Nobody publishes what a boat trip in Madeira really costs, so we measured it. Every bookable listing, one afternoon, both halves of a market that barely overlap.
What does a boat trip in Madeira cost?
There is no single answer, because Madeira has two separate boat markets that happen to sit on the same booking pages.
- Shared trips are sold by the seat. Median advertised price: €59 per person (34 listings, ranging €19 to €450).
- Private trips are sold by the boat. Median advertised price: €537 for the whole boat (24 listings, ranging €150 to €3,500).
Those two numbers are not comparable, and that is exactly where most people get confused. A €59 listing and a €537 listing can appear side by side in the same search result with no obvious sign that one is a seat and the other is the entire boat.
How we measured this
We captured every bookable boat listing shown on GetYourGuide for Madeira on 11 August 2026 — Funchal, Calheta, Machico, Caniço, Caniçal, Porto Moniz, Câmara de Lobos and Porto Santo. Land tours were removed. That leaves 58 boat listings.
A listing counts as whole-boat if it advertises itself as private, exclusive, a charter or a yacht. Everything else is treated as a per-person seat price. Prices are the advertised "from" price and do not include platform booking fees. The full dataset is published as JSON under CC BY 4.0 — reuse it, just link back.
The price gap in the middle is real
Of all 58 listings, only 3 are priced between €90 and €150. The market sits at two ends: a cheap seat on a big catamaran, or several hundred euros for a boat of your own. There is almost nothing in between.
This matters when you are planning. If €59 a head feels too crowded but €537 feels too much, the middle option you are looking for mostly does not exist in Madeira — you are choosing between the two ends.
Is a private boat cheaper if you are a group?
Usually not, and it is worth saying plainly because a lot of listings imply otherwise. Here are the real numbers, against the shared median of €59 per person. Every cell shows the total first, then the cost each:
| Group size | Shared trip | Private boat (median) | Chifbay Sunset | Chifbay Day |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 people | €117 €59 each |
€537 €269 each |
€400 €200 each |
€500 €250 each |
| 3 people | €176 €59 each |
€537 €179 each |
€400 €133 each |
€500 €167 each |
| 4 people | €234 €59 each |
€537 €134 each |
€400 €100 each |
€500 €125 each |
| 7 people | €293 €59 each |
€537 €107 each |
€400 €80 each |
€500 €100 each |
At five people, the shared option totals €293 and the median private boat is €537 — roughly 1.8× more. Private boats in Madeira are not a money-saving trick. You pay a real premium, and what you buy with it is that nobody else is on board, the boat waits when you want to swim longer, and the route can change on the day.
The one thing that is true: the per-person figure falls fast with group size. It makes no sense for one person and good sense for five.
The strangest finding: the private half of the market has almost no reviews
Across the 34 shared listings there are 33,514 reviews. Across the 24 private listings there are 906 — and 9 of them have none at all. The median private listing has 1 review.
Only 6 of the 24 private listings carry a star rating at all. Where a rating does exist, private trips score higher (median 4.9) than shared ones (median 4.6) — but on so few ratings that the number should be treated as a hint, not a fact.
The practical advice: in the shared market you can lean on review counts, because they are large enough to mean something. In the private market almost nobody has them, so judge on the specifics instead — how many guests the boat actually takes, whether drinks are included or extra, whether the price is per person or for the boat, and where it actually goes.
What is included, and what usually is not
The advertised price is rarely the final price. Across these listings the common extras are drinks, snacks, photos or video, hotel pickup, and the platform's own booking fee. Two boats at the same headline price can differ by €50 or more once you add them.
When you compare, ask three questions: is this per person or for the boat, how many other people will be aboard, and what is not in the price. On a private Chifbay trip the answer is the whole boat for up to 5 guests, nobody else aboard, with local wine, poncha, beer, soft drinks and snacks already in the price — €400 for the 2-hour sunset and €500 for the 2h30 day trip, both below the €537 private median.
Is Madeira cheap compared to the rest of Europe?
No. The same survey covered 354 shared boat listings across 183 European towns and cities, measured the same way. The European median is €55 per person. Madeira's is €59 — slightly above it.
That surprises people, because Madeira has plenty of large catamarans and you would expect that capacity to push prices down. It does not. If you are budgeting a Mediterranean-style €55 boat trip, plan for a little more here.
The private end is where Madeira is genuinely thin: 24 whole-boat listings for the whole island.
Two markets, one search page. Read the unit before you read the number.
Prices move. This snapshot is from 11 August 2026 and we will remeasure it. If you are quoting these figures, please link back so readers can check the date.