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Road trip

Bahamas in a Week: Nassau & the Exumas

The simplest first-timer's Bahamas — three nights on Nassau and Paradise Island for the forts, Atlantis and the Fish Fry, then three in the Exumas for the swimming pigs, Thunderball Grotto and the country's most jaw-dropping turquoise — two islands, one short flight, and no logistics to speak of.

✈Plane⛴Boat
  • Trip dates 31 Jul – 6 Aug 2026
  • Length7 days · 6 nights
  • TransportPlane + Boat
  • Countries1 · Bahamas

Overview

If you have a week and want the definitive Bahamas, this is it: the capital and the cays, and nothing that overcomplicates the trip. You begin with three nights on Nassau and Paradise Island — Atlantis, the Queen's Staircase and Fort Fincastle, the Arawak Cay Fish Fry and the Cable Beach sand — then take a single 45-minute flight south to the Exumas for the country's signature experience: the swimming pigs at Big Major Cay, snorkelling Thunderball Grotto, the rock iguanas and a sandbar you'll swear was colour-graded. It's a two-island trip on purpose — one move, one short flight, and a loop back through Nassau for home — so most of your week is spent in the water rather than in transit. It leads on where you sleep, with a Nassau resort and an Exuma base as the anchor bookings and the boat days as the add-ons. For travellers who then want more islands, our Classic Bahamas Island-Hopper picks up where this leaves off.

Exuma, The Bahamas
Photo by Cam Green on Pexels

Highlights

A few frames from the route.

Nassau, The Bahamas
Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels
Exuma, The Bahamas
Photo by Cam Green on Pexels
Paradise Island & Nassau, Bahamas
Photo by Mikhail Nilov on Pexels
The swimming pigs of the Exumas
Photo by Cassidy Marshall on Pexels

Photos provided by Pexels

The route

6 overnight bases, numbered in order. Tap a pin to jump to that day.

© OpenFreeMap · OSM contributors · straight-line route (not turn-by-turn)

7 days, day by day. Open any day for the morning-to-evening plan, where to eat, and where you sleep that night.

  1. Day 1 Fri 31 Jul Arrive Nassau & Paradise Island Base day

    Arrive Nassau & Paradise Island

    Morning. Land at Lynden Pindling International (NAS), taxi ~20 minutes to the hotel and drop bags.

    Afternoon. A first swim at Cable Beach or Cabbage Beach and an easy poolside afternoon.

    Evening. A relaxed welcome dinner near the resort strip.

    Eat. Cracked conch and a Kalik — the Bahamian starter kit.

    Where to stay. Base on Cable Beach or Paradise Island — a Baha Mar or Atlantis-area resort keeps the beach and the sights close and is the primary booking of the leg.

    Optional / swaps. A sunset stroll along the Cable Beach strip if the flight lands early.

    Practical. USD is accepted everywhere and pegged 1:1; carry cash for taxis and the Fish Fry.

    🛏 Nassau & Paradise Island · 1 night · 2 guests

  2. Day 2 Sat 1 Aug Nassau & Paradise Island Base day

    Nassau: Atlantis & the beaches

    Morning. A full morning at Atlantis Aquaventure — the slides, the lazy river and the marine habitat under the Royal Towers.

    Afternoon. Cross to Cabbage Beach on the ocean side, or the calmer Blue Lagoon Island for a day-pass.

    Evening. Dinner at Marina Village and the harbour lights.

    Eat. Bahamian mac and cheese and fresh snapper; conch fritters to start.

    Where to stay. Same base — no moving for the first three nights.

    Optional / swaps. A Nassau swimming-pigs-and-turtles boat day, though the Exuma originals later in the week are better.

    Practical. Aquaventure is included for Atlantis guests; day-passes for non-guests sell out — book ahead.

    🛏 Nassau & Paradise Island · 1 night · 2 guests

  3. Day 3 Sun 2 Aug Nassau & Paradise Island Base day

    Nassau: forts, Fish Fry & rum

    Morning. Downtown Nassau — the Queen's Staircase carved through the limestone, Fort Fincastle and the harbour view, then Bay Street and the Straw Market.

    Afternoon. Lunch at Arawak Cay (the Fish Fry) with conch salad chopped to order, then John Watling's Distillery for a rum tour in a colonial estate.

    Evening. A last Nassau dinner; pack for the early cays flight.

