The best private boat tours from Dubrovnik in 2026 are full-day trips to the Elaphiti Islands, Mljet National Park, and Korčula, plus shorter half-day routes to the Blue Cave on Koločep, Lokrum Island, and Betina Cave. Private speedboats start at €550 for a half-day and €800 for a full day, departing the Old Port of Dubrovnik from April through October.
Dubrovnik receives more than a million visitors a year. Most of them arrive by cruise ship or land transfer, walk the same Stradun, climb the same walls, eat in the same handful of restaurants inside the limestone gates. It is a beautiful city. It is also, by July, an exhausting one.
The exit, in our experience, is the sea. Fifteen minutes north of the Old Port the coastline opens into the Elaphiti archipelago and the protected coves of southern Pelješac. Twenty miles further sits Mljet, the greenest island in the Adriatic. The whole coast that made Dubrovnik a maritime republic in the first place is still there, still quiet, still mostly uncrowded — but only if you reach it the way the city was designed to be reached, which is by boat.
This guide covers the nine private boat tours we run from Dubrovnik in 2026, what each one is best for, what they cost, and how to decide between them.
Why book a private boat tour in Dubrovnik?
Most boat tour operators in Dubrovnik offer two formats: shared group tours on larger vessels, and private charters for one party at a time. Group tours start around €60–80 per person, depart on a fixed schedule, and split your day with twenty to forty other passengers. Private tours hand you the entire boat, the skipper, and the itinerary.
The pricing math is the part most travelers miss. A private half-day Elaphiti tour on our Atlantic Open 750 costs €550 total — for the boat, not per person. Split across six guests, that is roughly €92 per person, slightly above a group tour. Split across eight, it is €69 per person, below most group rates. Once you have four or more people travelling together, a private tour is comparable to a group tour on a per-person basis and always wins on flexibility, comfort, and pace.
Three concrete things change with a private boat:
- You set the itinerary. If the morning light at the Blue Cave is wrong, the skipper moves you to the next stop and circles back later. If the bay you wanted to swim in is calm and the current bay is choppy, you reroute. None of that is possible on a fixed group schedule.
- You set the pace. Lunch on Šipan or Lopud is leisurely, not a forty-minute slot before the boat departs without you. Snorkeling lasts as long as the water deserves.
- You travel with people you know. For families with young kids, couples on honeymoon, or small groups of friends, the difference between a private speedboat and a packed catamaran is the difference between a holiday memory and an organised excursion.
Our entire fleet operates only on a private basis. We do not sell shared seats.
The 9 best private boat tours from Dubrovnik in 2026
1. Elaphiti Islands
Best for: First-time visitors, families exploring multiple islands in one day. Duration: Half day 4h, 6h with lunch, or full day 8h · From €550 · Up to 12 persons.
The Elaphiti Islands are the obvious first choice from Dubrovnik, and the reason is simple geography: the archipelago sits twenty minutes north of the Old Port and contains three of the most distinct, car-free islands on the Croatian coast. The full-day route covers Koločep — a forested island whose southern coastline holds the Blue Cave and the Green Cave — then continues to Lopud for sandy Šunj Beach, and on to Šipan and Jakljan for swimming and lunch.
If you only have time for a half-day on the Adriatic, the four-hour Elaphiti circuit is the most efficient use of that window: Blue Cave snorkeling, Lopud, and the protected turquoise water of Sjekirica bay before midday. The full-day version is the version we recommend most often — it adds room for an unhurried lunch on Šipan and a second swim stop on the way back. See full Elaphiti Islands tour →
2. Mljet Island
Best for: Nature lovers, couples, anyone willing to travel further for the most rewarding day on the Adriatic. Duration: Full day 8–9h · From €1000 · Up to 12 persons.
Mljet is the greenest island in Croatia. A third of it is protected as the country’s first national park, established in 1960 and built around two saltwater lakes, Veliko Jezero and Malo Jezero, with a 12th-century Benedictine monastery sitting on a small islet in the larger lake. The crossing from Dubrovnik takes about an hour each way at speedboat pace and is itself one of the more memorable parts of the day.
