Ferry To The Bahamas From Miami: The Full Guide

Every year, thousands of people search for a ferry from Miami to the Bahamas, and most of what they find is half right. The boats are real, the islands are real, the two-hour crossing is real. The one thing that is not real is the "from Miami" part of the sentence, because every scheduled passenger ferry on this route leaves from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, roughly 30 to 45 minutes north of Miami. That single fact reshapes the whole day, from your wake-up time to which booking actually makes sense.

This guide is the destination-wide hub for the route. It covers both islands the ferry can reach, Bimini and Grand Bahama, the honest departure-port reality, the paperwork, the prices, and the trade-offs between the eight verified day-trip packages sold on this site. The short version: the trip works, it is genuinely doable in one day, and the right booking depends almost entirely on where you are staying and how much hand-holding you want between your hotel and the dock.

Is There Really A Ferry From Miami To The Bahamas?

Yes, but with one correction that matters: no ferry leaves from Miami proper. Baleària Caribbean operates the only scheduled passenger ferry service between South Florida and the Bahamas, and every sailing departs from Port Everglades, Terminal 21, in Fort Lauderdale. Several day-trip packages solve the gap with hotel pickup from Miami and Miami Beach, so the practical answer for most travelers is yes, a ferry day trip from the Miami area is fully possible.

The route itself is straightforward. Baleària runs high-speed passenger ferries, with the Jaume II as the example vessel on record, on two separate lines out of Port Everglades: one to Bimini, the closer island, and one to Freeport on Grand Bahama. Both are foot-passenger services; you cannot bring a car, which is fine for a day trip and worth knowing before someone in your group starts planning a driving itinerary.

Schedules run year-round but not daily. The operator works on a fixed set of sailing days per week, with extra sailings added in the summer and peak season, so the first planning step is matching your free day to an actual sailing date rather than assuming a boat leaves every morning. The operator's own routes and schedules page is the authoritative source for live dates.

One more thing worth saying plainly, because a surprising amount of search results get it wrong: there is no ferry to Nassau. None. No scheduled sea service of any kind connects Miami, Fort Lauderdale, or Palm Beach to Nassau. A Nassau day trip requires a roughly one-hour flight, which is a different mode of travel from everything this site covers. If your heart is set on Nassau, the ferry route is not your route; if Bimini or Grand Bahama sounds good, read on.

Where Does The Ferry Leave From, And How Long Is The Crossing?

The ferry leaves from Port Everglades, Terminal 21, at 2021 Eller Drive in Fort Lauderdale, about 30 to 45 minutes north of Miami. The Bimini crossing takes about two hours each way, and the Freeport crossing on Grand Bahama takes about three hours each way. Most Miami-based day-trip packages bridge the distance with hotel pickup, turning a roughly 11 to 15 hour door-to-door day.

The departure-port fact is the single most common point of confusion on this route, and it deserves a direct explanation. The vessel never leaves from a Miami dock. What Miami travelers actually book is a package: a coach or transfer collects you from a limited set of Miami or Miami Beach hotels, drives you north to Port Everglades, and you board there. Some listings include that pickup in the fare, and one ticket-only option does not, which is the biggest practical difference between the packages on this site.

The crossing itself is the pleasant part of the logistics. Two hours to Bimini is short enough that the boat barely feels like transportation: breakfast on the outward leg, a drink on the return, and you are there. The Grand Bahama leg is an hour longer in each direction, which trades roughly an hour of island time for a bigger island with more to walk to. On Bimini you get about six hours ashore on the fullest packages; on Grand Bahama, about four.

For a deeper look at the closer island's end of the route, including what the day ashore actually looks like, see the companion guide on the Bimini ferry route from Miami. If the bigger island appeals instead, the Freeport day trip from Miami covers that side in detail.

The flagship package for the Bimini run is the Miami Beach roundtrip with hotel transfers included, rated 4.1 from 681 reviews, the deepest review pool on this entire roster, from $299 per person.

That package is the default recommendation for most first-timers staying in Miami Beach, precisely because the pickup removes the Port Everglades problem entirely.

What Does A Ferry Day Trip Actually Cost?

Verified full-package day trips on this route run from $270 to $299 per person, covering the round-trip ferry and, on most listings, hotel transfer from the Miami or Fort Lauderdale area. The cheapest full package is the Gray Line day trip to Bimini from $270. A ticket-only ferry fare exists from the same $270 base but strips out pickup and free cancellation, so the floor price and the comfortable price are different products.

