What Does a Boat Tour in the Cinque Terre Cost?
People write to us with all sorts of questions — about the weather, about seasickness, about whether the swim stop is really optional (it is) — but the most common question, by a distance, is also the simplest: what does it cost? So here it is, plainly. These are the same prices you'll find on our booking pages, fees included, nothing added at the dock. We'd rather you do the arithmetic at your kitchen table than squint at fine print on the pier.
One hundred euros: the shared sunset sailing
The most affordable way aboard Ghibli is the Sunset Aperitivo — a shared, golden-hour sailing from Monterosso at six in the evening. Two and a half hours on the water, swim and snorkel stops in two sheltered coves, and wine poured on deck as the light turns. It costs €100 per guest, and the boat takes up to seventeen, so you share the evening — and the cost — with other travellers. Masks and life jackets are aboard for everyone.
Taking the whole boat
If you'd rather have Ghibli to yourselves, the private tours are priced as a whole boat, not per person. The Five Villages — two hours past all five Cinque Terre villages, with a swim stop when the sea is calm — is €400. Coast & Coves, three hours with close to an hour set aside for swimming and snorkeling in sheltered coves, is €550. And the Portovenere day — about five hours, the full coast plus the Gulf of Poets, Byron's Grotto, and real time ashore in Portovenere's old town — is €850. All three take up to six guests, so with a full boat that works out to roughly €67, €92 and €142 per person. Bring four friends and the private Five Villages costs less per head than our own shared sunset sailing.
What sits behind the numbers
We won't pretend to keep a ledger of every other operator's prices — comparison shopping along this coast is easy enough to do yourself. What we can tell you is what sits behind ours. We're not trying to be the cheapest way onto the water. Ghibli is a real working fishing boat, Captain Benedetto has spent forty years at sea out of Monterosso, and the price reflects what you're actually getting: a small boat, a small group, and a captain with a long memory of this exact stretch of coast.
No prepayment, no fine print
Every price above includes fees — there is no port surcharge, no fuel supplement, no rental fee for the masks or life jackets, no charge for the cold drinks. You pay nothing when you book: no deposit, no card held. If your plans change, cancellation is free up to twenty-four hours before departure. And if the sea says no on the day, you pay nothing at all — book again for the next fair day, or simply let it go. The number you see is the number you pay — and only if we actually go to sea. That, to us, is what a fair price looks like.