Ten nights, two regions · 10 nights · Nassau to Harbour Island, or Nassau

The Exumas and Harbour Island in ten nights

The milk run, then across Exuma Sound to Eleuthera for Harbour Island's pink sand, Dunmore Town by golf cart, horses on the beach and lunch at the Dunmore.

Planned by the Ahoy Club charter team and reshaped for every yacht and every group we send here.

November - May
11 Days / 10 Nights
Nassau to Harbour Island, or Nassau
11 days, 9 stops
Family & friends

Best months: November - May
How long: 11 Days / 10 Nights
Start and finish: Nassau to Harbour Island, or Nassau
The pace: 11 days, 9 stops
Suits: Family & friends

Highbourne and Allen's Cay

Highbourne Cay, northern Exumas · 38 nm · 4 h · Board, cross the bank, iguanas before dinner

Board at Albany and go, four hours across the Yellow Bank with lunch under way. Highbourne for the night, with the nurse sharks off the marina dock, and the tender to Allen's Cay next door, where the endangered rock iguanas come down the beach to meet anyone with a piece of fruit. Before the move in the morning, walk from the marina across to Horseshoe Bay: a white beach with hammocks and pontoons, a little bar on the sand that opens at midday if you call ahead, and buggies for anyone who would rather ride. Grapes for the iguanas.

Straight out from the airport
The iguanas of Allen's Cay
Nurse sharks at Highbourne

Norman's Cay

Norman's Cay, northern Exumas · 7 nm · 45 min · The walk, the piña coladas, the plane

Tender into the marina and walk the island until it opens onto the west beach, with chairs on the sand and piña coladas waiting. Burgers at MacDuff's, buggies back for anyone who wants one. In the afternoon, snorkel the cartel's DC-3 drug plane lying in the shallows off the lagoon.

The long walk to the west beach
Piña coladas, then burgers at MacDuff's
The DC-3 in six feet of water

Warderick Wells

Warderick Wells, Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park · 17 nm · 1.75 h · The Land and Sea Park

The park headquarters, with the moorings in a crescent of sand round a sandbar that appears at low tide. Boo Boo Hill with a piece of driftwood for the pile, jet skis round the cays, a drift snorkel over a reef nobody fishes.

Boo Boo Hill
Jet skis round the sandbar
The protected reef

Staniel Cay and Big Major

Staniel Cay, central Exumas · 18 nm · 1.75 h · Pigs, the grotto, the yacht club sharks

Feeding and swimming with the pigs first, by tender or jet ski before the day boats arrive. Thunderball Grotto at low tide. Then Staniel Cay Yacht Club for drinks and pool, and the nurse sharks gathering under the dock at sunset.

Carrots for the pigs at Big Major
Thunderball Grotto
The yacht club, then the sharks at sunset

Staniel Cay, the other side

Staniel Cay, central Exumas · Stay, or 2 nm round the island · The float-off day

A second night, same anchorage or round the island. The float-off day: pool off the boat, mats and loungers in, the esky with them, and the afternoon drifts by. A torch-lit dinner on an empty beach nearby in the evening.

The float-off
A new side of the island
Dinner on the sand by torchlight

Compass Cay and Pipe Creek

Compass Cay and Pipe Creek, central Exumas · 7 nm · 45 min · Sharks, Rachel's Bubble Bath, the picnic

Swim with the nurse sharks at the Compass Cay dock, walk to Crescent Beach on the Atlantic side, and find Rachel's Bubble Bath at the north end if the swell is running. The beach picnic in your own bay at Pipe Cay, and sunset drinks in the creek.

Nurse sharks at Compass Cay
The Pipe Cay picnic
Sunset in Pipe Creek

Shroud Cay

Shroud Cay, Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park · 24 nm · 2.5 h · The creeks and the washing machine

The mangrove creeks by jet ski, tender and paddleboard through to Driftwood Beach, and the washing machine when the tide is right: noodles, in one side, round to the other. The last Exumas night, and the closest point to Eleuthera for tomorrow.

Through the creeks to the Atlantic beach
The washing machine
Last night in the park

Governor's Harbour

Governor's Harbour, Eleuthera · 54 nm · 5.5 h · Across Exuma Sound to Eleuthera

The one sea day, across the deep blue of Exuma Sound with breakfast and lunch under way and the fishing lines out behind. Eleuthera's capital is a town of pastel houses on a hill above a wide bay, with French Leave Beach on the Atlantic side a short walk over. If it is a Friday, the whole town is at the fish fry on the beach.

