The Itinerary Wala
Bahamas in 8 days: the Exumas, Dean's Blue Hole and pink sand

Bahamas in 8 days: the Exumas, Dean's Blue Hole and pink sand

Seven hundred islands on a shallow carbonate bank that turns the sea every shade of blue there is, with a 200-metre sinkhole free-divers train in, three miles of pink sand, and the swimming pigs worth thinking twice about.

  • The Caribbean
  • 8 days
  • ≈ AED 9,550 / person
  • Water that does not look real, and the deepest blue hole in the world

Researched & checked by Nitesh Parasher Last verified

Before you go

The Bahamas is around 700 islands and 2,400 cays strung 800 kilometres across the Atlantic, and the thing everyone says about the water is true. The archipelago sits on a shallow carbonate bank — white aragonite sand in two or three metres of water over enormous areas — and the result is a blue that photographs badly because nobody believes it.

The Exumas are the heart of it: 365 cays in a chain, with the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, the first marine protected area in the Caribbean (1958) and a no-take reserve since 1986. Thunderball Grotto, a cave you snorkel into through a hole in the roof, was used in the 1965 Bond film it is named after.

Dean’s Blue Hole on Long Island drops to about 202 metres — one of the deepest known blue holes in the world — and it is twenty metres from the beach, which is why free-diving world records are set there.

Harbour Island has three miles of genuinely pink sand, coloured by the crushed shells of red foraminifera, and a village of pastel clapboard that looks like New England transplanted.

And then there are the swimming pigs, which need an honest word rather than a photograph.

Eight days. Figure BSD 2,600 (≈ AED 9,549) per person excluding flights. Go December–April; hurricane season is June to November.

Before you go: the 15-minute admin

This is an expensive country

  • The Bahamas is one of the most expensive places in the Caribbean. Almost everything is imported and taxed, and tourism is the economy.
  • Nassau and Paradise Island carry resort pricing; the Out Islands are quieter and not much cheaper, because supply runs by boat.
  • Inter-island flights add up fast. Bahamasair and the small operators are the only practical way between islands, and a trip with three islands in it has three sets of fares.
  • This itinerary uses two islands plus Nassau, which is the realistic compromise.

Visas and money

  • Many nationalities enter visa-free for short stays. Check your own case officially.
  • The Bahamian dollar (BSD), pegged to the US dollar at 1:1, and US dollars circulate alongside it interchangeably. You can pay in either and get change in both.
  • Cards work in Nassau and at the resorts; carry cash on the Out Islands, where some settlements have one ATM or none.
  • VAT is added and a service charge is usual.

Getting around

  • Nassau is on New Providence, which is small and has taxis and jitney buses. Taxis are unmetered with published rates — agree the fare.
  • Inter-island: Bahamasair, Western Air and charter operators. Book ahead and expect schedule changes.
  • The mailboat still runs freight and passengers from Nassau to the Out Islands, cheaply and slowly, and is an experience rather than a transport plan.
  • On Eleuthera and Exuma, hire a car. Driving is on the left. The islands are long and thin and there is one road.

The swimming pigs, honestly

  • The pigs at Big Major Cay are the Bahamas’ most photographed attraction. They are not native, they were put there, and they swim out to boats because that is where food comes from.
  • There have been welfare problems — pigs dying after being fed inappropriate food and alcohol by visitors, and the authorities have intervened more than once.
  • If you go: use an operator that briefs properly, do not feed anything but what the guide provides, do not chase them, and do not get between a sow and piglets. They are large animals and they bite.
  • It is reasonable to skip it. The same day trip takes in Thunderball Grotto, the sandbars and the iguanas at Allen’s Cay, which are the better parts.

Travelling with kids?

  • The water is shallow, warm and calm over enormous areas — this is one of the easiest places in the world to take children into the sea.
  • Blue holes are dangerous — Dean’s is a sheer drop from waist-deep water. Supervise closely.
  • The boat days are long and the sun is severe.

