Which Boat Trip Is Best for Me? Ten Traveller Types, Ten Days at Sea

Three questions settle this, and none of them is about boats

Ask who is standing next to you on deck, how much of a holiday day you are willing to hand over, and how much noise you can live with. Those three answers cut thirty-four boats down to one or two, and the rest of this page is only the arithmetic.

The days themselves run from four hours to eleven. A night cruise costs you an evening. The island day to Suluada takes the whole of it, from an early pickup to an evening drop-off, so an early hotel dinner is off the table. Neither is better than the other; they are simply different amounts of holiday.

If you are travelling with children

Primary-school children want the pirate ship, and the record backs them up: face painting, a treasure hunt, pirate games and a menu of spaghetti, chicken fingers and fish fingers, wrapped around a foam party and a swim where the river meets the sea. Six hours is short enough that nobody melts down on the way home.

If your child came for animals rather than cutlasses, the dolphin island day covers the same coast in six hours for two euros less, with a barbecue lunch and a swim at the delta. Dolphins and Caretta Caretta turtles are wild animals and the tour record is blunt that sightings cannot be promised, so treat one as a bonus rather than the reason you booked. Our guide to boats that suit families with young children sorts out the rest of the fleet.

On the boats that publish bands, infants aged 0-3 travel free, children aged 4-10 pay a reduced fare, and from 11 a guest counts as an adult. Not every boat publishes them: the Side fishing morning charges every guest the same fare regardless of age. Age matters most at the far end of the catalogue — the island run to Suluada sets a minimum age of 6, while the short days out of Side take the whole family. The full set of bands, exceptions and deck rules sits on our page about children's ages and rules on board.

Quiet decks: couples, solo travellers and anyone who dislikes swell

The relax cruise exists because not everyone wants foam in their hair: seven hours along the coast, a sunbed reserved for each guest, soft and alcoholic drinks inside the ticket, and a concept its own notes describe as relaxation first and emphatically not a party boat. Which of the quiet days actually suits two people travelling together is a longer answer than a routing page should give, and our couples shortlist gives it.

If your objection is movement rather than music, the answer changes. The Green Canyon catamaran crosses a dam reservoir instead of open sea and keeps a strict no-music policy, with swim stops in cool mountain water. Quiet on a lake and quiet on the Mediterranean are two different days, and which one you want is genuinely yours to decide.

Swimmers, photographers and people who want one big day

The island day to Suluada is the long answer: eleven hours, long swimming and snorkelling stops in clear bays, the Love Cave and the coves around Adrasan, and lunch cooked on board. The boat anchors off the island and tender boats shuttle guests to the beach, the minimum age is 6, and there is no shop out there, so everything you want for those hours travels with you.

For a shorter swim day the classic Side boat tour makes several swimming and snorkelling stops across seven hours, and nothing in the catalogue is priced below its €20 per adult. We do not sell diving on any coast, so if you were hoping to go under, snorkelling is the honest answer here, and it is part of more days than not.

The night, the whole boat, and what all of it costs

Two choices sit outside the daytime fleet. The night disco yacht is four hours of live DJ, dance shows, unlimited drinks and snacks at €68, and its own notes put it at eighteen and over, so it is never the family answer. Hiring the whole boat is the other, and its figures are starting prices for the vessel rather than fares per head: from €490 on the yacht from Kumköy, with lunch and hotel transfer included, or from €580 on the Alanya yacht, where food and drinks are arranged in advance rather than assumed. Whether the charter or the seat is the better buy has its own page.

Against those, the shared days are what they look like: the Side boat tour at €20 per adult, dolphin island at €21, the pirate ship at €23, Kemer at €30, the canyon catamaran at €33, Suluada at €43, a fishing morning at €45 and the relax cruise at €70. Every one of those figures, coast by coast, is laid out on our boat tour prices page. Nothing is charged when you reserve; you settle up on the day itself, and how booking a boat tour works covers the rest in one page.

Pick the day, then the boat

One table, ten days, every one of them bookable. Read down the second column until you recognise yourself, then check the two columns that quietly decide most arguments: how long the day is, and what the price actually buys. Every price here is a per-adult rate, charters included, and durations cover the whole day from pickup to drop-off.