Boat trips
Day trips
The island
A galleon-styled excursion boat with a slide off the stern, lunch on board and the volume up. No show, no actors — the theming is the hull. Here is who the Kos pirate boat is genuinely good for, and who should book a quiet caique instead.
Bookable now
What you're seeing: real departures for the coming weeks from GetYourGuide. Pirate-styled boats sit alongside standard cruises here, so check the listing photos — if there is no slide in the pictures, there is no slide on the boat.
Quick summary
| Price from | Broadly €35–65 per adult for the full-day pirate cruise with lunch. Short evening party cruises cost less. |
|---|---|
| Departure times | Morning for the full-day family cruise; late afternoon or evening for party sailings. Your voucher names the quay. |
| Advance booking? | Yes in July–August. Slide boats fill faster than plain cruises because families cluster on them. |
| Time to allow | 8–9 hours for the day cruise; 2–4 hours for an evening party boat. |
| The theming | A galleon-styled hull with rigging, flags and a slide. Costumed crew on some boats. Not a performance. |
| Departure ports | Kos Town harbour and Kardamena, which is the island's party-boat base. |
| Lunch | Usually included — a barbecue or buffet depending on the boat. Drinks are extra at the on-board bar. |
| Noise level | Music from departure to return, loudest on the afternoon leg. Bring ear defenders for a baby. |
Price bands are ranges from publicly listed operator prices, not quotes — how we source numbers.
Read this before you pay
"Pirate cruise" is a hull description, not an itinerary. Most of these boats sail the same Kalymnos–Pserimos–Plati route as the standard cruises. If the route matters more than the slide, compare both listings on price and capacity rather than on the flag at the masthead.
Expectations
Set expectations correctly and this is one of the better-value days on Kos. Set them wrong and you have paid for a boat trip while waiting for a show that never starts.
A wooden or wood-clad excursion boat built to look like a galleon: carved stern, standing rigging, black sails or flags, a figurehead, and crew who may wear a bandana and lean into the character. Boats trading under names like Captain Hook and Black Pearl work the Kos Town quay and Kardamena. The slide, the music and the lunch are the substance of the day.
There is no scripted performance, no sword fight, no treasure hunt and no character storyline. Children old enough to expect a theme-park narrative will notice within twenty minutes. Children who just want to go down a slide into the sea repeatedly will have the best day of the holiday.
A slide is fitted at the stern or amidships and deployed only while the boat is anchored at a swim stop, never under way. A crew member controls the top and the queue; there is normally somebody in the water or watching from the platform below. That is supervision of the slide, not lifeguarding of your child — the sea beside the boat is open water and often deep. Keep armbands or a buoyancy vest on any weak swimmer, and stay in the water with them rather than photographing from the rail.
Expect a PA system running most of the day, at a party level on the return leg once the bar has been open a few hours. On family day cruises it is chart pop; on evening sailings it is a proper set. There is no quiet corner on a boat this size — the bow is marginally calmer than the stern, and that is the whole extent of your options.
Toddlers, shade and noise
Under-threes are the wrong fit here. Shade on a themed boat is sail canvas and awnings that move with the sun, deck surfaces get genuinely hot underfoot, and the sound system is not adjustable. If you need a guaranteed shaded spot and a nap, a private boat or a 90-minute glass-bottom trip is the better buy — see Kos with kids for the age-by-age version.
Which boat
These three are sold in the same category and produce entirely different evenings. Pick by who is in your group, not by the photos.
Option 1
€35–65 / adult, full day
Pick this if you have children roughly 5–12, or a group of friends who want the classic island route with more going on than a buffet.
Option 2
€25–55 / adult, 2–4 hours
Pick this if you are here for the night out and the boat is the venue. Pair it with the Kos nightlife guide and keep the day free.
Option 3
€45–70 / adult, full day
Pick this if a full day of chart music sounds like a punishment. Details on the 3-island cruise page.
The bar is where the day gets expensive
Drinks are almost never included, and a family drinking soft drinks and coffee across nine hours can add a meaningful sum to a €40 ticket. Bring cash — card readers at sea are unreliable — and check whether a drinks or all-inclusive package is offered, because on party boats it often is and it is usually the cheaper route.
Timing
The meltemi, the dry northerly that blows down the Aegean all summer, peaks in July and August and builds through the afternoon. Even when a sailing goes ahead, a rolling anchorage is the reason a skipper keeps the slide stowed — so a windy day can deliver the cruise without the one feature you booked for.
Boats leaving Kardamena on the south coast are partly sheltered from a northerly and lose fewer days than the north-coast runs. Either way, book your boat day in the first half of the holiday so a cancellation still leaves room to rebook.
Charter flights land in waves, so Tuesday and Wednesday sailings are usually the calmest, while weekend boats carry the week's fresh arrivals. The slide photographs best in the late morning, with the sun high and the water still flat; by mid-afternoon you are shooting into chop and glare.
Practical access
Themed boats are the easiest to spot on the quay and the easiest to confuse with each other — two galleons moored three berths apart is normal in Kos Town. Match the boat name on your voucher, not the flag.
Parking and boarding
Free spaces near Kos Town harbour are realistically gone by 08:30 in summer. Use a paid lot on Akti Miaouli, or cycle in — Kos Town is flat with separated bike lanes. In Kardamena, park back from the seafront and walk down; the front fills first.
