What is the best way to scuba dive in the Bahamas and discover all of its unseen treasures? By liveaboard of course! There is no better way to adventure through the scattered white sand islands and magnificent thriving reefs of the Bahamas than via liveaboard cruises.
From luxury to mid-range to budget-friendly liveaboards, the Bahamas has something for everyone. Scuba dive where few have scuba dived before, experience the most intimate shark encounters in the world, and live the full oceanic adventure on the best liveaboards in the Bahamas. Let’s dive in together!
Liveaboard Options
The Bahamas has much to offer, and you can choose the best liveaboard to suit your needs. High-end options provide premium amenities for those seeking an opulent and lavish cruise, mid-range liveaboards deliver a good balance between comfort, affordability, and exclusivity, and budget-friendly options are more economical while still striving for excellence in delivering the best liveaboard and shark diving experiences possible.
Below is a table summary of the different kinds of liveaboards offered in the Bahamas, followed by specific details.
| Liveaboard | Daily Cost | Max Guest Capacity | Itinerary Length | Destinations | Check Best Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aqua Cat | USD 348 | 30 | 8 Days 7 Nights | Exuma Cays | VIEW LATEST PRICE |
| Bahamas Agressor | USD 273 | 14 | 8 Days 7 Nights | Exuma Cays, Southwest Eleuthera, Tiger Beach, Bimini | VIEW LATEST PRICE |
| Cat Ppalu | USD 255 | 12 | 7 Days 6 Nights | Exuma Cays | VIEW LATEST PRICE |
| Blackbeard’s Morning Star / Sea Explorer | USD 155 | 24 | 7 Days 6 Nights | Exuma Cays | VIEW LATEST PRICE |
| Sail Juliet | USD 338 | 12 | 4 Nights 3 Days | Gulf Stream of the Bahamas | VIEW LATEST PRICE |
The Aqua Cat
Amenities
The Aqua Cat is a luxurious catamaran that offers year-round diving in the Bahamas. The vessel offers comfortable cabins with sea views and a spacious salon area with up-to-date entertainment systems and a video and photography editing workspace. The open-air deck is filled with comfortable hammocks, a BBQ area, and a sun deck for warming up and getting those Caribbean tan lines.
The Aqua Cat is not only known for its impeccable diving services including rinse tanks, dry camera storage spaces, charging stations and available nitrox tanks, but also for their non-diving activities which make everyone on board the Aqua Cat feel like they are on the best vacation ever.
Some of these activities include hiking, kayaking, snorkeling, and stand-up paddle boarding.
Furthermore, the Aqua Cat also caters to all dietary requirements and preferences, making your stay on board effortless, enjoyable, and smooth.
Dive Sites
Adventuring in Exuma Cays, the Aqua Cat offers divers the chance to enjoy up to 26 dives per trip – this means at least 3 dives a day with a night dive in between. With up to 200 dive sites to choose from, you will have the option of diving sites according to your interests, your certification level, and comfortability in the water.
With Aqua Cat you will be able to visit blue holes, dive with sharks, and drift over stunning coral reefs with enthralling schools of marine life. Some of these potential and well-known dive sites include the Washing Machine (exciting drift dive), Lobster No Lobster (a nurse shark haven), and Amberjack Reef (a Caribbean reef shark hot spot).
The Bahamas Aggressor
Amenities
Just as luxurious, and at a more competitive price is a trip with the Bahamas Aggressor. On their week-long cruise, you will enjoy their outdoor cocktail lounge, partial sundeck, and hot tub whilst resting in between scuba dives with sharks and colourful schools of fish.
This vessel is very spacious with an air-conditioned dining area, equipped with a photo-editing computer and software. Outside, there is a large diving deck, with personal dive lockers, a camera table, freshwater rinsing hoses, and heated showers as well – All ready and set up for you before and after every dive.
The food is exceptional, providing everyone with 3 meals a day with snacks in between, and any preferences or requirements can be accommodated in advance.
Dive Sites
The Bahamas Aggressor has the largest range of all the mentioned liveaboards.
Visiting not only Exuma Cays, but also Bimini, Tiger Beach, and Southwest Eleuthera. There is no end to the abundance of healthy coral reefs, marine life, and impressive underwater topography while you are on board the Bahamas Aggressor. Night dives are also part of the adventure, giving you a whole new perspective on the underwater life in the Bahamas. With up to 5 dives a day, to well-known sites such as Barracuda Shoals, Black Tip Wall and Cave Rock to name a few, this is the ultimate scuba diving liveaboard adventure.
For dives to Tiger Beach, you will be sure to experience not only tiger sharks but an abundance of Caribbean reef sharks and lemon sharks too. Bear in mind, however, that this dive is often a shark-feeding or chumming dive. You will be up close and personal with the sharks, but it might not be in the most natural way possible.
Cat Ppalu
Amenities
Intimately set up for a maximum of 12 guests, the Cat Ppalu is an exclusive catamaran that is perfect for groups of friends or families who want to explore the Bahamas together. Each cabin is fully air-conditioned, and there are two shared bathrooms and showers. Meals are set out family-style so that everyone can socialize together, and any dietary requirements can be taken care of in advance.
Their outdoor trampoline offers a great space for sun tanning and sightseeing, and their itinerary is extremely flexible with many other activities aside from diving also on offer. These include snorkeling airplane wrecks, kayaking or stand-up paddle boarding through mangrove forests, and hiking remote Bahamian islands.
Dive Sites
The Cat Ppalu explores the 200-plus dive sites surrounding the Exuma Cays. Offering up to 19 dives per trip, they will be sure to offer you experiences in all of the diversity that the Bahamas has to offer.