A sea day with the lines out
Pastel Governor's Harbour
The Friday fish fry, if it falls right

Harbour Island

Harbour Island, off Eleuthera · 30 nm · 3 h · Pink Sands Beach and Dunmore Town

Three hours up the coast and round into the harbour. Harbour Island is like going back in time: pastel clapboard houses with picket fences, golf carts, and the oldest settlement in the Bahamas. Walk the streets of Dunmore Town in the afternoon, then the whole of Pink Sands Beach, three miles of it, before dinner at the Landing or Rock House.

Dunmore Town on foot and by golf cart
Pink Sands Beach, all three miles
Dinner at the Landing or Rock House

Harbour Island

Harbour Island, off Eleuthera · Stay · Horses on the beach, turtles, lunch at the Dunmore

Ellie's Harbour Island day. Ride horses along Pink Sands in the morning, get around the island by golf buggy, and have a long lunch at the Dunmore, the hotel on the beach, with another walk along the sand before or after. Swim with the turtles where the crew know they gather on the way back to the boat, dolphins if you are lucky, and come back ashore for pre-dinner drinks on the Dunmore's beach chairs. Sip Sip for the lobster quesadilla if lunch runs to two. Vic-Hum Club later for anyone who wants to dance in a room with a basketball court.

Horse riding on Pink Sands
Swim with the turtles on the way back to the boat
Lunch at the Dunmore, pre-dinner drinks on its beach chairs

Harbour Island or Nassau

Harbour Island, or Nassau · Water taxi, or 55 nm · 5.5 h · Disembark

Fly out of North Eleuthera, ten minutes away by water taxi, with connections through Nassau and direct flights to Florida. Or the yacht leaves at dawn through Current Cut and Spanish Wells and has you at Albany for an afternoon flight from Nassau.

North Eleuthera, ten minutes by water taxi
Or back to Nassau over the morning

The idea of the week

The week above with three nights added, and the extra days spent somewhere different rather than more of the same. Seven nights down the Exumas, with two at Staniel, then one longer day across Exuma Sound to Eleuthera and two nights at Harbour Island: three miles of pink sand, a village of pastel clapboard houses you get around by golf cart, horses on the beach and the best tables in the Bahamas outside Nassau.

It finishes at Harbour Island, where North Eleuthera airport is ten minutes away by water taxi, or the yacht runs back to Nassau over the last morning. Superyacht charters start on any day of the week, so the route stands on its own. Legs are approximate, at a steady ten knots, and the captain adjusts them for the weather and the tide on the day. The banks are shallow, so the yacht moves in daylight and takes her time.

Family & friends
Longer trip
Beaches
Two regions

What the week costs

The yacht's published weekly rate, plus an Advance Provisioning Allowance, customarily 30 to 40 percent, for fuel, food, drink and berths, plus local VAT where it applies. Every listing shows its rate.

How charter pricing works

Also on this coast

Everything we know about Exuma Cays: when to go, where the fleet is and the other weeks we have planned.

Open Exuma Cays

Woven into the week

What the crew arrange along the way

The parts of the week that need a phone call before you arrive: tables, guides, instructors and the toys on deck.

The beach picnic, on a sandbar or in your own bay

The crew land a table, chairs, umbrellas and a kitchen and cook lunch there, with the yacht in view. Ellie's favourite is the little bay at Pipe Cay, but the Exumas have more picnic beaches than we could list, and a sandbar that only exists at low tide is the Bahamas version.

A themed day or night on board, at least one

The Bahamas is about the boat, so we plan at least one themed day or night. Tell us the idea before the charter and the crew have the costumes and decorations ready. Pirate night suits the Exumas: half these cays were pirate anchorages.

The float-off day

Ellie's ritual. Every toy that floats goes in the water: the pool detached from the boat, the mats, the loungers. The esky goes in with them, and everyone drifts off together for the afternoon with drinks and snacks and nothing to do. Any yacht with floating mats can do it; the ones with a sea pool do it best.

The toys, every day

Jet skis for the creeks and the sandbars, seabobs, paddleboards, wakeboards, the slide if the yacht has one. In the Exumas the water is the whole point, and the crew have the toys in by the time breakfast is cleared.

Guests arriving late or leaving early

Staniel Cay has an airstrip in the middle of the chain, Great Exuma an international airport at the bottom, and North Eleuthera one ten minutes from Harbour Island. A mid-charter changeover is a short flight from Nassau, not the boat turning round.

