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Motor Yachts on the Bosphorus: Hourly Rates, Guests and Piers
Yacht charter in Istanbul starts from ₺2,500 an hour for a 10-metre motor yacht, and the middle of 54 hourly-priced boats sits at ₺6,675. Most outings have a two-hour minimum. Below: how the hourly rate turns into a total, what length, shipyard and build year do to the price, how many guests fit, and where the boats leave from.
How a private Bosphorus charter works
A motor yacht on the Bosphorus is hired by the hour, with a captain at the helm and a minimum number of hours, and those three facts shape every quote you will see.
The whole boat with a captain and crew
What you book is the entire boat for your own group, not a seat on a shared sightseeing cruise. The Rent-Trip section on this page brings together 56 motor yacht models, from a 10-metre custom-built cruiser to two superyachts of about 35 metres. On this market a yacht goes out with its captain and crew; there is no self-drive option in this category, so nobody in your group has to steer the boat. The crew size is stated for only one model — four crew on a 30-metre Azimut — but larger yachts carry more hands as a matter of course. In my experience the simplest way to think about a private yacht in Istanbul is as a boat plus a crew that knows the strait, its currents and the traffic of ferries and cargo ships, rather than as a vessel you rent and run yourself.
Two hours as the usual minimum
Hourly prices come with a floor: the common minimum is two hours. That is long enough for a run along the European shore and back, or for a sunset on the water, but it means the cheapest possible booking is never the one-hour figure shown on a card. A boat that starts at ₺2,500 an hour costs at least ₺5,000 for the shortest outing, and a boat at the median rate of ₺6,675 costs at least ₺13,350. Longer routes carry longer minimums. A day of swimming off the Princes' Islands is usually sold with a minimum of eight hours, because the run there and back takes a large part of the day before anyone gets into the water.
What the hourly rate usually covers
Operators on the Istanbul market commonly include the crew, the fuel and insurance in the hourly price, which is why a Bosphorus rate looks high next to a bare boat rental elsewhere. That inclusion is common, not guaranteed for every boat, so the first question for any quote is what sits inside the rate and what is added on top. Anything beyond that — food, drinks, decoration or a pick-up from a pier other than the boat's home base — needs to be confirmed separately. Write the full list into your request, and compare two boats only when both quotes cover the same items — otherwise a lower hourly figure can end in a higher total.
Hourly rates from ₺2,500 to ₺73,500
Of the 56 models on this page, one is priced only by the day; the figures below use 54 hourly starting prices that can be compared directly with each other.
Where 54 hourly prices sit
| Starting rate per hour | Models | Typical boats |
|---|---|---|
| Up to ₺4,000 | 16 | 10–22 m custom builds, Azimut 50, Vicem 65 Classic |
| ₺4,001–8,000 | 19 | Azimut 55 Fly, Princess 55 Fly, Ferretti Yachts 870 |
| ₺8,001–15,000 | 16 | Azimut 68 Fly, Bilgin 26 m, Absolute 73 Navetta |
| Above ₺15,000 | 3 | Princess 21 Metre, Azimut 30 m, Sunseeker 116 |
The cheapest boats start at ₺2,500 an hour — a 10-metre and an 18-metre custom-built motor yacht — and the most expensive hourly rate is ₺73,500 for the Sunseeker 116. Thirty-five of the 54 models, about two in three, start at ₺8,000 an hour or less, and only three cost more than ₺15,000. Above ₺15,000 the price no longer follows length smoothly: the Princess 21 Metre at ₺18,000 is barely longer than boats that ask a third of that, while the Sunseeker 116 at ₺73,500 is a superyacht for 85 guests and belongs to a different class altogether.
