The Bahamas starts at Pig Beach.
Which boat actually reaches Exuma and which one stops at a closer cay. What a beach club pass really includes. Whether the turtles come to you. Every tour in the Bahamas, reviewed.
Swimming pigs: three very different days.
All 94 swimming pig tours →
Half a day out of Nassau, a slow one on Rose Island, or a powerboat run down the cays to Exuma where the pigs actually live. Same animals, three completely different days on the water.
Pigs, turtles and a reef stop
Out past Athol Island for an hour with the pigs, a snorkel stop where the green turtles come to the boat, then lunch on a private beach and back before the afternoon squall.
Rose Island, and nowhere to be
Twenty minutes past the harbour mouth: a sandbar at low tide, a swing standing in the shallows, hammocks under the casuarinas, and pigs that wander down when they feel like it.
Down to Exuma, where the pigs began
Big Major Cay sits roughly eighty miles south of Nassau. Powerboats leave early and give the day to the water; a handful of operators fly you instead and hand back most of the afternoon.
What a Bahamas week is actually built from.
Pigs, turtles, a reef, a lounger and a buggy. Five or six bookings carry most trips through Nassau, and the right version of each is worth the hour it takes to choose.
The tours everyone in Nassau ends up on.
Every review →These carry more travellers than anything else in the Bahamas, and each one earns its day for a different reason.
1
Bites of Nassau Food and Walking Tour
Taste Bahamian classics, rum cocktails, and Nassau history on this generous small-group walking tour through downtown.
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
Rose Island is twenty minutes and a different country.
Clear the harbour mouth and the water turns from working-port green to something that does not photograph honestly. Sandbars at low tide, a rope swing, pigs down the beach, and nothing on the schedule until the boat back.
All 47 Rose Island day trips →
What a day on the water costs in Nassau.
Every tour on the site, cheapest first. Nassau is not a cheap island, but the water is free and plenty of good days still start under fifty dollars.
Old-town walks, rum tastings, jet ski runs and the glass-bottom boats off Paradise Island.
The standard Nassau day: pigs, turtles, a snorkel stop and lunch, or a beach club pass with the boat over included.
Private charters, the Exuma powerboat runs and the fly-in days to Big Major Cay.
The Bahamas does not end at Paradise Island.
Grand Bahama has the blue holes, the caves and the East End villages. Exuma has the pigs, the sandbars and the swimming iguanas. Bimini and the rest of the Out Islands are a boat ride and an entirely different pace.
Three things the rest of the Caribbean cannot do.
Reefs and beach bars belong to every island in the region. Pigs that swim out to a boat, kayaks you can read the sand through, and turtles that treat a hull like a feeding station are Bahamian.
The Swimming Pigs
Nobody agrees on how the pigs reached Big Major Cay: a shipwreck, sailors leaving livestock, a farming idea that went nowhere. They live on an uninhabited Exuma island, they swim out to arriving boats, and they are entirely serious about it. Nassau operators now stage the same encounter on cays much closer to town, which saves four hours and is not the original.
- 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 Clear Kayaks
Transparent hulls over three feet of Bahamian shallows: ripples in the sand, starfish, the occasional ray, all in full colour underneath you. Most Nassau operators run them at golden hour with a second boat carrying a photographer, which is why half of these are booked as photo sessions rather than paddles.
- 1Clear Kayak Photoshoot in Nassau ,Bahamas.★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 168 reviews
- 2Clear Kayak Drone Photoshoot in Nassau Bahamas★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 137 reviews
- 3Clear kayak photoshoot Nassau Bahamas.★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 119 reviews
The Turtles at the Ladder
Green turtles feed in the seagrass off Rose Island and Green Cay and worked out long ago that boats mean squid. They surface beside the swim ladder, take food from an open palm and stay as long as the crew keeps handing it over. No tanks, no enclosure, and no getting out of the water to see them.
- 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
Most of the Bahamas is not on land.
All boat tours →3 Islands Tour, Snorkel, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch
Read our review →
Book these before you fly to Nassau.
Plenty of Nassau can be arranged at the hotel desk on the morning. These cannot: they run on boat capacity, small aircraft seats and licensing rules that do not bend for walk-ups.
- 01Exuma Elite Escape: Luxury Fly-In Pig Beach Adventure – 7 StopsLight aircraft, a handful of seats, one departure a day. When it is full, it is full.
- 02Sandy Toes The Original Rose Island and Swimming Pigs TourA private island working to a capped daily headcount, and the cruise arrivals take their share of it first.
- 03ATV Island Tour with Beach Break (Everyone Drive their Own ATV)You need a full driving licence with you on the day, and several operators set the minimum age at 25.
- 04Exuma Powerboat Tour from Nassau with Swimming PigsOne long run down the cays each morning. There is no second departure to catch if you miss it.
A blustery day in Nassau is still a good day.
A winter norther shuts the small boats down for two days at a time, and a summer squall can wipe out a sandbar afternoon. Everything below happens under a roof or ten minutes from one: rum on the tasting bench, conch off Bay Street, the forts above the harbour, and the old town on foot.
By island and cay
Grand Bahama30 tours
Exuma19 tours
Paradise Island13 tours
Rose Island47 tours
Pearl Island8 tours
The Out Islands8 tours- The whole island list →
Five days out of Nassau, and what to slot where.
Nassau on foot
A beach club day
The swimming pigs
Buggy the islandThe latest reviews from Nassau and the cays.
All recent →
Create-Your-Own Luxury Adventure in Bimini with photographer
Read our review →
Private Beach Day / 50ft Sun Seeker or 33ft Boat / 1-10 Guests
Read our review →
Atv Rentals. Nassau,ParadiseIsland HALFDAY(free pickup included)
Read our review →
Beach Day Swim with Turtles and Pigs Excursion in Nassau
Read our review →
