Gratuities, honestly

Tipping the crew in Santorini: what people actually do

7 min read

Tipping the crew on a Santorini boat tour is optional and never included in the price. Greek practice is to round up rather than to apply a percentage. On a half-day boat, the figures people report leaving run from about €5 to €20 a head. Nothing on our boats depends on it.

Gratuities are not included on any cruise on this site, and they are the most common exclusion in the whole Santorini market: 11 of the 22 listings we read on 25 August 2026 say so outright.

That is a statement about the price, not an instruction. Below is what people report doing, where those figures come from, and the plain thing we would rather say than leave you guessing. Everything that is in the price sits in what is included on a catamaran cruise.

Tipping in Greece, briefly

Greece is a rounding-up country, not a percentage country. Service is not added to a restaurant bill by law, and nobody is working for a tip in the way they might be in the United States.

In a taverna, people commonly round the bill up or leave something in the region of five to ten per cent, and leaving nothing is not treated as an insult. In a taxi, people round to the nearest euro or two. On a boat, there is no convention at all, which is exactly why this page gets searched for.

Published guidance for tours genuinely spreads from ten to twenty per cent, and the wide end of that range is a habit imported from other markets. Greece and the wider Mediterranean sit at the lower end of it. We are not going to print a percentage here as though it were a rule, because it is not one.

What follows is a record of what people report, with the source and the date beside it. Read it as a range, not as a bill.

The numbers

What people report leaving

Every figure below is somebody else's published guidance or a traveller's own report, seen on 25 August 2026. None of it is a charge, a policy or an expectation of ours.

Situation	What people commonly do	Where the figure comes from, seen 25 August 2026
A taverna meal	Round the bill up, or leave in the region of five to ten per cent	General Greek practice, widely published. No single authority sets it.
A taxi	Round up to the nearest euro or two	General Greek practice, widely published.
Half-day shared cruise	About €5 to €10 per person is the range most often published	catamaran-charter-greece.com, blog on tipping a catamaran crew
Full-day shared cruise	About €10 to €15 per person	catamaran-charter-greece.com, same source
The captain on a day boat	About €10 to €15	catamaran-charter-greece.com, same source
A deckhand or crew member on a day boat	About €5 to €10 each	catamaran-charter-greece.com, same source
Half-day sail, traveller reports	Around €10 to €20 per person, from people describing what they left	Tripadvisor Santorini forum thread on tipping the crew on a half-day sail
Private charter	Ten to fifteen per cent of the charter fee is the figure most often quoted for the Mediterranean	yachtcharterfleet.com and mygreekcharter.com
Guided tours in Santorini generally	"10% to 20% appreciated"	santorinidave.com, Santorini volcano boat tours guide
A water taxi transfer	Nobody publishes a norm. People who leave anything round the fare up.	UNKNOWN. We could not find a published figure and we are not going to invent one.

The honest reading of that table: the spread is wide because there is no rule. The fifteen-to-twenty per cent end of it is a habit from other markets rather than a Greek one. Pick a number you are comfortable with, or pick none.

What actually happens at the end of our cruises

Nothing. The boat comes alongside, the car is waiting, and you go back to your hotel. There is no envelope on a tray and no line about the crew at the end of the briefing.

Nobody on our crew will treat you differently for not tipping. They are paid to run the boat either way, and if a crew member behaved otherwise we would want to hear about it. That is the whole policy and there is not a longer version of it.

Guests who do want to leave something usually hand it to the captain at the end, in cash, and the captain splits it with the crew. Some people hand something separately to whoever cooked, because on a five-hour cruise the person at the grill is doing the most visible work. Both are normal.

If you would rather do something other than money, tell us what the crew did well and put it in a review. On a small operation that is worth more than a note, and it costs you nothing.

If you are working out a budget for the day rather than the tip, the whole picture is in what a boat tour costs in 2026. If you are working out what to take aboard, try what to wear and bring.

The practical questions

Question	What happens on our boats
Cash or card?	Cash. There is no card terminal at sea, and there is no line on the booking to add a gratuity.
Which currency?	Euros. Nobody aboard can change foreign notes, and small denominations are more useful than one large one.
Who do I hand it to?	The captain, who splits it with the crew. Handing something separately to the person who cooked is also normal.
When?	At the end, as you come alongside. Not at the start, and not to buy anything.
Can I add it to the payment for the cruise?	No. Nothing on this site takes a gratuity, so there is no way to pay it in advance.
Is service already included in the price?	No. Gratuities sit outside every price here, along with the Nea Kameni park fee and walking on the volcano. The full list is in what is included.
What if I leave nothing?	Nothing happens. It is the most common outcome on any given cruise and no one keeps a tally.
Is there a right amount?	No. The table above is a record of what other people report, not a target. The decision is yours and we would rather you kept it that way.

If you are on a private charter and want to handle it differently — a single sum arranged before the day, for instance — say so on WhatsApp when you book and we will tell you what is practical.

Nobody is counting

We have put this page up because guests ask, not because we want to move the answer. Gratuities are excluded from every price on this site and they stay excluded. If you read this page, decide on nothing, and get off the boat happy, that is a good outcome.

Ready when you are

Any other awkward question, ask it

We would rather answer the uncomfortable ones in writing before you book than have you wonder about them on the water.

Check availability & book

Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888

Common questions

Is tipping expected in Greece?

Not in the way it is in some countries. Greece rounds up rather than applying a percentage, service is not added to a bill by law, and leaving nothing is not treated as rude. On a boat there is no convention at all, which is why guidance you find online varies so widely.

How much do you tip a catamaran crew?

There is no rule. Published guidance puts a half-day shared cruise at roughly €5 to €10 per person and a full day at €10 to €15, while travellers on forums report €10 to €20 on a half-day sail. Those are records of what people do, not a charge.

Do I tip the captain or each crew member?

Most people hand it to the captain at the end and he splits it with the crew. Some hand something separately to whoever cooked, because on a five-hour cruise the grill is the most visible work on board. Either is normal and neither is expected.

Can I add a tip to my card payment?

No. Nothing on this site takes a gratuity, so there is no box to tick and no line to add. If you want to leave something it is cash, in euros, at the end of the cruise. Small notes are more useful to a crew than one large one.

Is a tip included in the price of the cruise?

No. Gratuities are excluded from every price on this site, alongside the Nea Kameni park fee and walking on the volcano. That is also the market norm here: 11 of the 22 Santorini listings we read on 25 August 2026 state plainly that tips are not included.

What happens if I do not tip the crew?

Nothing. Nobody on our crew will treat you differently, nobody keeps a tally, and it is the most common outcome on any given cruise. The crew are paid to run the boat either way. If anyone ever behaved otherwise, we would want to hear about it.

Should I tip on a water taxi transfer?

We could not find a published norm for a Santorini water taxi and we are not going to invent one. People who leave anything tend to round the fare up. The transfer is priced per route and the quote you get is the whole quote, with nothing added at the boat.

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

Updated August 2026