Full Day Excursion from Exuma

During my family's trip to the Bahamas, we took an amazing day trip through the cays around the island, exploring all kinds of nature and wildlife and swimming in the clear blue waters of the Caribbean. We booked our excursion with Sun-Fun Tours and could not have been happier with the company! Our family, along with six other people, boarded a boat with two tour guides who took us to a number of places and told us all about the Caribbean and the Bahamas. Below is an itinerary for what we did on the excursion:

Feeding Iguanas

Our first stop was an island where hundreds of iguanas live. We got to feed them (I was too scared) and take photos!

Cave Stop

Next, we got out in a little cave and took a few photos. It had a little beach and a natural skylight and was the perfect place for a family photo op. Along the way, our tour guides pointed out a bunch of celebrity islands and homes.

Swimming with Turtles and Stingrays

After that, we went to a dock where a man who worked there took us out into the waist deep water and fed the turtles! It turns out, there were also lots of stingrays in the area who like to join the party when people stop by! He fed the turtles and stingrays conch.

Feeding conch to a turtle.

This is Freddy, the stingray!

Lunch Break

For lunch, we stopped at Ty's Sunset Bar and Grill. We got to choose between two options, which were traditional Bahamian dishes. There was also a small beach where we swam and saw a shark.

Swimming with Sharks

This was the part of the excursion I was most looking forward to - swimming with the sharks! At Compass Cay, you can pay $15 to get in the water with the nurse sharks. Honestly, these sharks were like big dogs who would swim up to you, get petted, and just hang around. I will admit, one of my biggest fears in the world is sharks, but I was not going to miss out on this opportunity, and I do not regret it one bit. There were lots of people in the water, so I felt a little safer. Plus nurse sharks are harmless to humans unless provoked, and these nurse sharks in particular are accustomed to being around humans.

Island Pigs

Next, we got to meet the little (actually some were giant) piggies on Pig Beach. They belong to a farmer there, and boats can take you to go see them. You can feed them if you want, but they've gotten so used to humans feeding them that if they think you have food they will run towards you and sometimes nip at you. It was so fun, and we got to hold them and take pictures with them. However, I wondered about animal rights concerns and found this interesting article about how any attractions have sprung up around the Bahamas where living conditions for the animals are sometimes borderline abusive. I always like to promote ethical tourism, so I was glad the pigs we visited were very well cared for and never forced to swim or do anything they didn't want to do.

Sand Island

After that, our boat stopped on a small sandbar to swim. We only stayed for about 30 minutes, and the water was beautiful! The boat had brought lots of drinks, including the local beer for everyone to drink.

Snorkeling at Thunderball Grotto

Thunderball Grotto is famous for being featured in the James Bond movie, Thunderball. Our boat anchored a little bit away, we were all given snorkels, and then one of our tour guides took us under some rocks inside the grotto. We got to see lots of fish and plants and snorkel around the grotto a bit. It was so beautiful, and I cannot recommend this enough! I'm not a huge snorkel fan because of the open water, but I got over it and an so happy I did!

You can take this same excursion from other Bahamas locations, but it will probably be more costly due to the longer distance it takes to get to the various cays. Plus, we saved a lot of travel time and spent more of our day exploring, rather than just riding on a boat. I would definitely do this again and would suggest it to anyone visiting the Bahamas! Be open to new adventures and willing to step out of your comfort zone, and you are guaranteed to have an amazing day and learn more about the Caribbean than you could have imagined!