We run two Mljet itineraries. The first focuses on the Odysseus Cave — a collapsed sea grotto on the southern coast where you can swim in clear water under an open sky — combined with the soft pink-grey sand of Saplunara Beach and a swim stop at Lemon Lagoon. The second routes through Mljet National Park itself, with time to walk around the lakes and visit the monastery before lunch. Both options return via Šipan or one of the smaller swim stops on the way back. See full Mljet tour →
3. Hidden Caves & Bays
Best for: Snorkelers, active travelers, anyone who wants something well beyond a standard boat tour. Duration: Half day 4h · From €1000 (two underwater scooters included) · Up to 6 persons + skipper.
This is the route for guests who like the idea of a cave tour but want more than the standard “swim in, take a photo, swim out” version. The boat is the same Jeanneau Leader 30 we run on the flagship Elaphiti circuit, with two underwater scooters on board — handheld propulsion units that let you cover much more ground beneath the surface without needing dive certification or strong swimming.
The route covers both the Blue Cave and the Green Cave on Koločep, plus the snorkeling shelves around Lopud and either Šunj Beach or Sjekirica for swimming. The combination of small group size, premium boat, and underwater scooters makes this our most active half-day product. It rewards travelers with a snorkeling background and is genuinely fun for confident teenagers and adults. See full Hidden Caves & Bays tour →
4. Lokrum & Betina Cave
Best for: Photographers, short visits, cruise ship passengers with a free afternoon. Duration: Half day 4h · From €550 · Up to 12 persons.
Lokrum sits roughly 600 metres off the Old Town walls — close enough that the boat ride out gives you what is, for our money, the single best photographic angle of Dubrovnik anywhere. From the water, the scale of the limestone walls is fully legible; the cable car, the bell tower, and the orange roofs all line up cleanly behind the fortifications.
The tour pairs Lokrum Island — a forested nature reserve with a Benedictine monastery, a Habsburg-era botanical garden, peacocks roaming the paths, and the small saltwater Mrtvo More for safe swimming — with Betina Cave further down the coast, where the water turns an almost luminous turquoise inside a cathedral-like sea grotto. Most guests book this one because they want a half-day with a strong dose of Old Town views from the sea, and they leave saying it was worth it for the cave alone. See full Lokrum & Betina tour →
5. City & Elaphites
Best for: First-time visitors who want sea and city in a single afternoon. Duration: Half day 4h · From €1000 · Up to 6 persons + skipper.
This is a two-in-one product we built for guests who only have a single day in Dubrovnik and want to spend half of it on the water without giving up the city walk. The afternoon departure leaves at 3 PM and runs the same Blue Cave + Green Cave + Šunj Beach circuit as a standard Elaphiti half-day, then sails back along the line of the Old Town walls just as the light turns golden.
After disembarking, a licensed local guide meets you at the Old Port for a walking tour of the historic core — Stradun, the Rector’s Palace, the Cathedral, the smaller alleys most visitors never see. By dinnertime you have the day’s best photo, a few quiet swims behind you, and the city’s history walked rather than read. See full City & Elaphites tour →
6. Korčula
Best for: Cultural travelers, wine drinkers, longer holidays with a flexible day to spare. Duration: Full day 9h · From €1650 · Up to 12 persons.
Korčula is the long way out — about an hour and a half each way at speedboat pace — and that is precisely the point. The reward is one of the best-preserved medieval old towns on the Adriatic, walled, walkable, and almost free of cruise traffic compared to Dubrovnik. The town claims Marco Polo as a native son; whether or not that part is strictly true, the museum dedicated to him sits inside a stone tower house in the old quarter and is worth the visit either way.
