We run eight pirate and dolphin boat tours between Side, Belek and Alanya, priced from €20 to €43 per adult. They share a shape — swim stops, lunch on board, a foam party on the way home — and almost nothing else, and the price gap between two boats sailing the same coast is mostly a transfer cost rather than a quality one.
Here is every one of them with its real fare, what separates a pirate boat from a dolphin cruise, and how the answer changes if you are staying in Belek or Alanya rather than Side. If what you actually want is the family-fit question — ages, difficulty, and how a boat day unfolds hour by hour — that is answered in full in our first family boat day guide.
The eight tours and what they cost
- Side kids pirate boat trip — €20 adult, €14 child, about 6 hours. Pirate costumes provided for the children, treasure hunt, snorkelling stops. The only boat in the range where soft drinks are included with lunch.
- Side pirate boat trip — €23 adult, €16 child, about 6 hours. Full animation team, free face painting, a kid-specific lunch menu of spaghetti, chicken fingers and fish fingers, foam party, and a swim at the delta where the river meets the sea.
- Side pirate ship day trip — €23 adult, €16 child, about 7 hours. A multi-deck wooden galleon leaving the Manavgat River at 10:00, with the treasure hunt held on the beach rather than on deck, and shaded lower decks for parents.
- Side Dolphin Island boat trip — €21 adult, €15 child, about 6 hours. Grilled BBQ lunch on deck, a swim where the cold river meets the warm sea, a second long swim off Dolphin Island, foam party on the way home.
- Side Manavgat river boat trip — €21 adult, €15 child. Three swim stops, including one of about 1.5 hours where river meets sea, turtles along the riverbank, and a drop-off back at the hotel around 17:30.
- Alanya pirate boat trip — €20 adult, €14 child, about 7 hours. Cleopatra Beach, Pirates Cave and Phosphorus Cave from the water, plus the foam party.
- Belek Alibaba pirate boat trip — €43 adult, €30 child, about 7 hours on the water.
- Side dolphin show — €40 adult, €35 child. Not a cruise at all: a transfer to a licensed dolphin park, about an hour of dolphins and sea lions performing, and an optional pre-booked swim.
Infants travel free on every one of them.
Pirate or dolphin: the honest difference
Both kinds of boat swim, both serve lunch, and almost all of them finish with a foam party. The difference is who the day is organised around.
A pirate boat is organised around your child. There is a costumed crew, a treasure hunt, tug-of-war, face painting and a lunch menu written for a seven-year-old. Parents are welcome to join in and equally welcome to sit on a shaded deck while somebody else runs the entertainment for six hours. If your child is the sort who needs a plan, this is the boat.
A dolphin cruise is organised around the water. The stops are longer — one of them runs about an hour and a half — the lunch is grilled chicken with rice or pasta and salad, and the entertainment is the swimming itself plus the foam party at the end. Older children who find organised games embarrassing get a much better day here, and so do parents who want to actually swim rather than supervise a game.
Which boat suits which age, in one screen
The first family boat day guide works through this properly. The short version, if you already know the shape of a boat day:
- Under three. Infants travel free on every boat here, but that free fare is not an invitation. The days run six to seven hours and the entertainment is aimed above their heads.
- Three to nine. Any of the three pirate boats. The wooden galleon states that its activities are designed for ages three and up, that life jackets are mandatory for children and that adult supervision is required throughout; its anchor stop is in shallow water, which is why it works for the youngest end of that range.
- Ten and up, or a wide age spread. The Dolphin Island boat trip. Longer swims, open water, and nobody is asked to dress up.
One fare note worth having before you choose between the two cheapest pirate boats: if drinks on a boat bill make you wince, the kids pirate boat trip costs €3 less per adult than the Side pirate boat trip and includes soft drinks with lunch.
The dolphin sighting nobody can promise
This is where holidays go wrong. Dolphins on the cruises are wild animals and sightings cannot be promised; river turtles are seen on almost every trip, dolphins are not. A child told they are "going to see dolphins" and then not seeing any has had a bad day at sea. If seeing dolphins is the point rather than a bonus, book the dolphin show instead, where the animals are the programme.
If you are not staying in Side
From Alanya, the Alanya pirate boat trip at €20 is the local option and sails a genuinely different coastline — caves and coves under the castle. Note that pickup is included for central Alanya; hotels outside the centre are arranged on request.
From Belek, the Alibaba pirate boat is €43 per adult against €23 for a comparable Side departure. That is not a better boat; it is the cost of driving you to Side Harbour and back. If you are in Belek with a hire car and a flexible morning, the maths is worth doing before you book.
Who these boats are not for
- Anyone wanting a quiet day at sea. Nearly every boat here ends with music and a foam party. If you want silence and a book, take a private charter instead.
- Guests with limited mobility. The Belek Alibaba record says so directly, and it applies broadly — these are boats with steps, decks and ladders.
- Anyone planning to budget only for the ticket. On most of these boats every drink, including water, is bought at the on-board bar. Bring cash.
- Fixed dates with no flexibility. The wooden galleon does not sail daily; it runs on set days of the week.
Next steps
If this is your family's first boat day, read how a boat day actually unfolds before you book. For the full fare breakdown including what a family of four really pays, see pirate and dolphin boat prices, and for the packing list — which matters more than people expect — what to take on board.