What a Private Boat Charter in Phuket Means

A private boat charter in Phuket, Thailand, means the whole boat for your group, with a licensed captain and crew and nobody else aboard. Horizon Cruises Phuket offers 91 boats and yachts this way, from a four-hour long-tail morning at ฿23,900 (four guests included, up to eight) to yachts for 120, from Chalong Pier, Ao Po Grand Marina, Boat Lagoon and Royal Phuket Marina. Write to us on WhatsApp with your date and group size for the boats that are free.

Private charter or a shared boat tour in Phuket: you book the boat, not a seat

This page is about a format rather than a type of boat. Every vessel on this site is chartered privately: the whole boat goes to your group, with a captain and crew, and nobody else comes aboard. That is the difference from a shared excursion, where you buy a seat on a boat that also carries dozens of strangers, leaves at a fixed hour and follows a fixed route. On a private boat tour the departure time, the islands and how long you stay at each are yours to set, within the hours booked and whatever the weather allows on the day. For a traveller visiting Phuket who has done the join-in tours, the morning is the clearest difference: the captain confirms the route against the forecast with you, and the plan can still change at eight in the morning, which a shared tour cannot offer. The routes and formats are compared on the Phuket boat tours page.

When a private tour costs less than group tours

A shared tour is priced per person, so a group of ten pays ten times. Whole-boat charters are priced per boat and split however you like, and the crossover point is usually around six to eight guests; past that a private day on the water is often the cheaper one as well as the better one. The arithmetic is easy to check with the lowest rates on this site: the long-tail at the top of this page takes eight, and a sailing catamaran taking up to forty starts at ฿27,820 with ten guests in the rate. Forty adults on that boat for a low-season morning half day (09:00–13:00) pay about ฿1,340 each, extra-guest charges included, which is less than many shared excursions on the island, and the rate covers the group up to the headcount shown on each boat's page.

Boat types and starting prices in Thailand: speedboat, catamaran, motor yacht and luxury yacht

The type follows the number of guests rather than the other way round. Four to twelve is speedboat territory. Six to eighty is where the motor yachts sit, forty-one of them. Six to eighty-five is power catamarans, with Pisces 85 at the top of that range. Sailing catamarans take up to forty, and the largest of them a hundred and twenty; they are the most spacious per guest and among the least expensive per head for a big group. One sailing yacht, Aventure, takes seven and only on multi-day itineraries. Every boat carries a licensed capacity printed on its page, and it is a hard number: a boat rated for twelve takes twelve. Boats Horizon Cruises Phuket offers by type, with the lowest starting price in each type from the boats' pages; the luxury and superyacht rows overlap with the rows above them:

The thirteen luxury yachts have a separate page, luxury yacht charter in Phuket, and the seven above 92 feet are on the superyacht page; the format is the same, the boat is another class.

Formats: half day, full day, sunset cruise and overnight trips

The same boat is sold for day trips and overnight trips in four formats. A half day is a morning or an afternoon, enough for the nearest islands. A full day at sea covers the far islands, and on many boats the full day includes the hotel transfer; the yacht's page says which. A sunset cruise is the short late-afternoon format. Overnight trips run on boats with cabins and are quoted individually; see planning an overnight stay. The headcount can change with the format: Leopard 51 Aurora takes thirty-five guests on a half day and twenty-five on a full day, so check the figure for the format you want on the boat's page.

Routes by marina: Phi Phi, Phang Nga Bay, Racha and Coral Island

Where the boat is based decides the natural day trip. From Chalong Pier in the south the day trips are Racha, Coral Island with Banana Beach, and the Phi Phi Islands with Maya Bay; the captain handles the passenger registration on arrival, and guests hand their passports to the crew. From Ao Po Grand Marina in the north-east, which has no tide restrictions and is the closest of the four to the airport, the day trip is Phang Nga Bay: James Bond Island, Koh Hong among the limestone, and the Koh Yao islands. Boat Lagoon and Royal Phuket Marina on the east coast share a tidal channel and work the same bay. The Krabi side is usually part of an overnight itinerary. At the reefs the captains pick up a mooring buoy and never anchor on coral, and a mask and snorkel for everyone is on board every boat. Arrive fifteen minutes before departure.

Who is aboard with you: a professional captain and crew

A licensed captain on every boat, without exception. Larger yachts add deckhands, a hostess and a charter manager, and on multi-day itineraries a chef where the programme includes one. Crew numbers run from two on the smallest speedboats to eight or more on the largest yachts. On our three yachts a charter manager is aboard every charter. The skipper and crew handle navigation, the tender, the water toys and the service onboard throughout the trip; guests are not asked to do anything, and no licence or experience is required from anyone in the group.

What is included: captain, fuel, drinks and snorkelling gear

On every boat we offer the rate includes the captain and crew, passenger insurance, water and soft drinks, snorkelling gear and towels, plus fuel for the agreed route except where a yacht's page lists a fuel fee. Lunch, alcohol, water toys and the hotel transfer depend on the boat and are listed on its page. National park fees at Phi Phi, in Ao Phang Nga and at the Similan Islands, and the landing fee at Banana Beach on Coral Island, are paid per person, with children at a reduced rate in the parks, unless the yacht's page lists them in the rate; the parks revise their rates from time to time, so we confirm the current figures with your quote. The full list is on what is included.

How boat charters are agreed, and the deposit

Send the date, the number of guests and roughly where you would like to go. You get back the boats that are free on that date with a final figure in Thai baht and the departure marina named. Any boat in the catalogue can be viewed in person before you pay a deposit, free of charge. Most boats take a 50% deposit with the balance before departure; some boats are paid in full at booking; late cancellation is non-refundable; the exact terms are on each boat's page and the terms page. Horizon Cruises Phuket has run more than 2,400 charters since 2013 from its office in Chalong under TAT licence 34/02188, with support in English and Russian, and every starting rate in the catalogue for the 2026/27 season is compared on the prices page.