Reading the inclusions

What is included on a Santorini catamaran cruise, line by line

8 min read

What is included on a Santorini catamaran cruise is mostly standard: the sailing, swim stops, a meal cooked on board, wine and beer, snorkelling gear. Hotel transfers and towels vary by operator, and those are the two lines people get caught by. Tips are never included. Ours covers all of it.

Two quotes at the same price are rarely the same day. The difference is almost always sitting in the exclusions, which is the part of a listing nobody reads until they are standing on a dock without a towel.

So here is our list first, then the same list against the market. The market column comes from 22 Santorini catamaran, cruise and transfer listings read in full on Viator, GetYourGuide and Tripadvisor on 25 August 2026.

On board

What is inside our €100

The same list applies to every catamaran cruise on this site: shared or private, morning or sunset, five hours or ten.

In the price

Return road transfer between your hotel and the boat
Greek and English speaking crew
A meal cooked on board: BBQ chicken and shrimp off the coals, Greek salad, pasta in tomato sauce, vine leaf rolls, and Greek dips with bread
Santorini white wine, cold beer, soft drinks and water
Snorkelling gear
Towels
Captain, crew, fuel, insurance and port fees

Not included

Walking on the volcano (the boats anchor offshore)
Nea Kameni national park entrance fee
Gratuities

The numbers

The same lines, against the Santorini market

Counts are out of 22 listings read in full on 25 August 2026. They describe the market as a whole and are not a claim about any one competitor.

Item	Typical in this market	How often, across 22 market listings	With us
Hotel transfer, both ways	Usually included	18 of 22 include it. Two operators also sell a cheaper booking option with the transfer removed.	Included. A car from your hotel to the boat and back.
Captain and crew	Always included	Every listing. 7 of 22 name English-speaking crew as a selling point rather than an assumption.	Included. The crew work in Greek and English.
Fuel, insurance and port fees	Usually included, rarely stated	Only 6 of 22 say in writing that all fees and taxes are covered. One listing adds a €50 fuel surcharge per booking as a market extra.	Included. Nothing is collected at the boat and there is no fuel surcharge.
Meal cooked on board	Usually included	15 of 22 itemise a meal. Three exclude food and drink entirely and sell it aboard.	Included. BBQ chicken and shrimp off the coals, Greek salad, pasta in tomato sauce, vine leaf rolls, and the dips with bread.
Water and soft drinks	Usually included	15 of 22.	Included.
Local wine and beer	Usually included	16 of 22 list alcohol or an open bar. Three of those exclude beer specifically or charge for cocktails on board.	Included. Santorini wine, beer and water.
Spirits and cocktails	Rarely included	Where they appear at all they are a paid extra, charged at the bar during the cruise.	Not included, and not sold. There is no drinks tab on our boat.
Snorkelling gear	Usually included	15 of 22.	Included. It lives in the locker by the swim steps.
Towels	Genuinely split	10 of 22 include them and 5 exclude them outright, several telling you plainly to bring your own.	Included. Bring your own as well if you prefer your own.
Life jackets and safety gear	Assumed, rarely written down	Only 5 of 22 list it as an inclusion.	Included. Tell us the ages of any children so the right sizes are aboard.
Nea Kameni park fee	Never included	Listed as a €5 per person extra on tours that land on the volcano.	Does not arise. We anchor offshore and do not land on Nea Kameni.
Gratuities	Never included	11 of 22 state it outright, and it is the single most common exclusion in the market.	Not included, and not expected.

Where the market column says "usually", it means most listings, not all of them. The safe reading is that anything not written in the inclusions is not in the price, whoever you book with. The money side of the same research is in what a boat tour costs in 2026.

The two lines that catch people out

Of the twelve rows above, ten are settled across the market. Two are not, and they are the two that turn a cheap quote into an expensive morning.

The transfer. Eighteen of twenty-two listings include a car both ways, so most people assume it is standard and stop checking. Two operators in the sample sell a second, cheaper booking option of the same cruise with the transfer stripped out. Those two options sit next to each other on the same product page. If you are comparing a low number against a higher one, check which option the low number belongs to before you conclude anything.

The towels. Ten listings include towels, five say plainly that you must bring your own, and the rest do not mention them. Ours are included. Plenty of guests bring their own anyway, and there is nowhere sensible to put a wet one on a boat, so the crew will show you where the used ones go.

