Bahamas · Florida & the Caribbean · Prince George Wharf
Four harbours send out boats here, and the one printed on your voucher decides whether you walk to it in five minutes or pay a taxi across the bridge — then the pigs decide the rest.
Quick answer
Ten well-reviewed day boats leave Nassau, from $119 to $329, and the figure is the second thing to settle. The first is which pigs you are buying. Nine of the ten run to Rose Island, a twenty-minute crossing east of the harbour, where a small managed herd wades out to the boats; the pigs everyone has seen photographed live at Big Major Cay in the Exuma Cays, 140 km south. One listing here actually goes there — the Exuma powerboat day trip, eight hours, $329.
The second thing is the dock. Prince George Wharf was rebuilt into Nassau Cruise Port with six berths and two purpose-built marinas for excursion boats, so most snorkel and pig trips now load at the East Ferry Terminal inside the port. Rose Island and Blue Lagoon boats leave from the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal across the harbour — a taxi over the bridge, not a walk — and charter skippers work out of Nassau Yacht Haven and Palm Cay.
If your goal is only a beach and clear water, the harbour water taxi to Paradise Island is $7 one way and the jitney is $1.25 flat. That is the honest floor, and the arithmetic is below. Sea temperature never drops under 23 °C, so the question is wind, not warmth.
Compare
The five kinds of day out that leave Nassau harbour, each shown with the cheapest well-reviewed example of that kind. Prices, durations and ratings are the operators' own figures from the listings below, re-checked in September 2026; the third column is the one most booking pages leave vague.
| Type of day | Time out | Which pigs | From | What decides it | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three-island combo, half day | 4 hours | Rose Island herd | $125 | Pigs, turtles, reef and lunch in one run | Details |
| Long combo with beach club | 5.5 hours | Rose Island herd | $147 | Highest rated; the extra 90 minutes is beach time | Details |
| Self-drive speedboat | 2 hours | Rose Island herd | $120 | You steer; no lunch, no reef stop | Details |
| Private island cabana | 5 hours | None | $180 | A shaded base on Pearl Island, not a moving boat | Details |
| Exuma Cays powerboat | 8 hours | Big Major Cay, Exuma | $329 | The real Pig Beach, at the cost of a whole day | Details |
The boats
Every boat below is currently bookable and carries its operator's own rating and review count. Prices are per person unless the card says otherwise, and lunch is included on the combos that say so — the beach-club drinks generally are not. Re-checked in September 2026.
4.3★ (3495 reviews) · 4 hours · from $125
4.5★ (1461 reviews) · 4 hours · from $123
4.8★ (1044 reviews) · 5.5 hours · from $147
4.5★ (503 reviews) · 2.5 - 4 hours · from $119
4.3★ (307 reviews) · 4 hours · from $129
4.7★ (159 reviews) · 8 hours · from $329
4.5★ (126 reviews) · 5 hours · from $180
4.4★ (117 reviews) · 2 hours · from $120
4.4★ (105 reviews) · 4 hours · from $199
4.8★ (69 reviews) · 6 hours · from $179
The piers
Nassau does not have a single tour dock. Four separate addresses send out day boats, they sit on opposite sides of the harbour, and the confirmation email is the only thing that tells you which one you booked.
Prince George Wharf is the centre of gravity. Under Nassau Cruise Port it was rebuilt at a cost of three hundred million dollars into six berths along 2,230 metres of quay, and the works added two marinas built specifically for tour boats plus a passenger terminal for excursions and ferries. The practical result is the East Ferry Terminal inside the port: operators keep desks there, and most snorkel-and-pig combos, including the three-island run and the 5.5-hour version, load from that side rather than off the open seawall. Off a ship, you never leave the port complex.
The Paradise Island Ferry Terminal is the one that catches people. It sits on the harbour side of Paradise Island between the two bridges, behind the Margaritaville building, and it is where the Rose Island operators — Sandy Toes among them — and the Blue Lagoon ferries check people in. From downtown that is a taxi over the bridge or the harbour water taxi, not a stroll along Bay Street. Sandy Toes closes check-in ten minutes before its 10:00 departure and treats a missed check-in as a full-price no-show.
Nassau Yacht Haven on East Bay Street is the oldest continuously operating marina in the Bahamas and the largest in Nassau: 150 slips, boats to 200 feet, and the base for private charters and fishing skippers. Palm Cay Marina, at the southeastern tip of the island, has 194 slips and is the sensible starting line for anything heading toward the Exuma Cays. The Exuma powerboat may leave from either, and the voucher decides.
| Dock | What leaves from it | From the cruise pier | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| East Ferry Terminal, Nassau Cruise Port | Most pig-and-snorkel combos, Pearl Island ferries | Inside the port — follow the signs | Staffed operator desks; you never exit into the town |
| Paradise Island Ferry Terminal | Rose Island day trips, Blue Lagoon ferries | Across the harbour: taxi or water taxi | Behind Margaritaville, between the bridges; check-in closes early |
| Nassau Yacht Haven, East Bay Street | Private charters, sportfishing, small-group boats | About 2 km east by taxi or jitney | 150 slips, the country's oldest marina; fuel and provisioning |
| Palm Cay Marina, Yamacraw Hill Road | Exuma runs and long-range charters | Southeast corner, ~20 minutes by road | 194 slips; the shortest line toward the Exuma Cays |
| Montague Beach dock | Shark and sea-life encounters | East Bay Street, past Yacht Haven | A beach dock, not a terminal — no shelter if the boat is late |
The pigs
Almost every Nassau day boat sells swimming pigs. Two different places are sold under that heading, twenty minutes and 140 kilometres apart, and the price gap is the tell.
