Bahamas Snorkeling from Nassau: 3 Islands, Pig Beach & Turtles

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Three islands in four hours, by speedboat

This is the trip most people mean when they say they want to snorkel in the Bahamas. A speedboat runs east from Nassau to three separate cays, and because it is fast rather than comfortable, almost none of the four hours goes on transit. What you get instead is three genuinely different stops in a morning.

The order shifts with the wind, but the shape holds: reef first while the water is flat, turtles second, then the long stop on the beach. More traveller reviews sit behind this departure than any other listed here, which tells you something about how consistently it runs.

Where you actually get in the water

Pearl Island carries the densest coral near Nassau and the fish there are entirely used to swimmers — parrotfish crunching at the coral, blue tang moving through in loose shoals, sergeant majors that will follow you. An hour is long enough to stop looking for things and simply drift.

Green Cay is shallower and quieter, a seagrass bed in the lee of an uninhabited cay. Green turtles graze there and sightings are common, though nobody sensible promises a wild animal. Twenty minutes is the standard stop.

The pigs on this trip are the Nassau pigs

Worth being plain about, because it is the single most confused thing in Bahamian boat trips. The pigs you meet here live at a beach club on the Rose Island chain, twenty-five minutes from the wharf. They wade out, they take food from your hand, and the photographs look exactly like the ones you have seen.

They are not, however, the Exuma pigs of Big Major Cay, which are eighty miles south and reachable from Nassau only by air. If that specific island is your reason for coming, the all Bahamas snorkeling tours is the one that goes — and it is listed among the departures.

Kayaks, lunch and two hours that are yours

Rose Island is where the day slows down. Lunch is served, the complimentary punch comes out, and the kayaks that are included in the fare sit on the sand for anyone who wants them. Two hours is long enough to swim, eat, take the pigs in and still lie down for a while.

Extra food and drink are sold at the beach stop, so carry a card or small notes if you want more than what the fare covers.

What the fare already covers

Who this suits — and who should book something else

This suits you if it is your first time in the Bahamas, you want reef, turtles and pigs without choosing between them, and you would rather have lunch included than hunt for it. It suits families: the stops are short enough that children do not lose interest, and the beach fills the rest.

Book something else if you want the calmest possible boat or a longer day — the catamaran three-stop day runs five and a half hours with a covered deck and a washroom. The listing also states that this trip is not suitable during pregnancy or for travellers with epilepsy.

Meeting the boat

The meeting point depends on the option you book, and this is the detail worth getting right. Hotel pick-up is available as a paid extra at checkout; if you do not take it, you make your own way to the departure point named on your voucher.

Drop-offs at the end run to several downtown points including Margaritaville and Señor Frog's, both within a short walk of the cruise wharf. Read the voucher rather than this page for your own date — the operator sets it per departure.

Know before you go

• A waiver is signed before boarding. Carry photo ID.
• Hotel pick-up is not automatic. Add it at checkout if you want it, or budget for a taxi each way.
• Not suitable during pregnancy, or with epilepsy. The catamaran day or a beach club trip is the gentler alternative.
• Open wounds bar you from the water. If that applies on the day, cancel free of charge up to 24 hours ahead and rebook.
• Extra food and drink are sold at the beach. Carry a card or small US notes.
• Bring a towel and reef-safe sunscreen. Neither is provided, and the mineral kind should go on at the hotel rather than on the boat.

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