Guide · 6 minute read
Ten guests is the best group size to charter a yacht in Dubai at. A 48ft carrying twelve costs AED 2,250 for three hours — AED 225 each — and with ten aboard rather than twelve there is still room to lie down. It is the point where a private boat becomes cheaper than buying ten dinner-cruise tickets and dramatically better.
Published
Guest capacity on a charter boat is a legal limit, not a comfort estimate. A 48ft licensed for twelve seats twelve, but ten is the number at which people can spread out, someone can lie on the bow, and the swim platform is not a queue.
Ten is also where the arithmetic turns. Below about eight people a shared dhow cruise at AED 99 a head is clearly cheaper. At ten the gap has narrowed to a few hundred dirhams for the whole group, and you get the departure time, the route, the music and the swim stop to yourselves.
The 48ft is the right answer for ten in almost every case. It is the most-booked boat in the fleet, it is the cheapest per hour, and it has a low swim platform and a flybridge that ten people can actually use at once.
The 55ft costs AED 1,050 an hour rather than AED 750 — AED 900 more across three hours — and buys an air-conditioned saloon and a wider deck. That is worth it for sixteen guests, in high summer, or if someone in the group needs to sit inside. For ten in November it is money spent on space nobody uses.
The route that works: out through the Marina channel, past Bluewaters and along JBR, down to the Palm crescent, anchor for forty minutes to swim, then the coast slowly on the way back with the towers lighting up.
Bring your own food — it costs nothing on any boat and a group of ten produces a better spread than most catering does. Ice and a fridge are aboard. If you would rather not carry it, a deck BBQ at anchor runs from AED 180 a head.
One practical note. Collect the money before the day rather than after. The boat costs AED 2,250 whether nine or ten people board, and enthusiasm for transferring money drops sharply once everyone is home.
FAQ
Check a date
Leave the date and roughly how many of you there are and we will come back with the boats that are free and what each costs. No deposit at this stage.