Catamaran charter in Costa Brava

Catamaran charter on the Costa Brava starts from €300 a day for a 12-metre Fountaine Pajot Lipari 41, and the middle of the 10 sailing catamarans in this section sits at €708. Below: what the price covers, how guests, length and age move it, why boats sold with a skipper cost more, and which harbours the catamarans sail from.

What you book: the whole boat, a skipper and a unit of time

Before comparing prices it helps to be clear about what is actually being priced, because two quotes for the same boat can describe two different days at sea.

The whole boat, not a seat

A catamaran charter here means the entire boat for your group. You are not buying a place on a shared excursion with strangers; the deck, the trampolines between the hulls and the cabins are yours for the day. That is why the numbers on this page are per boat, not per person, and why the per-person figure falls so quickly as the group grows. Every model in the section is a sailing catamaran — two hulls, a mast and auxiliary engines — between 10.3 and 13 metres long where the length is stated. There are no motor catamarans or day-trip party boats among them, so the comparison below is like for like.

The segment is small. On the whole coast, from Roses in the north to Palamós and S'Agaró in the middle, there are roughly a dozen catamarans offered with a model name and a price, and the Rent-Trip section on this page brings together 10 of them. In practice that means less choice than for motor boats or yachts, and with so few boats a popular summer date for a particular catamaran can go early. If a specific catamaran matters to you, it is worth fixing it early.

A day or a week

The market offers catamarans in three working modes: by the day, by the week or longer, and with a skipper. All the prices on this page are day rates, and they are starting prices: they show the lowest figure a boat has been offered at, without a date attached. A day in high season or a shorter booking at the weekend can cost more than the starting figure, so the figure says little about a week. If you are thinking about sleeping aboard and moving along the coast for several days, ask for a weekly quote directly instead of multiplying.

The skipper question

On five of the 10 catamarans the skipper is mandatory: the Lagoon 42, the Fountaine Pajot Greenland 34, the Bali Catsmart, the Aventura 37 and the Pradere & Fils Edel Strat 35. You cannot take them out on your own, whatever licence you hold. For the other five the offer does not fix it either way, so the first question to ask is whether the boat comes with a skipper and, if so, whether the skipper is inside the day rate or billed on top. Treat the skipper as part of the boat when you compare. A catamaran that looks €300 cheaper may simply be the same day without the person who sails it.

Day rates from €300 to €1,129

The 10 catamarans start between €300 and €1,129 a day. The middle of the range is €708, the average is €694, and half of the boats start between about €430 and €940. The table lists them from the cheapest up.

Where the middle sits

The range splits into three fairly clear bands. Three boats start under €500: the Lipari 41 at €300, the Lagoon 380 at €391 and the Lagoon 40 at €442. All three are large, family-layout catamarans for 10 to 12 guests, which makes the bottom of the market unusually good value — you are not paying less for a smaller boat. Four boats sit in the middle, between €550 and €800: the Edel Strat 35, the Lucia 40, the Ukulele 34 and the Greenland 34. And three start above €900: the Bali Catsmart, the Lagoon 42 and the Aventura 37, the newest and among the longest boats in the section.

The gap between the cheapest and the dearest is almost four times. For a group of 12 that is the difference between about €25 and €94 a person for the day, which is why it pays to understand what sits behind each figure rather than picking the round number that fits the budget.

Why one boat can have several prices

The same model is not always offered at the same starting price. The Lipari 41 based in Roses has been offered from €300 a day and from €513 a day. The Lagoon 380 appears at €391 and €425 in its 2019 version and at €929 in a 2000 version with five cabins. The reasons are ordinary: different owners, different years and layouts, different dates behind the "from" figure, and sometimes a skipper included in one quote and not in another. The figure in the table is the lowest starting price found for each model. Use it as an anchor for comparison, not as the final amount — a dated quote for your day is the number that counts.

Guests, cabins and the cost per person

Most catamarans in the section take up to 12 people on a day trip, and the number of guests changes the arithmetic more than any other factor.

