What to Pack for the Bahamas

Start with the passport, because it can end the trip

The Bahamas requires an expiry date at least 6 months after the date you plan to leave. Check that against your actual return date now, not at the airport, and not against your outbound date. Our entry requirements guide explains why this one catches travelers arriving from nearby islands whose rule is looser.

The certificate that is a border document

A yellow fever certificate is required if you are arriving from a country listed as a transmission risk. It is checked at the border rather than recommended by a doctor, so it belongs with your passport and not in a washbag. If your route touches a listed country, even in transit, establish the position before you fly.

Your driving license, and a limit worth knowing

If you hold a UK photocard driving license, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office records that it is valid in the Bahamas for 3 months. Beyond that you will need to make other arrangements with the local authorities. Pack the license itself rather than a photograph of it, and read our transportation guide for the road conditions that make the first day of driving here unfamiliar.

Insurance documents, in a form you can reach

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office records that medical treatment in the Bahamas is of a good standard but can be expensive, and that emergency medical facilities are limited on all the Family Islands, with serious cases transferred to Nassau or Freeport. Carry your policy number and the insurer's emergency telephone number somewhere that does not depend on a working phone with a working signal. A printed card in a wallet is not old fashioned in a place where a transfer between islands may be involved.

Health preparation is a packing deadline, not a packing item

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office advises starting health preparation at least 8 weeks before the trip. That is a calendar instruction rather than a list item, and it is the reason this section appears in a packing guide: by the time you are packing, the window for some of it has closed. See our food and water guide for the vaccines the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists for this country.

Packing for the season you are traveling in

The hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November. Traveling inside it does not change your clothes, but it does change your documents: keep booking references, insurance details and your own government's travel advice reachable offline, because a disruption is exactly when connectivity is worst. Our weather guide sets out what a season does and does not tell you.

What this guide deliberately leaves out

No clothing list, no quantities, no gear recommendations, no temperature to pack against. None of it is sourced, all of it depends on you, and the honest version of that advice is to look at a forecast for your own week. What this page covers is the short list of items whose absence stops you at a desk.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Bahamas entry requirements as they apply to British citizen passport holders: that the authorities in The Bahamas set and enforce entry rules, that a passport must have an expiry date at least 6 months after the date you plan to leave, that a visitor can usually stay up to 30 days without a visa with extensions to a maximum of 8 months, that penalties for overstaying include a fine, detention and deportation, that time spent in The Bahamas counts toward the 90 days on a US ESTA, and that a yellow fever certificate is required when arriving from a country listed as a transmission risk. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Bahamas safety and security: violent crime in residential and tourist areas of New Providence and Grand Bahama, the record that the outlying Family or Out Islands have lower crime rates, the increase in risk during regattas and festivals, reports of sexual assaults on foreign nationals by jet ski operators in Nassau, fatal shark attacks and the instruction never to enter water that has been baited, the statement that the water sports industry is poorly regulated, the three month limit on a UK photocard driving license, left-hand drive hire cars on left-hand traffic, and a hurricane season running 1 June to 30 November. Accessed 18 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Bahamas health: the instruction to call 911 or 919 and ask for an ambulance, to begin health preparation at least 8 weeks before the trip, the record that medical treatment is of a good standard but can be expensive, that emergency medical facilities are limited on all the Family Islands with serious cases transferred to Nassau or Freeport, and the estimate that at least 7,600 adults aged 15 or over are living with HIV. Accessed 18 September 2026.