Which Nassau Pig Beach Tour Is Right for You?
Every swimming-pig tour bookable from Nassau compared on price, length, which pigs you meet and what is included — with a clear pick for each kind of traveller.
Thirty-four swimming-pig tours leave Nassau, and the single decision that matters is one that two-thirds of the listings never state in their title: which pigs you are going to meet. The beach in the photographs is 89 miles away in the Exumas. The pigs twenty minutes from the harbour are a different colony on a different island, and roughly a quarter of the price.
Most people should book the 5½-hour catamaran to Rose, Pearl and Athol — $145, rated 4.8 across more than a thousand guests, with snorkelling, a turtle stop, lunch and an open bar (our breakdown). Want the pigs and nothing else, cheaply? The $67 Rose Island water taxi. Want the actual Pig Beach? Exuma Escapes at $378 is the cheapest way there.
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The options side by side
| Tour | From | Length | Rating · Reviews | Which pigs | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rose Island water taxi | $67 | 4 hr | 4.5 · 639 | Rose Island | Cheapest, longest with the pigs |
| Swimming pigs & snorkel | $119 | 2.5 hr | 4.5 · 505 | Athol Island | 2½ hours, cruise-port pickup |
| Pigs, snorkel & beach club | $123 | 4 hr | 4.6 · 1,473 | Rose Island | Leaving from Paradise Island |
| 3 Islands tour | $125 | 4 hr | 4.3 · 3,520 | Rose Island | The safe, most-booked default |
| Snorkel, pigs & turtles | $145 | 5.5 hr | 4.8 · 1,050 | Rose/Pearl/Athol | Most people |
| Exuma powerboat day trip | $329 | 8 hr | 4.7 · 164 | Ship Channel Cay | A full Exuma day, cheapest |
| Exuma Cays pigs & iguanas | $378 | 8 hr | 4.1 · 11 | Big Major Cay | Cheapest to the real Pig Beach |
| Exuma island hopping | $489 | 8 hr | 4.8 · 47 | Big Major Cay | Pig Beach, best reviewed |
| Private boat charter | $700 /group | 3 hr | 4.8 · 17 | Nassau-area | Groups of four or more |
Every figure is the operator’s own GetYourGuide listing at the time of writing. Ratings drift as reviews land; the booking page always shows the current number.
Start here: do you need Big Major Cay specifically?
This is the whole decision, and it is worth being honest with yourself about the answer.
Big Major Cay in the Exumas is Pig Beach. It is where the photographs come from, it is uninhabited, and the pigs there roam free. Getting to it from Nassau means about two hours each way in a fast boat and a day that runs roughly nine to half past four. Three tours on this site go there, starting at $378.
The pigs on Rose, Pearl and Athol islands are twenty to forty minutes from the harbour. They are hand-raised and managed rather than wild, which in practice makes them calmer and more reliably present. You will get the same photograph — a pig paddling towards you in absurdly clear water — for $67 to $145, in half a day.
If you have told people you are going to Pig Beach and you mean that beach, pay the $378. If what you want is the experience rather than the postcode, everything below $150 does it better per hour and per dollar.
The picks
Most people: the 5½-hour catamaran, $145
Snorkeling, Pig Beach, Swim with Turtles, and Lunch is the highest-rated Nassau pig tour that carries real review volume — 4.8 across 1,050 guests, where the tours above it on rating have a handful of reviews each. One catamaran does the whole circuit over three cays, so there is no transferring, and five and a half hours is long enough for each stop to be a stop rather than a pause. Lunch is cooked on board, the bar is open throughout, and gluten-free, vegan and vegetarian meals are made to order.
One number to add before you compare it with anything: the pig interaction — feeding them, getting in the water beside them, holding a piglet — is a $30-per-person add-on, not part of the $145. Full breakdown.
Cheapest, and the most time with the pigs: $67
The Rose Island water taxi does one thing. Thirty minutes across from Señor Frog’s on the downtown waterfront, three hours on the island, thirty minutes back. No reef, no turtles, no lunch.
For a lot of people that is the right trade, because three hours is more time with the animals than the $145 catamaran gives you. The pig beach entry fee is inside the ticket, which is not true of several dearer tours. Two departures a day, at 9:30am and 11:30am. Full breakdown.
The real Pig Beach, cheapest: $378
Exuma Cays Swimming Pigs and Iguanas reaches Big Major Cay for $111 less than the next tour that does. The day covers Allen’s Cay for the endangered rock iguanas, Compass Cay for nurse sharks, the sunken plane wreck off Norman’s Cay viewed from the boat, and a Bahamian lunch ashore.
Be clear about the evidence: 4.1 across 11 reviews is the thinnest record of any tour with a page on this site. That reflects a newer listing rather than a criticised one, but it is much less to go on than the 47 reviews behind the $489 alternative. Full breakdown.
The real Pig Beach, best reviewed: $489
Born Free’s island-hopping day rates 4.8 across 47 reviews and snorkels the plane wreck rather than passing it. Landing fees and food for the pigs are both included. It is a shared boat carrying up to 24 guests.
It will not take cruise passengers. Neither will the $329 Powerboat Adventures trip. Full breakdown.
A full Exuma day for less: $329 — but read the island
Powerboat Adventures’ Exuma day trip has 164 reviews at 4.7, more than the other three Exuma tours combined, and it is the cheapest full day in the chain. It goes to Ship Channel Cay, the operator’s own private island at the northern end of the Exumas, and its listing describes the pigs there as resident.
That is not a criticism — an open bar, a lunch buffet, stingrays, a shark feed and a private island for the day is an excellent way to spend $329. It is simply not the beach from the photographs, and the tour title does not make that obvious. Full breakdown.
Groups of four or more: $700 for the boat
The JNC private charter is not priced per person but per group, so the arithmetic flips as the party grows. At six people it works out near $117 each — about what the shared catamarans charge per person — and nobody else is on the boat. For two people it is an expensive morning.
Note the pig interaction is an add-on here too, and that the listing title says up to seven people while GetYourGuide’s price basis says up to six. Full breakdown.
Before you pay
Check whether feeding the pigs is included. This is the single most common gap between two similar-looking prices. On one catamaran it is $30 per person on top; on a private charter it is an add-on at checkout; on the $67 water taxi the entry fee is inside the fare. The exclusions list on each GetYourGuide listing is where it is disclosed.
If you are on a cruise, check you are allowed before you check the times. Two of the four Exuma operators refuse cruise-ship guests outright. See the cruise-port page for which tours take you.
Bring a towel. Not one of the 34 tours here lists towels under inclusions. Add reef-safe sunscreen and a waterproof camera or a dry bag, because the photograph is most of the reason you are going.
Time with the pigs is not proportional to price. Forty minutes at Big Major Cay on an $489 day; three hours on Rose Island for $67. You are paying for distance and for what surrounds the stop, not for pig time.
Everything here cancels free up to 24 hours ahead. Booking early to hold a date costs nothing, and Bahamian weather moves.
Related reading
- Pig Beach versus Rose Island — the two colonies compared directly
- What it costs to swim with pigs in Nassau — including the add-ons
- Is swimming with pigs safe? — and the 2017 deaths
- Best time to visit — month by month
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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