Boat trips
Day trips
The island
Greece lets you skipper a small motorboat without a boat licence, and Kos rental fleets are built around exactly that rule. For four or more people it is usually cheaper than cruise tickets — provided you understand the deposit, the fuel bill and the days the wind shuts you down.
Bookable now
What you're seeing: real availability for the coming weeks from GetYourGuide. Self-drive rentals and skippered charters appear side by side — read the title carefully, because "private boat" sometimes means a crew comes with it.
Quick summary
| Price from | Roughly €120–200 per boat per day for a small licence-free motorboat, fuel extra. Larger engines cost considerably more. |
|---|---|
| Rental slots | Half day (morning or afternoon) or full day, with a fixed return time written on the contract. |
| Advance booking? | Yes in July–August. Licence-free boats are the first category to sell out, because everyone can drive them. |
| Time to allow | Add 45 minutes at each end for paperwork, briefing, fuelling and the hull check. |
| Licence | Not required below a set engine power. The operator states the current limit and will not release a boat above it without a certificate. |
| Deposit | A refundable security deposit or card pre-authorisation is standard, alongside an excess you carry for damage. |
| Fuel | Almost always billed separately — either you refuel before returning, or the operator meters the tank and charges the difference. |
| Cruising area | Contracts define a permitted area and ban night running. Leaving it voids the insurance. |
| Wind | Operators cancel on meltemi days. Small boats are grounded before the big excursion boats are. |
Price bands are ranges from publicly listed operator prices, not quotes. Engine limits, ages, deposits and fuel policy are set by each operator and by current Greek regulation — confirm them in writing before you pay. How we source numbers.
Read this before you pay
Rental is priced per boat. Four adults on one hull beat four cruise tickets, and you get an empty bay instead of a timetable. Two adults rarely come out ahead — for a couple, the group cruise is usually the better value and the more relaxing day.
The rule that makes this possible
Greek regulation separates recreational boats by engine power. Below a defined threshold, a boat may be operated without a skipper's certificate; above it, you need a licence the operator has to see and record. Every licence-free rental fleet on Kos is specified to sit under that line, which is why the boats look so similar to each other.
We deliberately do not publish a kilowatt or horsepower number here. The threshold is set by regulation, it has moved before, and a figure copied from a blog is exactly how people end up in front of a port authority. The operator confirms the current limit — ask at the point of booking and again at the desk, and get it on the rental contract.
Third-party cover comes with the boat. Damage to hull, propeller or engine sits with you up to an excess, which is what the deposit secures. A damage waiver, where offered, is worth taking if you have never handled a boat — the commonest claim is a scraped propeller in shallow water, not a collision.
Do not guess the engine limit
If a listing does not say "no licence required" in plain words, assume it needs one. Turning up without a certificate for a boat that requires it means losing the booking and the day — operators cannot legally hand the keys over, and they will not.
Compare the three ways
The same stretch of coast is sold three ways. The right answer depends on group size and on whether you actually want to be responsible for a boat all day.
Option 1
€120–200 / boat per day, plus fuel
Pick this if there are four or more of you, someone is comfortable at a helm, and an empty bay by ten in the morning is the whole point.
Option 2
€300–800+ / boat, half or full day
Pick this if nobody wants the responsibility, or you are travelling with toddlers, non-swimmers or anyone with mobility needs. See private boat trips.
Option 3
€35–60 / adult, full day
Pick this if you are a couple, or you want distance covered rather than control. Details on the 3-island cruise page.
Where the quoted price stops
A €150 headline is the hull for the day. Fuel is extra and depends entirely on how hard you run the engine; a deposit is held; a damage excess sits behind that; and a waiver, if you take it, is another line. Add all four before comparing a rental against cruise tickets — and ask how fuel is measured, because "return it full" and "we read the gauge" produce very different bills.
Step by step
The listing must say so explicitly. Ask the operator to confirm the current engine-power limit and that this hull sits under it — then check the same wording appears on the contract you sign.
Morning slots get the flat water; afternoon slots get the wind. In July and August book several days ahead, and take the morning if you have the choice.
Photo ID for the contract, a card for the deposit or pre-authorisation, plus sun cream, a hat, water and far more shade than you think — an open boat has almost none.
Ask three things: where the permitted area ends, what number to call if the engine stops, and how anchoring works on the bottom you are heading for. Repeat the return time back to them.
Hull, propeller, upholstery, fuel gauge. Do it with a crew member present. This is the single most useful thing you will do all day.
Come back 20 minutes before your slot ends — overrun charges are steep and the pontoon gets congested. Watch the fuel reading with the crew, then confirm when the deposit or pre-authorisation will be released.
Range, realistically
A small outboard on one tank is a local instrument: think a bay or two along the coast, a long anchor stop and an unhurried run home, not a lap of the island. Plan the day around one good anchorage rather than three, and ask the operator to mark your permitted area on a chart — the honest limits are theirs to set, not yours to estimate.
Practical access
From Kos Town, head east along the Psalidi and Agios Fokas shoreline: clean water, bays shallow enough to anchor in comfort. From Mastichari you get the calmest morning water on the island and the harshest afternoon exposure to a northerly. When the meltemi is up, the south-facing bays around Kefalos and Paradise Beach are the sheltered option — which is why southern bases stay open on days the north coast does not.
Anchor first so you stop drifting, then call the number from the briefing. Stay aboard, put lifejackets on, and do not accept a tow from another holiday boat — operators run their own recovery.
