Comparing boat trips from Palma: which one suits your holiday

Looking for the best boat trip in Mallorca, starting from Palma? The short answer: for most people, a 5-hour catamaran with a barbecue and swimming stops in the coves of Llucmajor, for around €59, gives the most sea and the most food per euro. But if you are travelling with small children, get seasick, only have a morning off your cruise ship or want a party, the choice changes. This comparison puts every format in one table, works out what you pay per hour at sea and tells you what is included and what is not.

One point that saves disappointment: the three big catamaran companies on the bay (Magic, Oasis and Attraction) are three separate businesses, and all of them sail the same way, to the south-east of the bay, not to Portals Vells.

Comparison table: every Palma boat trip at a glance

Adult prices on the operator's own website. The platform column shows the "from" price of a similar format on GetYourGuide, not necessarily the same boat.

Price per hour at sea: which gives the best value

A €19 cruise looks like a bargain and a €59 catamaran looks expensive, but the second gives you five times as long on the water, two swims and lunch. Dividing the price by the hours on board makes it clear.

• Magic's standard catamaran gives the best value: €12 an hour with barbecue, soft drinks, sangria and wine included.
• Short trips are expensive per hour.
• Paying more buys space, not sea. Magic Plus, Oasis Blue and Oasis Premium cost more because they carry fewer people (35, 22 and 55 passengers at most), not because they go to different coves.
• Attraction looks priced like Oasis, but without drinks: if you have two beers and a cocktail at its bar, add around €25.

Menus and timetables for each one are in the guide to catamarans in Palma.

What the price includes and what you pay extra

Drinks. Only Magic includes soft drinks, juice, coffee and water all day, plus sangria and wine with lunch. Oasis includes water; everything else is from the bar. Attraction includes no drinks: its menu lists cocktails at €15, Aperol at €12, beer at €4 to €5, a glass of sangria at €10 and water at €2. Life & Sea includes one drink (beer, sangria or water) on the 4-hour catamaran and on the sunset trip; the 2-hour trip has no food. Barca Samba serves pizza or a buffet and water, and the bar is paid separately.

Snorkelling and stand-up paddleboard (SUP). Oasis includes the SUP board on every trip and charges €20 for snorkelling gear. Magic Plus includes SUP and kayak. Standard Magic lends mask and snorkel against a €10 deposit (€20 on Plus). Life & Sea includes snorkelling gear. Bring your own mask and you avoid the deposits.

Hotel transfer. Attraction charges €30 per person. Palma Cruises charges €10 more per adult with a coach (€65 instead of €55 on the dolphin trip). Magic has pick-ups from El Dorado and Camp de Mar, but does not publish the price.

Paying on board. Magic only takes cards and does not accept American Express. Life & Sea adds a 2.5% fee when you pay by card on its website.

Children. Each operator draws the age line in a different place, so compare against your children's actual ages:

• Magic: free from 0 to 6, half price from 7 to 14.
• Oasis: child rate from 4 to 10 (€75 on the Premium, €65 on the Oasis Lux).
• Attraction: free from 0 to 5; from 6 to 12, €75 on the day trip and adult price at sunset.
• Life & Sea: half price from 3 to 12.
• Costa de Calvià: €20 on the glass-bottom boat and €40 on the Day at Sea.

The best boat trip for you

With children

Magic's 5-hour catamaran is the safe bet: children up to 6 go free, soft drinks are included, and there is a floating mat and life jackets on board. If your children are small and lose patience quickly, the 2-hour glass-bottom boat from Magaluf or Palmanova (€30, children €20) is shorter and has an underwater viewing area. In Calvià, the Britannia Jet's Day at Sea has slides and lunch included, but only runs on Wednesdays and Sundays.

For families, skip Barca Samba's Sail Experience: the company itself says it is designed for adults aged 25 to 50 and is not recommended for children.

