Yacht charter in Barcelona

Crewed yachts in Barcelona start at €265 an hour for a Riva Thalassa, and the 41 models in this section run from a 10.32-metre Gallart to a 37-metre Heesen. Thirteen of the 21 hourly rates are €500 or less, eight-hour packages start at €1,800 and day prices at €420. Below: how prices are quoted, what a longer charter saves, how many guests fit, where the boats are moored, when to book and what the licence rule means for you.

How a crewed charter works in the city

Hiring a yacht here means taking the whole boat, with its captain, for a fixed block of time. Three things shape every offer: who is at the helm, how long you keep the vessel and how the price is counted.

A professional captain comes with the boat

Motor yachts in the city are chartered in three working formats: with a captain, by the hour and by the day. Yachts come with professional captains as part of the charter package, so the real choice is not whether to take a skipper but how long to book and on which vessel. Prices arrive in three different units. Twenty-one of the models carry an hourly rate, seven are sold as fixed trips of two, four or eight hours, and thirteen have a price for a whole day. None of these converts into the others without doing the sums, so before you compare two offers, turn each one into a single total for the time you actually want on the water.

What Spain's licence rule means for renters

Spain's licence-free exemption — motorboats up to 5 metres with no more than 15 CV (metric horsepower), sailing boats up to 6 metres — now covers only private and sports use, not rentals. When such boats are rented, the person steering them must hold a boating qualification. A charter with a professional skipper does not require a licence from the client. Every yacht in this section is far beyond those limits anyway, at 10 metres and more, so self-drive was never an option for them. The rule matters to anyone who planned to drive a small boat themselves instead: without a qualification, that option is gone even for the smallest rental craft, and a skippered boat is the format left open.

How large the choice is

More than two hundred boats are available in Barcelona in total, sailboats and catamarans included. The yacht section alone holds 41 models from 28 makes. Sunseeker leads with four, followed by Azimut, Maiora, Astondoa and Cranchi with three each, and De Antonio and Heesen with two. Lengths run from 10.32 metres for the Gallart 11 Europa to 37 metres for a Heesen superyacht; the middle of the range is 15.8 metres. Fourteen yachts are shorter than 14 metres, twelve measure 14 to 18 metres, ten fall between 18 and 24 metres and five are longer than 24 metres. That spread is wide enough to choose by budget, group size and marina rather than settle for whatever is free.

Hourly rates from €265 to €1,450

Twenty-one yachts carry an hourly rate with a captain. The cheapest is €265 and the dearest €1,450, and the middle of the list sits at exactly €500 — three models share that rate.

Hourly rates by yacht length

The lowest rates belong to the Riva Thalassa, a 15.8-metre classic motor yacht at €265, the 12.4-metre Primatist G41.2 hardtop at €275, the Sunseeker Camargue 52 at €293 and the Fairline Targa 44 sport cruiser at €300. At the other end, the 24-metre Maiora 24 costs €1,086 an hour, the 28.2-metre Heesen 92.6 €1,116 and the 28-metre Explorer 92 €1,450.

Length is not a price scale

The table shows a trend, but individual boats break it often. The 13-metre Viking 43 costs €500 an hour, while the Riva Thalassa, almost three metres longer, costs €265. The 23.1-metre Falcon 80 costs €450, less than half of the €1,086 asked for the 24-metre Maiora 24, which is only 0.9 metres longer. The 18.4-metre Majesty 56 flybridge, at €350, undercuts the 14.82-metre Azimut 46 at €467. Make, age, interior and what the charter includes matter as much as metres. When two offers look close in size, compare the boats themselves rather than the length on paper.

Minimum hours behind an hourly rate

An hourly rate rarely means you can book a single hour. Seventeen of these yachts also carry package prices. The shortest package is two hours on eight of them, four hours on five and a full eight hours on three. The Explorer 92 starts with a three-hour trip at €4,750, which is more than three times its hourly rate. Treat the hourly figure as a way to compare boats, and ask what the shortest bookable block costs before you plan a short outing.

