2026 market prices

How much a catamaran cruise in Santorini costs in 2026

10 min read

How much a Santorini boat tour costs depends on the boat. A shared five-hour catamaran cruise runs €60 to €150 per person across the market, median near €100; ours is €100. A private catamaran is €420 to €960 elsewhere; ours is €1,200 for up to eight guests.

This page puts the whole 2026 market in one table and our own prices in the same table, marked as ours. Every market figure was read off a live listing page on 25 August 2026 and carries the source it came from.

The number in a headline is not the number you pay, and the gap is almost always the same four things: the transfer, the food, the drinks and the towels. The second table deals with those.

The numbers

The 2026 market, and where we sit in it

Viator quotes in euros and GetYourGuide quotes in dollars. Both are left in the currency they were shown in, unconverted, because converting them would invent a precision nobody published. Our own prices are in the Ours column.

Segment	Market low	Market median	Market high	Ours	Source, seen 25 August 2026
Shared catamaran, day cruise, about 5 h with a meal	€60	€100–110	€150	€100 per person	Market: 14 listings on viator.com/tours/Santorini/
Shared catamaran, sunset cruise, about 5 h with a meal	€79	€110–120	€150	€100 per person	Market: 11 listings on viator.com/tours/Santorini/
Private catamaran, half day, about 5 h	€420	€550	€960	€1,200 for up to 8, then €100 each	Market: 7 listings on viator.com/tours/Santorini/
Private catamaran, full day	€670	No median — one listing exists	€670	€2,400 for up to 10, then €100 each	Market: viator.com product d959-63718P6, 7 hours
Large volcano boat, no meal, 40 to 80 aboard	€25.50	€35–38	€50	We do not run one	Market: 5 listings on viator.com/tours/Santorini/
RIB or speedboat, private	$234	$496–572	$1,851	By quote, priced per route	Market: 10 listings on getyourguide.com/santorini-l753/speed-jet-boat-tours-tc53/
Water taxi, port to port	€30 per person	€45–60 per person	€175 per boat, plus a €50 fuel surcharge on one listing	By quote, priced per route	Market: viator.com/Santorini-tours/Water-Transfers/d959-g15-c40311 and transfer-to-oia.gr

A "from" price is the cheapest date on the cheapest option, not what most people pay. GetYourGuide's own shared-catamaran sample on the same day ran $70 to $152 per person for a day cruise and $75 to $187 for a sunset cruise, across 20 market listings. Our full price list, including the per-head arithmetic on a private boat, is on prices.

Three tiers, not one market

Santorini does not have a boat price. It has three of them, and they are three different days out.

The large volcano boat. Forty to eighty people, four or five hours, no meal, tickets from about €25 to €50 in the market sample above. It gets you to Nea Kameni and the hot springs and nothing else. If the budget is the whole question, this tier is the honest answer and we will say so.

The shared catamaran. Fifteen to twenty-five people on most boats, five hours, a meal cooked on board, wine and beer, snorkelling gear, usually a transfer. The market band is €60 to €150 a seat and the crowd sits at €100 to €110. Ours is €100 with fifteen guests maximum, and the deck is sized for more than that.

The private boat. You buy the hull, not a seat. The market band for a half day is €420 to €960; ours is €1,200 for up to eight, then €100 for each guest after that. Our base is higher than the market floor because the boat is bigger and the base covers eight people rather than four.

A private boat is never cheaper per head than a shared seat. At eight guests ours works out at €150 each, at twelve €133, at seventeen €124 — against €100 for a seat. What the difference buys is the departure time, how long you stay in the water, your own music and nobody else on deck. We put the two side by side in private versus semi-private.

The extras that sit outside a headline price elsewhere

Frequencies below come from 22 Santorini catamaran, cruise and transfer listings read in full on Viator, GetYourGuide and Tripadvisor on 25 August 2026. They describe the market as a whole, not any one competitor.

Line item	How the Santorini market usually handles it	With us
Hotel transfer, both ways	Included on 18 of the 22 listings. Two operators also sell a cheaper booking option with the transfer stripped out, which is where people get caught comparing two numbers.	Included. A car from your hotel to the boat and back again.
Lunch cooked on board	An itemised meal appears on 15 of 22. Three listings exclude food and drink entirely and sell it aboard instead.	Included. BBQ chicken and shrimp, Greek salad, pasta in tomato sauce, vine leaf rolls and the dips, cooked while you swim.
Wine and beer	Alcohol or an "open bar" appears on 16 of 22. Three of those exclude beer specifically, or charge for cocktails at the bar on board.	Included. Santorini wine, beer and water, with no tab.
Water and soft drinks	Included on 15 of 22.	Included.
Snorkelling gear	Included on 15 of 22.	Included, in the locker by the swim steps.
Towels	The most contested line in this market. Included on 10 listings and explicitly excluded on 5, several of which tell you plainly to bring your own.	Included. Bring your own as well if you prefer it.
Port fees, fuel and taxes	Only 6 of 22 state that all fees and taxes are covered. One listing adds a €50 fuel surcharge per booking as a market extra, while another lists the same surcharge as included.	Included. Nothing is collected at the boat, and there is no fuel surcharge.

Read the exclusions before you read the price. Two listings at the same number are not the same day out if one of them has stripped the car and the towels back out of it. Our own list, line by line against the same 22 listings, is in what is included on a catamaran cruise.

