Staniel Cay Yacht Club

The centrepiece of the Staniel Cay community is the historic Staniel Cay Yacht Club; a luxurious boutique hotel with over water bungalows, marina, restaurant and bar. With close proximity to the famous Swimming Pigs it’s the gateway to the Exumas archipelago.

Staniel Cay Yacht Club is known by some as the gateway to the Exumas. If you are looking to immerse yourself in the Exumas culture while also situating yourself in the heart of all tourist action, Staniel Cay Yacht Club is the perfect place to spend a vacation.

Staniel Cay is hidden in a chain of 365 islands and cays in the Bahamas known as the Exuma Cays. Staniel Cay is about 75 miles south of the country’s capital, Nassau, and 250 miles southeast of Florida.

The original Staniel Cay Yacht Club sign at the Bar Entrance

The island is only 2 square miles with around 90 full-time residents, however, it has pretty much everything you could need on your island vacation with a bar, restaurants, post office, church, and retail shops.

There is no wonder it is on Jimmy Buffet’s list of ten best places to have a waterside drink.

History of Staniel Cay Yacht Club

Established in 1956, the Staniel Cay Yacht Club has worked its way into the Staniel Cay community and made itself a staple of the Exuma cays experience.

Today, thriving atop the Bahamas tourism industry with 14 seaside bungalows all with private porches, an 18-slip marina, a private airstrip (one of the only ones in the region), and a lively clubhouse and restaurant/ bar, the Staniel Cay Yacht Club has made a name for itself from all over the Bahamas.

Staniel Cay Yacht Club was visited by the James bond Thunderball Film crew during the filming of Thunderball in 1964.

Bar and Restaurant at Staniel Cay Yacht Club

Staniel Cay Yacht Club has a quaint bar, a full-service restaurant, and available boat rental. The restaurant is quite good, serving lunch and dinner.

The Staniel Cay Yacht Club has a full service dock and Marina

The dinner options generally include three options, mostly centered around a seafood diet. The lobster tails are enormous and a must.

Most of the food served at the restaurant is unfathomably fresh with the day’s catch being sold in the night time for dinner. The leftover which the restaurant does not take is usually sold by the fishermen on the dock in the afternoon.

The colorful flowers surrounding Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

With the classic island-themed interior design, ambient music, and a nice sea breeze, it is hard to imagine a more Bahamian night.

The bar is filled with a mixture of fishermen and locals as well as yachties and regular vacationers with the occasional celebrity drop-in. It creates a very welcoming environment. It has the conversational vibe of a hostel with travelers and locals out at sea telling their day’s worth of adventures. It makes for a great place to pick up local tips and money-saving advice from other vacationers with the same itinerary as you.

Yachting flags adorn the ceiling of the Staniel Cay Yacht Club Bar

Staying at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club

If planning to visit Staniel Cay Yacht Club with your boat, it would be best to reserve a slip. If dining, reserve ahead of time as well by emailing or phoning one of the multiple points of contact at Staniel Cay Yacht Club.

Staniel Cay Yacht Club accommodations comprise of brightly color

However, one of the biggest advantages of staying at Staniel Cay Yacht Club is that your room reservation automatically gives you access to daily boat usage at no additional charge. If you want to use one of the bigger and more powerful boats, there may be an upcharge.

Rates can be found on the Staniel Cay Yacht Club website.

Nurse Sharks can be seen at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club Marina.

Staniel Cay Yacht Club Hotels

If you choose not to stay within the Staniel Cay Yacht Club, there are a few different hotels around the island. Here are a few popular choices among visitors:

Chamberlain’s Cottages — These cottages are 400-feet from Staniel Cay Yacht Club, perfect for exploring the island. Some come with their own colorful kitchen where you can cook the day’s catch or sit out on the terrace under the Exumas night stars.

Embrace Resort — No more than ten minutes from Staniel Cay Yacht Club on foot and the airport landing strip is so close it can be accessed virtually by crawling there. The rooms offer splendid views!

Isles Inn — Just an 11-minute walk to Staniel Cay Yacht Club, everything on the island is within walking distance but many prefer to rent a golf cart as it can be fun adventure.

The Marina at the Staniel Cay Yacht Club

How to get to Staniel Cay Yacht Club

You can easily visit Staniel Cay Yacht Club via a one or multi-day tour with Bahamas Air Tours. Fly from Nassau or Miami Florida on an air cruise to the Exuma Cays. Save time which would have been spent on crowded boats by traveling by way of a luxury private plane.

With a window seat for every passenger and the world’s largest viewing windows in the world, you will be able to see all of the Exumas beauty from the sky.

The Staniel Cay Yacht Club sign from when the Hotel Opened.

What’s nearby Staniel Cay Yacht Club?

• Bahamas Swimming Pigs: the lovable Exumas pigs on Pig Beach of Big Major Cay (Pig Island) are one of the areas top tourist magnets. These pigs have been around for the last two and a half decades and see thousands of tourists annually. Staniel Cay Yacht Club is only a short ten-minute boat ride from Pig Beach which makes it a great place to run off to in the morning.
• Thunderball Grotto: featured in the 1960s Hollywood hit, ‘Thunderball’; as part of the ever-popular James Bond 007 series. Above the bar in Staniel Cay Yacht Club, you can see photos from the days of filming featuring Sean Connery among other celebrities. This place is a nature junkie’s heaven! Thunderball Grotto is in between Staniel Cay Yacht Club and Pig Island.
• Sunken Plane Wreck: just half a mile off the coast of Staniel Cay sits an underwater sunken plane teeming with marine life and brightly-colored coral. It is one of the most easily accessible underwater plane wrecks in the world and is perfect for snorkeling or diving.
• Compass Cay Marina: come swimming with dozens of nurse sharks in crystal clear water. Over 5 million people have visited these pet sharks and plenty of stars and celebrities.

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