Santorini Catamaran Tours

[tmqw]

Our group wants to take a private catamaran tour. I CAN NOT SWIM but am not afraid of being on the boat and enjoying the day.  My questions is do you have to SWIM to the boat from the shore and vice versa?  If so, this is totally out for me.  Thank you for your input.

 

 

[Wishing on a star]

I have not done one of these tours.   But, I do not think you would have to swim.

Search out the type of tour you want.

Be aware of where the operators tours depart from.

 

I believe that many of these departures have some kind of docking area.

 

 Caldera sunset tours often depart from Ammoudi Bay, down below Oia.

You should be able to board the catamaran directly, but note that you would have to get down to area at Ammoudi Bay.

 

There are many operators to choose from.

I don't know if you will get a good recommendation.

So searching out catamaran tours Santorini and contacting a few of the operators might be the way to go.

 

Note:  When you see catamaran tours listed thru booking sites like tripadvisor, viator, etc...  Often it is possible to figure out who the operator is, thus eliminating the middleman.  That can help both with trip planning, direct contact, and a lower price.

Edited February 28, 2023 by Wishing on a star

[Host Bonjour]

On 2/28/2023 at 9:10 AM, tmqw said:

do you have to SWIM to the boat

 

I was curious about your question and so I did a google search for Santorini catamaran cruises. I now understand why you, or practically anyone–especially someone less comfortable being IN the water, would reasonably ask the question.

 

Nearly all of the beautiful, scenic promo images on the website are of the catamarans moored just offshore, which is pretty common for these types of boats (and traditional sailboats) because they'll usually have deeper keels. There's also no real bulkhead on the shore, can't blame them, and so they're moored when not in use.

 

Smaller boats at the shoreline with low bottoms are used to bring guests to the catamarans, which have stairs on the aft (rear) of each hull...so the smaller boat would be brought up to the aft of the catamaran for folks to board. It's stable, and if it made you feel safer, you could always request a vest to wear while you went from one boat to the other, then decide to leave it off during your cruise, or close at hand. 

 

It might help if they described the boarding process a bit better, perhaps mention it if you do the tour. And come back to let us know how it was. We're looking for reports to share with members now that cruising is fully back 🙂