Yachtcharter

A private yacht rental in Istanbul is the most flexible way to see the city from the water. You take the whole boat for your group, set your own route and timing along the Bosphorus, and add catering, music or decoration to fit the occasion. Our fleet runs from compact 14-metre motor yachts for a couple or a small group up to 26-metre yachts and large event boats for parties of several hundred, with hourly hire that begins at €85 and a two-hour minimum.

Unlike a scheduled cruise, almost nothing about a charter is fixed in advance except the pier and the hour you board. You decide whether the afternoon is a slow photography run past the palaces, a golden-hour sail with a proposal timed for the second bridge, or a full evening with a DJ and a catered dinner between two continents. A licensed captain and crew are included in every rate, so the only planning left to you is who comes aboard.

Popular occasions include marriage proposals, birthdays, bachelorette parties, wedding anniversaries und corporate events, each with optional catering, decoration and entertainment packages. Every charter departs from a central pier on the European shore — Kabataş, Beşiktaş, Bebek or Kuruçeşme — and every boat in the fleet is licensed for events on the strait.

Private Yacht Charter or Shared Bosphorus Cruise?

Both put you on the same water, past the same palaces. The difference is who else is on the deck and who decides where the boat goes. A scheduled cruise is the better value if you simply want to see the strait; a private charter is the better choice when the occasion, the timing or the guest list matters.

• The boat is yours alone. No shared tables, no fixed seating, no waiting for other groups to board
• You set the route and the clock. Sail at 11:00 or at sunset, turn back early or stay out an extra hour
• You choose what happens on board. Your own playlist, your own menu, your own decoration
• Priced per boat, not per head. Above roughly eight or ten Gäste a charter often costs less per person than individual cruise tickets
• Photography without a crowd. The deck is empty when you want the shot of Ortaköy Mosque under the bridge

If a shared departure suits you better, the Bosphorus sunset cruise und die dinner cruise cover the same shoreline on a scheduled boat, and the day cruise starts at €12 per person.

What a Private Yacht Charter on the Bosphorus Includes

Hiring a yacht with us means the vessel is yours for the booked hours, along with the people who run it. Because the deck belongs to your group alone, the pace is yours too — no timetable, no strangers, no rush to disembark.

• Exclusive use of the yacht for your booked hours, with no other Gäste on board
• A licensed captain and professional crew
• Fuel, harbour and pier fees inside the hourly rate
• A flexible Bosphorus route agreed with the captain before you sail
• Tea, water and standard soft drinks
• A sound system with Bluetooth, so you play your own music
• Life jackets, full safety equipment and event licensing

Optional Extras You Can Add to a Charter

Everything below is priced separately and confirmed with your quote, so you only pay for what you actually want on board.

• Catering, from light canapés and fruit platters to a full Turkish dinner cooked on board
• Alcoholic drinks packages, or bring your own bottles with no corkage
• Live music, a DJ, an oriental belly dance show or a whirling dervish performance
• Flower, candle and balloon decoration for birthdays, proposals and weddings
• A photographer or videographer on board
• Celebration cake, champagne and a personalised banner
• Hotel or airport transfer to the pier

We run 11 private yachts and 5 event boats on the Bosphorus, so there is a size for a couple, a family or a large party. The table lists each yacht with its length, guest capacity and the hourly rate it begins at.

Every boat is licensed for events on the Bosphorus. The hourly rates are a starting point and move with the date, the length of the charter and the services you add, so ask for a tailored quote for your day.

A charter follows the same grand waterway as the scheduled cruises, only on your own terms. Sailing the strait that separates Europe from Asia, you pass a run of imperial palaces, Ottoman fortresses and wooden waterfront mansions, and you can pause wherever you like for photographs. The classic two-hour Bosphorus yacht tour runs from the pier up to the second bridge and back; longer charters continue north towards the Black Sea mouth or cross to the Princes’ Islands.

The Europäisches Ufer

The first half of the route is the postcard half. Leaving Kabataş you are almost immediately alongside Dolmabahçe Palace, six hundred metres of imperial marble sitting directly on the waterline, followed by the Çırağan Palace and the crowded cafes of Ortaköy.