From an hourly rate to a total
| Yacht | Guests | Per hour | 2 hours | 8 hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Custom 10m Motoryat | 8 | ₺2,500 | ₺5,000 | ₺20,000 |
| Azimut 55 Fly | 20 | ₺5,400 | ₺10,800 | ₺43,200 |
| Ferretti Yachts 870 | 44 | ₺7,500 | ₺15,000 | ₺60,000 |
| Bilgin 26 m | 35 | ₺12,500 | ₺25,000 | ₺100,000 |
| Sunseeker 116 | 85 | ₺73,500 | ₺147,000 | ₺588,000 |
The two right-hand columns are the ones that matter. Two hours is the usual minimum for a Bosphorus run or a sunset, and eight hours is the usual minimum for a swimming day at the Princes' Islands. The gap between them is not only arithmetic: a short evening run on a mid-sized boat stays in the low tens of thousands of lira, while an island day on the same boat moves into a different budget. Before comparing two yachts, multiply each hourly figure by the hours your plan actually needs, and only then put the totals side by side.
Starting prices, not dated quotes
Every rate on this page is a starting price without a date — the lowest figure the boat goes out for, not a quote for your evening. Several of the cards also stand for more than one boat. A custom-built 16-metre or 22-metre motor yacht is not a single vessel but a length class with several boats in it, and the card shows the lowest rate among them; other boats of the same length can ask noticeably more. The same is true of popular brand models offered by more than one owner. Treat the figure as a floor and as a guide to the class of boat, and ask for a dated price on the specific boat you want.
Length, shipyard and build year
Length is the first thing that moves a yacht's price, but at the same length the shipyard and the year of build can double the rate.
Starting rates by length
| Length | Models | Per hour | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 m | 9 | ₺2,500–6,900 | ₺3,500 |
| 15–18 m | 9 | ₺2,888–8,300 | ₺3,750 |
| 18–21 m | 10 | ₺2,500–11,100 | ₺5,450 |
| 21–24 m | 11 | ₺3,500–18,000 | ₺8,750 |
| 24–30 m | 7 | ₺6,988–12,500 | ₺9,000 |
| 30 m and over | 2 | ₺28,500–73,500 | — |
Six of the 54 hourly models have no stated length and sit outside this table. The medians rise steadily from ₺3,500 for boats under 15 metres to ₺9,000 for boats between 24 and 30 metres, roughly two and a half times over a doubling of length. The ranges inside each band are wide, though, and they overlap: an 18–21 metre boat can start at the same ₺2,500 as the smallest yachts on the page, and a 21–24 metre yacht can cost anywhere from ₺3,500 to ₺18,000. Length tells you which band to look at; it does not settle the price.
Same length, different price
The clearest effect after length is whether the boat comes from a named shipyard. At 18 metres, the Custom 18m Motoryat starts at ₺2,500 an hour for up to 10 guests, while the Azimut 55 Fly, built in 2023, starts at ₺5,400 for up to 20 — more than twice as much for the same length, with double the guest capacity. At 22 metres the spread is wider: ₺3,500 for a custom-built boat for 12 guests, ₺6,750 for an Azimut 72 from 2019 for 15, and ₺8,750 for an Azimut 68S for 25. Around 26 metres, the Azimut 85 starts at ₺8,000, the Alalunga 72 at ₺9,000, the Custom 26m Motoryat at ₺10,000, the Falcon 80 at about ₺10,238 and the Bilgin 26 m at ₺12,500 — five boats of almost the same length within a band of about one and a half times.
Build year and refits
Age shows most clearly when two boats match on length and guest numbers. The Ferretti Yachts 530 Fly and the Azimut 50 are both about 16.2 metres long and both take 12 guests; the Ferretti, listed with a 2026 refit, starts at ₺8,300 an hour, while the Azimut from 2008 starts at ₺3,250 — about 2.6 times less. Within one brand the pattern repeats: the Princess 20M, built between 2000 and 2008, starts at ₺5,000, and the Princess 21 Metre from 2015, barely longer, starts at ₺18,000. Older boats are not automatically cheap, though. A Princess 48 Flybridge from 1991 still asks ₺6,900, well above the ₺3,927 of a 14-metre custom build. If budget is the main limit, an older brand yacht or a well-kept custom boat is where the value usually sits; if the photos are the point of the evening, a recent build is what the higher rate buys.