Speedy drift diving, eerie wreck dives, visits to blue holes, and up-close shark encounters are all on the table when diving with the Cat Ppalu liveaboard. Perfect for mid-range divers, Cat Ppalu will not fail to deliver as one of the best liveaboards in the Bahamas.
Blackbeard’s Morning Star / Sea Explorer
Amenities
The best budget-friendly liveaboard in the Bahamas is Blackbeard’s Morning Star or identical twin sister, the Sea Explorer. Offering great value for money, Blackbeard vessels hold 3 dormitory-style cabins, with single or double bunk beds and a privacy curtain. Each room is air-conditioned and there is a total of 3 shared bathrooms and showers. A cozy set-up, but also the best way to get to know other divers!
On deck, there is an indoor salon and an outdoor bow, with all meals served buffet family-style and catered to each individual dietary preference. Snacks, wine, beer and rum punch are all included as well!
Furthermore, on the dive deck, there are DIN adaptors available, freshwater rinse hoses and set-up stations.
Dive Sites
Onboard Blackbeard’s Fleet, there is no set itinerary. Though you will able to go on up to 19 dives for the entire length of the trip, there is no set schedule for dive sites as the captain and crew will take you wherever is best based on the weather and conditions that day. This will offer you the best chance to dive the beautiful Exuma Cays Bahamas sites with the best conditions in the present moment.
Popular sites that the Blackbeard Fleet adventures to are Periwinkle Reef, Pillar Wall, Austin Smith Wreck, and the Lost Blue Hole, just to name 5 of over 200 moored dive sites.
Special mention:
Schooner Juliet
Amenities
Offering an intimate and luxurious liveaboard experience to explore the lesser-known parts of the Bahamas is Sail Juliette.
With ensuite and shared cabins on board, Juliette also comes with a friendly boat cat to keep you company on surface intervals! Additionally, activities such as snorkelling, fishing, and island hopping are available upon request, and since Juliette is a three-masted schooner, you will also have the opportunity to learn how to sail if you so wish!
On this gorgeous vessel, you’ll be able to enjoy your catered meals with friends and family, and if it’s of interest to you, also with marine life presentations that the onboard marine biologist will prepare!
Dive Sites
Discovering dive sites around Bimini, Cat Cay, and in the nutrient-rich gulf stream between the Bahamas and Florida, Juliette will take you to dive sites where you will not see any other charter or liveaboard cruises.
Dive sites on the itinerary can include Sapona, the Bimini Barge, the Hesperus wreck, Gingerbread Grounds, Orange Cay, and Santaren Channel. All of these consist of exceptional reef life, with popular visitors of Caribbean reef sharks and nurse sharks that are remote to most other liveaboards. Sail Juliette also does not take part in shark feeding and therefore does not venture to Tiger Beach in Grand Bahama.
Shark Diving in the Bahamas
The Caribbean Sea, and particularly the islands of the Bahamas hold some of the finest coral reefs, most diverse marine life, greatest wrecks, and most impressive and intricate bottom topographies.
But what really makes scuba diving in the Bahamas so special? The answer is: shark diving.
The dry season of November to May brings the most shark activity to the Bahamas and is also the best time of year for you to dive if you want to dive with sharks.
December to March brings hammerhead encounters to the Bimini islands, whilst a liveaboard trip between February and April will give you the best chance to see a bull shark or a whale shark cruising the Bahamian waters. April to June wields more chances to run into oceanic reef sharks throughout Grand Bahama, and tiger sharks become more frequent at Tiger Beach between October to January.
Even though Tiger Beach is known as one of the best places in the world to see tiger sharks, it is also common to meet other species of sharks here such as lemon sharks, great hammerheads, Caribbean reef sharks and nurse sharks – All of which are attracted to the area as they love to forage for food along the clear sandy bottom of the beach. Here you can also get lucky and meet Emma, a famous tiger shark.
Nassau and its surrounding waters are known for their encounters with Caribbean reef sharks and silky sharks, whilst Cat Island is one of the best places in the world to see Oceanic white tips, silky sharks, dusky sharks, and blue sharks. March is the best time to take a liveaboard trip and scuba dive in this area for the opportunity to observe thresher sharks too!
However, bear in mind that liveaboards operate all year round, and throughout any time of the year you will be able to see many different species of sharks including but not limited to nurse sharks, Caribbean reef sharks, and lemon sharks amidst a range of other magnificent marine megafauna such as dolphins, blue marlins, and manta rays throughout the entirety of the Bahamas.
FAQs
Are there sharks in the Bahamas?
Yes, there are sharks in the Bahamas! The Bahamas is one of the best places in the world to scuba dive with sharks. Here, you can see Caribbean reef sharks, black tip and white tips, nurse sharks, great hammerheads, silky sharks, dusky sharks, blue sharks, tiger sharks, lemon sharks, oceanic white tips, thresher sharks, whale sharks, and even sometimes bull sharks.
What are 2 types of sharks in the Bahamas?
Though there is an enormous array of shark species that we can see in the Bahamas, the two most common types of sharks that you will encounter on a scuba dive in the Bahamas are the Caribbean reef sharks and the nurse sharks.
Final Thoughts
Exploring dive sites and the underwater world of the Bahamas is best done via liveaboard. This way, you will be able to discover places that are very remote, untouched, and absolutely stunning. If that doesn’t sound like the best scuba diving trip then what will?
Though liveaboards operate all year round as the diving is exceptional and allows for it, it is important to consider your options and locations for the best experience possible, especially if you are a shark enthusiast. Planning your liveaboard trip according to where and when you might get the best chance to experience your favourite shark in its natural habitat is essential to ensuring the best scuba diving liveaboard adventure in the Bahamas!