Exuma

Why Exuma works

Exuma stretches across more than 365 small cays running roughly 120 kilometres through the central Bahamas, most uninhabited and reachable only by charter boat, giving the chain a castaway character increasingly rare in the wider Caribbean. Big Major Cay, better known simply as Pig Beach, has become the archipelago's most photographed stop — a resident population of feral pigs, of uncertain origin but now thoroughly accustomed to visitors, swim out to greet arriving boats in shallow, brilliantly clear water, an image that circulates constantly on social media but remains genuinely as described in person. Thunderball Grotto, a partially submerged limestone cave used as a filming location for the James Bond film of the same name, can be swum into at low tide, sunlight streaming through a natural skylight onto schools of sergeant major fish circling the cavern. George Town, the chain's main settlement, hosts the annual Family Island Regatta each April, a wooden sloop sailing race that has run since 1954 and draws sailors from across the Bahamian out-islands. Iguana-populated islets near Allen's Cay let visitors watch the endangered Northern Bahamian rock iguana at close range in one of the species' few remaining strongholds. Sandbars that emerge only at low tide create surreal, ankle-deep swimming spots seemingly in the middle of open ocean, a favourite stop on the day-charter circuit run out of George Town's marina. Exuma's appeal rests almost entirely on its water — the palette of blues here, from pale turquoise shallows to deep indigo channel drops, is considered among the most vivid anywhere in the Caribbean, and most visitors structure their days entirely around boat-based exploration rather than any single land-based sight.

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