As a couple

For a special evening, Oasis's sunset trip on the Oasis Lux is adults-only, with welcome cava, nibbles and a SUP board, for €78–82. On a smaller budget, Magic's Sunset Bahía costs €20 for an hour and a half with one drink: there is no swim, but you pass the cathedral as the sun goes down. By day, Magic Plus (35 passengers at most) is the middle ground between the big catamaran and a private boat. More options in the guide to sunset boat trips.

For a party

Barca Samba is the only big boat with a DJ and a dance floor that sails daily from Palma: up to 112 passengers, a 25 m² dance floor, sunset trips (19:00, from €49.90) and night trips (22:30, from €39.90; Fridays and Saturdays, daily in summer), both for over-18s. Attraction also has a DJ on its 145-seat catamaran.

What the listing doesn't tell you: Balearic law bans boats with alcohol and music from picking up customers in Magaluf, Playa de Palma or S'Arenal, and from coming within one nautical mile of those areas. A "party boat" that collects you from Magaluf beach is breaking the rules. In addition, the Port Authority put the Golondrinas quay out to tender on terms that would exclude party boats; the tender was challenged in court and is currently waiting to be relaunched with new terms, so check the tender page before you go. More detail in the guide to party boats.

On a budget

Under €40 you have five real options:

• Mallorca City Boat: €19, 55 minutes, Monday to Saturday, with a snack and water.
• Magic Sunset Bahía: €20, an hour and a half at sunset with one drink.
• Palma Cruises, bay cruise: €27 online, 3 hours with one swim.
• Sa Calma Boats, morning bay cruise: €29, 2 hours.
• Life & Sea, the "Superman" boat from S'Arenal: €33, 2 hours, with snorkelling gear.

If you want to eat on board without going over €40, choose Magic Sea Tapas (€39): 3 h 30 in the afternoon with a 1 h 30 stop at Cala Vella, tapas and soft drinks.

If you get seasick

Choose a morning trip. On the bay, the south-westerly breeze (the embat) builds from midday and is strongest around 14:00, so afternoon trips meet more swell. The Sa Calma boat company puts it simply: the bay is flatter in the morning. On board, sit in the middle of the lower deck, look at the horizon and avoid screens, heavy food and alcohol. The traditional llaüt (Mallorcan wooden boat) is slow and stable, a good choice for delicate stomachs if you are a group. Avoid the full day to Es Trenc from Palma: the listing itself does not recommend it for anyone prone to seasickness. More on wind, month by month, in the weather guide for boat trips.

Cruise passengers with a few hours

If your ship docks in the morning and leaves in the afternoon, Mallorca City Boat's 55-minute sightseeing cruise leaves every hour from 11:00 to 17:00 (not on Sundays; the timetable may vary with the season) from the Escala Real, below the cathedral, and passes the cruise port. Palma Cruises has 14:00 departures from the Golondrinas, handy if you arrive in the morning. Don't book a 5-hour catamaran if "all aboard" is before 17:00. How to get around from the cruise quay is in the cruise port guide.

Groups and private boats

A llaüt with skipper from the Real Club Náutico costs €590 per group (up to 5 people, 5 hours, a snack and three drinks per person). From Can Pastilla, the llaüt Mar i Cel charges €690 for half a day for up to 9 people, with skipper, fuel and drinks included. If there are more of you, Oasis charters its whole catamarans: from €990 for the Oasis Blue (25 places), €1,290 for the Oasis Lux and €1,890 for the Oasis II.

Always ask whether fuel and skipper are included: in some listings the skipper is paid separately. And remember that since 1 October 2026 nobody can hire a motorboat without a boating licence, not even a small 15 hp one; without a licence, the only legal option is a boat with a skipper. It is all in the guide to private boats and the boat hire guide.

Where each boat leaves from: the quays on the bay

Palma has two boarding areas 1.5 km apart: check your ticket carefully.

