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I returned recently
from a grueling trip to Bimini, Bahamas. Bimini is the closest of
the Bahamas Islands to the US. It is only 60 miles from Miami.
Ironically, it's the most goddamn difficult island of the Bahamas that I've had
to get to. I've flown to Nassau in one day, filmed scenes for a
commercial the next day, and flown all the way back home from Nassau on the
third day, easily and without stress. This trip was nowhere near as
easy. It was one of the most stressful trips I've had to take, because
these days, if you miss your connection, you are sh** out of luck with the
airlines and have to find a way home by relying on the largesse and
professionalism of the airline that is supposed to fly you back.
Here’s a summary in case you don’t want to read the
excruciating details below:
How to get to Bimini: I suggest
using Sky Bahamas from Fort Lauderdale to get to and from Bimini. I suggest avoiding flying Silver Airways or
taking the “Fast Ferry” to Bimini.
My friends Deb and Vince, of Epic Diving, just wrote:
"Bimini is worth not giving up on :) Sky Bahamas definitely has a more reliable flight schedule. I believe they have added flights from Florida to Bimini, but need to double check. I know that they fly to Bimini from Nassau, as does Western Air."
Where to stay on Bimini: in most
cases, your group will already be staying at the Bimini Big Game Lodge. It’s the biggest hotel on North Bimini, which
has more “other” restaurants and sights than South Bimini. The Bimini Sands is on South Bimini and is
the only hotel there. If you are at the
Bimini Big Game Lodge, try your utmost to get a ground floor room. All the rooms are the same distance from the
boat and diving area, save for the second floor rooms, which involve far more
walking distance and stairs. The Big
Game Lodge has individual “cottages” which are within 20 feet of the other
rooms. Those cottages would be fine to
stay in but cost a bit more.
On South Bimini Island, where the airport is, there is one and only one hotel, which is the Bimini Sands hotel. There is not much else on South Bimini. Folks must take a very short ferry ride to North Bimini in order to eat anywhere other than the Bimini Sands.
Deb of Epic Diving just told me that there is another hotel that divers can stay at on North Bimini Island. Here's what Deb wrote:
"We have been staying at either the Bimini Big Game Club or the Sea Crest Hotel, both on North Bimini. The Big Game Club has more of a resort feel with marina, pool, bar, and restaurant on site. The Sea Crest has more of a motel feel but offers and onsite marina and clean rooms with AC and mini-fridge. There is no restaurant or bar which, honestly, the guests enjoyed because they were "forced" to explore a variety of restaurants on the island."
Lastly, I'd should mention that when I got back home, I called Silver Airways and cancelled the flight back that I had with them later that week. I told them the reasons why I did not wish to take that upcoming flight, and the agent immediately refunded my ticket cost. I later wrote Silver Airways and asked that they refund my checked baggage fee, since the bags arrived late. They never replied. I disputed the charge with my credit card company, and after a few weeks, the credit card company refunded my account for this $25. Small amount but a satisfying outcome.
********
In February, I traveled to Bimini Island, Bahamas, to join a
group to photograph great hammerhead sharks.
I’ve posted a video clip from that one-day shoot (which was supposed to
last a week). We got weathered out, but
I found out a lot about the logistics of getting to and from Bimini which I
will share here. If you wish to go on
one of these great hammerhead shark trips, I give tips on what you might want
to look for in such a trip.
Getting to Bimini:
Bimini is only 60 miles from Miami, and it is the closest of
all the Bahamas Islands to the mainland USA.
It’s therefore ironic that I have had the most trouble getting to Bimini
and getting off – and the most trouble finding good intel on how to best get
there – than any other trip to the Bahamas that I have ever done. I’ve been to the Bahamas perhaps 20 times in
my career: by boat several times for Tiger Beach and dolphins; quick one-day
shoots to Stuart Cove’s on Nassau, and most recently, Cat Cay for oceanic
whitetip sharks. I’ve never had as much
trouble or worry about reaching my destination as this trip.