How to save
Family boats price children well below adults and infants often sail free. Bands are commonly 0–3 free, 4–11 reduced, 12+ adult, but the cut-offs differ by operator — a twelfth birthday can move a family of four into a different price bracket entirely. Check the bands before comparing two headline prices.
If a boat offers an all-inclusive or drinks package, price it against what your group actually drinks in nine hours. On party sailings it usually wins; on family day cruises it usually does not, and a bottle of water each from a supermarket wins outright.
Prices soften noticeably between mid-August and late September, on a warmer sea. For nothing at all, the north-coast beaches have shallow water and watersports without a ticket. There is no island-wide sightseeing pass on Kos — bundled savings come from operator combos such as cruise-plus-transfer.
Two families travelling together should price a charter before buying eight tickets: charters are per boat, so the eighth passenger costs nothing extra and you set the music. See how charter pricing works, or skipper a small boat yourself without a licence.
| Format | Budget |
|---|---|
| Evening party boat | €25–55 |
| Full-day pirate cruise | €35–65 |
| Quiet caique, cooked lunch | €45–70 |
| Charter split by 8 | €60–110 |
Ranges from listed operator prices on GetYourGuide, before drinks. Confirm on the booking page.
How to get there
Below Neratzia Castle at the north-east corner of town, walkable or cyclable from anywhere central. Most family day cruises leave from here.
The south-coast resort that hosts the island's party-boat fleet, roughly 30 km from Kos Town — allow about 40 minutes by road. Also the nearest port to Nisyros, so volcano sailings share the quay.
KTEL local buses link Tigaki, Marmari, Mastichari and Kardamena to Kos Town. Leave a generous buffer for a morning boarding, and check the first departure at the bus station rather than on a leaflet.
Buses thin out sharply after dark. If you are booking a night party boat away from your resort, agree the taxi home before you get on — see the nightlife guide for how late transport actually works, and the resort comparison for which base keeps the walk short.
Context
The themed boats are a commercial answer to a real problem. Kos sits in the Dodecanese with three convenient islands to the north, and a dozen operators selling the same Kalymnos–Pserimos–Plati day out. When the route cannot be differentiated, the boat has to be — so one owner fits a slide, another carves a stern and hoists a black flag, and the market sorts itself into family boats and quiet boats.
Kardamena is where that logic runs hardest. A former fishing village on the south coast, it became the island's package-holiday nightlife centre, and the boats that leave its quay are priced and programmed for that crowd. Kos Town, with its Knights-era Neratzia Castle at the harbour mouth and a mixed clientele of families and day-trippers, runs the tamer version of the same product.
The pirate branding itself is imported rather than local. Aegean piracy was real and persistent — the Knights of St John, the Ottomans and Venetian traders all fought over these channels — but nothing about a black-sailed Caribbean galleon reflects Dodecanese history. Treat it as a slide platform with good marketing and you will not be disappointed. If you want the actual history, the castle in Kos Town and the terraced Asklepion above it are a better afternoon.
Worth saying plainly: this is not the most interesting thing you can do from these harbours. For a genuinely memorable boat day, walk onto the floor of an active crater on the Nisyros volcano trip. For the best water, take a mask to the rocky edges covered in the snorkelling guide. The Kos boat-trip overview lines up every format side by side, and the excursions hub adds the land options.
FAQ
No. The theming is the boat: a galleon-styled hull with rigging, flags and often crew in costume. There is no scripted performance, sword fight or treasure hunt. What you are buying is a full-day island cruise with a waterslide, lunch and music, on a boat that looks the part.
The slide is deployed only while the boat is anchored at a swim stop, never under way, and a crew member controls the top and the queue. That is supervision of the slide rather than lifeguarding of your child: the water beside the boat is open sea and often deep. Keep a buoyancy aid on weak swimmers and get in the water with them.
Roughly five to twelve is the sweet spot, plus teenagers and adult groups who want the music and the bar. Under threes are the wrong fit, because shade moves with the sun, the deck gets hot underfoot and the sound system is not adjustable. For a baby, a private boat or a short glass-bottom trip is the better buy.
Most pirate boats sail the standard three-island route north of Kos: Kalymnos, Pserimos and Plati, with a swim stop at each. Some Kardamena departures run a southern coastal route instead. The listing states the itinerary, and the order of stops changes daily with the wind.
Lunch is included on most full-day listings, as a barbecue or buffet depending on the boat. Drinks are almost always charged separately at the on-board bar, so carry cash because card readers at sea are unreliable. Some party sailings sell a drinks package, which is often cheaper than paying by the glass.
Loud enough that there is no quiet corner. Family day cruises play chart pop through a PA from departure to return and turn it up on the afternoon leg; evening boats run a full DJ set. Sitting forward of the speakers helps a little, and that is the extent of your options.
Book the full-day cruise if you want islands, swim stops and the slide, and an evening sailing if the boat is simply the venue for a night out. Evening boats are shorter, cheaper and often adults only, and they make no attempt to be a sightseeing trip. Doing both in one holiday is fine, but not on consecutive days.
Operators cancel when the meltemi makes the crossing unsafe, usually deciding the evening before or at dawn, and the standard remedy is a rebooking or a refund. A boat may also sail but keep the slide stowed, because a rolling anchorage makes it unsafe. Southern departures from Kardamena lose fewer days to a northerly than north-coast runs.
Check live dates, prices and cancellation terms for the 3-island pirate cruise with lunch and waterslide on GetYourGuide, the authorised reseller we link to throughout.
