ishkribbl

I would like to combine a few days in the Georgetown area of Exuma with a few days on Staniel Cay but cannot seem to find a reasonable (not private charter) connection between the two islands. Anyone done this and know of an affordable way to do it? Thanks for any advice!

blamona

private charter is the only way, unless you fly back to Ft. Lauderdale and back. (still costs round trip about the same as a charter)

ishkribbl

wow- hate to hear that since it is so close- would it be any better to go back to Nassau or worse? Thanks for your help.

blamona

I don't think Nassau has any flights to Staniel Cay. I tried to combo Staniel with Great Exuma-only way I could come up with is back to Ft. Lauderdale.

Check out Staniel Cay Yacht Club's website for ways of getting there.

Out Islands, against what the mind thinks, are pretty hard to "hop" and have multiple destinations on trip. There are "groups" you can do. Probably easier to combine Long Island by day trip boat trip from Georgetown.

caribtraveler

Flamingo Air flies from Nassau to Staniel Cay daily, twice a day. Round trip cost is about $200/person. I'm still deciding whether to use them for a June trip or use the private charter from Fort Lauderdale. Flamingo is much cheaper.
http://www.flamingoairbah.com/

ishkribbl

Thanks. I did look at the Staniel Cay website but the part with the link to the plane service they use would not come up so I will have to try the phone number. I was hoping maybe that service would pick us up in Georgetown (I want to use Delta FF to go and come from there if I can work it out).
I have been to Long Island and don't really care to repeat that this trip. I have never been to SC and am very interested but since it has been about 15 years since I was on Great Exuma and my husband has never been there I was trying to make it work to combine them. I do know what you mean about island to island because I spent a lot of time once trying to combine Green Turtle and Elbow on a trip and it is nearly impossible but can be done. We are already booked for Eleuthera in April.
Thanks for the help and suggestions-don't do groups but I was desperate enough to look at Majestic again to see if they had combined these two places on one of their two or three island hopping packages but it is not a choice.
Have you used a private charter company down there and, if so, which one would you recommend?

caribtraveler

Here are their flight times from my phone conversation with them a couple of weeks ago.

Nassau to Staniel Cay twice daily:
8am and 2pm departures

Staniel Cay to Nassau twice daily:
8:45am and 2:45pm departures

ishkribbl

Thanks- I had already looked at their website and wondered, however, over the long flying time from Nassau to SC- I know it is a little plane but I wonder if it makes a stop of if it really takes 2 or 2 1/2 hours- did they say?
Thanks again for the help.

caribtraveler

I did not ask about a stopover. I did wonder too. It's either a stopover or they're padding for island time. I would call them.

I made a mistake for the departure time from Nassau to Staniel Cay. The first one is 9am not 8am.

ishkribbl

Thanks. When we fly Southern Air out of Nassau in April I plan to check out the other small airlines in the commuter terminal to see if I can find out anything if I don't know before then- I can't see us going to SC before next year but I was just starting to look into it. Please let me know how your trip works out and any suggestions you would have post-trip. Thanks for the help.

lt20

We were in Staniel in August, so I am a big fan - I would not limit your time there too much, so much to explore! We flew Watermakers, which is more expensive than Flamingo, but we had free tix to Ft Lauderdale so it was cheaper overall for us. Ohmygosh you will LOVE Staniel!!