The Best Tours in Nassau – Pigs, Reefs & the Cays

Usually not. Most tours from Nassau go to a cay close by, most often Rose Island about 9 km east, where the pigs are a herd raised on the island. The pigs in the well-known photographs live on Big Major Cay in the Exumas, roughly 130 km away — about three hours each way by speedboat or a 30 to 40 minute flight. Both are real; they are just not the same day out, or the same price. Look for the island name in the description.

You can walk to one. Junkanoo Beach is within walking distance of the cruise berths, and Cable Beach is about 14 minutes from downtown and 15 from the airport, both free to enter. What a boat buys is the clear water over the reef, the cays and the pigs — none of which are on New Providence itself.

The Bahamian dollar is pegged one to one with the US dollar, and US dollars are accepted everywhere at face value, so there is no need to change money. Prices are high because almost everything on the island is imported and carries duty plus 10 percent VAT. That is also why the Fish Fry at Arawak Cay is where locals eat, and why it is the cheapest good meal you will have here.

For most visitors, no. The island is only about 34 km by 11 km, traffic drives on the left, and taxi fares from the airport run to roughly 30 dollars for Cable Beach and 36 for downtown, so two or three trips cost less than a day of rental plus parking. A guided ATV, buggy or bus tour covers the scattered sights in an afternoon. A car makes sense if you are staying a week and want the southern and western ends on your own schedule.

Hurricane season officially runs from June to November, and September and October carry both the highest risk and the lowest prices — the two are connected. May and late November or early December are the quieter shoulder months. Outside the season a winter cold front can still put enough wind on the water to shorten or cancel a boat trip, which is why a written refund policy matters more here than a forecast.

One thing on the water and one thing on land, not two of each. A half-day boat trip plus lunch at the Fish Fry is a full port day. Book a tour that states a return time rather than a duration, and count the walk back to the berth. The busiest days — Thanksgiving week, Christmas to New Year, Presidents’ Day weekend and mid-March to mid-April — add queues on the pier that no itinerary accounts for.