Timing
The meltemi is the dry northerly that blows down the Aegean all summer, strongest in July and August and building through the afternoon. Rental operators cancel on a forecast, not on how it looks at nine in the morning, and they cancel licence-free boats before anything else — a small open hull with a modest outboard has no business in a short steep chop.
So take the morning slot whenever you can: flat water, better visibility for snorkelling, and you are back before the sea builds. And book the boat day early in your holiday, because a cancellation is only useful if you have another day to move it to.
Out by 09:00, anchored somewhere good by ten, swimming before the day boats reach the same bays around midday. Head back mid-afternoon: the run home into a building sea is the worst hour of any rental day, and where propellers get damaged.
How to save
Rental is per hull, so cost per head falls with every seat you use. Four adults on a €160 boat land near €40 each before fuel, level with a group cruise ticket — and five or six on a slightly larger hull undercuts it outright. Two people almost never come out ahead.
Most people run out of enthusiasm before they run out of hours: a morning slot costs less and gets the flat water and the empty bays. Fuel is the other variable you control — a modest cruise instead of flat out roughly halves consumption for a trivial loss of time over these distances. Pick one anchorage, not three.
Supermarket water, ice and bread in the cooler box beat anything sold at a beach taverna, and most fleets include snorkel gear — check before hiring masks separately; the snorkelling guide lists the spots worth aiming a boat at. There is no island-wide sightseeing pass on Kos and no discount card for boats: the free alternatives are the public beaches and the thermal pool at Embros Therma.
| How you do it | Per head |
|---|---|
| Rental split by 2 | €60–100 |
| Rental split by 4 | €30–50 |
| Group cruise ticket | €35–60 |
| Skippered charter by 8 | €60–110 |
Derived from listed operator prices on GetYourGuide; fuel, deposit and damage excess are additional and set by the operator.
How to get there
Most licence-free fleets work out of the harbour area and the marina east of the centre — walkable or a flat ten-minute cycle from anywhere central in Kos Town.
Reachable by KTEL local bus from Kos Town, but morning services are sparse. If your slot starts early, a car or a taxi is the realistic option.
Roughly 30 km from Kos Town, about 40 minutes by road, and the sheltered side when a northerly is blowing. Worth the drive on a windy week.
Free spaces near Kos Town harbour are realistically gone by 08:30 in summer. Use a paid lot, or arrive by bike, and build in 45 minutes before the slot for paperwork. Do not book a rental for an arrival day.
Context
Kos sits in the Dodecanese with the Turkish coast a short hop east and a cluster of islands to the north, and its own coastline runs about 40 km with bays on every aspect. That geometry is why licence-free rental makes sense: on almost any wind direction there is a sheltered side of the island within a short run, so a small boat has somewhere to go rather than nowhere.
The rule underneath it is Greek pragmatism. Keeping small-engine boats outside the certificate regime opened a whole category of holiday hire that would otherwise need a course and an exam — which is why every Aegean resort has the same fleet of near-identical open boats with modest outboards, bimini tops and a cooler box.
What it does not give you is range. Excursion boats reach Kalymnos, Pserimos and Plati because they are big, fast and crewed, and the volcano at Nisyros is another matter again. If crossing open water is the ambition, buy a seat on a boat built for it — the 3-island cruise or the Nisyros day trip — and save the rental for coastline, snorkelling and an anchorage nobody else is using.
One last note. A hire boat is a real responsibility: a contract, an excess, other people's safety and a weather call you are not qualified to overrule. If that sentence made you tense, hire the skipper — private charters remove all of it, and the boat-trip overview compares every format side by side.
FAQ
Yes. Greek rules allow recreational boats below a defined engine power to be operated without a skipper's certificate, and Kos rental fleets are specified to sit under that threshold. We do not publish the exact figure because it is set by regulation and has changed before: the operator confirms the current limit, so ask at booking and make sure the wording appears on your contract.
Small licence-free motorboats are listed at roughly 120 to 200 euros per boat per day, with fuel charged separately. Half-day slots cost noticeably less. Larger or faster boats, and anything that comes with a skipper, move into a different price bracket entirely.
Almost never. Either you refuel before returning the boat, or the operator reads the tank at handover and bills the difference. Ask which method applies before you sign, because the two produce very different final bills, and remember that fuel use depends heavily on how hard you run the engine.
A refundable security deposit or a card pre-authorisation is standard, and behind it sits a damage excess you carry for the hull, propeller and engine. Amounts vary by operator and boat, so confirm both before booking. Photograph the hull, propeller and fuel gauge with a crew member present before you cast off.
Yes, and it is set by the operator rather than by your driving licence. The listing states it, and photo ID is required for the rental contract. Alcohol limits apply at sea just as they do on the road, and the coastguard does carry out checks.
Less far than you imagine. Rental contracts define a permitted cruising area and ban night running, and leaving that area voids the insurance. Treat one tank as enough for a bay or two along the coast, a long anchor stop and an unhurried run home. Ask the operator to mark the boundary on a chart.
Drop the anchor first so you stop drifting, then call the number given in your briefing. Stay with the boat, keep everyone aboard and put lifejackets on. Do not accept a tow from another holiday boat: rental operators run their own recovery and will come out to you.
For four or more people, usually yes. Rental is priced per boat, so four adults on a 160-euro hire land near 40 euros each before fuel, which is level with a cruise ticket and gives you an empty bay instead of a timetable. For two people it rarely works out cheaper, and a group cruise is the more relaxing day.
Check live availability, boat sizes and cancellation terms for licence-free rentals and skippered charters on Kos through GetYourGuide, the authorised reseller we link to throughout.
