How Much Does Swimming With Pigs Cost In The Bahamas?

Across the bookable roster, swimming with pigs from Nassau costs from $75 per person for a Rose Island resort beach day to $4,000 per group for a private plane charter to the Exumas. The middle of the market sits between $129 and $179 per person, which covers most Rose Island tours with lunch included. Full-day Exuma speedboat trips run higher, from $378 to $439 per person, and plane-based trips sit above that.

That spread is wide because it covers four genuinely different products. A water taxi ride to a Rose Island beach club, a speedboat dash to two islands, an eight-hour open-water run to Big Major Cay, and a chartered flight are all sold under the same "swimming pigs" label, and the price differences between them track distance, boat type and what is included far more than they track quality.

The Ministry of Tourism's official page names Big Major Cay in the Exumas as the original home of the famous swimming pigs, with about 20 pigs and piglets living on the uninhabited cay. Getting to that colony from Nassau costs real money: operators report the cay sits roughly 82 to 86 miles southeast of the city, which means fuel, a big boat and a long day. The Rose Island pigs, by contrast, are a separate local colony about 20 to 30 minutes from Nassau by boat, per operator reports and the cruise port's Rose Island page, which is why those tours start below the three-figure mark.

Before comparing individual listings, it helps to see the four price bands side by side. The table below uses the exact endpoints from the current tour roster, so every figure is a real bookable price rather than a planning guess.

If you are early in the planning stage and still deciding which side of the water the pigs should be on, the Rose Island versus Exuma comparison walks through the tradeoffs in detail. This guide stays on the money question.

What Drives The Price Of A Pig Beach Tour?

Four factors explain almost the entire price spread: the distance to the pig colony, whether lunch and drinks are included, whether the boat is shared or private, and whether the trip involves a flight. Distance is the biggest single driver, since the jump from Rose Island to Big Major Cay adds hours of fuel burn and a much larger vessel.

Start with distance. A Rose Island tour burns perhaps half an hour of boat time each way, so a modest vessel covers the route cheaply. The Exuma run is a different proposition: operators report one-way speedboat crossings of roughly one to three hours depending on conditions, over open water. That demands a bigger boat, more fuel and a crew paid for a full day, which is why every Exuma speedboat listing on the roster starts at $378 or more.

Second, inclusions. The cheapest Rose Island listings are transportation and entry and nothing else. The "Water Taxi, No Meal" listing, from $89 per person, covers the pigs beach entry fee and a guide, with no meal included. Step up to the "Private Beach Club, Lunch" listing at from $129 and the listing includes a Bahamian lunch, one soft drink, beach chairs, snorkel gear and paddle boards, with all fees and taxes in the price. That roughly $40 gap is mostly the food.

Third, private versus shared. A shared boat splits costs across strangers; a private charter prices the whole vessel. The gap is dramatic: the "Self-Drive Speedboat" listing runs from $150 per person on a shared self-drive basis, while the "Private Charter, Snorkel and Turtles" listing runs from $775 per group for a four-hour private charter with rum punch, soda, snorkel gear and private transportation.

Fourth, the flight factor. The roster's one private plane listing, the "By Plane, Sharks and Pigs" tour, runs from $4,000 per group for seven to nine hours. An operator page reports a shared-seat equivalent at $750 to $850 per person with a roundtrip flight to Staniel Cay, a local boat tour and lunch, though that figure is reported rather than on the roster.

Comparing their inclusions line by line is the fastest way to see what each extra dollar buys.

What Is The Cheapest Way To Swim With Pigs In Nassau?

The lowest firm price in the Rose Island set is the Sand Dollar Resort Day listing at from $75 per person, which includes round trip water transportation, snorkel gear, kayaks, paddle boards, beach volleyball and the swimming pig experience, with no meal included. Below that, nothing on the roster swims with pigs for less. The cheapest with-meal option starts at from $129. If you were hoping to skip paying altogether, our guide to whether swimming with pigs is ever free explains why every route to the pigs costs money.

The Sand Dollar listing, "Sand Dollar Resort Day, No Meal", is the floor of the market: from $75 per person for a four-hour shared day with no meal or drinks included. Its rating is 4.0 from 137 reviews. You trade lunch and polish for price, and you bring your own food budget.

Close behind it sit two other genuine budget options. The water taxi listing runs from $89 per person, rated 4.5 from 656 reviews, but it is deliberately bare: the listing includes the pigs beach entry fee and a guide, and no meal. The express trip "2 Islands, Under 3 Hours" runs from $79 per person, rated 4.1 from 255 reviews, covering two islands in under three hours with lounge chairs, pig swimming and pig feeding described in the inclusions, and the meal and drinks are not stated, so check the live listing.