Price on this route is really a question of what is bundled. Every package on this site is a shared ferry crossing, none is private, and the fare differences come down to three variables: whether hotel pickup is included, how generous the transfer coverage is, and whether the listing allows free cancellation. The table below lays out the verified roster prices side by side.

Two honest footnotes to that table. First, the ticket-only fare at $270 looks identical in price to the full Gray Line package, but it is a different animal: Economy-class ferry ticket, no hotel pickup, and no free cancellation. It suits travelers already near Fort Lauderdale with firm plans; it penalizes everyone else. Second, a separate $20 per person Bahamas departure tax applies to travelers aged 6 and over leaving the Bahamas. Some fares bundle it and some do not, and which applies to which listing is a question for the operator's own live listing, not something to assume either way.

For travelers watching the budget closely, the cheapest way to get from Miami to the Bahamas by sea is covered in more depth elsewhere on this site, and the honest answer is usually the $270 Gray Line full package rather than the same-priced ticket-only fare once you price a rideshare to Port Everglades.

Do You Need A Passport For The Ferry To The Bahamas?

Yes. Bring a valid passport, full stop. The Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative governs sea travel and technically accepts a passport card, Enhanced Driver's License, or approved Trusted Traveler card for the US re-entry side, but the State Department recommends a full passport book for Bahamas travel because a card cannot support an emergency air return. No visa is needed for US citizens staying up to 90 days.

The nuance in that answer is worth unpacking, because it is where day-trippers most often cut corners and regret it. A passport card satisfies the WHTI requirement for sea re-entry into the United States, and closed-loop cruises have their own looser rules. But the Bahamas-side entry on a scheduled ferry is a separate question, and the card's sufficiency there is not independently confirmed as guaranteed. The verified, safe instruction is the one the State Department itself gives: carry a valid passport book. The cost difference between a card and a book is trivial next to the cost of being denied boarding at Terminal 21.

The paperwork on the day itself is light. Every non-resident visitor completes a Bahamas Immigration arrival form on the way in and keeps a stub to surrender on departure. Personal items are declared orally to Customs; anything beyond personal use needs Form C17. On the return leg, US Customs and Border Protection preclearance operates on departures back to the US, and the CBP's WHTI page is the official reference for accepted documents. Mobile Passport Control and Global Entry can speed the return processing, but they supplement your passport, never replace it.

One reassurance for anyone who remembers 2021: no Bahamas travel health visa or e-visa is currently required for US visitors. The COVID-era program is no longer referenced as active on the official arrivals page, though it is the kind of requirement that can be reinstated, so a quick check before travel never hurts. The full document rundown, including the State Department's Bahamas country page advisory context, lives in our passport and documents guide.

Bimini Or Grand Bahama: Which Island Should The Ferry Take You To?

Bimini is the closer, smaller, beach-and-bars island, about two hours each way with roughly six hours ashore on the fullest packages. Grand Bahama, reached at about three hours each way, trades island time for scale: Freeport has a real town, more dining, and more to walk to. One package covers both islands, but which one you get depends on the sailing date, not your choice at booking.

That last point catches people out, so it deserves the clearest possible phrasing. The highest-rated package on the whole roster, rated 4.5 from 453 reviews, from $284, is sold as "Bimini or Grand Bahama" because the operator assigns islands by sailing date. You are not choosing Bimini at checkout; you are buying a day trip to whichever island that date serves. Travelers who need a specific island should book a Bimini-specific package and verify the destination on the listing before paying.

For most first-time day-trippers the honest comparison comes down to temperament. Bimini is walkable, intimate, and built for a single long afternoon: a beach, a stretch of Alice Town, a swim, lunch, done. Grand Bahama suits travelers who would rather have a port town with shops and a wider lunch scene and do not mind the longer crossing. One of the Grand Bahama packages adds an optional Pig Beach excursion, purchased onboard, with no verified price on file, so treat it as a nice surprise rather than a budget line.

The two islands also differ in what the clock allows, and the numbers are worth seeing side by side before you commit.

The side-by-side decision, including what each island actually feels like on the ground, is drawn out fully in our Bimini versus Freeport comparison. The short version for this hub: if this is your first Bahamas day trip and you want the easiest, most-reviewed experience, book Bimini with hotel pickup; if you have done Bimini or want more than a beach afternoon, look at the Grand Bahama dates.

