Exuma

Exuma is technically a chain of more than 365 cays stretching over 100 miles, though most visitors experience it through George Town, the main settlement, and a handful of boat excursions to the surrounding islands. Its identity has become almost inseparable from one specific stop: Big Major Cay, an uninhabited island where a colony of feral pigs swims out to meet arriving boats.

Nobody has a fully confirmed origin story for how the pigs got there — sailors, a shipwreck, and a failed farming attempt are all commonly repeated explanations — but they've lived wild on the cay for decades, and the beach has become known simply as Pig Beach, drawing boat tours from George Town and nearby Staniel Cay daily.

Thunderball Grotto, a partially submerged limestone cave a short swim from Staniel Cay, adds a very different kind of landmark to the same excursion route. Sunlight filtering through natural openings in the cave's roof turns the interior water a vivid blue, and the cave gained its name from two James Bond films shot there in the 1960s and 1980s.

The Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, a protected marine area covering much of the northern cay chain, keeps large stretches of this reef system close to undeveloped, with clear water and healthy coral that has become harder to find in more built-up parts of the Caribbean.

That lack of large-scale development is also why Exuma stays expensive and comparatively quiet — there's no major airport hub or resort chain infrastructure here the way there is in Nassau, so most of what a visit costs goes toward boats, fuel, and imported goods rather than crowded resort amenities.