The pigs in the photographs live on Big Major Cay in the Exuma Cays. Bahamas Air Tours puts it 140 km (86 miles) from Nassau — around three hours each way by fast boat, forty minutes by light aircraft to Staniel Cay. That crossing is open Exuma Sound, which is why the Exuma powerboat day trip runs eight hours and costs $329 while everything else here costs a third of that.
The other pigs are on Rose Island, a low sandy strip a few kilometres east of the harbour. The herd is managed for visitors, the crossing is twenty to thirty minutes in sheltered water, and it is the stop on the three-island tour, the cheapest listing, the Rose three-island trip and the six-hour cruise. It is a good morning. It is not the place in the photograph, and a listing that says only "Pig Beach" is declining to be specific. If Exuma is the reason you came, check the itinerary for Big Major Cay, Compass Cay or Staniel Cay by name — no $119 – $147 boat will get you there. The reef-only listing exists for people who would rather skip the pig stop entirely.
The arithmetic
Before booking a boat, it is worth pricing the version where you do it yourself, because in Nassau the do-it-yourself option is unusually cheap and unusually limited.
The harbour water taxi to Paradise Island runs from Woodes Rogers Walk in front of the port, tickets at the tour desk on the wharf: $7 one way, about ten minutes. The island's jitney buses charge a flat $1.25 per ride whatever the distance, exact change only, roughly six in the morning to seven in the evening. Two people cross to Paradise Island and back for $28.
What that does not buy is the water. The harbour beaches are town beaches; the reef, the turtle flats and the pig stop are all offshore, and no scheduled public boat serves any of them. It buys no lunch, no snorkel gear and no skipper who knows which side of Rose Island is flat with the wind in the northeast. The middle option is a fixed island day pass: Blue Lagoon Island's beach day through Dolphin Encounters is advertised from around $109 adult and $85 child with lunch and the ferry, and Sandy Toes has listed its Rose Island full day at $229. Against those, the Pearl Island cabana at $180 buys a reserved shaded cabana rather than a shared lounger, and leaves from Prince George Wharf itself.
The boats
Nassau's day fleet splits into five hulls, and the hull matters more than the operator: it decides how far you get, how wet you get, and whether the day survives a northerly.
| Boat | Typical day | From | What it is good at | Where it fails |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Large combo tour boat | 4 – 5.5 hours to Rose Island | $119 | Reef, turtles, pigs and lunch in one run; shade on deck | Fifty people on one mooring |
| Small self-drive speedboat | 2 hours in convoy | $120 | You steer; short and dry | No lunch, no reef stop; first cancelled in a chop |
| Offshore powerboat | 8 hours to the Exuma Cays | $329 | The only hull that reaches Big Major Cay and back | Three hours each way in open water |
| Island ferry to a fixed base | 5 hours on Pearl Island | $180 | A shaded cabana, no motion, good with small children | One island and its reef, not a route |
| Private charter from the marinas | Half or full day, agreed with the skipper | Quoted per hull | Route, timing and stops are yours | Priced per boat: poor value at two people |
Prices
Three price bands, drawn from the ten listings on this page rather than from an average of the market.
Six listings sit within ten dollars of each other: $119, $120, $123, $125 and $129. They compete for the same Rose Island crossing with the same stops, so price is not the variable — the review count is.
The step up buys time or space, not a different destination. $147 is the best-rated here at 4.8★ over 5.5 hours; $179 stretches to six with rum on the way home; $180 swaps the moving deck for a cabana; $199 is the small-group Rose Island loop.
The Exuma powerboat trip is not a premium version of the same product: it is a 140 km offshore run to Big Major Cay and back inside eight hours. Judge it against a flight to Staniel Cay, not against a Rose Island morning.
Season
Sea temperatures are the long-term monthly averages published by Weather and Climate, which never records a Nassau month below 23 °C. What changes across the year is the wind, and that is what cancels boats here.
Two systems govern the calendar and they do not overlap. Hurricane season runs from the first of June to the thirtieth of November, and NOAA puts the climatological peak on the tenth of September, with the busiest stretch mid-August to mid-October. A named storm is a days-ahead cancellation, not a surprise.
