Planning a Santorini boat tour around your actual week
Two departures a day on the shared boat, 10:00 and 15:00. Two on the private one, 09:30 and 14:30. Road transfer from your hotel and back is included on every catamaran cruise.
Planning a Santorini boat tour comes down to three answers: where you are staying, who is travelling with you, and whether morning or afternoon suits them. Shared cruises leave at 10:00 and 15:00, private ones at 09:30 and 14:30. Road transfer from your hotel and back is included on every catamaran cruise.
There is no best cruise. There is the one that fits the week you have already booked. These two tables are how we would work it out on WhatsApp, written down so you can do it yourself first.
Start with the date, not the boat
Pick the day first. In July and August the shared boats fill, and a date you can only do once is worth more than a preference between morning and evening.
Then read down the first table for where you are sleeping, and the second for who is with you. If the two answers disagree, the second one usually wins.
Where you are staying
The transfer is included from anywhere we can reach by road, so this table is not really about distance. It is about what your village already gives you, and therefore what the boat should add.
| Where you are staying | How the transfer works | Which departure suits | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oia or Finikia | Included both ways. Send the hotel name and we confirm the pickup with your booking. | Sunset, 15:00 shared or 14:30 private | The sunset cruise holds the water off Akrotiri for the sun, with the whole caldera wall catching the colour behind you. It is also the one evening of your stay when the sunset does not involve standing shoulder to shoulder at the viewpoint. |
| Fira or Firostefani | Included both ways. The car comes to you and brings you back to the same place. | Morning, 10:00 shared or 09:30 private | You are on the rim, so you already have the view down. What you do not have is the wall from underneath, or a swim inside the crater. Morning water is the flatter half of a Santorini day. |
| Imerovigli | Included both ways, and worth telling us if your hotel is down a stepped lane. | Sunset, and a private boat if the budget reaches | Imerovigli is the highest point on the rim, at about 350 m, and it faces the sunset squarely. A private sunset cruise at €1,200 for up to eight puts you under it instead of above it. |
| Kamari, Perissa or Perivolos | Included both ways. The road leg is longer, so the car comes earlier. | Morning, 10:00 | You are on the far side of the island, on black sand, with no caldera view at all. The caldera is exactly the thing your week is missing, and the morning cruise is the version with the warmest swims in it. |
| Akrotiri, Megalochori or Pyrgos | Included both ways. | Either, though morning suits most | Red Beach, White Beach, Mesa Pigadia and the 1892 lighthouse are your neighbourhood. On the cruise you see all of them from the water, which is the only side of them worth seeing. |
| Anywhere else on the island | Still included. Tell us the hotel name and we will confirm. | Tell us and we will say | We collect from every village on the island, and nothing is added for distance. Send the hotel name and we confirm the point and the time in writing. |
| In port from a cruise ship | There is no transfer, because there is no road at the tender pier. | Neither. A different plan entirely | A five-hour cruise plus two road legs rarely clears an all-aboard time. The port-day page works backwards from the time printed on your card. |
Departure times move a little through the season, because the sun does. The time on your confirmation is the one that applies.
Who you are travelling with
A shared seat is €100. A private boat is €1,200 for up to eight guests and €100 for each guest after that. Private never works out cheaper per head — at eight it is €150 each — so the second column is about what the extra money is actually for.