Bimini was a real hassle to get to because the airline that
was recommended to me is so unreliable.
Several folks told me that Silver Airways from Fort Lauderdale was the
best way to reach Bimini. They stressed
that Silver does charge for checked baggage, but I researched this, and while
they do charge $25 for the first checked bag and a bit higher for the second,
it was not a big deal.
What WAS a big deal is that, for the five days prior to my
flight, Silver Airways did not make any flights from FLL to Bimini. Friends of mine on the same trip, who had
flown in from Hong Kong, were scheduled to fly out to Bimini the day before
me. Instead, their plane never arrived,
and all the hotels in the area were supposedly booked and unavailable. My two friends, who are world travelers and
divers, had to sleep in the Fort Lauderdale airport overnight! My plane was full of tired folks who were
relieved to finally catch a flight to Bimini.
There may have been folks there who had spent more than just one night
at the airport!
Because the plane was so full, Silver Airways decided,
without telling anyone, to remove 75% of the luggage on the plane. Therefore, once we all arrived in Bimini,
most folks’ luggage was missing. We were
assured that our luggage would arrive the next day, but to tell the truth, the
customer service agents were so unfriendly and uncommunicative, I had little
faith that my bag of diving and camera gear would indeed arrive the next
day.
Some folks had mentioned “The Fast Ferry To Bimini from
Miami.” I had heard that it was
unreliable. They have a nice website but
it does not give great times or dates.
The website is a bit vague.
As it turns out, we had one great day of diving with the
hammerhead sharks. Since I did not have
my luggage, I had to dive with borrowed gear, and I only had a GoPro camera to
use. It was a great dive and a great
day. My luggage did in fact arrive, but
it was no use because the weather after the first day turned too windy, and we
had to cut our trip short due to bad diving conditions.
I had a flight reserved on Silver Airways reserved for
Friday, and it was Tuesday. I therefore
cancelled my Friday Silver Airways flight and took the Fast Ferry to Miami ($90
for the trip). We boarded around 9am and
had to check our bags and pay a goddamn checked bag fee, if you can believe it
($25 for the first bag). We boarded
through a cavernous entry space (the ship used to be a ferry) and then a real
third world dungeon kind of elevator.
The elevator then magically but slowly opened onto the LIDA deck, where
the surroundings became that of a standard cruise ship rather than the gulag
industrial scene from below. The cruise
ship is fine. There’s a breakfast served
(I highly recommend eating since you may be stuck on the boat for many more
hours than expected). The trip back to
Miami was supposed to take 2.5 hours.
This is a real cruise ship, albeit a small one. There are many places to sit and relax, but
if you are in the know, you should head straight to the bow of the boat, same
floor as the breakfast restaurant floor, and find some seats at the bow. There are a limited number of seats there and
elsewhere where one can put his/her bags and stretch out. It is better to be in a group to protect your
space and seats. There are plenty of
seats but most of them are chairs, comfy enough – but I looked longingly at the
flat couches that earlier folks had snapped up.
Once I left my seat to go to the bathroom, and it got snapped up before
I returned, even though I had left a bag on it.
The only problem with snagging seats in the bow of the boat
(which has two floors) is that the cruise ship entertains passengers here with
lame singing and magic performances. I
would have much preferred some peace and quiet.
So – it was now around noon, and we reached the Port of
Miami. I had changed my airline tickets
and had wrestled with the issue of whether I should stay overnight in the
MIA/FLL area, or if I should book the 6pm flight out of Miami airport that was
available. I made the right decision for
once! For the next four hours, no sh*t,
the ferry captain attempted in vain to dock the ship. All of us stood in line in the bow waiting
for four hours to get off. Finally, the
ship called a tugboat, and an hour later (five hours after boarding, three
hours after reaching our destination), we were able to get off the boat.
