Private vs Shared Boat Tour in the Cinque Terre: An Honest Comparison

We get this question at the pier almost every day: should we book the boat privately, or join the shared evening sailing? Since Ghibli runs both, we can answer it honestly — there is no wrong choice, only a right fit, and it usually comes down to your group, your budget and the hour of day you love most on the water.

What private means aboard Ghibli

Our private tours take up to six guests, and the price is for the whole boat, not per person. The Five Villages is two hours along the entire coastline — Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, Riomaggiore and home to Monterosso — with a swim stop when the sea is calm, at €400. Coast & Coves stretches to three hours with close to an hour set aside for swimming and snorkeling in sheltered coves, at €550. And Portovenere is our longest day: about five hours from Monterosso to the Gulf of Poets, with a swim at Byron's Grotto, a pass through Palmaria's Blue Grotto and real time ashore in Portovenere's old town, at €850. Private means the day bends to you — Benedetto lingers where your group lights up, the swim stop lasts as long as the laughter does, and the boat is yours.

What shared means

The Sunset Aperitivo is our one shared sailing, and it is the most affordable way aboard: €100 per guest, up to seventeen aboard, departing at six in the evening. Two and a half hours of golden-hour coastline, swim and snorkel stops in two sheltered coves, and wine poured on deck as the light turns. Shared means you follow our route and our clock — but the trade is a genuinely social evening on a working fishing boat, at a fraction of a private charter's cost for couples and solo travellers.

The honest arithmetic

Here is the math we walk guests through at the pier. Two of you? The shared sunset comes to €200 total, while the shortest private tour is €400 — the shared sailing is the clear value unless privacy itself is the point. Four, five or six of you? A €400 private Five Villages works out to less per head than many things you will buy in the villages that day, and you get the boat entirely to yourselves. Families with young children, proposals, and anyone who wants to set their own pace tend to be happier private; couples and friends chasing the golden hour tend to be happiest on the shared deck.

Either way, the same boat and the same captain

Whichever you choose, it is the same Ghibli — one of the last working fishing boats in Monterosso — the same Molo dei Pescatori departure, and the same forty years of Benedetto's sea sense reading the coast inside the Marine Protected Area, where the slow, careful pace kept close to shore makes every tour unhurried. Masks and life jackets are aboard, prices include fees, there is no prepayment, and cancellation is free up to twenty-four hours before departure. If you are still torn, write to us with your group size and the mood you are after, and we will tell you plainly which deck suits you — even when it is the cheaper one.