| Who is coming | What we would put you on | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Two of you | Semi-private sunset, €100 each | Same boat, same water, same dinner cooked on deck as the private version, with up to thirteen other people aboard. Book the private sunset instead only if being alone is the actual point — you are then paying for a whole 17-guest boat between two. |
| A family with young children | Private day cruise, €1,200 for up to eight | Your own route and your own clock. A stop can be cut short when a four-year-old has had enough, which is not something a shared boat can do for you. Tell us ages so the right life jackets are aboard. |
| A family with teenagers | Semi-private day cruise, €100 each | Three swim stops, snorkelling gear and the trampolines forward. At that age, sharing a boat with fourteen strangers is not the problem an adult imagines it is. |
| Travelling alone | Semi-private day cruise, €100 | The shared boat is the only version of this that makes sense on your own, and the maximum of 15 guests is small enough that people talk. A private catamaran starts at €1,200 whether one person boards it or eight. |
| Six to ten friends | Private day or private sunset, €1,200 for eight then €100 each | At eight guests that is €150 each against €100 for a shared seat, so you are paying about half as much again per head. It buys the route, the timing, the music and nobody else's schedule. |
| Twelve to seventeen people | Private, or the full day at €2,400 for ten | A five-hour private boat falls as the group grows. The ten-hour version works out lower again at a full deck, and it is the only cruise long enough to reach Thirassia properly. |
| Someone who gets seasick | Morning, whatever else you decide | The meltemi builds through the afternoon in July and August. A 10:00 departure gives you the flattest water available in a Santorini summer, and the caldera itself is sheltered by 300 m of cliff. |
| A birthday, a proposal, an anniversary | A private boat, from the occasions pages | Private timing is the whole product. On a shared boat the captain decides when you are off the lighthouse, and that is not a detail you want borrowed by fourteen other people's afternoon. |
The arithmetic in full, RIB and water taxi included, is on prices. A private boat is never cheaper per head than a shared seat, and we will not pretend otherwise on any page of this site.
The ten planning pages
Five for where you are staying, four for who you are with, and one for the hardest version of the problem.
Return road transfer between your hotel and the boat is included on every catamaran cruise. That part is firm.
There is no list of villages to check, because the pickup covers all of them and nothing is added for distance. Send us the hotel name with your date and we will confirm the point and the time in writing.
One practical note for the rim villages. Many hotels in Oia, Imerovigli, Firostefani and Fira sit on stepped pedestrian lanes with no vehicle access at the door. If yours is one of them, the meeting point may be a short walk away. Tell us and we will sort it before the morning, not on it.
What is fixed, and what moves
Fixed. The price. The maximum of 15 guests on a shared boat and 17 on a private one. Lunch cooked on board, wine, beer, water, snorkelling gear, towels and the transfer, all inside the fare. Free cancellation seven or more days before you sail.
Moves. The departure time, a little, through the season. The order of the stops, whenever the wind asks for it. And the whole cruise, occasionally — the captain decides on the morning whether the sea is safe, and a weather cancellation is refunded in full.
Confirmed with your booking, not on this page. Your exact meeting point. It depends on the boat, the day and the wind, and we would rather tell you the real one than a general one.
Tell us the week and who is coming
Where you are staying, your dates, and how many of you there are. That is enough for us to answer with a cruise, a time and a price the same day. No payment is taken on this site.
Call the harbour office+30 698 977 1888
Common questions
Do you pick up from my hotel?
Return road transfer between your hotel and the boat is included on every catamaran cruise. It covers every village on the island, and nothing is added for distance. Send the hotel name with your date and we will confirm the point and the time.
How far in advance should I book a Santorini boat tour?
Market guidance for Santorini runs at four to six weeks for June through September, and the shared boats are the ones that fill first. Outside those months a week or two is usually enough. If your dates are fixed and narrow, ask early rather than perfectly.
What time do the cruises leave?
The shared day cruise leaves at 10:00 and the shared sunset cruise at 15:00. Private cruises leave at 09:30 and 14:30, and the full-day charter at 10:30. All are five hours except the full day, which is ten. Times shift slightly through the season.
Which cruise should we book if we only have one free day?
The semi-private day cruise at €100 each, at 10:00. It has three swim stops, the calmest water of the day and a cooked lunch, and it puts you back on land by 15:00 with your evening still intact. Take the sunset one only if the light is the point.
Can we book a boat tour on the day we arrive or the day we leave?
Sometimes, and it depends entirely on your flight or ferry time. A cruise is five hours plus a road leg at each end, so an arrival-day booking needs you on the ground early. Send us the times and we will tell you honestly whether it fits.
What happens if the weather is bad on the day we booked?
The captain decides on the morning of the cruise whether the sea is safe. If he cancels, you move to another date or take a full refund. He may also reorder or drop a stop on the day, which is a judgement about the water rather than the timetable.
Santorini Boat Tour - Water Taxi is a catamaran cruise and water taxi operator based in Fira, Santorini.
Updated August 2026