    Eat. Conch salad at Arawak Cay; a rum cake to take onward.

    Where to stay. Third and final Nassau night at the same base.

    Optional / swaps. A guided Nassau city-sights tour with rum-cake and conch-fritter tastings covers the forts and the food in one hit.

    Practical. Downtown is packed on big cruise-ship days — do the forts early.

    🛏 Nassau & Paradise Island · 1 night · 2 guests

  4. Day 4 Mon 3 Aug Nassau & Paradise Island → The Exumas (George Town) ~311 km Fly

    Nassau → the Exumas: swimming pigs

    Morning. Fly ~45 minutes from Nassau to Exuma International (GGT); the banks below glow turquoise on the approach.

    Afternoon. Straight out on a powerboat day to Big Major Cay for the swimming pigs and a first sandbar — the trip's headline experience.

    Evening. Dinner in George Town on Elizabeth Harbour, where the winter yachts anchor.

    Eat. Fresh rock lobster in season or grilled grouper; peas 'n' rice on the side.

    Where to stay. George Town on Great Exuma is the practical first-timer base — a harbour guesthouse or the Emerald Bay resort strip, with the airport, restaurants and car hire close. Book the room as the anchor and add the boat day.

    Optional / swaps. Do the pigs as a full island-hopping powerboat tour that also takes in Thunderball Grotto and the iguanas.

    Practical. Feed the pigs only from the water and never hand-to-mouth — they're big, strong animals.

    🛏 The Exumas (George Town) · 1 night · 2 guests

  5. Day 5 Tue 4 Aug The Exumas (George Town) Base day

    The Exumas: grotto, iguanas & sandbars

    Morning. Snorkel Thunderball Grotto at low tide and visit the rock iguanas at Allan's or Bitter Guana Cay on a northern-cays boat run.

    Afternoon. Down to Little Exuma for the Tropic of Cancer Beach and lobster at Santana's, or an ATV tour of Great Exuma's caves and beaches.

    Evening. Last cays dinner; the harbour goes quiet early.

    Eat. Cracked conch and a Goombay Smash at a beach bar.

    Where to stay. Second Exuma night at the same base.

    Optional / swaps. A guided Great Exuma ATV tour of caves, beaches and historic sites for a land-based change of pace.

    Practical. Sea state can cancel boats even in the dry season — keep the northern-cays run flexible.

    🛏 The Exumas (George Town) · 1 night · 2 guests

  6. Day 6 Wed 5 Aug The Exumas (George Town) Base day

    The Exumas: a slow cays day

    Morning. A private charter or a quieter beach day — Stocking Island across the harbour has calm swimming and a famous barefoot beach bar.

    Afternoon. One more sandbar or snorkel stop; the Exuma water is the thing you'll remember, so spend the time in it.

    Evening. A farewell cays dinner on the harbour.

    Eat. Grilled catch of the day; a last Goombay Smash at sunset.

    Where to stay. Third and final Exuma night at the same base.

    Optional / swaps. A visit to the nurse sharks at a nearby cay or a sunset paddle off the beach.

    Practical. Confirm tomorrow's flight tonight and allow a generous Nassau connection for the trip home.

    🛏 The Exumas (George Town) · 1 night · 2 guests

  7. Day 7 Thu 6 Aug The Exumas (George Town) Base day

    Depart the Exumas

    Morning. Fly from Exuma to Nassau to connect for the international flight home.

    Afternoon. Connect at Nassau; long-haul home.

    Evening. —

    Eat. A last conch fritter before security.

    Where to stay. —

    Optional / swaps. A final harbour breakfast if the flight is afternoon.

    Practical. The Exuma flight and your international departure are separate tickets — allow time at Nassau and re-check bags.

Flights

Fly into and home from NAS. Each search opens pre-filled with your travel dates and party.

Outbound home → NAS Fri 31 Jul · 2 travellers Search flights → Return NAS → home Thu 6 Aug · 2 travellers Search flights →

Powered by the Travelpayouts flight search on /flights.

Book your attractions & tickets

Skip-the-line tickets for the highlights on this route . 7 are visited on the ground, with official-site links.

Budget

A realistic planning budget for the whole trip — beds, food, fuel, the hire car and the extras. Change your party size, dates or comfort level and it updates to match.