Guests and the price per head
The guest number on a card is the maximum day capacity of the boat, and it changes the per-person cost far more than the hourly rate suggests.
Capacity groups
| Guests | Models | Per hour | Median | Median per guest-hour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 10 | 14 | ₺2,500–5,225 | ₺3,475 | ₺375 |
| 11–20 | 24 | ₺2,900–28,500 | ₺6,425 | ₺504 |
| 21–30 | 8 | ₺6,988–18,000 | ₺9,225 | ₺377 |
| 31 and more | 8 | ₺7,500–73,500 | ₺11,225 | ₺285 |
Capacities run from 6 guests on the Eurocraft 14 m to 85 on the Sunseeker 116. The largest group of models, 24 of 54, takes between 11 and 20 people, and it is also the group with the highest median cost per guest-hour, ₺504. The reason is that this band holds many premium brand boats for 12 guests: the boat is priced for its finish and age, not for the number of seats. Large boats work the other way. Once a yacht carries more than 30 guests, the median per guest-hour drops to ₺285, the lowest of the four groups, because the hull, crew and fuel are shared by many more people.
Large groups and events
When a yacht rental in Istanbul is for a birthday, a company outing or a wedding party, the per-head figure is what to watch. The Ferretti Yachts 870 takes up to 44 guests for ₺7,500 an hour, about ₺170 per guest-hour when full. The Custom 25m Motoryat takes 35 for the same ₺7,500, or about ₺214 per guest-hour, and the Absolute 73 Navetta takes 50 for ₺14,700. At the top, the Sunseeker 116 takes 85 guests at ₺73,500, close to ₺865 per guest-hour — the premium here is for the superyacht itself, not for the space. A group of 30 to 50 people has a real choice between a large custom boat and a brand yacht, and the price difference between them can reach two times for the same headcount.
Small groups and couples
For two to eight people, the smallest boats are the efficient choice. The Custom 10m and Custom 11m Motoryat take eight guests at ₺2,500 and ₺2,750 an hour, which comes to about ₺313 and ₺344 per guest-hour when full, and the full two-hour minimum costs ₺5,000 and ₺5,500. A couple paying for a whole boat will of course pay the full rate, so the per-head maths only helps once the group grows. The opposite case is the Azimut 30 m: 12 guests, a crew of four and ₺28,500 an hour, about ₺2,375 per guest-hour — a boat chosen for space and service, not for economy.
Custom builds, brand yachts and superyachts
Istanbul's yacht market is unusual in one respect: most boats on offer carry no shipyard name at all, and that shapes what the cards on this page look like.
Custom builds by length
The large majority of private motor yachts on the Bosphorus are custom builds — boats made by local yards without a brand model name. That is why 17 cards on this page are named by length, from Custom 10m to Custom 26m Motoryat, and each of them groups the boats of that length rather than one specific hull. Their starting rates run from ₺2,500 to ₺10,000 an hour, with a median of about ₺3,738. For a group that cares more about the route and the company than the logo on the hull, this is the most economical way onto the water, and the lengths cover everything from a small evening boat for eight to a 26-metre yacht for 24.
Azimut, Princess and Ferretti
Thirty-three cards are brand yachts, and their median starting rate is ₺8,000 an hour, a little over twice the custom-build median. Azimut is the largest name, with 8 models from the 16-metre Azimut 50 at ₺3,250 to the Azimut 30 m at ₺28,500. Princess follows with 6 models from ₺5,000 for the Princess 20M to ₺18,000 for the Princess 21 Metre, and Ferretti Yachts with 4 models from ₺4,950 for the Ferretti Yachts 46 to ₺8,300 for the 530 Fly. Absolute and Aicon have two models each, and single models from Riva, Mochi Craft, Falcon, Alalunga, Bilgin, Eurocraft, Adagio, Fairline, O Yachts, Sunseeker and Vicem complete the list. A brand name gives you a known layout and a model you can look up in advance; it does not tell you the boat's age or condition, so ask for both.
