Best Time to Visit Pig Beach
The pigs are there year-round; the sea is not always co-operative. Dry season, hurricane season, water clarity and crowds, and which months suit an Exuma crossing.
The pigs do not have a season. They are on the beach every day of the year, and every tour in this catalogue runs year-round. What changes is the sea between you and them, and on an Exuma day trip that is roughly four hours of your day.
The short answer: December to April for the most reliable boat weather, May to August for the clearest water, and a real note of caution over August to early October, when the hurricane risk peaks.
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Dry season, December to April
This is the Bahamian high season and the most dependable stretch for anything involving a boat. Nassau sits in the 70s to low 80s Fahrenheit, humidity is down, and rain is infrequent. March and April are usually singled out as the most settled of all.
For an Exuma crossing that matters more than it does for a twenty-minute run to Rose Island. A two-hour passage each way in a fast boat is pleasant in settled conditions and genuinely unpleasant in a swell, and this is the window least likely to produce one.
The cost is crowds and price. This is when cruise traffic peaks and when the popular tours sell out furthest ahead. One thing in your favour: every tour on this site cancels free up to 24 hours before departure, so booking well ahead in high season carries no real penalty.
Bring a layer. One operator specifically advises a beach towel between December and March, and a wet deck at 22°C with wind over it is colder than the forecast suggests.
May to August — the clearest water
If the snorkelling half of these tours matters to you, this is the better window. Sea temperatures around Nassau sit near 74–76°F for much of the year, and visibility is at its best between May and August, when it can exceed 100 feet.
Given that most Nassau-area pig tours bundle a reef stop and a turtle flat, and that the Exuma trips add a sunken plane wreck and sandbar swims, clear water changes the quality of half the itinerary. Late May and June sit in a useful gap — clarity improving, hurricane risk still low, high-season pricing easing.
Heat and humidity climb through this period, and afternoon showers become normal. They tend to pass quickly and rarely cancel a tour.
August to early October — the months to think hardest about
Hurricane season officially runs June to November, with the peak risk between August and early October.
That does not mean a trip is a bad idea. It means the probability of disruption is materially higher, and disruption here is not just a cancelled tour — an Exuma day trip needs settled seas across open water, so it is among the first things to be pulled when a system is anywhere in the region.
If you are travelling in this window: book the Nassau-area tours rather than the Exumas if your dates are fixed, keep a spare day, and rely on the free cancellation rather than on optimism. Prices and crowds are at their lowest, which is a genuine argument for it if you have flexibility.
November — the quiet one
Hurricane season formally runs to the end of November, but risk drops sharply through the month while dry-season conditions start to settle in. Crowds and prices have not yet climbed to December levels.
It is the best value-to-conditions month on the calendar for this particular trip, with the caveat that it is a shoulder month and a bad week is possible.
Month by month, for a pig tour specifically
| Months | Boat conditions | Water clarity | Crowds | Verdict for Pig Beach |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| December – February | Settled, cooler, windier days possible | Good | High | Reliable; bring a layer |
| March – April | The most settled of the year | Good | Highest | Best for an Exuma crossing |
| May – June | Settled, warming | Excellent | Easing | Best overall balance |
| July – August | Hot, humid, afternoon showers | Excellent | Moderate | Fine near Nassau; watch the forecast for Exuma |
| September – early October | Peak disruption risk | Very good | Lowest | Cheapest; keep a spare day |
| Late October – November | Improving steadily | Good | Low | Quietly the best value |
What time of day?
Morning, on any tour. Wind builds through a Bahamian afternoon, the sea gets choppier, and the light for photographs is better early. It also matters for the pigs themselves: they are fed by arriving boats all day, and a colony on its fourth group of the afternoon is less interested than the same animals at ten in the morning.
The $67 water taxi runs at 9:30am and 11:30am; take the earlier one. Every Exuma day trip leaves around 9:00am because the distance gives it no choice.
Does weather cancel these tours?
Frequently enough that operators say so in writing. Several listings in this catalogue state that the itinerary may change or the trip may be rescheduled for weather or sea state, with a full refund or a rebooking offered — one Exuma operator makes that explicit.
The practical advice is the same in any month: book the tour early in your stay rather than on your last day, so a weather cancellation has somewhere to move to. Every tour here cancels free up to 24 hours ahead, which makes that cost nothing.
Our tour-by-tour picks note each operator’s own weather policy, and Pig Beach versus Rose Island explains why the crossing matters so much more on one than the other.
Meet the Pigs on Your Own Terms
Thirty-four bookable pig tours from Nassau, from a $67 water taxi to a full day in the Exumas. Every one on this site cancels free up to 24 hours ahead.
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