There is a third thing that is not a line item at all: how many people are sold onto the boat. A catamaran listed at €100 with twenty-five guests and one listed at €100 with fifteen are not the same product. We sell fifteen and stop there, and that number is on every page here for exactly this reason.

What "open bar" means on a Santorini catamaran

In this market it almost always means local white wine, beer, soft drinks and water, poured by the crew, with no limit and no tab. It rarely means spirits and it almost never means cocktails.

Sixteen of the twenty-two listings we read carry alcohol as an inclusion, and the wording ranges from "unlimited quantity of local dry white wine, beers, soft drinks and water" to a single glass of prosecco. Three of them exclude beer specifically, or list cocktails as chargeable on board.

Ours is Santorini wine, beer and water, included, with no tab and nothing to settle at the end. We do not stock a spirits bar and we do not sell drinks during the cruise, so there is no bill waiting for you at 15:00.

If a specific bottle matters to you on a private charter — a particular wine for an anniversary, champagne for a proposal — ask us before you book rather than on the morning. We have not published what we can and cannot source, so treat that as a question rather than an assumption.

What is not included on any cruise here

Walking on the volcano. The boats anchor offshore. No cruise on this site puts you ashore on Nea Kameni, so the crater walk is not something we sell and the park fee never arises. If the walk is the point of your day, book a tour that lands and budget the park fee separately. It is most commonly published at €5 per person, taken in cash at the trailhead. There are no card facilities on the island.

Gratuities. Not in any price here. It is genuinely optional and nothing on board turns on it. The ranges people report leaving are in tipping the crew.

Anything charged to cruise-ship passengers by the state. Greece charges a cruise-passenger levy at Santorini of €20 per person from June to September, €12 in April, May and October, and €4 from November to March. It goes on your onboard account. It has nothing to do with us and we cannot absorb it.

Tell us about diets when you book, not on the day

The crew shop for the BBQ before the cruise and cook it on board in one galley. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergy requirements need to reach us at booking so the shopping happens with them in mind. We have not published a standing guarantee of what can be adapted, so ask on WhatsApp and we will tell you honestly what the crew can do on your date.

There is more on this in vegetarian, vegan and allergies on board, and an account of what actually comes off the grill in what the crew cooks on board.

Ready when you are

Ask us anything that is not on this list

If a line matters to your day and it is not written above, send the question. We would rather answer it now than have you find out at anchor.

Check availability & book

Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888

Common questions

Are hotel transfers included?

Yes, both ways, on every catamaran cruise on this site. A car collects you from your hotel and returns you to the same place. Across the market it is included on 18 of the 22 listings we read on 25 August 2026, though two operators sell a cheaper option with it removed.

Is the open bar really unlimited?

On our boat there is no bar and no tab. Santorini wine, beer and water are included and the crew pour them through the day. Spirits and cocktails are not part of it. Across the market, an open bar normally means local wine, beer and soft drinks rather than spirits.

Are towels provided?

Yes, towels are included with us. This is the most contested line in the Santorini market: of the 22 listings we read, 10 include towels and 5 state outright that you must bring your own. Bring one anyway if you would rather use your own on the swim steps.

Is snorkelling equipment included?

Yes, and it lives in the locker beside the swim steps so you do not have to ask for it. Fifteen of the 22 market listings we read include gear as well, so it is close to standard here. Masks come in adult and child sizes on board.

Is food included on a Santorini boat tour?

On ours, yes: a meal cooked on board while you swim — BBQ chicken and shrimp, Greek salad, pasta in tomato sauce, vine leaf rolls, and the dips with bread. In the wider market 15 of 22 listings itemise a meal, and three exclude food and drink altogether and sell it aboard.

Can I bring my own drinks on board?

We have not published a policy on guests bringing their own alcohol, and it may differ between a shared seat and a private charter. Message us on WhatsApp before you buy a bottle for a celebration, so nobody is caught out at the dock on the morning.

Are there bathrooms on a Santorini catamaran?

Yes. There are heads below deck, and the crew point them out in the two-minute briefing before we let the lines go. Only 6 of the 22 market listings we read bother to mention a restroom, which says more about the listings than about the boats.

Is the Nea Kameni entrance fee included?

It does not arise on our cruises. We anchor off Nea Kameni and swim at the hot springs on Palea Kameni rather than landing on the volcano, so nobody pays the park fee. On tours that do land, it is most commonly published at €5 per person, in cash at the trailhead.

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

Updated August 2026