Day by day

Day 1 — Nassau

  • Afternoon — Arrive. Nassau is twenty minutes from the airport.
  • 16:00 — Downtown: Parliament Square in its pink Georgian colonial, the Queen’s Staircase — 65 steps cut through limestone by enslaved people in the 1790s — and Fort Fincastle above it.
  • 17:30 — The Straw Market, which is mostly imported now, and Graycliff if you want the cigars.
  • Evening — Arawak Cay, the “Fish Fry” — a strip of local restaurants where Nassau actually eats. Conch salad made in front of you.

Where to stay in Nassau (two nights across the trip)

  • Mid-range: Cable Beach or the downtown guesthouses, rather than Paradise Island, which is a different budget.

Day 2 — To the Exumas

  • Morning — Fly to George Town, Great Exuma, about an hour.
  • Afternoon — Stocking Island across the harbour by ferry, with Chat ‘N’ Chill on the beach, and the sandbar that appears at low tide.
  • Evening — George Town is small and friendly and that is the whole of it.

Where to stay in Exuma (three nights)

  • Mid-range: the guesthouses and small hotels around George Town and Rolle Town.

Day 3 — The Exuma cays

  • 08:00 — A full-day boat trip north up the chain, which is the reason to come.
  • Allen’s Cay for the rock iguanas, endemic and endangered, which come down the beach to meet the boats.
  • Thunderball Grotto at slack tide — you swim in through a gap and surface inside a cathedral of limestone with light coming through holes in the roof and fish everywhere.
  • Compass Cay for the nurse sharks, and the sandbars that surface mid-ocean at low water.
  • Big Major Cay and the pigs — read the section above and decide.
  • The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park is a no-take reserve; nothing is caught or collected inside it.

Day 4 — Exuma, slowly

  • Morning — Tropic of Cancer Beach on Little Exuma, which is a mile of empty pale sand, and the Tropic of Cancer marker.
  • Midday — Santanna’s at Williams Town for lunch.
  • Afternoon — Snorkelling at Jolly Hall or the blue hole at Mystery Cave, or simply a beach. Exuma’s point is that there is nothing you have to do.

Day 5 — To Eleuthera

  • Morning — Fly back via Nassau to North Eleuthera, which is how the connections work.
  • Afternoon — Harbour Island by water taxi, ten minutes.
  • The pink sand runs three miles along the east side, properly pink in the right light, from crushed red foraminifera shells mixed into white sand.
  • Dunmore Town is pastel clapboard, picket fences and golf carts — the island’s only transport.

Where to stay (three nights, Harbour Island or North Eleuthera)

  • Mid-range: guesthouses in Dunmore Town, or the mainland at North Eleuthera, which is considerably cheaper with a ten-minute ferry.

Day 6 — Eleuthera

  • 09:00 — Across to the main island and south.
  • 10:00 — Glass Window Bridge, where Eleuthera narrows to about thirty metres and you stand with the deep navy Atlantic on one side and the pale turquoise bank on the other, separated by a strip of rock. It is the single most striking thing in the Bahamas.
  • 12:00 — The Queen’s Baths, hot tidal pools in the cliff below, safe only when the Atlantic is calm — check before climbing down.
  • 14:00 — Surfer’s Beach, Hatchet Bay Cave, and the pineapple country around Gregory Town.
  • 17:00 — Back to Harbour Island for sunset on the harbour side.

Day 7 — A choice

Either — stay and swim: the pink sand, the reef off the north point, and a day doing nothing on an island where that is the correct activity.

Or — Dean’s Blue Hole, if you are prepared to add a flight. It is on Long Island, not Eleuthera, and reaching it means Nassau and another hop. 202 metres deep, twenty metres from the beach, in a sheltered bay — you snorkel over an edge where the pale sand simply stops and the blue goes black. Free-diving competitions are held here. It is a long way for a swim, and it is also unlike anything else.

Day 8 — Fly out

  • Morning — Ferry and flight back to Nassau, and connect.
  • Build in margin. Out Island connections are weather-dependent and the Nassau transfer is not quick.

