The Bahamas. Nassau to the out island you came for in about half an hour, every connection planned.

Almost every private itinerary into the Bahamas starts at Nassau. It has the runway length, the handling, the fuel and the customs and immigration capacity, and it is where an aircraft coming from Europe or from the American west coast will realistically arrive. From there the country is a short hop network: a light aircraft or a turboprop to Exuma, Eleuthera or the Abacos, and in some cases a seaplane or a boat for the last piece.

Several of the out island fields clear customs themselves, which can remove the Nassau stop altogether for an aircraft arriving from Florida. Whether that is the right plan depends on your aircraft, your route and the day, so it is a question we ask the operator rather than a rule we apply. Marsh Harbour in the Abacos is the most common example.

From the UK this is a genuine long haul and the routing question is worth settling early: an ultra long range aircraft can plan it nonstop, while smaller types plan a technical stop. That decision changes the aircraft, the cost and the shape of the day. See private jet charter, ultra long range jets, heavy jets, turboprops and how chartering works.

Harbour Island is the one most British visitors mean. It is tiny, reached from North Eleuthera by a short water taxi, and the transport on the island is golf carts rather than cars, which tells you everything about the pace of it. The pink sand beach runs the length of the eastern shore, Dunmore Town has the restaurants, and nothing takes more than a few minutes to reach.

The Exumas are a chain of hundreds of cays running south east from Nassau, with the national land and sea park in the middle of them. This is yacht country: shallow, clear, sheltered water and a new anchorage every few miles. Great Exuma at the southern end has the airport and the resorts, and most charters join there or at Nassau.

The Abacos, in the north, are the sailing ground, a long barrier chain with settlements along it and a well-established boating culture. And Nassau itself, for all that people treat it as a transit point, has serious hotels and restaurants and works perfectly well as a base for a short trip.

The Bahamas is an archipelago with hundreds of inhabited islands and a small number of runways, which means that a chartered yacht is not an indulgence here so much as the natural way to see it. It removes the connection problem completely, it carries the luggage that light aircraft cannot, and in the Exumas in particular it turns a chain of cays that are all but unreachable by air into a week of short, easy passages.

We arrange charters, crew and tender movements through operators and agents we know, and we join them up with the flights so that the aircraft, the customs clearance and the boarding time agree with each other. See yacht charter, motor yachts, catamarans, how chartering works, your first charter and the APA explained.

Our own cars and chauffeurs are in London and Manchester, and a trusted global network covers everywhere else. From home, the departure is the leg we control directly: an early car from the house to Luton, Farnborough, Stansted, Biggin Hill or Heathrow, luggage loaded properly for a long flight, and a chauffeur who knows the private terminal gate. See private jet transfers, airport transfers and group travel.

In the Bahamas, cars, boats and connecting flights are arranged through operators we know, with one person at Odyssey holding the itinerary and watching the inbound. If the transatlantic leg moves, the connection, the water taxi and the hotel hear it from us rather than from you.