Four boats here are priced for the whole hull rather than per seat, from two hours you steer yourself to a half-day with lunch aboard. Whether that is good value comes down to how many of you there are. Whether that is good value comes down to headcount: split six or eight ways, a whole boat is often the cheaper seat. If the water is not the point, the Palma de Mallorca Spain tours stay on land.
The cheapest way to have a boat to yourselves, and the only one where you steer. Two hours after a briefing at the office, for up to five people, with a two-hundred-euro cash deposit held against damage.
From $236 per group, up to 5
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Four hours on a sailboat out of Port d'Andratx with a skipper and nobody else aboard. Snorkelling gear, a paddleboard, snacks and drinks are included; fuel and cleaning are billed separately.
From $651 per group, up to 8
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
A five-hundred-horsepower boat for four hours out of Puerto Portals, with a sea scooter, Subwings, a SUP and snorkelling gear for twelve. Fuel runs about seventy to eighty euros, plus an eighty-euro port fee.
From $532 per group, up to 12
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The whole boat with lunch actually served aboard, out of the Real Club Náutico for up to eight. Drinks, snacks, insurance, life jackets and a toilet on board all sit inside one price.
From $941 per group, up to 8
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The comparison below is arithmetic, not taste — and the fuel belongs in it.
Compare every Mallorca tourFour trips here are priced for the whole boat rather than per person, and that one difference changes the arithmetic completely. The figures run from From $236 for up to five people to From $941 for up to eight. Divide the second by eight and it is $118 a head — which is inside the range the shared catamarans charge for a seat.
So the question is not whether a charter is expensive. It is how many of you there are.
On a shared boat the anchorage is decided before you board. On a charter the skipper will ask, and if the wind has closed one cove they will suggest another rather than cancelling the stop.
You swim until your party is finished swimming. On a twelve-guest boat the swim stop ends when the swim stop ends.
Six or eight people buying seats on a shared boat are paying to be crowded together with strangers. The same money often buys the boat.
The comparison that decides it, and it is arithmetic rather than taste.
| A private charter | Seats on a shared boat | |
|---|---|---|
| Priced | Per boat | Per person |
| Who is aboard | Your party only | Ten to twelve strangers |
| The route | Discussed with the skipper | Fixed |
| Timing | Yours, within the slot | The operator's |
| Food and drink | Included on two of the four | Usually included |
| Extra costs | Fuel, cleaning, port fees | Usually gratuities only |
| Worth it at | Roughly six people upwards | One to four people |
| From | From $236 per group | From $66 per person |
Below about six people, seats win almost every time. Above it, run the numbers — and run them after adding the fuel, which is the part booking pages do not total for you.
This is the section to read twice, because the headline price on a charter is genuinely not the price you pay.
Four hours is the standard slot on three of these; the rental runs two with longer options on the same listing. Confirmation on the all-inclusive sailing can take 48 hours rather than being instant, so leave a day's margin. Meeting points are specific — a mooring number at Puerto Portals, a dock number at Port d'Andratx, the harbour master's office at the Real Club Náutico — and the map puts each against the drive from Palma.
One thing worth deciding early: whether you want to steer. Only the Santa Ponça rental lets you, and it needs no licence.
If there are two or three of you, this is the wrong page. A charter divided by three is worse value than a seat on almost any shared boat here, and the shared boats already cap at ten or twelve, so you are not exactly in a crowd. Take a shared boat trip and spend the difference on lunch.
If you want a skipper who narrates the coast, weigh it carefully too: these are charters rather than guided tours, and the person aboard is there to run the boat. If you want the island explained, the day trips come with a guide whose job is exactly that.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before the start time on all four.
See Top ToursEvery trip named here is set against the rest on price, hours and what the fare covers at Mallorca Spain Tours.