Group Boat or Private Hire? How to Choose for Suluada

For almost everyone, the answer is the scheduled group boat. It is our product, it has a published price — €40 per adult, €30 per child aged 4–10, infants 0–3 free — and it sails to the same island as anything else leaving Adrasan harbour.

Private hire is possible, but it is not a fixed product on this site. It is an enquiry. We quote it case by case, and we do not publish a price, a boat size or a schedule for it, because any number we invented would be wrong for somebody.

What the Group Boat Actually Is

A shared deck, a fixed timetable and a flat price. That is the whole model, and it is the reason a day at an island this far west is affordable at all.

You are collected from your hotel, driven to Adrasan harbour — where every boat to Suluada sails from — and you spend the day on the water with other guests. There are swimming breaks at Suluada and in the surrounding bays, including the sheltered cove of Domuz Bay on the route. Lunch is cooked on board: grilled fish or chicken with pasta or rice, the day's Turkish mezes, a seasonal salad, then fruit and Turkish tea. Drinks at the bar are not included.

On the Side departure the crew work in English, German, Russian and Turkish. Life jackets are available on request, and non-swimmers are welcome — the boat anchors near the island and, where conditions allow, tender boats shuttle guests into the bay.

Two departures carry that same product. The Suluada boat tour from Side runs every day, with hotel pickup in the 05:30–06:00 window across the Side region, an optional breakfast stop at Adrasan paid at the local restaurant, sailing at 09:40 and docking at 16:00 — about 10 hours door to door, minimum age 6. The Suluada boat tour from Antalya runs Tuesday and Thursday all year, plus Saturday from April to October, with pickup between 08:30 and 09:00 from central Antalya, Kemer and Beldibi, and around 12 hours in total. Snorkelling masks and pool floats are included on that boat.

What Private Hire Is — and What We Will Not Tell You

Private hire means the boat is yours for the day rather than shared. It is arranged on request through our contact page, and every enquiry is answered individually.

What we will not do is quote a price on a web page. A private day depends on what you ask for, when you ask for it and how many of you there are, and a headline number that turns out to be wrong helps nobody. The same goes for capacity figures and departure times: we publish the two scheduled departures because those are fixed, and we quote everything else by message. Our private boat page sets out the same position in more detail, and boat tour vs private charter weighs the two side by side.

What Private Hire Does Not Change

This is the part people underestimate. Chartering does not move the island.

• The harbour is the same. Every boat to Suluada leaves from Adrasan. A private booking does not create a shorter road leg.
• The island is the same. There is still no shop on it. Whatever you want during the day travels with you.
• The sea still decides. In rough conditions the harbour authority can stop departures, and the tender shuttle into the bay only runs where conditions allow.
• The day is still long. The distance to Adrasan does not shrink because the deck is yours.

What private hire buys is control of the deck and the company you keep on it. That is worth a great deal to some groups and nothing at all to others, which is exactly why it is a conversation rather than a button.

Who Should Book Which

Book the scheduled boat if you are a couple, a family, a pair of friends or a group of up to a dozen who simply want the island. The flat price is the same from every pickup point on the coast, you book free online and pay on the tour day, and free cancellation applies up to 24 hours before departure. There is no financial reason to complicate it.

Ask about private hire if you are travelling as one large party who want the whole deck, if you are marking an occasion, or if your group has needs a shared timetable cannot flex around. Message us with the date, the number of adults and children, and where you are staying, and we will tell you honestly whether it is worth doing — including when it is not. Larger parties on the scheduled boat are covered on our group bookings page, and Suluada for large groups goes through the practicalities.

The Money, Plainly

The scheduled boat has one price for the whole coast: €40 per adult, €30 per child aged 4–10, infants 0–3 free. It covers the two-way transfer, the boat day, guidance, the swimming stops and lunch on board. It does not cover drinks at the bar, the optional breakfast at Adrasan, or personal beach gear.

Pickup is free hotel transfer across the Side–Manavgat band and from central Antalya, Lara, Kemer and Beldibi. For the Belek band, the Alanya band, Kundu, Konyaaltı, Göynük, Kiriş, Çamyuva and Tekirova we confirm pickup individually. From Adrasan, Olympos, Çıralı, Finike, Demre and Kaş there is no transfer product at all — guests meet the boat at Adrasan harbour.

Everything is itemised on the prices page. If your instinct is still that a private boat would suit you better, tell us what you have in mind and we will answer with real numbers rather than a brochure figure.