€2,527≈ £2,160
  • Per person€1,264
  • Per day€361
  • SeasonPeak
  • TierMid

Estimate settings editable

Party2 travellers
CategoryHow it’s estimatedEstimate
Accommodationper-person/night (3–4★, min 2 sharing, £75 floor) × people × nights × season × tier€1,032
Meals & drinksper-country food/person/day × party × days × tier€552
Activities & admissionsper-country activities/person/day × party × days€348
Local transportper-country trains, buses & ferries/person/day × party × days€300
eSIM / ATMfixed one-off€65
Subtotal€2,297
Contingency (10%)€230
Grand total ≈ £2,160 · €1,264 pp · €361/day€2,527

How we estimate

  • Accommodation — per-person nightly by destination, minimum two sharing, × season × tier.
  • Standard (Mid) = 3–4★+ — estimates assume our audience’s baseline: 3–4★ or better, never below a ~£75/night room floor. Premium higher; Budget lower.
  • Meals — per person, per day, by country. Fuel — from the route distance. Season — from your dates.

These are planning estimates, not quotes. Premium properties and popular tourist hubs run above the country average, especially in peak season. Where live cost data isn’t available yet, some countries use representative figures.

Eat your way across

A taste of every country you travel through — the food culture worth going out of your way for, and the signature dishes to seek out.

Bahamas

Conch every possible way, washed down with an ice-cold Kalik at the Fish Fry.

In the Bahamas, the day revolves around conch — pronounced 'konk', and something close to a national obsession. Watch it cleaned straight from the shell at a roadside stand, then eaten a dozen ways: scorched conch scored raw and dressed with lime and bird pepper, cracked conch battered and fried gold, or diced ceviche-style into conch salad with tomato and sweet pepper. Across 700 low-lying islands the sea sets the menu — grouper, snapper and spiny lobster over any meat.

The spiritual home of it all is the Fish Fry at Arawak Cay in Nassau, a strip of open-air shacks where locals gather over fried fish, peas 'n' rice and cold Kalik, 'the beer of the Bahamas'. Order a sky juice — gin, coconut water and sweet milk, said to have been improvised here during Prohibition — and let a slow, salt-air lunch stretch out.

  • Cracked conch
  • Conch salad
  • Scorched conch
  • Rock lobster (crawfish)
  • Peas 'n' rice
  • Johnnycake
  • Guava duff (guava-filled pudding)

A little history

To understand what you see today, it helps to know the past — the civilisations and empires that shaped the culture, food and architecture of the places on this route.

Bahamas
  • The Arawak-speaking Lucayan Taíno settled the islands from around 500–800 AD, with conch already a staple
  • Columbus made his first American landfall here in 1492, and enslavement and disease soon wiped out the Lucayans
  • English settlers arrived from the 1640s, and Nassau grew into a pirate haven until 1718
  • a British colony reinforced by Loyalist planters, the Bahamas became independent in 1973 and now run on tourism and finance

Family activities

The stops, games and moments that land best with kids and teens on this trip.

Big wins for families: Atlantis Aquaventure in Nassau and the swimming pigs and sandbars in the Exumas — the two headline experiences of a Bahamas first trip, joined by a single easy flight with plenty of beach time on either side.

Packing

What to bring for this trip — the easy-to-forget essentials.

Clothing

Beachwear, light breathable layers, one smart-casual outfit, a light jacket for air-conditioning and boat decks.

Footwear

Reef shoes for the grotto, sandals, trainers for the ATV and any walking.

Activity gear

Snorkel gear if fussy, a dry bag for boat days, reef-safe sun cream, hat and sunglasses.

Documents / money

Passport, no-foreign-fee card, USD cash for taxis, the Fish Fry and beach bars.

Health

High-SPF reef-safe sunscreen, motion-sickness tablets for the flight and boat days, basic first-aid and after-sun.

Drone rules (sub-250g)

Where you can and can’t fly a small drone along the way — the rules change sharply from one country to the next, so check before you launch.

  • Bahamas
    Effectively no fly-on-arrival — the Civil Aviation Authority requires every drone, tourists included, to be registered in advance (about $30, valid 30 days) before flying, capped at 400ft. ⚠ Foreign visitors must register with CAA-B before travelling; drones over 249g also need a home-country registration copy, no flying within 5,000m of any aerodrome, and commercial or media filming needs a separate permit. Rules checked: Jul 2026

National parks, protected sites and religious/heritage venues often have their own rules and permits — always check the specific site before you fly.

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