The day includes swim stops at Marčuleti and Žuljana on the Pelješac coast on the way out, then time in Korčula Old Town for a walking tour, lunch, and an introduction to the island’s premium white wines — Pošip and Grk, both from indigenous grapes that grow well only here and on a few neighbouring slopes. We typically run this on the flagship Jeanneau Leader 30 or the larger Prestige 420 yacht; the distance and exposure make this less suitable for the smaller boats. See full Korčula tour →
7. Ston & Kobaš
Best for: Foodies, gastronomy travelers, anyone who treats lunch as the centerpiece of the day. Duration: Full day 8h · From €900 · Up to 12 persons.
Ston is a fortified medieval town at the neck of the Pelješac peninsula, ringed by 5.5 kilometres of defensive walls — the second longest in Europe after the Great Wall — and sitting beside salt pans that have been worked continuously since the third century BC. Salt and stone built the town. Today the same shallow bay still produces some of the finest oysters and shellfish on the Adriatic, and the surrounding peninsula is Croatia’s most important red wine region.
The day’s centerpiece is lunch at Kobaš Bay, a small protected cove fifteen minutes by boat from Ston where two family-run taverns serve fresh fish, Mali Ston oysters, and Plavac Mali wine pulled directly from local cellars. We anchor the boat, you eat unhurried, and you walk back to the dock as full as you have been since you arrived in Croatia. The morning leg includes a swim at Jakljan, and the afternoon ends with snorkeling at Mali Vratnik before the run home. See full Ston & Kobaš tour →
8. Sunset Tour
Best for: Couples, anniversaries, the last evening of a holiday. Duration: 2h panoramic sail · From €350 · Up to 12 persons.
Two hours, golden hour, a glass of Croatian wine, and the Old Town walls turning amber behind you. The Sunset Tour is the simplest thing we sell and consistently one of the most-requested. There is no swim stop and no island visit — just a slow loop along the city walls and out into open water as the sun drops over the Pelješac headland.
The boat departs around 6:30 PM in summer, earlier in shoulder season, and is timed so the wine is poured at the moment the light turns. We run this one on every boat in the fleet, including the flagship Prestige 420 yacht for couples celebrating something specific. It is the rare evening on the Adriatic where doing very little is exactly the point. See full Sunset Tour →
9. Fishing & Fun
Best for: Active days, dads-and-kids combos, travelers who want sea, swim and fishing in one half-day. Duration: Half day 4h · From €800 (fishing licence and equipment included) · Up to 6 persons + skipper.
This is the route for guests who want a more hands-on day at sea. We provide the fishing licence, the rods, and the local knowledge of where the fish are biting — usually the protected channels around the Elaphiti archipelago, where the seabed structure holds bream, mackerel, and the occasional bigger catch. It is not a sport-fishing charter; it is a relaxed half-day mixing fishing, swimming, and snorkeling, designed to feel more like a long morning with a friend who knows the water than a guided commercial trip.
The boat is the Atlantic Open 750, comfortable for six guests with shaded seating and a bimini. Mornings work better than afternoons, both for the fishing and for the light. See full Fishing & Fun tour →
How to choose the right tour for your group
If you only have one day in Dubrovnik and have not been on the water before, the half-day Elaphiti Islands tour is the right answer — it covers the most ground in the least time and gives you the Blue Cave, a sandy beach, and a panoramic return along the coast. If you have two days, add the Mljet full-day tour on the second; the two together are the strongest possible combination from this city.
Families with younger children are best served by the full-day Elaphiti circuit — the swim stops are protected, Šunj Beach on Lopud is one of the only true sandy beaches near Dubrovnik, and lunch on Šipan can be paced around nap times. For couples on a quieter holiday, Mljet is the more rewarding day and the Sunset Tour is the right way to end either of those evenings.
Photographers should book the Lokrum & Betina Cave half-day; it is the cleanest line from the water to the Old Town walls and the cave itself rewards a wide-angle lens. Wine drinkers and serious eaters should book either Ston & Kobaš for the oysters and Plavac Mali, or Korčula for Pošip, Grk and a walled medieval town. Snorkelers and active travellers should book Hidden Caves & Bays with the underwater scooters, or take a private rod day with Fishing & Fun.
