Out past George Town, the water along Great Exuma turns the pale green of a sea-glass bottle, and on the golf course at Emerald Bay the fairways run almost to the sand. The Exumas are a chain of more than 365 islands and cays in the Bahamas, and the big-name resort here is in the middle of a transformation. Beach lovers, families and boaters planning a stay in the chain will find that the lodging picture is changing.
What resorts are there in the Exumas?
The best-known name on the Exumas is Sandals Emerald Bay on Great Exuma, which is closed at the moment and being rebuilt as a Beaches Resort. It closed its doors on August 15, 2024, and the company has not announced when the new resort will open. Until it does, it is not a place to book, and the Exumas are better understood as a chain where the beach, the boat and the cay matter more than the lobby.
Sandals Emerald Bay becomes a Beaches Resort
The property on Great Exuma is undergoing a complete transformation. When it reopens it will be family-friendly, with vacation experiences for guests of all ages, which is a clear change of direction from the Sandals name it carried before. The company says it will communicate the reopening date later, so any plan built around a stay there has to wait for that word.
What stays is the setting. The new Beaches Resort keeps the same dream beach and the spectacular golf course, so the long stretch of sand and the fairways beside it remain the heart of the place. What is new is the family side: enhanced kids and teen clubs, a water playground and new dining options. For parents who want a single address with programs for children of different ages, this is the project to watch.
A Sandals alternative while it is closed
Travelers who had their heart set on a Sandals vacation can look to Sandals Royal Bahamian in Nassau, recently renovated and described as another alternative with an offshore island. It sits on New Providence, not in the Exumas, so it suits a different kind of trip: a resort stay in the capital area rather than a week in the out-islands.
Choosing it means leaving the Exumas out of the plan, or adding them as a separate excursion. Boat travel from Nassau to the Northern Exuma Cays takes approximately one hour, so the chain can still be part of a Nassau-based trip.
Beyond the big resort: how stays in the chain work
The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism lists hotels, mega resorts and fishing lodges across several islands, The Exumas among them. The search lets you filter by amenities such as a casino, children’s activities, a golf course or a spa, and by a nightly rate range, and there is a filter for Clean & Pristine Certified hotels. That is a useful way to see what else is listed for the Exumas at any given moment.
Fishing lodges are a category of their own, and they fit the chain well. Visitors planning to fish should obtain a recreational fishing permit before heading out, and spearfishing with scuba gear is prohibited, while free-diving spearfishing is permitted with a valid permit. Inside the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, no fishing, shelling or conching of any kind is permitted.
Where are they?
The resort is on Great Exuma, the largest island in the Exuma district, and the rest of the chain stretches far to the north and south of it. Great Exuma is 37 miles long, and the whole chain runs 130 miles, so where you sleep decides what you can reach by foot and what needs a boat.
Great Exuma and George Town
Great Exuma covers 61 square miles and holds the main settlement, George Town, founded in 1793. The Sandals Emerald Bay property, soon to be Beaches, belongs to this island, along with its beach and golf course. George Town is the natural base for a stay here, a small harbor town where the island’s daily life gathers.
Just off George Town lies Stocking Island, which has over 6.2 miles of marked trails running all over the island. A map can be picked up at the tourist office in George Town. It is a good option for a day when you want to be on foot rather than on a boat, and a pleasant counterweight to a resort week.
Little Exuma and the Tropic of Cancer
Little Exuma, at 11 square miles, is the smaller sibling. The Tropic of Cancer runs across Pelican Beach there, which is why the beach has the alternate name Tropic of Cancer Beach. It is a good reason for a drive south from the main settlement, with a line on the map to stand beside and the sea close at hand.
Drivers should remember that in Exuma, like all the Bahamas, traffic keeps to the left side of the road. That matters most for anyone arriving from the mainland U.S. and heading out of the airport for the first time.