Oh, and by the way, while waiting three hours for the ship
to dock, I learned from other passengers that the Fast Ferry was not able to
make its scheduled departures to Bimini for five or so days before it finally
arrived, due to bad weather. So the Fast
Ferry is not really that fast, and it seems to be very unreliable also. It’s too bad.
We were in the Port of Miami, which is close to downtown
Miami. I had reserved a couple of rental
cars with Alamo, who had rental counters in the Intercontinental Hotel about
1.5 miles away. We took both cabs and
Uber (thumbs up to Uber, thumbs way down to the unfriendly and cheating cab
driver) to the hotel. I had to go to the
hotel twice: once to be told that they had cancelled our car reservation after
waiting for two hours (thanks, cruise ship captain for taking so long) and the
second time to retrieve my bags from the ship area and return to the hotel
Alamo counter to get my rental car. It
would have taken one trip if Alamo had simply had our cars there, but I can’t
blame them.
So, after all this, I posted a trip report to my blog. Someone associated with the biological
station there took issue with my taking issue with all the tags on the
sharks. But he suggested a better way to
get to Bimini. Here’s what Sean Williams
wrote:
I'd like to make a few comments. Bimini is like most of the
other Bahamian Out Islands. It can be frustrating coming and going at times but
those of us used to traveling here have very few issues. It isn't like
traveling to Nassau (as you've mentioned) or Freeport. They don't land 747s
here and I think that is a great thing. The real Bahamas are places like
Bimini, Cat Island, Andros, etc. Not exactly remote, but not exactly urban
centers either. Bimini is easy to travel to, situated just 48 miles from Miami
and 52 miles from Fort Lauderdale, you can come over by boat in a few hrs with
good weather. Something you can't easily do in Nassau. Besides Florida, you can
also catch flights daily from Nassau on Western Air or Sky Bahamas. I highly
recommend this option. With a 9am flight and a 4pm flight on Western you can
often travel from home to Bimini in the same day. Flamingo Air makes daily
trips from Freeport making it another travel option. In reality Bimini is one
of the easier islands to come and go from, by boat or plane. You just have to
know where to look or have guides that actually know the islands.
Another couple on my trip cancelled their Silver Airways
flight out, and booked a flight with SkyBahamas instead. Here’s what they wrote:
“We didn’t trust Silver Airways (despite we already bought the round
trip tickets to fly on Feb 22nd Sun tomorrow), so we flew on SkyBahamas,
to leave Bimini, as informed you already.
It is a much better airline, the plane itself is large (well, at least
the one that we flew on, had 34-seater, but only 4 guests (incl. us two) and 3
other Sky Bahamas’s different flight’s crew riding) and flew nearly
on time (just 5-min late).
There was NO bag charge, unless your bags are overweighted (we had
nearly 120kgs fm the 4 check-in bags)) and we only paid USD20.
When we came (together with you) on Silver Air, they charged us
USD25/person for 1st bag and USD40/person for 2nd bag, so my wife and I I
totally paid USD130 for our 4 bags on Silver Airlines.
Even such a short (20-25min) flight, Sky Bahamas even
gave us a drink.
Sky Bahamas check-in counter lady at Bimini told us they
usually fly in from Nassau to Bimini and then continue to Fort Lauderdale, then
after that the plane would go to something Marsh (Bahamas).
When you go [return} to G.Hammer in Bimini, we highly recommend you to
take Sky Bahamas.
So, in summary, I am going to take Sky Bahamas if I ever return to
Bimini. I will try to avoid flying Silver
Airways or taking the “Fast Ferry” to Bimini.
One thing that folks who live near Miami and Fort
Lauderdale do not have to contend with is the problem of finding a hotel room
in case you are stuck at the airport or your flight/trip is cancelled. For instance, my friends Stephen and Takako
from Hong Kong had to sleep in the f***ing airport when Silver Airways
cancelled their flight the day before my flight. That would be a nightmare.