The usual cap is 12

Six of the 10 boats take up to 12 guests: the Lipari 41, the Lagoon 40, the Lucia 40, the Bali Catsmart, the Lagoon 42 and the Aventura 37. Two take 11 (the Ukulele 34 and the Greenland 34), the Lagoon 380 takes 10, and the Edel Strat 35 takes 9. There is no catamaran here for 13 guests or more, so a bigger party has to split across two boats or look at the larger motor yachts and traditional boats in the neighbouring sections. Among the six 12-guest catamarans, the middle starting price is €798 a day.

Price per head falls fast

At full capacity the cost per guest ranges from €25 on the Lipari 41 to €94 on the Aventura 37, with the middle at about €64. Those figures assume every place is filled; with eight people on a 12-guest boat, the Lipari 41 is still €37.50 each and the Aventura 37 is about €141. For a couple or a family of four the per-head logic breaks down altogether, and the cheapest boat in absolute terms is the sensible choice. For a group of 10 to 12 friends, on the other hand, a catamaran is one of the more economical ways to spend a full day on the water: even the dearest boat here works out at under €100 a person before extras.

Cabins and berths for a night aboard

The guest number is a day-trip limit. Sleeping places are fewer, and that matters only if you plan to stay aboard. The Lipari 41 has 6 cabins and 10 berths; the Lagoon 40 also has 6 cabins; the Edel Strat 35 has 5 cabins and 5 berths; the Lagoon 380 in its 2019 version has 4 cabins and 10 berths; the Bali Catsmart and the Lagoon 42 have 4 cabins and 8 berths each; and the Aventura 37 has 3 cabins and 6 berths. So a 12-guest day boat can sleep anywhere from 6 to 10. For a family week with children, cabin count is the figure to start with; for a day out with friends, it hardly matters, and the open saloon and trampolines are what you will use.

Length, age and the skipper premium

On motor boats length is usually the strongest predictor of price. With the catamarans on this coast it explains less than you would expect, and the presence of a mandatory skipper explains more.

What a metre costs

For the eight catamarans with a stated length, the starting price per metre runs from €25 on the 12-metre Lipari 41 to €94 on the 12-metre Aventura 37 — the same length, almost four times the price. The middle is about €73 a metre. The shortest boats, the 10.3-metre Greenland 34, the 10.4-metre Edel Strat 35 and the 10.5-metre Ukulele 34, are not the cheapest: they start at €800, €550 and €746, more than the 12-metre Lipari or the Lagoon 40. The longest boat, the 13-metre Lagoon 42, starts at €986, below the shorter Aventura 37. Length tells you how much deck you get; on its own it does not tell you what you will pay.

Age does not settle it either

The fleet covers more than three decades of building: the Edel Strat 35 dates from 1992, the Lagoon 380 from 2000 in one version, the Greenland 34 from 2003, the Lipari 41 from 2011, the Ukulele 34 from 2013, the Lagoon 40 and the Lagoon 42 from 2019, the Aventura 37 from 2023 and the Bali Catsmart from 2024. The two newest boats are among the three most expensive, which is what you would expect. But the 2003 Greenland 34 starts at €800 while the 2011 Lipari 41 starts at €300, and the 2019 Lagoon 40 is cheaper than the 1992 Edel Strat 35. A newer catamaran usually has a more modern layout, larger windows and better finish; it is not automatically the dearer day.

Boats sold with a skipper start higher

The clearest split in prices is the skipper. The five catamarans on which the skipper is mandatory — Lagoon 42, Greenland 34, Bali Catsmart, Aventura 37 and Edel Strat 35 — have a middle starting price of €926 a day. The other five have a middle of €442. All four boats from €800 up belong to the first group, and all three boats under €500 belong to the second. The obvious reading is that a mandatory skipper is often already in the rate, while the cheaper boats may quote the boat alone. That is exactly why the skipper question in the first section matters: before you decide a catamaran is half the price of another, confirm that both quotes describe a day with someone at the helm.

Home ports from the Bay of Roses to S'Agaró

The catamarans are spread over six harbours on the northern and central Costa Brava, and where a boat is based shapes both the price and the kind of day you get.