What genuinely is not included anywhere, ours included

Three of these are real money and one of them is a decision. None of them is in any price on this site, and we would rather you saw them here than at a trailhead with no card machine.

Cost	Who charges it	How much	Does it apply to you?
Nea Kameni park fee	The national geological park, in cash from rangers at the trailhead. There are no card facilities on the island.	Most commonly published at €5 per person, with reduced rates reported for children, students and over-65s	Only if your tour lands on the volcano. Ours anchor offshore and do not land, so it does not arise on our cruises.
Gratuities	Nobody. It is your decision and nothing on board depends on it.	No fixed figure. 11 of the 22 listings we read state outright that tips are not included	Always optional. We wrote it up properly in tipping the crew.
Greek cruise-passenger levy	The Greek state, billed to your onboard account when you disembark	€20 per passenger from 1 June to 30 September, €12 in April, May and October, €4 from November to March	Only if you arrive by cruise ship. Ferry, air and overland arrivals do not pay it.
Fira cable car	The cable car operator, at the booths at either end	€10 adult one way, €5 child aged 6 to 12, €5 per large suitcase	Only if you come ashore at the tender pier and go up by cable car.
Walking on the volcano	Not something we sell	—	Not part of any cruise on this site. The boats anchor offshore and there is no landing.

The levy took effect on 21 July 2025 and is still in force in 2026. The park fee is a consensus secondary figure: the park's own 2026 schedule was not reachable when we checked on 25 August 2026, so treat €5 as the commonly published number rather than a confirmed tariff.

How to compare two quotes in ninety seconds

Six questions. Ask them of any operator, including us, and the cheap quote either holds up or falls over.

If a page will not answer the first four in writing, the price on it is not a price yet. That is the whole test.

How many guests are sold onto the boat? Two boats at €100 are not the same boat if one carries fifteen and the other carries twenty-five.
Is the transfer in, both ways? This is the single most common thing to be quietly removed from a cheaper booking option.
Is it a cooked meal or a snack box? The market itemises the menu when it is real food. Vagueness here is usually a sandwich.
What does the drinks line actually cover? "Open bar" in Santorini normally means local wine, beer, soft drinks and water. It rarely means spirits.
Are towels in or out? Ten of the twenty-two listings we read included them and five excluded them outright.
Is anything collected at the boat? Port fees, fuel surcharges and a drinks tab are three places a headline price quietly grows.

Where our prices sit, plainly

Our shared seat is at the median of the market, not under it. €100 against a €100 to €110 median is not a discount, and we are not going to call it one. What sits inside that €100 is the argument: the car both ways, the cooked lunch, the wine, the gear, the towels and the port fees.

Our private boat is above the market floor. A €420 half-day private cruise exists, and it is a smaller boat with a smaller base headcount. Ours is a Lagoon with a base covering eight guests, and it costs what it costs.

The water taxi, the RIB and the shore excursion carry no published figure at all, because they are priced per route. The market spread on a water taxi runs from about €30 a head to €175 for a private boat, which tells you how little a single printed number would mean. Send us the two points and the time, and you get a figure the same day.

Ready when you are

Send the date and the number of guests

That is enough for a figure. No card, no deposit page, no widget guessing at your group size.

Check availability & book

Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888

Common questions

How much is a catamaran cruise in Santorini?

A shared five-hour catamaran seat sits between €60 and €150 across the market, with the crowd at €100 to €110, on listings read 25 August 2026. Ours is €100 per person, morning or sunset. A private catamaran is €1,200 with us for up to eight guests, then €100 each.

How much do Santorini boat tours cost?

Three tiers. A large volcano boat with no meal runs about €25 to €50 per person in the market. A shared catamaran with a cooked meal runs €60 to €150. A private boat runs €420 to €960 for a half day elsewhere, and €1,200 for up to eight with us.

Are hotel transfers extra?

Not with us: a car both ways is inside the price on every catamaran cruise here. Across the market it is included on 18 of the 22 listings we read, but two operators sell a cheaper option with the transfer removed. Check which option a low price belongs to.

Do children pay full price?

We publish no child rate, so a seat is €100 whatever the age, and a private boat is priced by the boat. Tell us the ages when you book so the right life jackets are aboard. If a child rate would change your plans, ask us before you book rather than after.

Do I need to budget for tips on top?

Only if you want to. Gratuities are not in any price on this site, and 11 of the 22 market listings we read say the same. Nobody on our crew will behave differently towards you for leaving nothing. The ranges people report leaving are in our tipping guide.

Why is the cheapest volcano boat a third of the price?

Because it is a different day. Those boats carry 40 to 80 people, run four or five hours, serve no meal and stop at the volcano and the hot springs. No transfer, no lunch, no wine, no snorkelling gear. For €25 to €50 in the market, that is a fair trade.

Is a private catamaran cheaper than buying seats?

No, and any page telling you otherwise has done the arithmetic backwards. Our private boat is €150 a head at eight guests, €133 at twelve and €124 at seventeen, against €100 for a shared seat. You are buying the timing, the stops and an empty deck, not a saving.

Does the price change between weekdays and weekends?

No. Our published prices are flat: €100 a seat, €1,200 for a five-hour private boat, €2,400 for the full day. We do not publish seasonal pricing either, so the number on this page is the number for your date unless we change it here first.

Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.

Updated August 2026