How Much Does A Bimini And Grand Bahama Ferry Day Trip Cost

Every bookable Bahamas day trip from the Miami area sits in a surprisingly narrow price band: $270 to $299 per person. That is the full range across all eight verified ferry trips currently on the roster, from the bare ticket-only fare to the most expensive package with Miami Beach hotel pickup. The interesting question is not which trip costs least, because the spread between the cheapest and priciest is under $30. The interesting question is what each fare buys, because a $270 fare that includes hotel pickup and free cancellation is a very different purchase from a $270 fare that includes neither.

This guide breaks down every fare on the current roster, what each one includes and excludes, and the costs that sit outside the ticket: the Bahamas departure tax, food on the island, and optional activities. It is the companion piece to our wider ferry to Bahamas from Miami overview, which covers routes and schedules rather than money.

What Does A Bimini And Grand Bahama Ferry Day Trip Actually Cost?

The total per-person price for a bookable day trip runs from $270 to $299, based on the eight verified trips currently sold. The cheapest full package, Gray Line's day trip from Fort Lauderdale, starts at $270 with hotel pickup and free cancellation. The most expensive, Admiral Tours Miami's Miami Beach roundtrip with hotel transfers, starts at $299. On top of the fare, budget for the $20 Bahamas departure tax where it is not bundled, lunch, and any island activity.

That $270 to $299 band deserves a moment of attention, because it is narrower than almost anyone guesses. People arrive expecting a wide spread between budget and premium options, and there is not one. The reason is structural: every trip on the roster rides the same operator's high-speed ferry out of Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, so the base crossing cost is common to all of them. What moves the price is the wrapper around the crossing, hotel pickup, transfer logistics, and cancellation terms, not the boat itself.

One important honesty note before the numbers. The ferry itself never departs from Miami. Every vessel leaves from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, roughly 30 to 45 minutes north of Miami. Several trips include hotel pickup from Miami or Miami Beach, which is how they earn the "from Miami" label, but the sailing itself starts in Fort Lauderdale. That distinction matters for cost too: if your trip does not include pickup, you need to price the drive or rideshare to the terminal into your day.

Here is the full roster at a glance, cheapest to priciest:

Read that table carefully and one thing jumps out: the two cheapest fares are the same price but completely different products. One is a full Gray Line package with hotel pickup and free cancellation. The other is a bare Economy ferry ticket with no pickup and no free cancellation. Same number on the tag, very different purchases. The rest of this guide is about telling those apart.

Which Bimini Day Trip Gives You The Most For The Money?

For most travelers, Gray Line's Day Trip to Bimini from Fort Lauderdale is the strongest value at $270: it is the cheapest full package on the roster, includes hotel pickup and drop-off, and carries free cancellation, backed by a 4.1 rating across 402 reviews. The only cheaper-feeling option, the $270 ticket-only fare, strips out pickup and cancellation, which is where a bad day gets expensive.

The Gray Line package earns its spot as the value pick for reasons beyond the sticker. At about 11 hours door to door, it is among the shorter days on the roster, which matters if you are traveling with kids or anyone who does not love 15-hour days. Hotel pickup means you are not pricing a Fort Lauderdale transfer separately, which on a Miami-based day can easily add up across a family.

Compare that with the ticket-only fare before you assume the two $270 options are interchangeable. The ferry-tickets product is Economy class only, there is no hotel pickup, and there is no free cancellation: once booked, the money is committed. If your plans are firm, your group is small, and you can drive yourself to Port Everglades, it is a legitimate way to pay the floor price. If anything about your day might move, the full package at the identical price is simply the better purchase.

The Admiral Tours Miami's Miami Beach trip at $299 is the other end of the wrapper spectrum. It is the deepest-reviewed product on the entire roster, 4.1 across 681 reviews, and it includes Miami Beach hotel pickup, which is genuinely useful if you are staying on the beach without a car. You are paying a modest premium over the Gray Line package for that transfer convenience and about 15 hours door to door rather than 11. Whether that is worth it depends entirely on where you sleep the night before.

What Is Not Included In The Ticket Price?

The fare covers the ferry crossing and, on most packages, hotel transfers. It does not cover food and drink on the island, optional activities such as the Pig Beach excursion, or the $20 Bahamas departure tax where the operator has not bundled it into the fare. Which tours bundle the tax is not independently verified per listing, so the honest instruction is to check the operator's live listing for your specific trip before assuming it is included.

The departure tax is the line item people most often miss. Every traveler aged 6 and over leaving the Bahamas pays a $20 per person departure tax. Some ferry and cruise tickets bundle it into the fare, some do not, and which applies to which listing here is not independently verified per tour. Treat the $20 as a real, general cost of the day and confirm on the operator's own listing whether your fare already contains it. The Government of The Bahamas arrivals and departures page is the official reference for the tax itself.

Food is the other quiet cost. A day trip gives you roughly 5.5 to 6 hours on Bimini, and that window spans at least one meal. Restaurant prices on the island run higher than mainland Florida, since most goods arrive by boat. A realistic planning range for a casual lunch and drinks is $25 to $60 per person, but treat that as a planning range and check current menus, not a promise. Some travelers pack snacks for the crossing and eat one meal ashore, which is the standard money-saving move.

Optional activities are the third bucket. The Bimini or Grand Bahama Island Day Cruise sells an optional Pig Beach add-on purchased onboard, and no verified price for that add-on exists anywhere in our research, so we will not print one. If swimming with pigs is the reason you are going, budget for it as an unknown and ask the operator at booking. Everything else on a Bimini day, the beaches, the walking, the swimming off the public shoreline, is free once you are ashore.