When in doubt, the rule is simple: full days are full days, and the islands deserve the time. We almost never have a guest tell us they wished the day had been shorter.
Our fleet
We operate four boats, each chosen to match a specific kind of day on the water. None of them carry shared groups — every charter is private to your party only.
The Jeanneau Leader 30 is the flagship of the fleet — a 9.23-metre cabin cruiser with twin 175 HP engines, six guest seats, a full bathroom and shower, fridge, bimini, and a sundeck large enough to actually use. It is the boat we run for couples and small families who want the smoothest ride on the longer routes — Mljet, Korčula, and the Elaphiti full day.
The Marlin 790 is our 8-metre RIB with a single 250 HP engine and capacity for eight guests. It is the fastest boat in the fleet at the cruising speed most guests actually use, ideal for hidden coves and shallower swim stops where a deeper draft is a problem. The build is from 2019 and the seating layout suits couples and groups of friends who prioritise feel-of-the-water over an interior cabin.
The Atlantic Open 750 is the value option — 7.7 metres, 250 HP, eight guests, fully equipped with shower, bimini, sundeck, and snorkeling kit. It is the boat we run on most of the half-day Elaphiti and Lokrum & Betina circuits at the lowest price point in the fleet without compromising comfort.
The Jeanneau Prestige 420 is our luxury yacht — 13.10 metres, twin 425 HP engines, capacity for twelve guests, two bathrooms, full kitchen, salon area, Wi-Fi, sundeck, and overnight accommodation on request. Hotel pickup and drop-off are included with every Prestige charter. This is the boat we run for larger groups, milestone celebrations, and guests for whom the boat itself is part of the event.
When to book
The Adriatic season runs from April through October. Each part of it has its own character.
April and May are the shoulder months. The sea is in the high teens early on and warming through May toward 22°C; daytime air is reliably warm by mid-month, and the water is comfortable for swimming for most guests by the second half of May. The advantage is the absence of crowds — Šunj Beach, Lokrum, and the Mljet lakes are at their best when nobody else is there. Off-peak pricing applies on most of the fleet (a 10% reduction on standard tours), and same-week bookings are usually possible.
June and September are the sweet spot. Sea temperatures sit between 22 and 25°C, daylight runs to 9 PM, and the popular swim stops have not yet reached peak congestion. We recommend booking 1–2 weeks ahead in June and 7–10 days ahead in September. If you have flexibility on the calendar, these are the months we tell our friends to come.
July and August are the high season. The water is at its warmest (25–27°C), days are at their longest, and the Adriatic is genuinely glorious — but everything is busier, lunch reservations on the islands need confirming a few days out, and our fleet routinely fills up 2–3 weeks in advance for full-day routes. Book early in this window. We turn away last-minute requests almost every week in August.
October is a quieter return to shoulder season — water still around 20°C in early October, dropping through the month. Light is exceptional for photography. Same-week bookings are usually possible.
What to bring on a private boat tour
Most of the gear that matters is on the boat — towels, snorkeling masks, drinks. The list of things to bring yourself is short:
- High-factor sunscreen — SPF 50+. The Adriatic surface reflects UV strongly, and most sunburn we see on guests is from underestimating it.
- Swimsuit and sunglasses — pack the swimsuit for the journey to the boat, not in your suitcase.
- Water shoes — useful for any rocky beach entries (Lokrum, Sjekirica, Mljet).
- A light cover-up or windbreaker — open water at speed is cooler than the marina suggests, even in August.
- Cash in euros — for lunch at island restaurants and museum tickets in Korčula or on Mljet. Some smaller konobas still do not accept cards.
- A waterproof phone case or dry bag — essential for any cave swim, useful everywhere.
- Motion sickness tablets — only if you are sensitive. Take them the night before, not the morning of departure.
Practical info
All our tours depart from the Old Port of Dubrovnik as a default, with hotel pickup and drop-off available on the Jeanneau Prestige 420. If your accommodation is closer to one of the other moorings — Lapad, Cavtat, or further down the coast — we can arrange an alternative meeting point. Call or message +385 91 421 6908 (Viber and WhatsApp supported) to coordinate before booking.