Two-hour, half-day and full-day packages

Packages are where the real prices sit. Most yachts with an hourly rate also have fixed prices for two, four and eight hours, and seven boats are sold only that way.

Package prices on seven yachts

What a full day saves per hour

On every yacht priced for both two and eight hours, the full day costs about half as much per hour, or less. The Majesty 56 costs €900 an hour on a two-hour trip and €350 an hour over eight hours — 39% of the short rate. The Fairline Targa 44 drops from €525 to €225 an hour, and the Riva Thalassa from €550 to €262. Even the smallest saving, on the Azimut 53, still brings the hourly figure down from €925 to €481. The same pattern holds between four and eight hours: on twelve yachts priced for both, the second half of the day adds between €350 on the Fairline Targa 44 and €3,300 on the Maiora 24. So before you settle on a short trip, ask for the full-day price on the same boat: the difference is often smaller than one extra short trip.

Eight hours on board: €1,800 to €8,935

Sixteen yachts have an eight-hour price. The cheapest full days are on the Fairline Targa 44 at €1,800, the Riva Thalassa at €2,100 and the Primatist G41.2 at €2,200. Around €4,000 buys a day on 21- to 23-metre yachts such as the Azimut 68S at €3,900, the Astondoa 72 at €3,990 and the Aicon 72 SL at €4,250. The top of the range is the Maiora 28M at €7,300, the Maiora 24 at €8,690 and the Heesen 92.6 at €8,935.

Short trips on smaller open boats

Six of the seven boats sold only as packages are 11- to 15-metre open motor yachts; the seventh, the 28-metre Maiora 28M, is sold as an eight-hour day at €7,300. Two-hour trips start at €590 on the Duarry Sportech 120 and €600 on the Allure 38, a 2022 boat with a gyro stabiliser, followed by the Fjord 36 Express at €790 and the Aquila 36 power catamaran at €900. The De Antonio D36 is sold as a four-hour trip at €1,700, and the 14.9-metre De Antonio D50 at €3,025 for four hours. These six are the cheapest way onto a private yacht for a short outing, and every one of them takes 10 to 12 guests.

Day prices, 24-hour hire and weekly charters

Thirteen yachts are priced only by the day, and a handful of larger ones also have 24-hour and weekly rates. These prices suit a full day out along the coast or a longer stay.

Yachts priced by the day

Day prices start at €420 for a 12-metre Cranchi Mediterranee 43 and reach €20,000 for the 37-metre Heesen superyacht; the middle of the list is €1,600. Between those ends sit the 16-metre Sunseeker Camargue 51 at €750, the Cranchi Mediterranee 41 at €1,199, the Saxdor 400 GTO at €1,600, the Albatro 48 RS at €1,900, the Gallart 11 Europa at €2,000, the Menorquin Yachts 150 Fly at €2,086, the Astilux Alexa 37 at €2,600 and the 20-metre Pershing 65 at €3,000. Day prices are starting figures: the final quote depends on date and conditions, so ask for the price on your exact day.

Build year and cabins

For the day-priced yachts, the build year is known, and it spans more than a quarter of a century — from the Pershing 65 of 2000 to the Nuva M11 Cabin of 2026. Eight of the thirteen were built before 2012, including two from 2001. Age alone does not set the price: the 2010 Cranchi Mediterranee 43 is the cheapest day charter, while the 2001 Gallart 11 Europa costs €2,000. Cabins range from one, on the Saxdor 400 GTO and the Nuva M11 Cabin, to four on the Heesen superyacht. Engine power is known for most of them, from 304 CV on the Nuva to 2,500 CV on the Pershing 65. If you want a cabin for shade, a change of clothes or a nap after lunch, check the cabin count before price.

24-hour and weekly rates

A week on the Azimut 68S costs six times its eight-hour price of €3,900, so a weekly charter works out at roughly the cost of six full days for seven. On the Mochi Craft Mega 25 the ratio is the same: €30,000 a week against €5,000 for eight hours.

