs, so you can see where the money goes before you commit to a morning.
The forts and the old town on foot, a beach day pass, and the short kayak runs.
The standard boat day: pigs, turtles, a reef stop and lunch on a private beach.
Exuma powerboats, the fly-in to Big Major Cay, private charters and drone shoots.
Three things that only happen in the Bahamas.
Warm water and white sand are sold on every island in the Caribbean. A herd that swims out to meet the boat, a green turtle in water you can stand up in, and rum blended in a downtown Nassau warehouse are not.
The Swimming Pigs
Nobody agrees on how pigs reached Big Major Cay, and the operators have stopped pretending they know. What is certain is that they swim out to boats, they are far stronger in the water than they look, and they are wild animals with an appetite. The Exuma herd is the original. Rose Island keeps a smaller one twenty minutes from Nassau for anyone who cannot give up a whole day.
- 13 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 2,585 reviews
- 2Swimming Pigs and Private Beach Club Escape★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,238 reviews
- 3Sandy Toes The Original Rose Island and Swimming Pigs Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,232 reviews
Swimming With Turtles
Green turtles graze the sea-grass flats in water shallow enough to stand in, which is why the encounters here need no tank and no wetsuit. The boats stop where the animals already feed rather than pulling them out into depth, and the turtle decides how close the day gets. Most crossings pair it with a pig stop on the same run.
- 13 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 2,585 reviews
- 2Pigs, Snorkel, Turtles, Lunch, Private Beach Club★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,116 reviews
- 3Snorkeling, Pig Beach, Swim with Turtles, and Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 790 reviews
Bahamian Rum
Rum has been blended on these islands since the fastest boats out of Nassau were carrying something other than tourists. A tasting walks a board from a light white through the aged blends, usually with a rum cake counter attached, and usually inside a downtown building older than anything in the glass.
- 1Rum Tasting and Food Walking Tour in Nassau Bahamas★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,030 reviews
- 2Rum Reggae and Rhythms Tour: Dancing and Cocktails★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 651 reviews
- 3City Sight Seeing with Wine, Rum Cake and Conch Fritter Samples★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 173 reviews
Four Bahamas bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of Nassau can be arranged the night before from a bar stool. These four run on departure times, seat counts and machines that are either on the island that morning or they are not.
- 01Exuma Powerboat Tour from Nassau with Swimming PigsBig Major Cay is a long way south of Nassau. The boat leaves early and gets back late, and there is no half-day version of it.
- 02Exuma Elite Escape: Luxury Fly-In Pig Beach Adventure – 7 StopsThe fly-in version puts you on a small aircraft with a fixed number of seats. When the plane is full, the day is full.
- 03Sandy Toes The Original Rose Island and Swimming Pigs TourRose Island runs on ferry departures out of Nassau harbour, and the last boat back is what ends your day.
- 04ATV Island Tour with Beach Break (Everyone Drive their Own ATV)Everyone rides their own machine, so the group is capped by the size of the fleet rather than the seats on a bus.
Four ships on the wharf changes what Nassau is worth doing.
Prince George Wharf can put several thousand people ashore in a single morning, and they want the same forts, the same straw market and the same close cays that you do. The answer is not to stay in. Go early, or go far: the Exuma boats and the Grand Bahama beaches never notice.
By island and cay
Nassau, the near cays, the Exumas, Grand Bahama: the run most first trips make.
Just reviewed: the newest days out in Nassau and the cays.
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Private 4-Hour Rose Island charter Snorkeling Turtles & Beaching
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Private Beach Day / 50ft Sun Seeker or 33ft Boat / 1-10 Guests
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Private SUV One-Way Airport Ride with 30min (Grocery&Liquor stop)
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Short Story Telling of Tellabration, Bahamas Through The Ages
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Atv Rentals. Nassau,ParadiseIsland HALFDAY(free pickup included)
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