Staniel Cay, forty minutes from Nassau and direct flights from Fort Lauderdale
George Town, Great Exuma, with direct US flights
North Eleuthera for Harbour Island
Marsh Harbour for the Abacos

A day's sport fishing

For keen fishers. We arrange a professional fishing tender with its own fishermen to run alongside the yacht for a half or full day: wahoo, mahi-mahi and tuna off the drop-off into Exuma Sound, bonefish on the flats, marlin off Bimini and Chub Cay in season. Ellie's family do it on every Bahamas trip.

Half or full day, from the anchorage
The Exuma Sound drop-off is minutes away
Bonefishing on the flats for the patient
The galley cooks the catch that night

A night in Nassau, before or after

If the flights give you a night in the capital, we know how to spend it. Lunch at the Fish Fry on Arawak Cay, at Oh Andros, for the conch salad: go hungry, the plates are enormous, and bar-hop down the strip afterwards. The long slide at Atlantis for anyone who wants it, and Nobu there if the group wants Japanese. Then dinner at Graycliff, with its private room in a cellar of a quarter of a million bottles and the piano bar after. Wine lovers, this is your night. Over Christmas and New Year the night to be in Nassau is Junkanoo, the costumed street parade on Boxing Day and New Year's Day from two in the morning.

Oh Andros at the Fish Fry, in the daytime
The slide at Atlantis
Graycliff: the cellar room and the piano bar

Fly to the boat

A seaplane or a propeller flight from Nassau to Staniel Cay takes forty minutes and lands you a tender ride from the yacht. For a short trip it buys you a day; for a longer one it means the boat is already in the cays when you arrive.

Nassau to Staniel Cay in forty minutes
Nassau to North Eleuthera in thirty
Helicopter from Nassau for the biggest groups

The beach picnic, on a sandbar or in your own bay

A themed day or night on board, at least one

The float-off day

The toys, every day

Guests arriving late or leaving early

Staniel Cay, forty minutes from Nassau and direct flights from Fort Lauderdale
George Town, Great Exuma, with direct US flights
North Eleuthera for Harbour Island
Marsh Harbour for the Abacos

A day's sport fishing

Half or full day, from the anchorage
The Exuma Sound drop-off is minutes away
Bonefishing on the flats for the patient
The galley cooks the catch that night

A night in Nassau, before or after

Oh Andros at the Fish Fry, in the daytime
The slide at Atlantis
Graycliff: the cellar room and the piano bar

Fly to the boat

Nassau to Staniel Cay in forty minutes
Nassau to North Eleuthera in thirty
Helicopter from Nassau for the biggest groups

Yachts

Yachts available in Exuma Cays right now

Live from our charter list, in a different order every visit so you see the range. Every rate is the real weekly figure from the listing.

