Nassau is the harbour. The good day is offshore.
Which boat actually reaches the swimming pigs, what the Exuma run costs before anyone adds lunch, whether the turtles are worth a second morning. Reviews of every tour you can book in the Bahamas.
Four days that carry a first week in the Bahamas.
One boat day, one afternoon on foot in Nassau, one drive across New Providence, and the run that shows you the whole island chain. What each costs, and what the people who went say.
01The boat day3 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & LunchPig Beach, a reef stop and the turtles, all off one hull with lunch aboard. Book it early in the week so weather leaves you a second shot.
02The afternoon walkBites of Nassau Food and Walking TourConch salad, rum cake and the lanes behind Bay Street, eaten rather than photographed. The most-booked thing on the island for a reason.
03The island driveNassau Island Highlights Sightseeing TourCable Beach, the Queen’s Staircase and the forts above the harbour in one loop, with time left for the beach afterwards.
04The one for kidsPirate Jeep Sightseeing Adventure!An open jeep convoy along the north shore with stops for swimming. Nobody argues about it and everybody comes back sunburnt.
Pigs, turtles or reef: pick what the boat stops for.
Almost every Bahamian day out leaves from a dock, and the difference between them is the stop list. Three kinds of morning on the water, what it costs to get aboard each, and how far out of Nassau it takes you.
The days out more travellers take than any other.
Every Bahamian tour we have reviewed →The boats, walks and beach runs that fill first, and what earns each of them the slot.
1
Bites of Nassau Food and Walking Tour
Spend about three hours walking old Nassau with a local guide such as Princess, Lisa, Pierre, Mark, or Captain Ron. Taste conch fritters, Bahamian mac and cheese, plantains, chocolates, and other local dishes at five independent food stops, with a rum cocktail at John Watling’s Distillery. Come hungry, wear good shoes, and bring water.
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
Six kinds of Bahamian day, and the best way to book each.
Pig Beach and the sandbar, a reef that starts a mile offshore, the turtles in the shallows, a beach club with a ferry attached, the dirt tracks across New Providence and the island that most boats aim for. Start with whichever one you came for.
The Exumas are a boat ride, not a second holiday.
Powerboats leave Nassau at eight and have you on the Exuma sandbar by mid-morning, with the swimming pigs, the nurse sharks at Compass Cay and an iguana beach stitched into one long day. Closer in, Rose Island and Pearl Island do a gentler version by lunchtime.
What a day out in the Bahamas actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The walk that explains Nassau costs less than a taxi to Cable Beach; the Exuma sandbar costs more than the flight for some people.
Walking tours of old Nassau, straw-market and rum-shop stops, short paddles and the shuttle runs.
The everyday boat day: Rose Island pigs, reef snorkelling, turtle swims, jeep and buggy afternoons.
Exuma powerboats, private charters, fly-in pig days and the boats you get to yourself.
Three things that only happen in these islands.
Warm shallow water and a beach bar exist all over the Caribbean. Pigs that swim out to meet a boat, a reef this long a mile from a capital city, and rum poured in the room it was aged in do not.
The Swimming Pigs
Nobody agrees on how the pigs got to Big Major Cay, and every skipper tells it differently. What is certain is that they swim out to meet an approaching hull, they are stronger than they look, and they expect to be fed. Rose Island keeps a small colony twenty minutes from Nassau for anyone not giving a full day to the Exumas.
- 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
The Barrier Reef
The reef that runs down the Andros shelf is the third longest in the world, and the drop-off beside it falls away into a two-kilometre trench the boats call the Tongue of the Ocean. Most Nassau snorkel stops sit on the shallow, forgiving edge of it, where sergeant majors and parrotfish work over coral heads in six feet of water.
- 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
Rum, Aged in Town
Bahamian rum is not an export brand doing a tour; the barrels sit in cellars a few streets back from the cruise berths, some of them under a hotel that has been pouring since the eighteenth century. Tastings run small, the pours are honest, and they usually end with someone explaining why coconut has no business in a daiquiri.
- 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
- 3Rum Tastings and Culinary Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 200 reviews
Four Bahamian bookings that will not wait.
Most of Nassau can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on boat capacity, charter seats and a tide that does not care when your ship docks.
- 01Exuma Elite Escape: Luxury Fly-In Pig Beach Adventure – 7 StopsThe Exuma boats hold a fixed number and run once a day. When the seats are gone the next chance is tomorrow, weather permitting.
- 024 hours 34ft Day Dream Private Charter in NassauA private boat is one hull for one party. Two families asking for the same Saturday means one of them is not going.
- 03Swimming Pigs and Private Beach Club EscapePig Beach mornings sell before the afternoon slots because the water is flattest early and every crew knows it.
A northerly cancels boats. Nassau does not stop.
Between December and March a cold front can drop over the bank and put a chop on the water that keeps small boats at the dock, usually for a day. It is not a lost day. The forts, the market lanes, the rum cellars and the food streets are all within a mile of the harbour, and none of them care about the swell.
New Providence is small enough to cross before lunch.
The island is twenty-one miles end to end, which makes the land day a proper option rather than a filler. Buggies and jeeps take the north-shore tracks, the bus tours do the forts and the Queen’s Staircase, and the walking tours eat their way through the lanes behind Bay Street.
By island: Nassau, Grand Bahama, the Out Islands
By kind of day: deck, reef, dirt track or table
The newest Bahamian tour reviews.
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Private Speed Boat for Snorkeling or Fishing in Nassau – 34ft
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Private 38′ Defender Sportfishing/Swim with Pigs in Nassau
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Half-Day Guided Boat Tour of Nassau Harbour and Rose Island
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