Guest limits and group size

Guest limits change less than lengths or prices. For most groups, the number of people decides the shortlist before the budget does.

Twelve guests is the usual ceiling

Twenty of the 41 yachts take 12 guests, ten take 11 and four take 10. That ceiling applies to large boats as well as small ones: the 24-metre Maiora 24, the 25-metre Mochi Craft Mega 25 and the 28.2-metre Heesen 92.6 each take 12, the same as the 12.4-metre Primatist G41.2. A bigger yacht therefore brings more deck space, cabins and comfort for the same group, not extra places. Two yachts take fewer: the 37-metre Heesen superyacht and the Sunseeker Camargue 50 each take 8 guests.

Yachts for more than twelve

Four yachts go beyond twelve. The Nuva M11 Cabin takes 13, the Cranchi Mediterranee 47 takes 14 and the Pershing 65 takes 15. The Explorer 92, a 28-metre boat based in Barcelona and Ibiza, is built for groups of up to 50, with packages of €4,750 for three hours, €5,750 for four, €6,750 for five and €7,750 for six. Splitting a group of twenty across two smaller yachts means paying two rates and losing the shared deck; for groups above twelve, price one large boat first. The site's separate catamaran section covers boats for larger groups as well.

Price per guest

Dividing the price by the guest limit makes offers easier to compare for a group. The Fairline Targa 44 for eight hours, at €1,800 for 11 guests, comes to about €164 a head. The Majesty 56, at €2,800 for 12, is about €233, and the Explorer 92, at €7,750 for six hours with 50 guests, about €155 — less per person than most of the smaller yachts. For a full group, the larger boat is not always the dearer one.

Marinas, departure points and the summer peak

Where you board decides how long it takes to reach the boat, and the time of year decides how much choice is left. Both are worth fixing before you compare prices.

Marina Vela, Port Fòrum and Port Olímpic

Of the yachts whose marina is named, Marina Vela is by far the most common base, with eleven models, among them the Maiora 24, Heesen 92.6, Majesty 56 and Riva Thalassa. Port Fòrum and Port Olímpic follow with four yachts each, and Marina Port Vell and the Reial Club Nàutic de Barcelona each have one. Charters leave from six marinas in the city itself, so two boats on the same shortlist may start from opposite ends of the waterfront.

Marinas outside the city

Some yachts are moored beyond the city limits. Two sail from Port de Premià, the Azimut 68S and the Aicon 72 SL; two from Port Ginesta, the Nuva M11 Cabin and the Pershing 65; and the Albatro 48 RS from Marina Badalona. If a yacht's base is not one of the city marinas, ask whether boarding in Barcelona is possible and what transfer time to plan. In every case, ask for the exact marina and mooring together with the price, and treat an offer that names only the city as incomplete.

May to September, with bookings starting in winter

The peak season for boat hire in the city runs from May to September, and by March about 45% of the boats on offer are already booked — two months before the peak even begins. The figure covers boats as a whole rather than yachts alone, but the direction is clear: summer dates go early. More than half the fleet is still free in March, so a June request in spring is not hopeless. Still, a fixed summer date deserves an early request rather than a last-week search, and if your day can move, ask for two or three dates at once to widen the choice.

Checklist before you send a charter request

Five checks turn a list of offers into a fair comparison. Each one follows from the figures above.

Five checks for any charter quote

• Unit and length: confirm whether the price is hourly, per package, per day or per week, and how many hours a package covers.
• Hourly figure: divide every package by its length; a full day on the same yacht costs about half as much per hour as a two-hour trip, or less.
• Group size: check the guest limit — 12 on most yachts here, 13 to 50 on only four of them.
• Marina: get the exact marina and mooring; eleven yachts sail from Marina Vela, others from Port Fòrum, Port Olímpic or marinas outside the city.
• Season and extras: for a May to September date, ask early, since about 45% of boats are booked by March, and ask what the price includes beyond the boat and its captain.