The subtler problem is winter. From December through February cold fronts come down off Florida every week or so, and the northerly wind behind them is what puts a chop on the Rose Island crossing and makes the Exuma run unpleasant. Southern Boating describes these fronts arriving with winds over twenty knots and small-craft cautions outside; the sky is usually beautiful, which is what makes a cancellation feel arbitrary. With three days here in January, treat the first calm morning as the boat day rather than saving it — and where a boat runs twice, take the morning slot.
| Month | Sea | Boats running | What it means on the water |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23 °C (73 °F) | Everything, weather permitting | Coldest water of the year and the peak of the cold-front season |
| February | 24 °C (75 °F) | Everything, weather permitting | Fronts still arrive weekly; clear, breezy, choppy on the north side |
| March | 24 °C (75 °F) | Everything | Fronts thin out; the reliable start of the good stretch |
| April | 25 °C (77 °F) | Everything | The best combination of settled water, warm sea and pre-summer prices |
| May | 26 °C (79 °F) | Everything | Calm, hot, and still outside hurricane season |
| June – August | 28 °C (82 °F) | Everything, busiest | Warmest water of the year; hurricane season is open from the first of June |
| September | 27 °C (81 °F) | Everything, but watch the tropics | Statistically the peak of the Atlantic season — the tenth is the climatological maximum |
| October | 27 °C (81 °F) | Everything | Storm risk fading through the month; water still at summer temperature |
| November | 26 °C (79 °F) | Everything | Season closes at the end of the month; quiet water, thinner crowds |
| December | 24 °C (75 °F) | Everything, weather permitting | Cruise traffic peaks; the first cold fronts start reaching the island |
Extras
Nassau collects less at the gangway than most Caribbean ports, but the passenger taxes are real, they are set in law, and one of them catches anybody chartering a private boat.
| Item | Amount | Who collects it | When it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cruise passenger departure tax | $23 per passenger | Bahamas Customs Department | Every cruise passenger leaving the Bahamas by sea from a Bahamian harbour |
| Departure tax, private-destination call | $25 per passenger | Bahamas Customs Department | Ships calling only at a private island and no other Bahamian port |
| Pleasure-vessel departure tax | $30 per passenger | Bahamas Customs Department | Non-resident passengers aged six and over on a pleasure vessel carrying more than three |
| Tourism levies | $5 sustainability, $2 enhancement | Government, under the passenger tax amendments | Reported as added per cruise passenger on top of the departure tax |
| Water taxi to Paradise Island | $7 one way | The water taxi operator, tour desk on the wharf | Reaching the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal for a Rose Island or Blue Lagoon boat |
| Jitney to the marinas | $1.25 flat, exact change | The jitney operators | Reaching Nassau Yacht Haven or the East Bay Street docks without a taxi |
On the water
The four departure points sit within twenty kilometres of each other along the north and east coasts of New Providence, but they face different water. Rose Island, Pearl Island and Blue Lagoon are all inside half an hour of the harbour; Big Major Cay, where the Exuma pigs live, is 140 km south and off the bottom of most Nassau maps.
Questions
Most snorkel-and-pig combos load at the East Ferry Terminal inside Nassau Cruise Port at Prince George Wharf, where the operators keep desks — the rebuild added two marinas specifically for tour boats. Rose Island trips such as Sandy Toes and the Blue Lagoon ferries check in at the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal instead, between the two bridges. Private charters work out of Nassau Yacht Haven or Palm Cay. Your voucher names one of the four; they are not interchangeable.
Only one on this page. The Exuma powerboat day trip at $329 runs the 140 km to Big Major Cay and back in eight hours. Every other listing — the 3-island tour, the cheapest option, the six-hour cruise — visits a managed herd on Rose Island, twenty to thirty minutes east. Both are marketed as Pig Beach.
$7 one way per person, roughly ten minutes, tickets at the tour desk on Woodes Rogers Wharf. It is the practical way to reach the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal if your Rose Island boat checks in there — but build in slack, because the service has been reported running off its posted schedule. For everything else the jitney is $1.25 flat.
About three hours each way to Big Major Cay, which Bahamas Air Tours places 140 km (86 miles) from Nassau. That is why the Exuma day trip is an eight-hour commitment. A light aircraft to Staniel Cay covers it in around forty minutes, so the boat is the cheaper of the two, not the faster.
The $119 swimming-pigs and snorkel tour with lunch and beach club access. Within ten dollars sit the self-drive speedboat at $120 and the $123 combo, so at this end the deciding factor is what you want the hours to feel like, not the price. Below that there is no boat — only the water taxi and the jitney.
Cross to Paradise Island on the $7 water taxi, or take a $1.25 jitney west along the coast, and spend the day on a public beach. What you cannot reach that way is anything this page is about: the reef, the turtle flats, Rose Island and the pigs are all offshore, with no scheduled public boat serving them — see the arithmetic.
April and May. The sea is already 25 – 26 °C, the winter cold fronts have stopped arriving, and hurricane season has not opened. December through February has the coolest water at 23 – 24 °C and weekly fronts that chop up the crossings; June through November carries storm risk, peaking around the tenth of September. See the month-by-month table.
Not on the tour itself, but the Bahamas Customs Department collects a departure tax of $23 per cruise passenger leaving by sea from a Bahamian harbour, $25 where the ship calls only at a private island, and $30 per passenger on a pleasure vessel carrying more than three — that last one applies to private charters, not to the group boats here. Reported tourism levies of $5 and $2 sit on top. Cruise fares absorb these; a charter quote may not.
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