The water taxi deserves its solo mention because it is the clearest example of the unbundled price: the fare is low because almost nothing is bundled. If you eat before departure and treat lunch as a separate cost, the total day can still land in double figures per person.

Note what the cheap band shares: no listed lunch. Once a Bahamian lunch, a soft drink and beach club facilities enter the picture, the price steps up to the $129 to $180 range, which is the honest answer to anyone hoping for a bare-bones day with food included.

For most budget travelers the practical choice is between the $79 express trip and the $89 water taxi, and the difference is format rather than price: the express listing describes a two-island boat trip with pig feeding, while the water taxi is closer to a ferry-and-beach-club day. Free cancellation is listed on both.

How Much Does It Cost To Go To Pig Island?

"Pig Island" usually means Big Major Cay in the Exumas, the official home of the swimming pigs, and reaching it from Nassau costs from $378 per person by speedboat on the current roster, with the other two Exuma speedboat listings at $438.90 and $439. An operator page reports shared plane trips at $750 to $850 per person, and the roster's private plane charter runs from $4,000 per group. However you choose to get out to the pigs, our guide to what to wear and pack for a swimming pigs trip covers the essentials for the day on the water.

If your mental image of swimming with pigs is the famous open-water swimmers, that is Big Major Cay, and that picture costs real money to reach from Nassau. The Ministry of Tourism's page confirms the cay is uninhabited and home to about 20 pigs and piglets, visited by day trips. The roster's speedboat options are the "Exuma Powerboat, All-Inclusive Day" listing at from $439 (4.8 from 536 reviews, eight hours, lunch and drinks listed), the "Exuma Island Hopping, Lunch" listing at from $438.90 (4.8 from 688 reviews), and the "8-Hour Exuma Trip, Iguanas" listing at from $378 per person, which carries only 12 reviews, too few for a star claim. Before you commit to a full-day trip, our guide to whether the swimming pigs are still open for visitors confirms the experience is still running.

The step above speedboat is flight. The "7 Stops, Premium, Pickup" listing runs from $850 (4.8 from 580 reviews) and includes the roundtrip flight to the Exumas, hotel pickup, a small-group boat averaging eight guests, lunch with vegan and gluten-free options on request, and snorkel gear. An operator page separately reports shared-seat plane days at $750 to $850 per person, rising to the top of that range in the March to July peak.

The powerboat listing, with 536 reviews, is a well-reviewed way to buy the full Big Major Cay day, and its inclusions read as genuinely all-inclusive: lunch, beer, bottled water and snacks are all listed.

How Much Do Multi-Stop Snorkel And Pig Combos Cost?

The multi-stop combos run from $122.85 to $210 per person, pairing the pig swim with reef snorkeling, turtle watching and extra islands. The most reviewed option in the whole roster sits here: 4.3 from 3,591 reviews at from $122.85 per person, which costs only a little more than the meal-free Rose Island listings while including lunch and drinks.

This mid-band is where value concentrates. The "3 Islands, English and Spanish" listing is the roster's most reviewed product at 4.3 from 3,591 reviews, from $122.85 per person, four hours, with lunch, drinks, snorkeling gear, kayaks and visits to Green Cay and Rose Island, offered in English and Spanish. At the premium end of the band, the "3 Stops, 5 Hours 30 Minutes" listing runs from $149 with a 4.9 rating from 414 reviews, over five hours and thirty minutes with a vegan and vegetarian lunch, rum punch and a washroom on board.

The 3 Stops listing earns its solo slot: the catamaran format, three islands and a stated vegan option make it the combo most worth its premium for slower-paced travelers.

Read the 5.0 rating on the Reef Snorkel listing carefully: it comes from 25 reviews, a small pool, so it is a strong early signal rather than a proven track record. The combo band's real anchors are the listings with four-figure review counts.

What Do Private Pig Charters Cost?

Private pig charters on the roster run from $179 for a private half day with lunch to $850 per group for a three-hour-and-thirty-minute private boat with snacks, drinks and a restroom on board. The self-drive speedboat option, from $150 per person, is technically private-format but priced per seat, and the plane charter at from $4,000 per group is the ceiling.

Private pricing splits by what you are buying. The "Private Half Day, Lunch Included" listing is the entry point at from $179 for a four-hour private half day with lunch, air-conditioned vehicle and boat transportation, rated 4.1 from 30 reviews. The "Private Charter, Snorkel and Turtles" listing runs from $775 per group for four hours with rum punch, soda, ice, bottled water, snorkel gear and private transportation, rated 4.6 from 245 reviews, the strongest review base of any private listing. The "Private, Green Turtle Cay, Snacks" listing runs from $850 per group for three hours and thirty minutes, rated 4.8 from 22 reviews.

