Exploring the island of Long Island in the Bahamas was absolutely amazing, but it was even better exploring by boat and getting out to the sandbars, small islands, and exploring remote destinations.

We booked a 5-hour boat excursion through a company called "It's All Under the Sun Excursions". They are located in the Mangrove Bush Settlement on Long Island.

The link to the excursion we booked is ExploreLgiBahamas.net/packages/one-day-safari-tour

They gave us the option of choosing between 8am to 12pm as our start time for the excursion. We chose 10am. 

This is what their building looks like.

We didn't have to pay up front. We paid for the excursion on the day of the excursion. When you walk into the building there is a counter on the right hand side. That's where we paid $495 US Dollars (total for me and Julie) to go on this excursion.

When we booked our excursion, we did it via email at [email protected] with Cathy Darville. She was great to work with and answered all of our questions. She also gave us the option of pre-ordering a lunch from their cafe to take with us on the excursion.

I'm so glad we did this. I ordered a BBQ Chicken Wrap and Julie ordered a Crispy Chicken Wrap. These wraps were delicious! This is what the cafe, the menu, and the wraps looked like.

We met our captain, Captain Francis Darville in the building. After we picked up our lunch and the excursion was paid for, we followed him in our vehicles over to the dock. We parked our cars and got into the boat.

We got on the boat and headed out. There is a dry compartment that I was able to store my backpack with my drone so it was out of the way and dry till I was ready to fly it.

The water was crystal clear and calm as we headed out.

We then headed over to the snakes. These are a group of channels that run through mangroves and are very shallow. We got to go through and explore these beautiful waters.

After navigating through the snakes, we arrived at our first beach. This beach has wild pigs. This is what it looked like.

After exploring this pig beach we got back onto the boat and headed to our next deserted island.

We went on this excursion right after Hurricane Mellissa came through. The hurricane moved so much of the sand that it created a new channel. This island was beautiful. The water was crystal clear and the sand super soft.

After exploring this secluded beach, we headed to a different island and sandbar area that has a shipwreck. We saw a little shark swimming in the water and walked the long sandbar.

We then got back into the boat and headed over to a sandbar. We saw a huge stingray and lots of birds. It was so amazing to be out in the middle of the Bahamas on a sandbar.

After exploring the sandbar, we got back into the boat and headed over to a mangrove area where turtles like to hang out. We saw a few smaller turtles that could swim really fast.

We wrapped up the excursion and headed back to the boat ramp. We had a great time and would definitely do this excursion again.

(Click on the map above to go to a Google Maps larger view.)

The total price of the excursion came out to $495 US Dollars. That covered both me and Julie, so the cost came out to $257.50 per person.

We ordered 2 wraps from the cafe, which came out to $17.60 US Dollars.

We also tipped Captain Francis $40 US Dollars ($20 from me and $20 from Julie) at the end of the excursion.

We had such a great time on this excursion and felt like this was a great value for what was delivered. We would definitely do this again!

Total Cost: $552.60

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• Bring your own towels
• Bring a hat
• Bring sunglasses
• Bring reef safe sunscreen.
• Bring your own snorkeling gear. If you don't have your own they can provide it. We didn't go snorkeling on our excursion because the areas for snorkeling had rough water with low visibility, but you might be able to on your excursion.
• Bring your own snacks and lunch or pre-order from the cafe so you can pick it up the morning of your excursion.
• Bring cash to tip your captain.
• Bring a waterproof camera and/or drone to capture this amazing excursion.