The best private boats for two to six guests in Turks and Caicos

• Best for two: the 26ft Regal, whose three-hour charter is priced for two guests, with a bathroom and a free shuttle.
• Best for four friends: the 28ft Luxury Boat, one price for up to six.
• Best value for six: the 22ft Sports Cruiser, whose price includes six guests on every option.
• Best for a family of six: the 35ft Catamaran, with shade, a bathroom and a lower rate for children.
• Best for comfort: the 35ft Luxury Yacht, with an air-conditioned cabin and lunch on every charter.

The 26ft Regal’s three-hour charter is priced for two guests, which makes it the natural first look for a couple. Three hours is enough for a snorkel stop and a sandbar, there’s a bathroom on board, and a free shuttle collects you from central Grace Bay and Long Bay resorts.

Bring a friend or two and each extra guest is added per person, up to ten on board. For a longer day, its four-hour charter includes six guests from the start.

If price matters more than a bathroom, the 22ft Axopar is the least expensive three-hour private charter we list: $1,113 for three hours and $1,370 for four, for up to four guests, with a fruit bowl, local beers and a rum punch each in the cooler. It’s captain-only with no bathroom, so it suits a couple who’ll be in the water more than on the deck.

Good to know

Three hours on the 26ft comes with light snacks, water, sodas and local beer. If you’d like a proper lunch, look at a longer charter or one of the boats below.

Two hulls keep the 35ft Catamaran steady at anchor and roomy on deck, with shade, a bathroom, bow netting to lie on and a Subwing for confident swimmers. Its half day is priced for two, and each extra guest is added per person, up to ten.

That suits families, because children aged 4 to 14 pay a lower rate than adults and under-4s ride free, so a family with kids pays less than the price for six adults in the table below. The half day comes with fresh fruit and a charcuterie platter with hummus, carrots, grapes and baguette.

The 30ft Catamaran has the same price and platter and room for 13, but no bathroom on board, which matters with young children.

Good to know

Neither catamaran runs on Sundays. The 35ft leaves from a private dock in Leeward, close to Blue Haven Marina.

For four friends who want the day to feel like a speedboat day, the 28ft Luxury Boat is the pick. It has one price for up to six, so four of you have room to stretch out, with a sun pad, a premium sound system and bottomless rum punch, plus fruit, cookies, a signature dip and a sandwich or wrap.

Its bigger sibling, the 37ft Luxury Boat, has one price for up to ten. It costs more, and for six who’d rather not fill the 28ft to its limit, it gives everyone room to spare. Both run four, six and eight-hour charters.

Good to know

A bathroom isn’t standard on either boat, so ask us when you book if it matters. Both leave from Blue Haven Marina in Leeward, and both can collect you from your beach or villa for an extra fee, weather permitting.

When there are six of you, the 22ft Sports Cruiser is the value pick. Its price includes six guests on every option, and its three-hour charter is the lowest price for six of any three-hour private charter here.

There’s a bathroom, sun pads and a premium sound system, and a free shuttle collects you from central Grace Bay and Long Bay resorts (not Amanyara or Salterra). Three hours comes with light snacks; four or six hours add turkey or tuna sandwiches, a fruit plate, and chips and salsa.

It takes eight at most. For six who’d like more room, two boats from South Bank Marina on the south side are priced for six with a bathroom and a hot lunch on every length: the 29ft Sports Cruiser, $2,341 for four hours, and the 30ft Luxury Boat, $2,455, with chicken kebabs, BBQ chicken and ribs and baked mac and cheese on board.

For a honeymoon, grandparents or anyone who wants a break from the sun, the 35ft Luxury Yacht is the small-group upgrade. Its price includes six guests, and it has an air-conditioned cabin, a bathroom and a shower.

Lunch comes on every option: glazed ribs, chicken wings, rice, mac and cheese and a green salad on the half day, with champagne, white wine and rum punch. It leaves from Turtle Cove Marina, 10 to 15 minutes from Grace Bay.

If you’d rather sail, the 41ft Sailing Catamaran’s five-hour price includes four guests, with a bathroom, bow netting and a fruit and charcuterie platter. It doesn’t sail on Sundays.

Two of you: the 26ft’s three hours, or a catamaran half day if you’d like longer on the water.

Four friends: the 28ft Luxury Boat, one price for up to six, with the music up.

A family of six: the 35ft Catamaran for shade and a steady deck, or the 22ft Sports Cruiser for the lowest three-hour price.

Why small boats reach the shallowest spots

The water around the Caicos Cays is shallow by any standard: a bank of white sand where the tide rises and falls only two to three feet, and where sandbars build and shift between the cays from one season to the next. Half Moon Bay itself is a sandbar that grew, a channel between Little Water Cay and Water Cay that had filled in by 1999 and left a shallow lagoon behind. A small boat draws little water, so it can nose up to a beach and let you step off into the shallows; the big yachts anchor farther out, the 62ft can’t reach the shipwreck at all, and the deeper drafts of the 51ft and 62ft make a beach pickup difficult.

What you give up on a small boat

Shade, a bathroom and somewhere to escape the sun are the trade-offs, not the destinations. Bring hats on the smallest boats; the 28ft has a sun pad but no standard bathroom; the 22ft Sports Cruiser and the 26ft Regal both have one. Bow seats are the best view and the wettest ride, and a speedboat is quicker between stops but has less room to move about once everyone’s aboard.

Wind and chop on a small boat

The trade wind blows from the east-southeast most of the year at about 10 to 17 knots, and winter seas run a little choppier. Behind the barrier reef that is usually a light chop rather than waves, but a 22ft boat feels it more than a catamaran. If anyone in the group is prone to seasickness, sit in the middle toward the back, keep your eyes on the horizon, take whatever remedy works for you before you leave the dock rather than once you feel it, and tell the captain, who can pick a route in the lee of the cays.

The per-person math

Two on the 26ft Regal’s three hours is $1,256, about $628 each. Four on the same boat is about $1,393, about $348 each, or $1,113 on the 22ft Axopar, about $278, without a bathroom. Six on the 22ft Sports Cruiser’s three hours is $1,484, about $247 each, and six on the 28ft Luxury Boat’s four is $1,998, about $333. A family of two adults and four children aged 4 to 14 on the 35ft Catamaran’s half day comes to about $1,848, around $308 a head, and the 35ft Luxury Yacht’s air-conditioned four hours for six is $3,026, about $504 each.

Before you book, and what to bring

For two, book the 26ft Regal’s three hours: $1,256 all-in with a bathroom, light snacks, water, sodas and local beer, and a free shuttle from central Grace Bay and Long Bay resorts. For six, the 22ft Sports Cruiser’s three hours at $1,484, or its four hours at $1,827 with sandwiches, a fruit plate and chips and salsa. The price on every listing is the all-in figure with taxes included, for the boat and the guests it covers. A deposit holds the boat, each listing shows its own free-cancellation window (24 to 72 hours before, depending on the boat), and a request is confirmed within a few hours, nearly always the same day; guests book a median 11 days ahead.

No boat provides towels, so bring your own, plus reef-safe sunscreen as a lotion rather than a spray, a hat and a light layer for the ride home. You can bring your own food and drinks on any boat in this guide, on top of what’s included; most carry a cooler with ice.

Every boat on TCI Experiences is handpicked and verified for safety, service and upkeep. For prices at every group size, see what a private charter costs; for our overall picks, the best private boat charters; for a day for two, charters for couples; and for seven or more, boats for a group of 10.