The self-drive option deserves its own sentence because it confuses people: the "Self-Drive Speedboat" listing is listed as private-format but priced from $150 per person for two hours, including the speedboat, pig swimming, snorkel gear and a banana boat ride. You drive the boat yourself rather than renting the whole vessel, which is why the pricing looks per-seat.

For a group of six, the $775 charter works out to about $129 each, close to one shared lunch tour per person, plus a $20 per person cash fee at the pig beach that the listing excludes.

If you are weighing shared versus private on factors beyond price, the private or group pig tour comparison lays out the full decision. For timing your purchase, the best time to swim with the pigs matters more than most price shoppers expect, since the reported plane pricing peaks in the March to July window.

Are Cruise Excursions Or Independent Tours Cheaper?

On reported figures, cruise-line pig excursions run $129 to $198 per adult, which overlaps the independent Rose Island market rather than undercutting it. The independent listings at from $75 to $109 beat the reported excursion floor, but the cheapest ones include no meal, and cruise excursions bundle port pickup timed to the ship.

Cruise-port pig excursions across several major lines run $129 to $198, with child fares around $149 on some sailings, mostly in the Rose Island format. Those figures are reported aggregator pricing, not roster prices, so treat them as orientation. What the roster shows firmly is that independent bookings span the same territory: from $75 with no frills, from $129 with lunch and beach club access.

The tradeoff is structure versus money. An excursion booked through the ship is timed against the sailing and starts near the pier; the Nassau cruise port docks all ships at Prince George Wharf, and several roster listings use meeting points within walking distance of it, including Señor Frog's on Woodes Rodgers Walk for the Tour Daddy listings. An independent tour can cost half as much, but the meeting-point logistics and the all-aboard clock are yours to manage. For the full timing math, the cruise day guide covers it.

One figure to keep in mind when comparing: Exuma boat tours are tight against a standard cruise day, with reported returns around 4:30 to 5:30 PM. Most cruisers pricing a pig swim should be comparing Rose Island listings, not the $439 Exuma day.

What Extras Add To The Total Trip Cost?

Beyond the ticket price, the recurring extras are the meal you bring or buy on no-meal listings, snorkel gear deposits where a listing charges one, hotel transfers where pickup is not included, and tips for the crew. The roster lists free cancellation on every pig tour, so repricing risk is low, but food and transfer costs can add to the budget listings' total.

The no-meal listings are the main source of hidden cost. On a $75 or $89 ticket, lunch is yours to source, and a meal at the Arawak Cay Fish Fry area or a downtown spot is a separate line in the day's budget. Price your own appetite rather than trusting a round number from a forum.

Deposits appear in one place on the roster: the Sandy Toes six-hour day lists a refundable $10 deposit for snorkel equipment, alongside its from $258 price, 4.7 rating from 1,282 reviews, full Bahamian lunch, standard alcoholic beverages and round trip boat transportation from the Paradise Island Ferry Terminal. Everything else either includes gear in the listing or does not mention it, in which case check the live listing before budgeting.

Transfers matter on the listings flagged as starting at a meeting point. The water taxi and group beach day listings include no hotel pickup; several others, including the "Lunch Plus Transportation" listing at from $179 and the "Beach Club Lunch, Pickup Included" trip at from $139 per person, list hotel pickup outright, which is worth the premium if your hotel sits far from the departure point. Compare the pickup-included listings against your own transfer estimate rather than a published taxi fare.

How Do You Pick The Right Price Band?

Match the band to what you actually want from the day: under the $109 mark for the pig swim itself with no frills, $122.85 to $180 for lunch, gear and beach club comfort, $150 to $210 for multi-stop snorkel combos, and $378 and up for the famous Big Major Cay colony. Buying one band up from your instinct is usually better value than buying two bands up.

The budget band answers one question: can I swim with the pigs near Nassau today. The answer is yes, from $75, and the trade is food, flexibility and crowd tolerance. The mid band is where most travelers land, because the lunch, chairs, restrooms and gear convert a boat ride into a beach day. The combo band adds turtles and reefs for people whose priority is the water rather than the pigs alone. The Exuma band is for travelers who specifically want the Big Major Cay pigs, the ones from the famous photographs, and who accept that the picture costs $378 or more per person.

Two purchasing habits keep the price honest. First, compare the same band, not the whole market: the $89 water taxi and the $439 powerboat day are not competitors, and reading them against each other just confuses the budget. Second, use the free cancellation that every roster listing carries: lock the listing that fits now, then reprice if your plans shift. That advice, and the honest bracketing of the market by price, is what Swim With Pigs Nassau is for.

Common Questions About Swimming Pigs Costs