Costs and practicalities

Best time to visit

December–April is the dry, cooler and busiest season, and the one the resort pricing is built around. Outside it the weather is good but the risk profile changes.

  • December–April — low humidity, little rain, peak rates. Junkanoo parades fill Nassau’s streets through the small hours of 26 December and 1 January and are the single best thing on the calendar.
  • May–June — warm, quieter, good value, and still mostly dry.
  • July–October — hot, humid and the hurricane season. September and October are the peak of it, and some Out Island properties simply close.
  • November — the risk drops away and the rates have not yet climbed.

The Out Islands and Nassau feel like different countries in high season. Nassau’s crowds track cruise ship arrivals rather than the calendar.

Travel tips

  • The Bahamian dollar is pegged one-to-one with the US dollar and both circulate interchangeably. There is no reason to change money.
  • Check the cruise schedule before planning a Nassau day. With four ships in, Bay Street and the forts are a different experience entirely.
  • Driving is on the left, in mostly American left-hand-drive cars, which takes a day to stop feeling wrong.
  • The mail boats are cheap, slow and genuinely local transport to the Out Islands. Flying is the alternative, and inter-island flights usually route back through Nassau.
  • VAT is 10% and a service charge is often added. Read the bill before tipping again.
  • Sandflies ruin dusk on the quieter beaches. Repellent with DEET, or stay where there is a breeze.
  • Food and drink are expensive because almost everything is imported. A beach shack conch salad is both better and cheaper than a resort lunch.

What this trip actually costs

Two people, 7 nights, mid-range comfort, international flights excluded:

ItemCost
Guesthouses, 7 nightsBSD 2,100 (≈ AED 7,712)
Inter-island flights, twoBSD 1,200 (≈ AED 4,407)
Exuma cays boat day, twoBSD 700 (≈ AED 2,571)
Car hire, ferries, water taxisBSD 500 (≈ AED 1,836)
Food and drink, 8 daysBSD 700 (≈ AED 2,571)
Total for twoBSD 5,200 (≈ AED 19,097)
  • Roughly BSD 2,600 (≈ AED 9,549) per person — the same in US dollars — at guesthouse level. Resorts multiply this, and Paradise Island is a different holiday entirely.
  • Inter-island flights are the line that hurts. Two islands plus Nassau is the sensible maximum for eight days.
  • Staying on mainland North Eleuthera rather than Harbour Island halves the accommodation cost for a ten-minute ferry.
  • Eat at the fish fries — Arawak Cay in Nassau, the shacks in George Town — rather than the hotels.
  • Hotel picks here are chosen on location, not on commission — always check prices and recent reviews before booking.

What to pack

  • Reef-safe sun cream, a rash vest and a hat. The sun off white sand and shallow water is punishing.
  • Your own mask and snorkel — you will use them every day.
  • A dry bag for the boat days.
  • Cash in small notes for the Out Islands.
  • Shoes you can walk a reef flat in.
  • Something for the evening — Harbour Island dresses up.

FAQ

Should I do the swimming pigs? It is a judgement call. They are introduced animals in a situation that has caused welfare problems, and the same boat trip includes Thunderball Grotto, the iguanas and the sandbars, which are better. If you go, follow the operator’s rules exactly.

How deep is Dean’s Blue Hole? About 202 metres, and it starts twenty metres from the beach in waist-deep water. It is one of the deepest known and free-diving records have been set in it. It is on Long Island, which is a separate flight.

Is the pink sand actually pink? Yes, though it is subtle — pale pink rather than vivid, strongest in morning and evening light. It comes from crushed red foraminifera shells.

How many islands can I do in a week? Two plus Nassau. Every additional island is another set of flights and another day of travel.

What language do they speak? English, with Bahamian dialect in everyday use.

Prices and entry rules change, and what you need depends on your passport; last checked 8 October 2026, so confirm with the embassy or your airline before booking.