Trips happen for different reasons. You found a good airfare deal, you go back to the same spot every year since childhood, you’re visiting friends and family. You need to swim with the pigs. 

Wait, what? Yep, my trip to the Exuma Cays (an island chain in the Caribbean) happened because I HAD to swim with the pigs. The swimming pigs of the Bahamas (made famous by Instagram) are quite the attraction and they were enough for me to plan an entire vacation to a place that I’d never really heard of before. Well, before I heard of the pigs. 

Long story short, this whole trip ended up being amazing and the Exumas are now one of my all time favorite beach vacations, but since it started with the pigs, I figured I would give them their own write up.  

Swimming with the Pigs in the Exumas

The original swimming pigs (is that trademarked?) live on Big Major Cay (near Staniel Cay), which is quite a boat ride from Great Exuma (where most people stay in the Exumas). 

Most day tours to see the pigs leaving from Great Exuma offer half day or full day tours, which take you as far north as Staniel Cay and include stops at the Thunderball Grotto, the Swimming Pigs, and Compass Cay (where you can swim with nurse sharks). 

Now, Exuma Water Sports (the owner of the popular @theswimmingpigs Instagram account) actually has a private island near Great Exuma where they keep their own collection of “cute” swimming pigs (the little pink ones). Their tours are a good option if you ONLY want to swim with the pigs and you’re not interested in seeing the other sites (you’re missing out). 

I chose to book with Exuma Water Tours on their full day (8 hour) tour. The price for their full day was the same as most other company’s half-day tours and I wanted to see as much as possible and spend the whole day out on the water. 

How Did the Pigs Get to the Island?

It’s not exactly known, but there’s a wide range of theories including pirates, shipwrecks, and farmers from a nearby island. 

Here’s how my adventure swimming with the pigs went down:

We were picked up at our villa on a bus and then taken to the launch point on the northern end of the island. There were about 15 people on our boat and our Captain (Captain Smiley) knew these cays like the back of his hand. 

As we made our way north through the cays, he told us stories about each cay, including which ones had famous owners (Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, David Copperfield, Nicholas Cage, and Johnny Depp all have homes in the Exumas). Our trip included stops off at a cay to dive for starfish, snorkeling at Thunderball Grotto, swimming with nurse sharks on Compass Cay, and feeding iguanas on Leaf Cay as well as a stop on Mile Long sandbar.

Don’t sleep on the sandbars in the Exumas!!! If you come to the Exumas and you don’t get to wander along a deserted sandbar, then you’ve really missed out!

But the highlight of this excursion, and really the whole reason why the trip was booked, was of course the swimming pigs! They’re located near Staniel Cay, which is quite a hike (boat ride!) from Great Exuma. As we turned a corner and started pulling up to the island, I could see quite a few boats and –eeek!!- swimming pigs! You cannot imagine how blue the water is in the Exumas and the sight of these little guys swimming out to greet our boat was just too much!!!

 

Our captain pulled up close to shore (for those who didn’t want to jump in and swim) and everybody piled out for some time to frolic with the piggies on the beach (getting a selfie with a pig is no joke!). Our captain had plenty of food (mostly bread) so you could feed the pigs. You cannot image the sheer amount of picture taking that went on here.

There were dozens of pigs eager to swim around with us (who am I kidding? They just wanted food!) So even though there were several boats there, it didn’t feel crowded.

We stayed on the island for probably an hour and didn’t feel rushed at all. It really was such a cool experience and I can’t recommend it enough, especially if you pair a visit with the swimming pigs with a tour through the cays like we did.

More posts about this area:

Exumas Travel Tips: Things to Know Before Your Trip

Things to Do in the Exumas

Exumas Itinerary: How to Plan the Perfect Trip

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