How Far Is Swimming With the Pigs From Nassau?
The two pig beaches are 129 km apart. Here is the travel time, the price and the length of each day, so you book the one you actually want.
Two different beaches in The Bahamas have swimming pigs on them, and they are 129 km apart. Confusing the two is, by the site's own reckoning, the single thing first-timers most often get wrong about a Nassau day. Here is the distance, the travel time and the cost of each, so the choice is made before you book rather than after.
How far is swimming with the pigs from Nassau?
The Rose Island pig beach is about 25 minutes by boat from Nassau harbour. The original Exuma colony at Big Major Cay is about 129 km away, roughly three hours each way by speedboat or about a 30-minute flight to Staniel Cay. Same country, same animals, completely different day. One fits inside a cruise stop. The other does not.
That gap in travel time is the whole comparison. A 25-minute run east past Paradise Island is sheltered for most of its length and can be slotted into a four-hour trip with snorkelling and lunch attached. Six hours of round-trip open water cannot be slotted into anything.
Where exactly are the two pig colonies?
Near Nassau there are pigs on Rose Island, Pearl Island and Athol Island, all within about half an hour of the harbour. The famous one, the beach that generated the photographs, is Big Major Cay in the Exuma Cays. Blue Lagoon Island has no pigs at all, despite how often it comes up in the same search. That last point catches people out regularly.
Rose Island is a long thin cay east of Paradise Island, roughly 14.5 km end to end, with several beach club operators along it. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism keeps an official page on the swimming pigs that treats the colonies as a national attraction rather than a single location, which is a fair reflection of reality. Our guide to the pig beaches near Nassau works through which operator goes where.
What does each day cost, and how long does it take?
The Nassau-area trips currently run $129 for the swimming pigs and private beach club escape and $195 for the full three-island day, both four hours. An Exuma day trip costs roughly $260 to $440 by boat or about $715 to $900 flying, and takes eight to twelve hours door to door. So Exuma is roughly double to five times the price, for three times the day.
| Compared on | Rose Island, off Nassau | Big Major Cay, Exuma |
|---|---|---|
| Distance from Nassau | A short run east of Paradise Island | About 129 km |
| Travel time each way | About 25 minutes by boat | About 3 hours by speedboat, or a 30-minute flight to Staniel Cay |
| Typical price per person | Currently $129 to $195 | Roughly $260 to $440 by boat, $715 to $900 flying |
| Total day length | 4 hours | 8 to 12 hours door to door |
| What else the day includes | Reef snorkelling, the Green Cay turtles, a beach club, lunch | The long run through the Exuma cays; the rest varies by operator, so check the live listing |
| Realistic fit | A cruise stop or a half-day from a Nassau hotel | A full day from a multi-night stay |
Both Nassau options leave from the middle of town. The $129 pigs and beach club boat goes from the Lukka Kairi hub downtown, and the $195 three-island speedboat day adds Green Cay and Pearl Island to the same eastward run. Neither needs a flight, and both have you back well before a late-afternoon sailing.
Boat tours from Nassau harbour
Swimming Pigs & Private Beach Club Escape from Nassau
Four hours from the Lukka Kairi hub downtown. Pig beach plus a beach-club stop, sized for a cruise window or a hotel half-day.
Nassau 3 Islands Tour with Snorkeling, Pig Beach, Turtles & Lunch
The same eastward run with extra island stops, reef time and lunch. Still a four-hour harbour departure.
Rose Island Full-Day Adventure from Nassau – Snorkel, Turtles & Private Beach
Rose Island and Green Cay, with snorkel gear, a turtle stop and a private beach on the listing.
Are the Nassau pigs the real pigs?
Both colonies are real, both are worth seeing, and neither is a copy of the other. The pigs are not native to any of these islands and the origin stories about shipwrecks and sailors are legends rather than established fact, so there is no original in the sense people imagine. What differs is the setting, not the authenticity.
The mistake that ruins a day is booking the 25-minute Rose Island version while picturing the Exuma photographs: an empty sandbar, no other boats, water to the horizon. Rose Island is a working beach club with chairs, a bar and other groups arriving on schedule. Judged as what it actually is, a short boat ride to a pretty cay with pigs, snorkelling and lunch, it does very well. Judged against a photograph taken 129 km away, it disappoints. Our piece on whether swimming with the pigs is worth it takes that argument further.
How much pig time do you actually get?
Roughly 15 to 45 minutes of actual pig contact, depending on the operator and the day, inside a four-hour trip. The pigs are the headline and a small fraction of the running time. The rest is boat, reef, turtles and lunch. Knowing that in advance is most of what separates a good review from a bad one.
Feeding rules matter and they exist for a reason. In 2017 between seven and ten pigs died on Big Major Cay after ingesting sand, linked to tourists feeding them on the beach, and the Bahamian authorities responded with boundary lines, wardens, signage and feeding troughs. The Bahamas Humane Society monitors the colonies and has pushed for stronger protection. The official guidance is simple: only approved food, tossed into the water rather than hand-fed on the sand, and never anything processed.
Which one should you book?
If you are on a ship or have one day in Nassau, book the Nassau-area trip: 25 minutes each way, four hours total, and back long before the gangway closes. If you have a spare full day and the budget, Exuma is the better beach and the better photographs, and it needs its own day from a multi-night stay. Trying to do Exuma on a cruise stop is the version that goes wrong.
We do not sell Exuma day trips; our breakdown of the Exuma pig beach day trip exists so you can price it honestly against the alternative before deciding. If safety in the two places is part of your thinking, we have looked at whether Exuma is safer than Nassau using the actual police figures. And if the answer is the shorter crossing, everything about the destination itself is in our Rose Island guide, alongside the pig and beach-club boat and the three-island day that reach it.