Every tour includes the skipper, fuel, water, soft drinks, and beer; most include wine. Snorkeling equipment is on board on every boat. Lunch on the islands is at your own cost — typically €25–€45 per person at a family-run konoba on Lopud, Šipan, or in Kobaš Bay. We are happy to phone ahead and reserve a table.
The cancellation policy is straightforward: 72 hours before the tour for a full refund, 50% within 24 hours, and full charge inside 12 hours. Bad weather is the exception — if the skipper calls off the tour for sea conditions, you receive either a full refund or a re-booking on the next available day, your choice. Pets are welcome. The boats are not wheelchair accessible. The season is April through October.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a private boat tour in Dubrovnik cost?
Private tours start at €350 for a 2-hour Sunset cruise and €550 for a half-day Elaphiti circuit on the Atlantic Open 750. Full-day routes range from €800 (Elaphiti, Atlantic) up to €1650 (Korčula, Jeanneau Leader 30) and €3700 on the luxury Prestige 420 yacht. All prices are per boat, not per person — six to twelve guests typically share the cost. Skipper, fuel, drinks and snorkeling gear are always included.
Where do private boat tours depart from?
Default departure is the Old Port of Dubrovnik, directly below the city walls. Hotel pickup and drop-off are included on the Jeanneau Prestige 420 yacht and arranged on request for the rest of the fleet if your accommodation is closer to a different mooring. Call or message us on +385 91 421 6908 before booking if you need a non-standard meeting point.
Do I need to book a private boat tour in advance?
In July and August, yes — full-day routes fill 2–3 weeks ahead and weekends sell out faster. In June and September a 1–2 week lead time is comfortable. In April, May, and October same-week bookings are usually possible. The Sunset Tour is the most flexible product and can sometimes be booked the day before, even in summer.
Are private boat tours suitable for children?
Yes. Private boats are the most family-friendly option in Dubrovnik because you control the pace, the swim stops, and the lunch timing. The Elaphiti full-day is the most popular choice with young families — Šunj Beach on Lopud is one of the only true sandy beaches in the region, the bays are protected, and Šipan has small konobas where kids eat well. Life jackets in children's sizes are on every boat.
What is the best private boat tour for a first visit to Dubrovnik?
The Elaphiti Islands half-day if you only have a few hours, the Elaphiti full-day if you have a complete day, and the Mljet full-day if you are visiting for two days or more. The Elaphiti circuit covers the most ground in the least time and gives you a strong overview of the entire Dubrovnik coastline; Mljet is the most rewarding day on the Adriatic and the one most guests say they would book again.
Can I customize the itinerary?
Every private tour is fully customizable. Tell the skipper your priorities — more swim stops, more time at a particular cave, a specific lunch spot, faster or slower pace — and the route adjusts in real time. The published itineraries on each tour page are starting points, not rigid schedules. If you have something specific in mind, contact us before booking and we will design the day around it.
What happens if the weather is bad?
The skipper makes the call based on actual sea conditions on the morning of the tour, not on cloud cover. If the tour cannot run safely, you are offered a full refund or a re-booking on the next available date — your choice. Light rain alone is rarely a reason to cancel; strong wind, large swell, or thunderstorms are. We always reach out the evening before if conditions look uncertain.
Is a private boat tour worth the extra cost?
For a group of four or more, a private tour is comparable to a group tour on a per-person basis, with no fixed schedule, no other passengers, and a boat that is yours for the day. For families, couples, and any group that values flexibility, the difference in experience is significant. For solo travellers, the math leans toward a group tour unless the boat itself is part of the experience you want.
Plan a day with us, or browse the full tour catalogue to compare itineraries side by side. If you are unsure which route fits your group best — half day or full, Elaphiti or Mljet, Leader 30 or Prestige 420 — write to us at info@bluemile-dubrovnik.com and we will help you choose.