The cays: Staniel Cay and the northern Exumas
North of Great Exuma the chain breaks into cays, and this is where the famous sights lie. Near Staniel Cay, Pig Beach is a sandy beach occupied by pigs, a popular tourist destination. At Staniel Cay Marina, visitors are allowed to swim with nurse sharks at their own risk, and nurse sharks can bite if you put your hands near their mouths.
Thunderball Grotto sits next to Staniel Cay and is accessible only by boat. The cave itself can be entered by swimming through an opening in the rocks with a snorkel at low tide, or by diving at high tide. In the lagoon of Norman’s Cay, a crashed cargo plane lies in shallow water, and a tour from Staniel Cay or Nassau can take you there if you have no boat of your own.
Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park
Established in 1958, the park is the first marine reserve in the Bahamas and covers 112,640 acres of land and sea. Today it is the most visited national park in the Bahamas, and in 2018 it won the Platinum Global Ocean Refuge Award for meeting the highest science-based standards for biodiversity protection and management.
Wardens and Royal Bahamas Defence Force officers stationed at Warderick Wells patrol the park constantly. The park office keeps set hours, shown here.
| Site | Open |
|---|---|
| Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park office | Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm, Sunday 9am to 12pm |
How do you get there?
Most visitors arrive by air at Exuma International Airport on Great Exuma, which has direct flights from Nassau, Miami, Atlanta, Fort Lauderdale, Charlotte and Toronto. The airport lies near Moss Town, northwest of George Town, and about 10 miles north of the main settlement.
Flying in, airline by airline
Several carriers serve the airport. American Eagle flies to Charlotte and Miami, and American Airlines adds seasonal flights to Charlotte. Delta Connection flies to Atlanta, and Air Canada offers seasonal flights to Toronto-Pearson, which suits travelers coming from Canada.
Bahamasair flies to Nassau and Rock Sound, with seasonal flights to Fort Lauderdale. That Nassau link is the one to note for anyone combining the Exumas with a stay on New Providence.
The airport itself
The airport sits at an elevation of 9 feet above sea level and has one asphalt runway, designated 12/30, measuring 7,051 feet by 151 feet. For private aircraft, Odyssey Aviation operates a fixed-base operator with direct access to the ramp, which matters to those arriving on their own plane.
From the terminal, the road south leads to George Town and the rest of Great Exuma. Remember to drive on the left.
By boat from Nassau
Boat travel from Nassau to the Northern Exuma Cays takes approximately one hour. That makes the northern cays reachable from the capital for travelers who prefer to base themselves on New Providence and visit the chain on an outing. Once in the cays, boats are how you reach Thunderball Grotto, and a tour from Staniel Cay or Nassau reaches the plane wreck at Norman’s Cay if you have no vessel of your own.
Good to know before you go
The U.S. State Department rates the Bahamas Level 2, “Exercise increased caution”, and says most crime occurs in Nassau on New Providence and in Freeport on Grand Bahama.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, so a trip in those months deserves a look at the forecast before and during the stay. Because the reopening date of the Beaches Resort on Great Exuma has not been announced, plans that depend on it should stay flexible. In the park, VHF Channel 16 is monitored 24 hours a day for emergencies, and poaching can be reported anonymously on VHF Channel 09.
Sources
- Sandals Emerald Bay Exuma (official site) (https://www.sandals.com/emerald-bay/), checked October 10, 2026
- Wikipedia, Exuma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exuma), checked October 10, 2026
- Wikivoyage, Exuma travel guide (https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Exuma), checked October 10, 2026
- Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Hotels (https://www.bahamas.com/hotels), checked October 10, 2026
- Bahamas National Trust, Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park (https://bnt.bs/explore/exuma/exuma-cays-land-sea-park/), checked October 10, 2026
- U.S. Department of State, The Bahamas Travel Advisory, Level 2 (https://travel.state.gov/), checked October 10, 2026
- NOAA National Hurricane Center, Climatology (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/), checked October 10, 2026
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