Almost everyone planning an island day out from Phuket hits the same fork in the road: buy seats on a group tour at 1,200–1,500฿ per person, or charter a whole boat for 15,000–25,000฿.
The answer you find online usually comes from a company that sells one or the other — which makes the answer predictable. We charter boats privately, so our bias is obvious. That's exactly why we'll start with the part where we lose.
Let's be clear: on price, the group tour often wins
If there are two, four or six of you, the group tour will almost certainly be cheaper, and no amount of arithmetic changes that.
<cite index="39-1">A standard Racha and Coral Island tour runs around 1,250฿ per person and includes the speedboat, lunch and snorkeling equipment.</cite> Hotel transfers are frequently thrown in as well.
Run the numbers for a family of four:
- Group tour: 4 × 1,250฿ = 5,000฿, lunch and transfer included
- Private half-day charter (Seraphina, Koh Hey): 13,000฿ for the boat, lunch and transfer separate
That's two and a half times the cost. No amount of talk about privacy erases it — if budget is the deciding factor and your group is small, book the group tour. That's a perfectly sensible decision.
The real question is different: at what group size does the whole boat start making financial sense?
The financial verdict is simple: a private boat starts paying off from around 11 guests on a half day, and from around 21 on a full day.
The charter figures include our 500฿ per-guest surcharge above the standard capacity of each rate. Food is counted separately in both columns: our Thai menu is 350฿ per person with a 10-person minimum, while group tours usually bundle lunch into the ticket.
If your group is smaller than that, the rest of this article isn't about money — it's about what you get for it.
What the group tour price doesn't show you
Reviews from people who've actually taken group tours are remarkably consistent on one point. A few typical ones:
"It was a snorkeling tour, so I would have liked to spend more time snorkeling than the allowed ~30 minutes." Another: "Snorkel was about 15 mins just on the surface wearing a life belt." And a third: "I believe that at such a price, the trip should include one more 45-minute snorkeling stop."
This isn't a dig at any particular operator — it's the arithmetic of the group format. With forty people aboard and four stops on the itinerary, time at each one gets divided by the lowest common denominator. The operator can't wait while everyone has their fill: the schedule is tied to the return to the pier and the next group.
Other things included in the price but not in the description:
Group pickup. The transfer loops through six to ten hotels. Get collected first and you'll spend an hour in a minivan before you see the pier.
A fixed itinerary. Loved Koh Racha and want to stay? Not an option. Hate the crowded beach? Also not an option — you leave on schedule.
Shared anchorages. In high season, dozens of boats sit at the popular stops simultaneously. The water is churned up by propellers and there's a queue at the buoy.
Lunch by the clock. "Basic buffet lunch was ok" is a typical verdict. Lunch on the beach alongside several other groups.
No flexibility for kids or older guests. A child falls asleep, a grandparent overheats, someone gets seasick — the program runs on regardless.
What a private charter actually buys you
Strip away the marketing language and privacy on the water comes down to four concrete things.
Your own pace. The reef is good, so you stay an hour instead of twenty minutes. You're tired, so you head back early. You want lunch at three rather than twelve, so you eat at three.
The route can change on the day. The captain checks the weather and swell in the morning and suggests what will work best today. A group tour won't reroute — that itinerary was sold to forty people.
Nobody extra on deck. This is precisely what you're paying for: your group, your music, your conversations. For a family, a group of friends or a corporate day out, that's a fundamentally different quality of day.
No queue for equipment. Masks, life jackets, paddle board and canoe belong to your group, not to forty people in rotation.
Worth noting that privacy isn't something we invented or a quirk of Phuket. Across the charter industry, privacy remains one of the defining aspects of the trip, and "crowd control" is named a key priority going into 2026, with rising demand for yachts with secluded decks and for less-trampled destinations.
One thing people miss: "private" isn't one category
An important nuance that gets glossed over. A private boat isn't a single product.
A private speedboat to Koh Maithon, Koh Racha and Coral Island for a group of up to 10 people runs about $1,238 — roughly 44,000฿ for the day.
Our full day on Sometime, running Koh Racha Yai + Koh Hey + sunset, costs 27,000฿ and takes up to 25 guests. The price gap isn't about service quality — it's the type of vessel. A speedboat is expensive to run and built for speed; a sailing catamaran is built for comfort and time on the water.
So when comparing "private charters," always check what's actually on offer: an eight-seat speedboat for four hours and a catamaran for 25 people across nine hours are different products at different prices.
Who should honestly just book the group tour
We're not going to pretend a private charter is the universal answer. The group tour is objectively better if:
- There are 1–4 of you and budget is the deciding factor
- You're travelling solo and don't mind the company of strangers
- You just want to tick the box — see the island, get the photo, come back
- You want maximum stops in a day — group speedboats cover more ground precisely because they're fast and run to a tight schedule
- You don't want to organise anything — collected from the hotel, delivered, fed
If you recognise yourself in that list, book the group tour and don't overpay. We'd rather you had a decent day on the water for your money than felt let down by a charter you didn't need.
Who a private boat is right for
- Groups of 8–10 or more — this is where the maths kicks in, not just the comfort
- Families with young children — being able to shape the day around a child is worth more than the price difference
- When there's an occasion — a birthday, an anniversary, a proposal, a company day out
- When older relatives are aboard — your own pace, your own shade, the option to head back early
- When you want to actually swim, rather than snorkel for 15 minutes on a schedule
- When you've already done a group tour and know exactly what didn't work for you
What's in the charter price and what isn't
For the comparison to be fair, here's the full picture with no surprises.
Included with the boat: yacht insurance, drinking water, soft drinks, fruit and ice, snorkeling equipment, life jackets and towels, BBQ grill and fishing gear (request in advance), paddle board and canoe.
Paid separately: hotel transfer, food (Thai menu 350฿ per person, seafood 650฿ per person, 10-person minimum), Koh Phi Phi national park fee 400฿ per person, longtail boat at certain stops, guide, water slide 1,500฿.
That's exactly why the calculations above counted food separately — group tours usually bundle lunch into the ticket, and comparing a bare charter price against that would be dishonest.
Frequently asked questions
At what group size is chartering a whole boat cheaper? From around 11 guests on a half day and around 21 on a full day. Below that the group tour costs less, and we'd rather say so plainly.
Can two people charter a private boat? Yes, there's no minimum. But it will cost noticeably more than a group tour — you're paying for privacy, not saving money.
Is it true you get more snorkeling time on a private charter? Yes, and it's the single biggest practical difference. On a group tour, time at each stop is calculated for the whole group and typically lands between 15 and 30 minutes. On your own boat, you decide.
Can the route be changed after booking? Yes. In fact the captain may suggest an adjustment on the morning itself if conditions favour a different stop.
How does booking and payment work? A 50% deposit confirms your date, with the balance due 2 days before departure. Cancellation a week or more ahead is free; date changes are charged at 50%; same-day cancellation is charged in full.
In short
On price, the group tour wins for smaller groups — that's a fact and there's no arguing with it. A private boat pays for itself from around 11 guests on a half day and 21 on a full day.
But if what matters to you isn't the ticket price so much as how many minutes you'll actually spend in the water, and whether you can linger at the stop you liked — then you're no longer comparing sums. You're comparing formats.
Group tour prices quoted here are averaged from publicly listed operator offers as of early August 2026 and given as an example; individual operators differ. Our own prices are current as of publication.