What Does The Ferry Day Actually Look Like, Hour By Hour?

Plan on a 15-hour door-to-door day for the fullest Bimini packages from Miami: early hotel pickup, a drive north to Port Everglades, check-in and boarding, a two-hour crossing, roughly six hours on the island, and the return sailing arriving back at Port Everglades in the evening. The shortest verified itineraries run about 11 hours total, and the ticket-only fare has a check-in window from 6:15 to 8:15 in the morning.

The day starts earlier than most people expect, and that is the Port Everglades fact working through the schedule. A Miami Beach pickup in the early morning, a drive of half an hour or more, a security and immigration check-in at the terminal, and only then the boat. The fullest packages are honest about this: about 15 hours door to door, of which about six are actually on Bimini. The shorter 11-hour itineraries are the ones that either start from Fort Lauderdale itself or trim the island time.

Aboard, the crossing is a normal small-ship experience: indoor and outdoor seating, a bar and cafe, and a Gulf Stream crossing that is usually calm in the right season. Ashore, the time is yours. The packages on this roster are ferry-and-free-time products, not guided tours, which is exactly what most day-trippers want: the boat handles the hard part, and the island is yours to spend as you like. If you want a fuller preview of the day before you commit, our guide to what to expect on a Miami to Bimini day trip walks the whole itinerary.

The one planning rule that matters most: check the sailing calendar before you fix your Miami dates. Because sailings run on set days per week rather than daily, the ferry schedule should anchor the trip, not the other way around. Our Bahamas day trip schedule guide collects the timing realities in one place.

When Is The Best Time Of Year To Take The Ferry?

The shoulder months, April-May and November, are the lowest-risk booking compromise, because they sit between the winter cold-front season and the peak of hurricane season. The official Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 through November 30, and NOAA's 2026 outlook forecasts below-normal activity, but winter cold fronts from December through April can also push rough opposing seas across the Gulf Stream, so no month is guaranteed flat.

The Gulf Stream crossing has two weather personalities, and neither is the one people assume. Summer carries the tropical-system risk window, which is real but forecast to be mild this season. Winter carries cold fronts: strong northerly winds behind a front that oppose the north-flowing current and can build short, steep seas in the Florida Straits for days at a stretch. The NOAA seasonal outlook is the official word on the tropical side.

The practical reading of that table: book shoulder months if your dates are flexible, and in any season, book a package with free cancellation. Seven of the eight listings on this roster offer it, and on a route where a single front can scrub a sailing day, that flexibility is worth more than any fare difference. The one ticket-only exception is non-refundable, which is worth repeating because it is the only place on this site where that warning applies.

Which Ferry Package Should You Actually Book?

Most travelers staying in Miami or Miami Beach should book the roundtrip Bimini ferry with hotel transfers, from $299, because the pickup solves the Port Everglades problem and its 681-review pool is the deepest evidence on the route. Budget travelers with firm plans should take the Gray Line full package from $270. Travelers chasing the best rating, 4.5 from 453 reviews, should take the two-island day trip from $284.

The decision really compresses to three questions. Where are you staying? A Miami Beach hotel puts the $299 flagship package ahead on convenience alone, since the transfer coverage is the widest on the roster. How firm are your plans? Anything less than certain means avoiding the one non-refundable ticket-only fare. And do you care which island? If yes, book Bimini-specific; if no, the two-island package buys you the best rating per dollar.

The Gray Line full package deserves its own word here, because it is the quiet value play: from $270, the cheapest full-package fare on the roster, with hotel pickup and drop-off included and free cancellation, rated 4.1 from 402 reviews. It runs from Fort Lauderdale with about six hours of free time on Bimini and about 11 hours of island time in the itinerary. For anyone staying north of Miami or driving themselves to Port Everglades, it is the obvious pick.

And for completeness, the ticket-only fare at the same $270 base: it is the right product for exactly one reader, the traveler already near the terminal with an immovable schedule. For everyone else it is a false economy, since a rideshare north plus the lost cancellation flexibility eats the difference. Its review pool is the thinnest on the roster at 15 reviews, which says something about who buys it.

Whether the whole idea is worth the early alarm and the long day is a fair question, and one this site answers honestly elsewhere: for most travelers the answer is yes, but it is a real day, not a beach hop. The worth-it question, the family angle, and the packing list each have their own guide, linked from the planning collection on Bahamas Day Tours From Miami.

Common Questions About The Ferry To The Bahamas From Miami