Every yacht available here

CORAL OCEAN

Lürssen · 73m · 1994, refit 2026

12 guests | 6 cabins | 28 crew

€650k – 790k

NAILED IT

Viking Yachts · 25m · 2017, refit 2026

8 guests | 4 cabins | 3 crew

US$55k

INSIEME

Azimut · 32m · 2012, refit 2023

8 guests | 5 cabins | 4 crew

US$63k – 69k

TOTAL

Mangusta (Overmarine) · 33m · 2006, refit 2020

9 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew

US$60k – 65k

MUCHOS MAS

Crescent Yachts · 44m · 2016, refit 2025

11 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew

US$198k – 238k

ESCAPE

Hatteras · 35m · 1995, refit 2023

9 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew

US$55k – 65k

CynderElla

Hargrave · 35m · 2022

10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew

US$125k – 145k

VIVIERAE II

Nordhavn Yachts · 30m · 2017, refit 2023

8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew

US$64k – 72k

EROS

Custom Line · 37m · 2019, refit 2026

10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew

US$140k – 160k

ROAMER

Sunseeker · 28m · 2024

8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew

US$95k – 115k

AWAY

Sanlorenzo · 37m · 2009, refit 2023

10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew

US$120k – 145k

YOLO

Westport · 40m · 2005, refit 2023

10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew

US$120k – 138k

SEA CLASS

Christensen · 47m · 1997, refit 2024

12 guests | 6 cabins | 10 crew

US$190k – 230k

WABASH

Benetti · 40m · 2018, refit 2025

11 guests | 6 cabins | 7 crew

US$170k – 190k

KEMOSABE

Westport · 34m · 2007, refit 2022

8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew

US$70k – 80k

BEACHOUSE

Mangusta (Overmarine) · 40m · 2009, refit 2024

10 guests | 4 cabins | 6 crew

€110k – 130k

OCULUS

Numarine · 37m · 2024

12 guests | 6 cabins | 7 crew

US$180k – 210k

UNWINED

Westport · 34m · 2005, refit 2023

8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew

US$69k – 75k

SCINTILLA MARIS

Damen Yachting · 46m · 2023

10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew

Price on request

REMEMBER WHEN

Christensen · 49m · 2011, refit 2024

12 guests | 6 cabins | 10 crew

US$230k – 260k

SQUALO

Sanlorenzo · 27m · 2018, refit 2022

8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew

US$58k – 63k

TEMPTATION

Palmer Johnson · 37m · 2007, refit 2023

8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew

US$80k – 95k

NEW LIFE

Lazzara · 28m · 2009, refit 2025

8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew

US$57k

INVICTUS

Delta Marine · 66m · 2013, refit 2020

12 guests | 9 cabins | 19 crew

€650k – 695k

RENAISSANCE

Hargrave · 35m · 2016, refit 2024

10 guests | 5 cabins | 5 crew

US$95k – 120k

KOJU

Benetti · 37m · 2022

10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew

US$160k – 175k

WHITE STAR

Mangusta (Overmarine) · 39m · 2026

10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew

US$195k – 225k

NORMA JEAN

Palmer Johnson · 46m · 2009, refit 2024

10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew

US$160k – 180k

A SALT WEAPON

Ocean Alexander · 35m · 2024

10 guests | 5 cabins | 6 crew

US$120k – 130k

FAVOR

Crescent Yachts · 39m · 2000, refit 2024

10 guests | 5 cabins | 6 crew

US$95k – 110k

VIRTUE

Benetti · 37m · 2008, refit 2024

10 guests | 5 cabins | 8 crew

US$91k – 105k

ENTERPRISE

Baglietto · 38m · 2022

10 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew

€179k – 224k

DIRT POOR

Trinity Yachts · 49m · 2007, refit 2026

12 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew

US$195k – 225k

NORMAN'S T4

Sirena Yachts · 21m · 2022

6 guests | 3 cabins | 2 crew

US$35k – 40k

LEGACY

Westport · 34m · 2003, refit 2023

8 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew

Price on request

STEALTH

Palmer Johnson · 46m · 2010, refit 2022

10 guests | 5 cabins | 9 crew

US$165k – 180k

SYCARA V

Nobiskrug · 68m · 2010, refit 2024

12 guests | 7 cabins | 16 crew

US$650k

SECOND LOVE

Westport · 50m · 2010, refit 2025

12 guests | 6 cabins | 10 crew

US$230k – 265k

GAIL FORCE II

Hatteras · 24m · 2011, refit 2023

8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew

US$35k – 40k

MAVERICK

Mangusta (Overmarine) · 50m · 2022

12 guests | 6 cabins | 11 crew

US$295k – 320k

50 SHADES OF PLAY

AB Yachts · 34m · 2025

10 guests | 4 cabins | 3 crew

US$105k – 119k

HANNAH

Westport · 34m · 2003, refit 2020

9 guests | 4 cabins | 5 crew

US$65k – 75k

NO BAD IDEAS

Trinity Yachts · 49m · 2000, refit 2024

12 guests | 6 cabins | 9 crew

US$225k – 250k

NEXT CHAPTER

Benetti · 55m · 2003, refit 2025

12 guests | 6 cabins | 14 crew

US$300k – 350k

ALLORA

Benetti · 37m · 2011, refit 2022

10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew

Price on request

LEVERAGE

Palmer Johnson · 38m · 2003, refit 2023

10 guests | 5 cabins | 7 crew

US$120k – 130k

INDIGO

Viking Yachts · 28m · 2019, refit 2024

8 guests | 4 cabins | 4 crew

US$58k – 75k

ADIOS

Sanlorenzo · 29m · 2023

10 guests | 5 cabins | 6 crew

US$90k – 105k

48 yachts in rotation. The order changes with every visit so no boat is always last.

Back to Exuma Cays

The other weeks we have planned on this coast, and when to go.

Exuma Cays All itineraries

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