• Dolmabahçe Palace, the last residence of the Ottoman sultans, best seen from the water it was designed to face
• Çırağan Palace and the waterfront terraces of Beşiktaş
• Ortaköy Mosque framed beneath the first bridge — the single most photographed pairing on the strait
• Rumeli-Festung, built by Mehmed the Conqueror in 1452, rising straight out of the European bank
• The wooden yalı mansions of Bebek, Arnavutköy and Kuruçeşme

The Asiatisches Ufer

The return leg down the Asian side is quieter and greener, and in the late afternoon it holds the better light. Most captains time the turn so you come back down this bank with the sun behind the European hills.

• Beylerbeyi-Palast, the sultans’ white summer residence beneath the first bridge
• Anadolu Fortress, the older sibling of Rumeli, facing it across the narrowest point of the strait
• The fishing village atmosphere of Kandilli, Çengelköy and Kuzguncuk
• Üsküdar und die Maiden’s Tower on its islet at the southern mouth
• The Old City skyline on the run home: Topkapı Palace, Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque and Galataturm

Longer Routes: Swimming Stops and the Princes’ Islands

Anything beyond four hours opens up routes the standard cruises never reach. In summer the captain can anchor in a sheltered bay north of the second bridge for a swim, and a full day of six to eight hours is enough to cross the Marmara to Büyükada or Heybeliada, drop anchor for lunch and swim off the back of the boat. The Bosphorus itself has strong currents and heavy traffic, so swimming happens only where the captain judges it safe — never in the shipping lane. If swimming is the point of your day, our dedicated Istanbul swimming tour is built around it.

The Golden Horn is a shorter detour worth asking for in the evening, when the Galata Bridge and the Süleymaniye Mosque are lit. Tell the captain before you board and it costs you nothing but about twenty minutes of route.

Hourly hire begins at €85 for the smaller boats and climbs with the size of the yacht, the length of the charter and the services you add. A short two-hour sunset sail on a compact motor yacht sits at the bottom of the range; a large yacht with a full dinner, a DJ and decoration for thirty Gäste sits near the top. The table below shows the bands our fleet actually falls into.

Rates are a starting point and move with the date, the season and the length of the charter. Weekends in July and August, and any evening in the two hours around sunset, are the most requested slots and price accordingly. A weekday morning in October on the same boat can cost noticeably less.

What Changes the Price of a Yachtcharter

• The yacht itself — length, guest capacity and how recently it was refitted
• How many hours you sail — two is the minimum, four is the most common, eight is a full day
• Date and time — summer weekends and sunset slots carry a premium; winter weekdays do not
• Catering — canapés, a set menu or a full dinner service, per guest
• Entertainment and decoration — DJ, live musicians, dance shows, flowers, photography
• Group size — crew numbers scale with guest numbers on the larger event boats

Is a Charter Cheaper Than Buying Individual Tickets?

Often, yes. Take a 16-metre yacht at €170 an hour for two hours: €340 for the boat. Split between ten people that is €34 each — less than a per-person sunset cruise ticket at €50, and you get the whole boat instead of a seat on it. Below about six Gäste a shared cruise is the cheaper option; above eight or ten, a private charter usually wins on price as well as on comfort. Prices are always per boat, not per person, so the arithmetic improves with every guest you add up to the yacht’s capacity.

A private boat works for almost any gathering, and the strait does the decorating for you. The same fleet hosts quiet evenings for two and parties of several hundred, and each occasion below has a page with its own packages, timings and photographs.

• A marriage proposal timed for sunset, with the ring, the flowers and the photographer arranged in advance
• A Geburtstagsfeier on a luxury yacht, cake and playlist included
• A bachelorette party with a DJ and decoration on board
• A wedding anniversary dinner for two on the water
• A wedding or engagement party afloat, with catering and staging
• A corporate event, client dinner or employee outing
• An anniversary or family celebration across three generations
• A New Year or public holiday sailing when the city is at its busiest ashore

Above roughly thirty Gäste the right vessel is no longer a motor yacht but an event boat: a multi-deck vessel with a galley, a dance floor, a professional sound system and space for staging. Our five event boats run from 70 Gäste up to 700, and they are the boats behind most of the weddings, company parties and Bosphorus party boat nights we operate.

What changes at this size is not just the deck space but the production. An event boat charter usually includes a catering team, a bar, a DJ booth and lighting, and it needs a run sheet: when Gäste board, when food is served, when the cake comes out, where the boat is when the speeches happen. We build that timeline with you before the date, and the captain sails to it.

