The Bahamas Travel Forum

We were looking forward to going down to the Bahamas this fall. But two things have decided us against doing this.

1) The Homeland Security powers that be in Florida have decided that for every private boat that comes into Florida all aboard must go in person to the immigration office to check in. Since the immigration offices are usually some distance from the harbor or marina, and since most people on boats don't have cars with them, this means an expensive taxi ride or car rental at the very least. And since the offices aren't always open, and may be overwhelmed by cruise ship and/or plane traffic there have apparently been instances of people waiting more than 24 hours to be processed. There is a $10K fine possible for not complying.

All this does is create problems for law-abiding citizens because you could have several illegal immigrants aboard and they'd never know - they don't come down to the boat to look.

2) The Bahamas has raised their fee for boats from $100 per visit to $300 per visit for a boat over 35 feet and $150 per visit for a boat under 35 feet, and in addition they are apparently charging separately for the dinghy(s) that a boat has. Since we have two, that would mean that we might have to pay $600 for entry. As nice as the Bahamas is, it isn't worth an up front fee of $600 - or even $300 really.