This was one of the most stressful trips I've had to take,
because these days, if you miss your connection, you are sh** out of luck with
the airlines and have to find a way home by relying on the largesse and
professionalism of the airline that is supposed to fly you back.
For some reason, in mid to late February when I
traveled to FLL, there were almost NO hotels in the area that were
available. This is a problem if you wish
to add days to your trip to allow for things like airline cancellations, or if
you need a hotel room at the last minute.
The hotels in the FLL and Miami area were all booked up and
super-expensive -- I think because of the Miami Boat Show and because February
is a high month for folks going out on cruise ships. I am a fan of
Hampton Inns and just need something like them – safe, clean, comfortable, free
wifi, no frills, convenient, and under $150 almost everywhere – but all the
Hampton Inns in the FLL area were over $300 per night. I refuse to pay $300 per night for a stinking
Hampton Inn. I am also a fan of La
Quinta hotels (they let my dogs stay at no extra charge) and found three of
those in the FLL area that charged under $140 or so.
In Bimini, I should add, the group stayed at the Bimini Big
Game Lodge. This hotel is fine. The food in the main bar and restaurant is
not bad at all. It was confusing to
figure out what rooms to reserve. The
Big Game Lodge has “king cottages” and rooms like Queen superior, double
deluxe, like a hamburger menu. Just know
that you don’t need the cottages, really, if you are an average diver and photographer. The cottages are basically in the exact same
place as the main hotel rooms. For
convenience, definitely get a ground floor room, not a second floor room. The ground floor rooms have back patio doors
so getting your gear and cameras out of the room and to the diving area/boat
area is far easier than having to navigate the extra 100 yards and stairs to a
second floor room.
I wish that there was an alternative to the Big Game Lodge
for lodgings on Bimini. When I arrived,
I was the last person, since I had stayed back at the airport to make sure that
our bags were reported missing. (As a
former trip leader, I do these things even when I am not leading a trip). Once I got to the Lodge, everyone else had
checked into their rooms, and I was told that there were no ground floor room
and my second floor room would not be ready until 3pm. This was noon. I wandered around, checked my room, saw that
it was still not ready at 3pm, and then went back and asked for a ground room
again. Voila! Miraculously, now, they had plenty of ground
floor rooms available. I would have been
most unhappy with a second floor room.
I booked my room at the Big Game Lodge six months
earlier. When I checked out, I
discovered that they are now imposing a $35 per night “resort fee” which is
ridiculous. Their room rates are
increasing as well. All this means is
that you will be paying an exorbitant $200 or so per night for a very basic
hotel room. At least the internet worked
pretty well.
Maybe there is an alternative to Bimini to see great
hammerhead sharks consistently, somewhere? At this point, I'd rather not
have to go back to Bimini for a number of reasons. It was a real hassle to get
to because the airline is so unreliable. Silver left most of group's
luggage so I had only a GoPro for the one and only day of diving. The
Fast Ferry, from what I gathered, is not reliable also. The hotels in the
FLL and Miami area were all booked up and super-expensive -- I think because of
the Miami Boat Show and because February is a high month for folks going out on
cruise ships. These days, if you can’t
rely on your island airline to get you back in time for your flight home, you
are in deep sh*t because you forfeit your space and dollars on your flight home and rebooking will cost you
all the more hassle, less choice on seats, and more dollars for the last-minute
booking. All bad.
Lastly,
I'd should mention that when I got back home, I called Silver Airways
and cancelled the flight back that I had with them later that week. I
told them the reasons why I did not wish to take that upcoming flight, and the agent immediately refunded my ticket cost. I later wrote Silver Airways and asked that they refund my checked baggage fee, since the bags arrived late. They never replied. I disputed the charge with my credit card company, and after a few weeks, the credit card company refunded my account for this $25. Small amount but a satisfying outcome.
