40 ports · 482 boats · departures from the quay
The boat leaves the quay at half past eight and is back for dinner. This guide compares the day cruises, island runs and sunset sails sold in each harbour — the pier they use, what they cost, and what the people who sailed them said.
Quick answer
This is a guide to the boats that leave from the harbour rather than the cruise terminal: day cruises, island-hopping runs, grotto and cave tours, sunset sails and dinner cruises, in 40 ports across the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, the Atlantic and the Pacific. Every boat listed here is one you can book today, with the operator's own price, rating and review count printed on the card.
The cheapest sailings on the site start at $8 per person — a canal boat in Amsterdam, a harbour run in Cape Town, a lagoon crossing in Venice. Half-day island trips in Croatia, Greece and Thailand sit between $40 and $90; a sunset catamaran with dinner or an Amalfi Coast day boat runs $90 to $160; private charters start around $350 for the hull. Nothing here is booked on this site: each card links to the platform the operator sells on.
At a glance
Twelve harbours that answer different questions. Boat counts and prices are the live figures from the listings on each port page.
| Port | Best for | Boats | From | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amsterdam Netherlands |
Canal cruising with a fixed departure every 20 minutes | 21 | $15 | Year-round |
| Malta Malta |
Blue Lagoon crossings and the Comino caves | 21 | $26 | Apr – Oct |
| Split Croatia |
Five-island runs to Hvar, Vis and the Blue Cave | 20 | $23 | Apr – Oct |
| Phuket Thailand |
Phi Phi and James Bond Island speedboat days | 14 | $23 | Nov – Apr |
| Dubai UAE |
Marina dinner dhows and skyline yacht hours | 15 | $16 | Oct – Apr |
| Naples Italy |
Capri and the Amalfi Coast without renting a car | 16 | $35 | Apr – Oct |
| Amalfi Italy |
Coast-hugging runs to Positano, Capri and the fjord of Furore | 15 | $42 | Apr – Oct |
| Dubrovnik Croatia |
Elaphiti islands and the Blue Cave in half a day | 17 | $17 | Apr – Oct |
| Santorini Greece |
Caldera catamarans with the sunset off Oia | 13 | $35 | Apr – Oct |
| Miami USA |
Skyline and Star Island sightseeing loops | 8 | $20 | Year-round |
| Milos Greece |
Kleftiko sea caves, reachable only by boat | 17 | $126 | May – Oct |
| Key West USA |
Sunset schooners and reef sails from the Historic Seaport | 10 | $35 | Year-round |
All ports
Filter by sea or by what the boats actually do — island hopping, grottoes, sunset sails, whale runs, city canals.
Gruž & the Old Port
Island hopping ▸ Split CroatiaMatejuška & the Riva
Island hopping ▸ Hvar CroatiaHvar Town harbour
Island hopping ▸ Kotor MontenegroKotor waterfront
Bay & fjord cruising ▸ Venice ItalySan Marco & Fondamenta Nove
Lagoon & city cruising ▸ Naples ItalyMolo Beverello
Coastal day cruising ▸ Sorrento ItalyMarina Piccola
Coastal day cruising ▸ Positano ItalySpiaggia Grande jetty
Coastal day cruising ▸ Amalfi ItalyAmalfi jetty
Coastal day cruising ▸ Capri ItalyMarina Grande
Grotto & cave tours ▸ Athens GreecePiraeus & Flisvos Marina
Island hopping ▸ Santorini GreeceAmmoudi & Vlychada
Sunset & caldera sailing ▸ Mykonos GreeceOld Port & Platis Gialos
Island hopping ▸ Paros GreeceParikia & Naoussa
Island hopping ▸ Milos GreeceAdamas harbour
Grotto & cave tours ▸ Zakynthos GreecePorto Vromi & Agios Nikolaos
Grotto & cave tours ▸ Malta MaltaSliema Ferries & Bugibba
Grotto & cave tours ▸ Barcelona SpainPort Vell & Port Olímpic
Sunset & harbour sailing ▸ Palma de Mallorca SpainMoll Vell & Port de Palma
Coastal day cruising ▸ Ibiza SpainMarina Botafoch & Sant Antoni
Sunset & party sailing ▸ Lisbon PortugalDoca de Belém & Cais do Sodré
Sunset & harbour sailing ▸ Lagos PortugalMarina de Lagos
Grotto & cave tours ▸ Madeira PortugalFunchal Marina
Whale & dolphin cruising ▸ Amsterdam NetherlandsCentral Station & Anne Frank piers
Canal & city cruising ▸ Reykjavik IcelandOld Harbour
Whale & wildlife cruising ▸ Miami USABayside & Sea Isle Marina
Skyline & sightseeing ▸ Fort Lauderdale USALas Olas & the New River
Skyline & sightseeing ▸ Key West USAHistoric Seaport
Sunset & reef sailing ▸ San Diego USAEmbarcadero
Whale & harbour cruising ▸ Honolulu USAKewalo Basin
Sunset & snorkel sailing ▸ Cabo San Lucas MexicoCabo Marina
Arch & snorkel cruising ▸ Cancun MexicoMarina Aquatours & Playa Tortugas
Catamaran & reef sailing ▸ Cozumel MexicoPuerta Maya & downtown piers
Catamaran & reef sailing ▸ Nassau BahamasPrince George Wharf
Catamaran & reef sailing ▸ Aruba ArubaOranjestad & Palm Beach piers
Sunset & snorkel sailing ▸ Curacao CuraçaoWillemstad & Jan Thiel
Sunset & snorkel sailing ▸ Phuket ThailandChalong & Rassada piers
Island hopping ▸ Dubai UAEDubai Marina & Dubai Creek
Skyline & dinner cruising ▸ Sydney AustraliaCircular Quay & Darling Harbour
Harbour & whale cruising ▸ Cape Town South AfricaV&A Waterfront
Sunset & wildlife cruising ▸Port map
Every harbour on this site, plotted. Click a marker for the boat count and the cheapest sailing.
