Best Athens Catamaran Cruises 2026: 6 Tours & Private Charters Compared

Most Athens catamaran cruises follow roughly the same Riviera route out of Alimos Marina, so the real differences are price, food, group size, which pier you sail from, and whether transfers are included. We compared six of the most-booked cruises, plus the private catamaran charters three of them also sell, to work out where the extra money actually goes.

Shared seats run €129 to €170 per person for 4 to 5 hours. A private charter is the same boat on the same route, priced per boat rather than per head, from €1,280.

The itinerary barely varies. Boats head southeast past Glyfada and Voula, anchor off the uninhabited islet of Hydroussa and again in Vouliagmeni or Asteras Bay, serve a meal on board and sail back: two swims, snorkel gear, and several hours of open water with the coast in view. Guests consistently rate the food and the crew above the sailing itself, which tells you where to look.

Ranked by how confidently we would recommend each one. With every rating between 4.9 and 5.0, we would ignore stars here entirely and weigh inclusions, boat size and how you reach the marina, which is where guests' complaints actually cluster.

Three of these operators sell the same boat as a private catamaran charter, priced per boat rather than per person. That changes the arithmetic completely, and not in the direction most people expect.

Fill the boat and a private charter is the cheapest sailing on this page: a euro less per head than the cheapest shared seat, €42 less than the dearest, with the deck, the crew and the schedule to yourselves.

The crossover comes earlier than you would guess:

• Four people: €320 each. The shared cruises win comfortably.
• Six: €213 each. Still more than any shared seat.
• Eight: €160 each, which already beats the €170 all-inclusive cruise.
• Ten: €128 each, cheaper than everything.

So the rule is simple. Under six, book seats. From eight up, price the charter properly before you dismiss it. At ten it is not a splurge at all, it is the value option, and the reason people miss this is that €1,280 looks like a luxury number next to €129 until you divide it.

The season runs roughly from late April to October, and it is not year-round: winter weather in the Saronic is unsettled enough that day cruises stop. We would not book the cheapest months for a swimming trip, though. The sea takes until roughly June to catch up with the air, and shoulder-season guests describe sunbathing on deck while the water stays out of reach.

The Athens Riviera runs from Palaio Faliro south to Cape Sounion, through Glyfada, Voula, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza. Catamaran cruises use the middle stretch of it, and nearly all of them anchor in the same two places.

Hydroussa, also called Katramonisi, is the one worth booking for. It is a 57 acre uninhabited islet sitting 0.7 nautical miles off Voula beach, close enough to see from the shore and reachable only by boat, which is why it stays quiet while the mainland beaches fill. It has two small beaches of about 100 metres each and startlingly clear water. It also has a colony of rabbits and, less expectedly, a complex of Second World War tunnels cut into the rock, with underground rooms and ammunition stores. Most cruises give you an hour here, which is enough to swim, snorkel and go ashore.

Vouliagmeni Bay and Asteras make up the second stop. Asteras is a sheltered sandy bay in Vouliagmeni where the bottom shelves very gradually, so it is calm, shallow and easy for weaker swimmers and children. Vouliagmeni itself is the most polished stretch of the Riviera, which is worth knowing if you were expecting somewhere remote: you will be swimming within sight of beach clubs.

If you would rather see the coast from land, the same shoreline carries on to the Temple of Poseidon at Cape Sounion, roughly 70 km south. For a full day and three islands rather than a half day on the Riviera, see our guide to Athens day cruises to the Saronic. No day cruise on this page sails that far, so treat the two as separate trips rather than alternatives.

Alimos Marina sits about 15 km south of central Athens on the Riviera coast, which is roughly a 30 minute taxi in normal traffic and longer in the evening rush. It is the largest marina in Greece, with over a thousand berths, so arriving at the right pier matters more than arriving at the right marina.

The map shows the departure point against the two swim stops. Hydroussa lies 0.7 nautical miles off Voula beach and Vouliagmeni Bay another few miles south, which is why a five hour cruise spends only about an hour under way in each direction and the rest at anchor.

Three ways to reach the marina. A taxi or rideshare is simplest but the most error-prone: guests report being dropped at the wrong harbour entirely. The tram from Syntagma runs to the end of the line near the marina and is the cheapest option. Or book the one cruise on this page that includes hotel transfers, which removes the problem altogether.

Shared seats run €129 to €170 per person and private charters €1,280 to €1,300 per boat. The bands below show what the money actually buys.

• Compare the meal, not the headline price. Four cruises here sit between €129 and €135, and the cheapest serves the most food: seven dishes, though as a buffet rather than the plated courses the wording implies. Read the inclusions before you sort by price.
• Check your pier number, and note it is Pier 7, not Quay 7. Alimos is large, two near-identical cruises leave from Pier 6 and Pier 7, and guests report taxis delivering them to the wrong harbour entirely. Screenshot the meeting point before you set off.
• The tram is the cheap way there. Guests take it from Syntagma to the last stop on the line and walk in, which sidesteps both the fare and the traffic that has made other people late.
• Message the crew if you are running late. Several guests arrived 10 minutes to an hour behind schedule after taxi trouble and the boat waited, but only because they made contact. The operator says plainly that letting them know is the right move.
• Cost the transfer in. Only the €170 cruise includes hotel pickup. From central Athens the marina is a 30 minute taxi, which narrows the gap between the cheapest and dearest options considerably.
• For eight or more, price the private charter. At €1,280 for up to ten it works out at €128 each, cheaper than any shared seat, and you set the schedule.
• Do not write off August for wind. The Meltemi hits the Cyclades far harder than the Saronic, where it usually means Force 4 to 5 rather than a cancelled day.
• Bring a towel unless it is listed. At least one operator excludes them, and nothing is sold once you are aboard.
• Pick the sunset sail if you want the evening, not the swim. It is four hours rather than five and built around the light over the Saronic Gulf.
• Book the morning departure if you want flat water. The Saronic sea breeze typically builds through the afternoon to around 8 to 14 knots, so the 09:15 sailings tend to swim in calmer conditions than the 15:15 ones.

We compared Athens catamaran cruises carrying a published rating and a meaningful review base, then kept six covering different formats, price points and departure times. For each we read the current listing in August 2026 and recorded its rating, review count, duration, published capacity, departure pier and full inclusions list, then cross-checked the itinerary and meal details against the operators' own websites where one exists, because the booking summaries omitted things the operators state plainly, including towel and transfer exclusions. Private per-boat rates were compared against the same operator's per-person fare to work out the crossover point. Where an operator does not publish a maximum passenger number we have said so rather than estimating.