The arithmetic

Private vs semi-private catamaran in Santorini

7 min read

Semi-private means you buy seats on a shared boat at €100 each. Private means you buy the whole catamaran: €1,200 for up to eight guests, then €100 for each extra. Private is never cheaper per head. It is €150 each at eight and €124 at seventeen. What you buy is control.

Most pages answering this question dodge the number. Here it is at every group size we carry, with the per-head figure beside it, so you can see exactly what the private boat costs and decide whether the thing it buys is worth that.

The short version: the private boat never wins on price. It wins on control, and control has a price tag you can read straight off a table.

The numbers

The whole arithmetic, group by group

Two lines produce every figure below. Shared seats are €100 each, up to 15 guests. The private boat is €1,200 for up to eight guests and €100 for each guest after that, up to 17. Both are five-hour cruises on the same catamaran.

Guests	Shared total	Shared per head	Private total	Private per head	The difference
2	€200	€100	€1,200	€600	€1,000
4	€400	€100	€1,200	€300	€800
6	€600	€100	€1,200	€200	€600
8	€800	€100	€1,200	€150	€400
10	€1,000	€100	€1,400	€140	€400
12	€1,200	€100	€1,600	€133	€400
14	€1,400	€100	€1,800	€129	€400
15	€1,500	€100	€1,900	€127	€400
17	Not available — 15 is the shared maximum	—	€2,100	€124	—

From eight guests upward the gap settles at a flat €400, because both columns add €100 per person from there. The per-head figure on the private side keeps falling and never reaches €100. At seventeen, the most we carry, it is still €124. Anyone who tells you a private charter works out cheaper is comparing it against somebody else's shared price, not against ours.

What the extra actually buys

It is not more boat. It is the same Lagoon, the same crew and the same food either way. It is these six things.

	Semi-private	Private
The route	Fixed. The captain picks the stops and the order, and he is picking for fifteen people at once.	Yours to shape, within daylight, the weather and where a boat may legally anchor. Ask for two hours at Mesa Pigadia and you get two hours at Mesa Pigadia.
The clock	10:00 – 15:00 for the day cruise, 15:00 to sunset for the sunset cruise. No movement.	09:30 – 14:30 and 14:30 – 19:30 as published, and movable. A later start for a group with small children is a normal request.
The music	House choice, at a volume fifteen strangers can live with.	Yours. Hand the crew a phone.
The right to leave early	None. The boat comes back when the boat comes back.	Yours. If the children have had enough at 13:00, you go in at 13:00.
Who is on board	Up to 15 guests, plus two or three crew.	Your party only, up to 17, plus crew. Nobody else.
Lunch	The same food, served when the boat's schedule allows.	The same food, served when you want it.

What does not change: the boat, the crew, the cooked lunch, the Santorini wine and beer, the transfers both ways, the snorkelling gear, the towels and the cancellation policy. All identical. A private charter is not a longer list of inclusions — it is the same day with the decisions moved to your side.

When shared is obviously right

Two of you. €200 against €1,200 is not a close call. You are paying six times the price for the same coastline, and for most of the day the route would be the same anyway, because the weather and the light dictate it.

Four of you, watching the budget. €400 against €1,200. The gap is €800 and it buys nothing you can photograph.

You do not mind other people. Fifteen is a small number on a deck this wide. It is not a party boat. Most guests spend the day talking to the people they arrived with.

You are travelling alone. We sell single seats on the shared boat and there is no single supplement. We do not sell seats on the private one. See solo travellers.

When private is obviously right

Eight or more of you. The gap stops growing at €400 and stays there. At twelve guests you pay €1,600 instead of €1,200 — a third more — and the boat is yours.

Somebody in the party is unpredictable. A toddler, a nervous swimmer, a grandparent who might want to go in after two hours. On a shared boat you cannot ask fourteen strangers to change plan.

The day is the occasion. A proposal, a birthday, an anniversary, a wedding party. No version of a surprise works with an audience of strangers, which is why the occasion cruises are all private.

You need a specific hour. A cruise-ship all-aboard time, an evening flight, a photographer booked for the light. The private boat moves. The shared one does not.

Ten or more of you, and a long day. The full-day private charter runs 10:30 to 20:30 at €2,400 for up to ten guests, then €100 each. That is €240 a head at ten and €3,100, or €182 a head, at seventeen.

The claim we will not make

A private boat is never cheaper per head than a €100 shared seat. Some operators imply otherwise by comparing their charter against a competitor's per-person price, or simply by leaving the per-head column out of the table.

Ours is in the table above, at every group size we sell, and it never gets down to €100.

Groups over seventeen

Seventeen is the maximum on a private charter. We sell 17 private and 15 shared, and those numbers do not move because a booking is large.

If there are more of you, message us on WhatsApp. Sometimes the answer is two departures on the same day. Sometimes it is a different conversation about vessels, and we would rather have it before you commit to anything. Groups covers how we normally handle it.

Ready when you are

Send us the group size and the date

We will come back with both numbers for your actual party — the shared total and the private total — so you are choosing between two prices rather than between two adjectives.

Check availability & book

Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888

Common questions

Is a private catamaran worth it?

It depends on your headcount and on what you want to control. At two guests it costs six times the shared price for the same coastline. At eight it is €1,200 against €800, and for that €400 you get the route, the clock, the music and the right to go home early.

At what group size does a private charter cost less per person?

It never does. Shared seats are €100 each at any headcount up to fifteen. The private boat works out at €150 a head with eight aboard, €133 at twelve and €124 at seventeen. The curve falls but it does not cross. Nobody should tell you otherwise.

How many people are on a semi-private catamaran in Santorini?

Fifteen at most on ours, plus two or three crew. We cap a shared cruise at 15. Across the island, shared catamarans are commonly listed at 18 to 25 guests, so compare the passenger count and not just the itinerary.

Can we change the route on a private cruise?

Within daylight, the weather and where a boat may legally anchor, yes. Ask for longer at one stop and shorter at another and the captain will do it. What he will not do is anchor somewhere unsafe, or promise a stop the wind has closed that morning.

Is a private catamaran worth it for two people?

Rarely, on price alone. €1,200 against €200 buys you the same water. It is worth it when the day itself is the point — a proposal, an anniversary, the first morning of a honeymoon — or when one of you would genuinely rather not spend five hours with strangers.

Private Catamaran worth it?

Worth it when you want control: the departure time, how long you linger at each swimming stop, when you eat and who is on board. It is the only sensible option for a proposal or a party. For two people on a budget, the shared boat covers exactly the same route.

Is anything included on the private boat that is not included on the shared one?

No. The inclusions are identical: transfers both ways, crew, lunch cooked on board, Santorini wine, beer and water, snorkelling gear, towels, fuel, insurance and port fees. What a charter buys is exclusivity and control over the day, not a longer list.

Which one sells out first?

Private charters, because only one group sails per departure. Operator booking guidance across the island suggests four to six weeks ahead for July and August, and more notice for a whole boat than for seats (santorini-yachts.com, seen 25 August 2026). Message us with a date and we will check it.

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

Updated August 2026