• Boarding and disembarking at a pier your Gäste can reach by taxi or metro
• Buffet or seated service for the full guest list, with vegetarian and halal options
• A full bar, or a dry event if you prefer
• DJ, live band, sound and stage lighting
• Space for a dance floor, a stage or a cake table
• All event licensing and safety certification handled by us

Charters leave from central piers on the European shore, all within easy reach of the main hotel districts. We confirm the exact pier with your booking, and the captain waits at the pontoon rather than making you find the boat.

• Kabataş — the most common departure point, on the tram and funicular lines and a few minutes from Taksim and Dolmabahçe
• Beşiktaş — convenient for the hotels along the lower Bosphorus and for larger groups arriving by coach
• Kuruçeşme und Bebek — further north, useful when the route heads straight for the second bridge
• Asian-side boarding at Üsküdar or Beylerbeyi can be arranged on request

From Sultanahmet allow around twenty-five minutes to Kabataş by tram; from Taksim the funicular takes three. If your group is arriving from the airport or from several hotels at once, we can add a transfer to the quote so everyone reaches the pontoon together.

The strait is sailable every day of the year, but it is a different experience depending on when you go out. The two most requested slots are late afternoon and the two hours after dark, for opposite reasons.

By Time of Day

• Morning (09:00–12:00) — calm water, thin traffic and the cheapest rates. Best for photography of the palaces and for families with young children
• Afternoon (12:00–16:00) — full daylight on both shores; the right slot if the point is sightseeing rather than atmosphere
• Sunset (the two hours before dusk) — the most requested window of the day, and the one to book first. Proposals, anniversaries and photo shoots all land here
• Evening (after dark) — the bridges and palaces are floodlit, the city is quieter on the water, and this is when most dinner and party charters run

By Season

• May to September — warm evenings, swimming possible on longer routes, and the busiest calendar. Book weekend sunset slots several weeks ahead
• April and October — mild, uncrowded and the best value of the year; the sun sets early enough that an afternoon charter is also a golden-hour one
• November to March — the yachts have heated indoor saloons and sail year-round. Winter light on the strait is exceptional, and rates are at their lowest

Weather cancellations are rare but do happen when the lodos or poyraz winds close the strait. In that case we reschedule at no cost or refund in full — you are never left choosing between a rough sea and losing your money.

Food is the extra most Gäste ask about first. Our partner kitchens prepare everything fresh on the day and it comes aboard before you do, so nothing is reheated from the morning. You can also bring your own food and drinks at no extra charge — there is no corkage on any boat in the fleet.

• Light service — Turkish tea, coffee, fruit, nuts and pastries, the standard for a two-hour sightseeing charter
• Canapés and mezze — cold mezze, cheeses and finger food, the usual choice for a sunset sail
• Full dinner — a set Turkish menu with hot and cold courses, fish or meat mains and dessert, served at table
• Barbecue on deck — available on the larger yachts and event boats in summer
• Bar service — soft drinks are included; wine, raki and spirits packages are quoted per group

Every yacht carries a Bluetooth sound system, so the simplest option is your own playlist. Beyond that we book live musicians, a DJ, an oriental belly dance show or a whirling dervish performance for the deck, and there is a full list of what can be arranged on our entertainment on board page.

Booking is a conversation, not a checkout. Tell us your date, the number of Gäste and the kind of day you have in mind by phone, WhatsApp or the form on our contact page. We reply within a day with the boats that fit, a suggested route and a clear quote, then hold your date once you confirm.

What to Tell Us in Your First Message

• Your date, and how flexible it is
• How many Gäste, including children
• How many hours you would like to sail, and roughly what time
• The occasion, if there is one — it changes which boat we suggest
• Whether you want catering, music, decoration or a photographer
• Where your group is staying, so we can pick the most convenient pier

Payment, Deposits and Cancellation

Charters are booked online and paid securely by credit card, with instant confirmation. Large event bookings that require catering and staff scheduling are the exception and are confirmed with a partial advance. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before departure with a full refund, and weather cancellations are rescheduled or refunded at no cost whatever the notice.

How far ahead should you book? For a summer weekend at sunset, three to four weeks is sensible. For a weekday charter outside high season, a few days is usually enough — and we do fill same-day requests when a boat is free, so it is always worth asking.