One line of four boats
Four SU Yachts boats show how one owner prices by group size rather than by length. The SU starts at ₺6,250 an hour and the SU Prestige at ₺7,950, both for 12 guests; the SU Orion takes 24 for ₺9,450 and the SU Royal 36 for ₺9,950. Compared with the SU Prestige, doubling the guest number from 12 to 24 adds only about a fifth to the rate, and tripling it to 36 adds about a quarter. Where an owner prices a set of boats this way, it pays to book the size that fits the whole group rather than the smallest boat that looks enough.
The superyacht tier
Two models sit far above the rest. The Sunseeker 116, built in 2018 and 35.1 metres long, starts at ₺73,500 an hour for up to 85 guests — about eleven times the median rate on the page. The Sanlorenzo SL118 from 2018, 36 metres long, is offered only by the day, from about ₺2.74 million, and takes 10 guests: it is a boat for a small party that wants a full day of space and service, not for a large event. Between these and the mainstream sits the Azimut 30 m from 2019 at ₺28,500 an hour with a crew of four. At this level every detail of the day — menu, route, staff — is usually agreed in advance, so plan the request well ahead of the date.
Piers, routes and planning the date
Where the boat leaves from, how long the route runs and which date you choose all change the final figure as much as the boat itself.
European and Asian shore piers
Most yachts start from piers along the European shore of the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn: Bebek, Kuruçeşme and Arnavutköy on the strait, Karaköy and Eminönü near the old city, Ayvansaray and Unkapanı further up the Golden Horn. On the Asian shore, boats leave from Kandilli and Anadoluhisarı. The pier matters for two reasons. It decides how long it takes your guests to reach the boat through city traffic, and it decides where the paid hours begin — a boat based in Bebek reaches the Bosphorus bridges faster than one that starts in the Golden Horn. If your group is staying in one part of the city, ask for a boat based nearby, or ask whether a pick-up at another pier is possible and what it adds.
Sunset hours and an island day
The two most common plans follow the two minimums. A sunset run is a two-hour outing timed to the evening light, usually along the European shore between the bridges, and it fits the shortest booking on any boat. A swimming day at the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara is sold with a minimum of eight hours, because the islands lie well south of the Bosphorus and the run there and back is long. Between the two, three- and four-hour bookings are common steps in pricing. For the Bosphorus yacht rental most visitors have in mind — the palaces, the fortresses and the bridges from the water — in my experience two to three hours is enough.
Season and special dates
Prices on this market change with the season and on special dates. The starting rates on this page are the floor, and a date in the busy season or a special date such as a public holiday can come in above them. For a date that matters, ask for the price on that exact date before you plan around a card figure, and ask whether a weekday or an earlier time of day would cost less.
What to put in a charter request
- Date, time and hours: give the exact date, the start time and how many hours you want on the water, so the hourly rate becomes one total.
- Guests: state the full headcount, children included, and choose a boat whose capacity covers it.
- Pier: name the shore and the pier you prefer, or ask where the boat is based.
- Route: say whether you want the Bosphorus only, a sunset run or a day at the Princes' Islands.
- What is included: ask whether crew, fuel and insurance are in the rate, and what food, drinks or decoration cost.
- Exact boat: name the model from the cards on this page and ask whether the quote is for that boat or a similar one.
Key points before you choose a yacht
Five figures to keep in mind
- Hourly rate: 54 hourly-priced motor yachts start between ₺2,500 and ₺73,500, with the middle at ₺6,675.
- Minimum hours: two hours for a Bosphorus run or a sunset, eight hours for a swimming day at the Princes' Islands — multiply before you compare.
- Shipyard: brand yachts start at a median of ₺8,000 an hour, a little over twice the custom-build median.
- Age: at the same 16.2 metres and 12 guests, a refitted Ferretti costs about 2.6 times an Azimut from 2008.
- Group size: on boats for more than 30 guests, the median cost falls to ₺285 per guest-hour.