• Golondrinas quay, on the Paseo Marítimo opposite the Auditòrium: Magic, Oasis Premium and Oasis Blue, Attraction, Barca Samba and Palma Cruises. For parking, Magic recommends the Marquès de la Sènia pay car park.
• Escala Real, next to the Moll Vell (old quay) and below the cathedral: Mallorca City Boat and the Oasis Lux (sunset and Palma Bay Deluxe). It is the one within walking distance of the old town.
• Real Club Náutico de Palma and Club de Mar: private boats and llaüts.
• Can Pastilla and S'Arenal (next to the Club Nàutic S'Arenal): Life & Sea and Sa Calma. Buses 31, 32, 35 and A2 go to Can Pastilla (stop "Cala Estancia"); in S'Arenal you board from the sand.
• Magaluf, Son Matias and Palmanova: the Costa de Calvià boats.

The catamarans leaving Palma cross the bay to the south-east and anchor at Cova Verda, Cap Rocat, Cala Vella or Cala Blava, on the Llucmajor coast, inside the bay's marine reserve. At Cala Blava there is a buoy field: the boat ties up to a buoy rather than dropping anchor.

Guides to each area: trips from Palma port and trips from S'Arenal and Can Pastilla.

Wind and cancellations: what happens if the boat doesn't sail

The skipper decides: if wind or swell make the trip dangerous, the boat stays in or changes route. What you control is where you book and how late you can cancel.

Three tips:

• Book a morning trip, and not on the last day of your holiday.
• Watch out for "reserve now, pay later" on GetYourGuide: the card is charged 72 hours before departure, not 24. If the charge fails (for example, because the card has expired) and you don't pay manually within 47 hours, the booking is cancelled.
• Bad weather does not always get you your money back. On Click-Mallorca, light rain or cloud does not entitle you to cancel, and Civitatis treats a trip the provider runs in bad weather as delivered. Check the sea forecast yourself before you go.

There is no single April-to-October season: several boats in Palma and Calvià keep selling dates in October. Check your operator's dates.

Book direct or on a platform?

Barca Samba warns that at short notice, resellers may show places that are no longer available; if you are sailing tomorrow, book direct. Platforms let you cancel free of charge up to 24 hours before, and GetYourGuide refunds the difference if you find the same activity, with the same provider, cheaper. When we checked, GetYourGuide had a Trustpilot score of 3.9 and Civitatis 4.5. We look at this in our reviews of GetYourGuide, Civitatis and Click-Mallorca.

The most-booked trips from Palma and around, with up-to-date prices:

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See all on GetYourGuide →Prices checked on 6 October 2026

Our picks

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Families and first-timers

Five hours, lunch and a swim at a price that's hard to beat; the trip with the most reviews on this list.

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Sunset with music

Three or four hours as the sun goes down, from €44.91.

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If you'd rather buy direct, the websites of Magic Catamarans, Palma Cruises and Life & Sea sell without a middleman. Our verdict on each boat company is in the reviews of Magic Catamarans, Oasis, Attraction Catamarans, Life & Sea, Barca Samba, Palma Cruises, Mallorca City Boat and Costa de Calvià.

Dolphins and glass-bottom boats: not the same thing

Only two trips genuinely go looking for dolphins: Palma Cruises from the Golondrinas (€55, 10% less online) and Life & Sea from S'Arenal or Can Pastilla (€80), the only one with a 06:00 departure. Neither guarantees a sighting. Costa de Calvià's "Dolphin" is the Esmeralda Dos glass-bottom boat: the name is not a promise. And a boat that chases or circles dolphins is breaking the law, which bans getting closer than 60 metres. More in the dolphin-watching guide.

Beyond the bay: Es Trenc and Cabrera from Palma

Two full-day trips leave from the bay:

• Es Trenc by catamaran from Palma: Attraction Catamarans sells a full day from 09:00 to 19:00 for €200. No boat lands on the beach: you swim from the anchored boat. From Colònia de Sant Jordi, Life & Sea's 3-hour trip costs €39. Details in the Es Trenc guide.
• Cabrera from Can Pastilla or S'Arenal: Life & Sea leaves Can Pastilla at 10:00 (S'Arenal at 10:15) and returns around 18:15, for €90 (children €70), with a landing on the island. The other Cabrera trips leave from Colònia de Sant Jordi, from €45. More in the Cabrera guide.

Frequently asked questions