Roses and Empuriabrava: the widest choice and the lowest rates

The Bay of Roses is the catamaran centre of the coast. Roses is home to the Lipari 41 at €300, the Lucia 40 at €670 and the Lagoon 380, which is also offered from Empuriabrava; the marina of Empuriabrava, a few kilometres across the bay, adds the Lagoon 40 at €442 and the Lagoon 42 at €986. Between them the two harbours hold five of the 10 boats and all three under €500. If price is the first criterion, this is where catamaran rental on the Costa Brava begins. From here a day typically heads north-east towards Cap de Creus and its coves, or stays inside the wide, sheltered bay for swimming stops — an easy option with children or guests who are new to the sea.

L'Escala and L'Estartit: skippered boats near the Medes Islands

Further south, L'Escala has three catamarans: the Edel Strat 35 at €550, the Greenland 34 at €800 and the Bali Catsmart at €926. L'Estartit, opposite the Medes Islands, has the Aventura 37 at €1,129. All four come with a mandatory skipper, so this stretch suits groups who want to be sailed rather than to sail. The middle price here is higher than in the Bay of Roses, but the boats include the newest in the section, and the trip out to the islands is short.

S'Agaró and Palamós: a single boat each

On the central coast the choice thins out. S'Agaró has the Ukulele 34 at €746, and Palamós is the second base of the Lucia 40 at €670. With one catamaran in a harbour, a single booking can take away all the local choice for that date. If you are staying around Platja d'Aro, Sant Feliu or Palamós and your date is fixed, compare the cost and time of driving north to the Bay of Roses with the price difference of the boats there; for a group of 12, a day rate a few hundred euros lower can easily outweigh an hour in the car.

Licence, skipper and a request that gets a comparable quote

A sailing catamaran of 10 metres or more is not something you can take out on a holiday whim, and the rules make the choice between skippered and bareboat simple.

Why every catamaran here needs a licence or a skipper

Spanish rules allow sailing without a nautical licence only on sailing boats up to 6 metres long. Every catamaran in this section is well beyond that, from 10.3 metres up. So there are only two ways out of the harbour: you hold a licence that covers a sailing boat of that length and the owner accepts it, or you take a skipper. On half the boats even the first option is closed, because the skipper is mandatory regardless of what you hold. For most visitors the practical answer is the skippered catamaran, and the comparison should be made on that basis.

The coves are open to licensed boats

One advantage of a full-size boat is where it can go. Around Roses, licence-free boats cannot reach the protected coves of the Cap de Creus Natural Park, which lie beyond their permitted distance from port; a boat run under a licence, including a skippered catamaran, can. If the remote coves of Cap de Creus are the point of your day, a catamaran from Roses or Empuriabrava is one of the more comfortable ways to see them with a group.

What to put in the request

Because the same boat can carry several starting prices, the quality of the answer depends on the question. A request that gets comparable quotes includes:

• The exact date and the hours: a full day and a half day are priced differently, and a weekend in August is not a weekday in June.
• The number of guests: children included, since the guest limit applies to everyone aboard.
• The harbour you can reach: Roses, Empuriabrava, L'Escala, L'Estartit, S'Agaró or Palamós.
• Skipper in or out: ask whether the skipper is included in the day rate, and what else is — fuel for the engines, cleaning, water toys.
• A night aboard or not: if yes, ask for the number of berths, not only the guest limit.

With those five points answered, two quotes from different harbours become directly comparable, and the cheapest boat on paper either confirms its position or shows what it leaves out.

Key points before you choose

Five figures to keep in mind

• Day rate: the 10 sailing catamarans start between €300 and €1,129 a day, with the middle at €708; three boats start under €500, all in the Bay of Roses.
• Skipper: on 5 of the 10 the skipper is mandatory, and those boats start at €926 in the middle against €442 for the rest — confirm what each quote includes.
• Guests: 12 is the usual limit, on six boats; at full capacity a day costs from €25 to €94 a person.
• Length and age: 10.3 to 13 metres and from 1992 to 2024, but neither length nor age alone predicts the price.
• Home port: Roses and Empuriabrava hold half the boats and the lowest rates; L'Escala and L'Estartit offer skippered boats near the Medes Islands; S'Agaró and Palamós have one each.