Choosing a hull
The hull decides the day more than the itinerary does: which caves you get inside, how steady the crossing is, and whether your sailing is the one that gets cancelled.
Two decks, shade, a toilet and a bar; forty to a hundred and fifty people. The steadiest hull in a chop and the one that keeps sailing when the small boats are grounded. Slow, so a full-day island loop is genuinely a full day.
Wide, level and quiet under sail, with nets to lie on and a ladder off the back. The default sunset boat in Greece, Spain and the Caribbean. Motors more than the photos suggest — a windless afternoon is a motor cruise with a mast.
Ten to twenty passengers, no shade, wet in a swell, and the only hull that gets inside the caves and the coves the big boats look at from outside. First to be cancelled when the wind gets up.
The gulet, the caique, the gozzo, the longtail. Slower, cheaper, made for the water it works in, and the reason a Greek or Turkish island day looks nothing like a Caribbean one. Shade is a canopy, not a saloon.
A viewing floor and an hour on the water for the price of a museum ticket. No swimming, no distance, and the easiest thing on this site to do with a small child or a tight afternoon.
Priced for the hull, not the seat, with the route agreed with the skipper. Costs more than two group tickets and less than six, and it is the only version where a swim stop lasts as long as you want it to.
Ways to book
A port usually offers the same coastline in five formats at four different prices. What separates them is who sets the route and how much of the day ends up in the water.
A seat on a fixed route with fixed stops. The cheapest way onto the water and the one that decides your day for you. Best where the route is the product — island hopping, a grotto run, a reef.
Ninety minutes to four hours, no swimming or one stop, usually the best light of the day. Costs less than a full day and takes an evening rather than a whole one.
Eight hours, two or three landings, a meal on shore. Priced per person with the meal often optional — read whether lunch is included before comparing two listings that look alike.
You buy the boat. Worth the arithmetic from about four people, and the only format where the itinerary is a conversation.
Not sold here, but priced on every port page. It reaches the islands for a few euro and reaches nothing else: no caves, no swim stops, no skipper who moves the route when the wind turns.
Where the choice is
Most ports here run between eight and twenty well-reviewed boats. These three run more than anywhere else on the site, which is why a sailing sells out later and a cancelled boat has a substitute.
On the water
Three harbours filmed end to end by travellers rather than operators — the boarding, the crossing, the swim stops and the queue at the cave.
When to sail
Seasons here follow the sea, not the school calendar. The last column is the thing that actually cancels a sailing in each region — in almost every case it is wind, not rain.
| Region | Best months | Busiest | Thin or closed | What decides it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mediterranean | May – June, September | July – August | November – March | Meltemi in the Aegean and bura on the Adriatic cancel small boats; September keeps the warm sea and loses the queues |
| Atlantic Europe | June – September | July – August | December – February | Ocean swell, not wind, closes the sea caves in Portugal and Madeira |
| Northern Europe | June – August | July | November – March | Amsterdam sails all year under a roof; Reykjavik whale boats thin out to a winter timetable |
| Florida & the Caribbean | December – April | February – March | September – October | Hurricane season runs June to November and peaks in September; winter cold fronts put a chop on the crossings |
| Mexico | November – May | December – April | September – October | Sargassum on the Caribbean coast peaks June to August; the Pacific side closes small boats to ground swell in summer |
| Asia-Pacific | November – April | December – February | May – October | The southwest monsoon shuts the Andaman islands from mid-May; Sydney runs the opposite calendar to all of it |
On the day
Five things that are true in every harbour on this site, from the moment you look for the meeting point to the moment the boat ties up again.