How Do The Two Islands Compare On Cost?

The two-island US2U trip, Miami: Bimini or Grand Bahama Day Trip by Ferry, starts at $284 and is the highest-rated product on the entire roster at 4.5 across 453 reviews. Bimini sailings give you about 5.5 hours on the island after a 2-hour crossing; Grand Bahama sailings give about 4 hours after a 3-hour crossing. Which island you get depends on the sailing date, not on your choice at booking.

That last point is worth underlining because it affects how you plan your money. The listing states plainly that the island, Bimini or Grand Bahama, depends on the sailing date. If your heart is set on one specific island, the honest move is to check which island your date serves before booking, rather than assuming you can select it in a dropdown. Both islands deliver a genuine Bahamas day, but they are different days with different spending patterns. More of these guides are collected on Bahamas Day Tours From Miami.

Bimini is small, walkable from the ferry terminal area, and cheap to enjoy on foot. Grand Bahama, through Freeport, is a bigger island where a day-tripper's spending tends to tilt toward organized activities or transport. Neither is more expensive at the fare level: the same $284 covers both, because the fare is for the crossing and the island time, not for a specific destination. Our Bimini vs Freeport comparison guide breaks down what each island actually offers for the day.

Here is how the island options stack up across the roster:

What Is The Cheapest Way To Do A Bahamas Day Trip?

The absolute floor is $270 per person, and two products sit there: Gray Line's full package from Fort Lauderdale and Gray Line's Economy ferry-tickets-only fare. For most people the full package is the true cheapest option, because the ticket-only fare excludes hotel pickup and carries no free cancellation, and a single missed departure or schedule change can wipe out the $0 you saved. Below $270 there is currently no verified bookable day trip from the Miami area.

The ticket-only product deserves a plain description, because it is easy to oversell and we will not. It is an Economy class ferry ticket, full stop. Check-in runs 6:15 to 8:15am with departure about 7:00 to 9:00am, the day is about 15 hours door to door, and you make your own way to Port Everglades at 2021 Eller Drive in Fort Lauderdale. There is no hotel pickup and no free cancellation. Its review pool is the thinnest on the roster, 3.3 across 15 reviews, which is not a verdict on quality so much as a small sample. For a deeper look at bare-fare versus package trade-offs, see our piece on the cheapest way to get from Miami to the Bahamas.

One thing no honest cost guide should do is dangle a cheaper option that does not exist. There is no ferry or day-cruise product to Nassau from Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Palm Beach, so no sea fare to Nassau can be quoted at any price. A Nassau day trip requires a roughly 1-hour flight, and we do not sell flights or quote airfares. For the sea options that do exist, the numbers in this guide are the whole market.

What Extra Costs Should You Budget Beyond The Fare?

Plan on four cost buckets beyond the ticket: the $20 per person Bahamas departure tax for travelers aged 6 and over, where not bundled; food and drink on the island, realistically $25 to $60 per person for a casual day; optional paid activities such as the onboard Pig Beach add-on, price unverified; and ground transport to Port Everglades if your package lacks hotel pickup. Everything else, beaches and wandering, costs nothing.

Ground transport is the bucket people forget until the night before. If your trip includes Miami or Miami Beach hotel pickup, it is covered. If it does not, Port Everglades sits about 30 to 45 minutes north of Miami, and you need to price that drive, a rideshare, or a parking day at the terminal. For a family of four, a round-trip rideshare from South Beach can approach the cost of upgrading to a pickup-included package, which is exactly why the $284 to $299 transfer-inclusive trips exist.

The departure tax deserves one more practical note. It is a real, general fact of Bahamas departures, listed on the Government of The Bahamas arrivals and departures page, and the honest position is that bundling varies by operator. Do not let anyone tell you a specific tour definitely includes or excludes it without pointing at that operator's own fare terms. Our passport and documents guide covers the paperwork side of the same border crossing, including the immigration arrival form you will complete on the way in.

Is A Bahamas Day Trip Worth The Price?

For a same-day visit to a foreign country out of Miami, $270 to $299 is a defensible price, and the roster's review history supports that: the deepest pool, 681 reviews on the Admiral Tours Miami's Miami Beach trip, sits at 4.1, and the highest-rated trip, 4.5 across 453 reviews, costs $284, mid-band. The value case rests on the day being genuinely international and on free cancellation giving you a low-risk way to commit early.

The worth question is really a fit question. If you measure the day in hours on the island, the arithmetic is blunt: roughly 4 to 6 hours ashore inside an 11 to 15 hour door-to-door day. Travelers who love the crossing itself, the open Gulf Stream water, the arrival into a small Bahamian port, tend to rate these trips highly. Travelers who want maximum beach time per dollar sometimes chafe at the transit share. Our longer treatment of this question, with the review evidence laid out, is in is a Bahamas day trip from Miami worth it.

Two practical notes protect the value. First, book with free cancellation where the roster offers it, which is every trip except the ticket-only fare, and lock the date early since sailings run on fixed days per week rather than daily. Second, check the operator's live schedule before you anchor your plans to a specific weekday, because the sailing calendar shifts seasonally and a fare is only good if a boat leaves that day.

Here is the full cost picture for a solo adult, using the mid-band $284 trip as the example:

The bottom line on money: budget the fare plus the departure tax, a meal ashore, and ground transport for a comfortable day on the mid-band trips, more if you add a paid excursion, and expect the fare itself to be the smallest surprise on the bill. The fare is the one part of the day that is transparent, comparable, and, on this roster, remarkably uniform.

Common Questions About Bahamas Day Trip Costs