Most operators want you at the pier twenty to thirty minutes early, and the meeting point on the voucher is a specific gate or berth along a working waterfront that can run for hundreds of metres.
National-park charges, reserve tickets and harbour taxes are usually collected in cash at check-in or by a ranger on landing. Every port page on this site lists what is taken and by whom.
A skipper will swap a stop or reverse the order to stay in the lee. That is the job, and it is the one thing a public ferry cannot do for you.
Two boats to the same island can differ by three stops. Duration tells you how long you are out; the stop count tells you how much of it is in the water.
Where a port runs a morning and an afternoon departure, the morning one sails more reliably almost everywhere — Barcelona, where the sea breeze fills after midday, is the exception that proves it.
How to choose
A shared day cruise prices every seat; a private charter prices the whole hull. Four people on a $450 private boat pay less each than four seats at $120 — the arithmetic flips somewhere around three or four passengers in most ports.
National-park and marine-reserve fees are usually collected at the pier in cash: Phi Phi charges 400 baht, Kotor collects a bay entry, and Greek island boats often add a port tax. The listing states it in the fine print, not in the headline price.
Big ports have several quays. Split boats leave from Matejuška or the Riva; Naples uses Molo Beverello for hydrofoils and Mergellina for smaller day boats. A twenty-minute walk between them is the difference between sailing and watching.
Meltemi in the Aegean, bura on the Adriatic and afternoon chop in the Caribbean cancel boats on days that look perfect from the hotel balcony. Book the morning slot where a port has one; it is the slot that sails.
Two boats to the same island can differ by three swim stops. If you want the water, read the itinerary for how many stops and how long each one is, not the total duration.
Most listings compared here cancel free up to 24 hours ahead, which makes booking early cost nothing. Departures cap at the number of seats on one hull, so the popular boats sell out days before the resort does.
Questions
A cruise from port is a day boat that leaves a working harbour or marina and comes back the same day — a four-hour island run, a sunset sail, a grotto tour. A shore excursion is the same kind of boat sold to passengers of a docked cruise ship, usually at a higher price and on a schedule built around the ship's all-aboard time. If you are staying in town rather than sleeping on a ship, you are looking for the first one, and this guide only lists those.
Per person, the floor is around $8 for a short city or harbour cruise. Half-day island trips in Croatia, Greece, Malta and Thailand run $40 to $90. Full-day boats with lunch and several swim stops sit between $90 and $160. Sunset catamarans with dinner and open bar reach $130 to $180 in Santorini and the Caribbean. A private charter is priced for the whole boat, from roughly $350 for a half day in the Mediterranean.
Amsterdam, Malta, Split and Dubrovnik carry the deepest choice of well-reviewed day boats, each with twenty or more sailings running most of the season. The Amalfi Coast splits its supply across Naples, Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi and Capri — five harbours on one stretch of coast, all sailing to the same handful of places at different prices.
In season, yes. A day boat is capped by the seats on one hull, not by how many buses a company owns, so the well-rated sailings in Hvar, Milos, Positano and Key West go days before the town does. Most listings cancel free up to 24 hours ahead, so booking early usually costs nothing.
The operator cancels and refunds, or offers another day — that is the near-universal rule, and it is wind rather than rain that decides. Small speedboats and RIBs stop first, catamarans and larger motor boats keep sailing longer. Where a port runs a morning and an afternoon departure, the morning one is the one that sails: the Aegean meltemi and the Adriatic bura both build through the afternoon.
On most, yes, and children usually pay a reduced fare or travel free under a certain age. The exceptions are consistent: high-speed RIBs, party boats with an open bar, and diving-focused trips set an adult minimum. The listing states its own age rule, and it is worth reading it against how long the boat is out — a three-hour sail is a different proposition from a nine-hour island day.
Pick the hull, not the itinerary. A catamaran is markedly steadier than a monohull sailboat, and a large motor cruiser steadier than a RIB. Morning departures meet flatter water almost everywhere. Sheltered water — the Bay of Kotor, the Venetian lagoon, Sydney Harbour, the Amsterdam canals — barely moves at all.
Use the filters above to browse the 40 ports covered here, from the Adriatic and the Aegean to Florida, Mexico and the Pacific. Each port page lists what is actually bookable there, with the operator's own rating and review count, the pier it leaves from, and a link straight to the booking platform.