Dinner is at eight. The table is on the water.
Which boats serve three real courses and which hand you a buffet queue. Whether the drinks are in the price. How early to board if you want the window table. Reviews of dinner cruises worldwide.
Four dinner cruises worth building an evening around.
Istanbul, Paris, New Orleans, Bangkok. Four boats that fill their tables night after night, what a seat costs on each, and what arrives on the plate.
01The one everyone booksBosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private TableTwo bridges, a Turkish night show and a private table, for less than a mid-range dinner ashore.
02The gourmet seatBateaux Parisiens Seine River Gourmet Dinner & Sightseeing CruiseProper service, a wine list and the Eiffel Tower sliding past the glass between courses.
03Jazz on a paddlewheelerNew Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner OptionA steam calliope, a live jazz band and Creole cooking on the Mississippi. Dinner is an optional add-on, so read the fare first.
04The temple hourRiver Dinner Cruise on the Chao Phraya PrincessWat Arun lit from the water on the Chao Phraya, buffet on the top deck, home before eleven.
What a dinner cruise ticket actually covers, from the menu to the dress code.
The fare is the whole decision. A set three courses and a buffet queue are not the same evening, and a boat where the bar runs on a card costs double what the ticket says. Boarding usually opens forty minutes before the ropes go, window tables go to whoever is early, and most operators ask for smart casual and nothing less. Sailings run rain or shine; the calm water is why nobody gets seasick.
Six cities where the dinner cruise is the evening, not the sightseeing.
A strait with two continents on it, a river older than the calendar, the Seine at floodlight hour, a temple lit from the water, a marina full of dhows and a harbour with an opera house in the middle of it.
Jazz on a paddlewheeler, or a gourmet table off Manhattan.
American dinner cruises split cleanly by what is on the plate. Pick the kind of evening first, then the city, because the same operator often runs all of them off one pier.
The dinner cruises more travellers take than any others.
Every dinner cruise we have reviewed →Istanbul leads by a distance, then Amsterdam, Paris and Prague. What each seat costs and what turns up at the table.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Spend three hours aboard a Mega Lüfer yacht, sailing between Europe and Asia while enjoying a three-course dinner, Turkish coffee, live music, folk dance, flamenco, and belly dance. Choose hotel transfers, window seating, stage seating, VIP lounge access, or an optional birthday package.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Evening Cruise with Optional Wine and Snacks
from $23
3
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Turkish Night Show
from $28
4
Seine River Panoramic Views Dinner Cruise
from $64
5
Palma de Mallorca: 5-Hour Catamaran Cruise with Lunch & Swim
from $69
6
Full-Day Dubrovnik Elaphite Islands Cruise with Lunch and Drinks
from $78
7
New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner Option
from $58
8
Budapest Danube Cruise and Dinner Options, Live Music and Dance
from $54
Lunch cruises: the same deck and the same coastline, at roughly half the evening fare.
Midday sailings run longer, stop to swim and cost less than the dinner slot on the identical boat. In the islands they are the whole day out, lunch grilled on board somewhere between anchorages.
What a night at a table on the water actually costs.
Every sailing on the site, grouped by the fare. The gap between the bands is almost always the menu and the drinks, not the boat.
Buffet decks on the Nile, the Bosphorus and the Chao Phraya. Two hours, food included, drinks usually not.
The middle of the market: a served three courses, a bar tab or a house drink, a live band on the better boats.
Gourmet menus off Paris and Manhattan, private tables, open bars and the boats people book an anniversary around.
Three dinner cruises that could not happen anywhere else.
Every port has a boat with tables on it. Two continents passing the window, a dervish turning between courses on the Nile and a lateen sail over a buffet in the Gulf do not travel.
Dinner between two continents
The boats leave from Kabatas and Ortakoy after dark and turn where the strait narrows, so the lit bridges pass overhead twice and Europe and Asia take turns outside the window. The food is Turkish set menu, the show is folk dance and a belly dancer between courses, and the whole thing costs less than a main course in Beyoglu. Unlimited soft drinks are usually in the fare and alcohol usually is not.
- 1Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 62,058 reviews
- 2Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Turkish Night Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 12,954 reviews
- 3Bosphorus Cruise with Dinner Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,181 reviews
The Nile with a dervish turning
Cairo boats sail a short loop past Zamalek and back, which is the point: the river is the calmest water in the city and the skyline does the work. The entertainment is fixed and it is good, a tanoura dancer spinning under the lights then a belly dancer, with a buffet of mezze and grills in between. Most fares include hotel pickup across Giza and downtown, which matters more than it sounds in that traffic.
- 1Dinner Cruise on the Nile River with Entertainment★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 2,190 reviews
- 2Nile Sunset Dinner Cruise, Show & Optional Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 2,184 reviews
- 3Nile Dinner Cruise with Belly Dancer Show with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 835 reviews
A wooden dhow under the towers
The dhow is a trading boat with a carved wooden deck and a lateen rig, now laid with a buffet and moving very slowly past Dubai Creek or the Marina. Two decks: air-conditioned below, open above, and the upper one is the only place to sit. Sailings run two hours, the food is Arabic and Indian, and the towers do all the lighting.
- 1Scenic Dhow Cruise with Buffet Dinner and Live Shows★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 612 reviews
- 2Dinner Cruise in Dubai Marina onboard Alexandra Dhow★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 544 reviews
- 32-Hour Evening Dhow Cruise and Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 428 reviews
The dinner cruises that are gone before you land.
Most nights you can book a table on the water the same afternoon. These sail on a calendar that takes no interest in your flight: fixed dates, one seating, and a boat that holds a couple of hundred people at most.
- 01New Year’s Eve Bosphorus Dinner Cruise Party 2027One sailing, one night, and the fare doubles for it. New Year boats in Sydney, Dubai and Paris sell out months before December.
- 02Honolulu Sunset Dinner Cruise with Friday Fireworks ShowFireworks sailings run on the city’s calendar, not yours, and the good decks are sold before the date is announced anywhere else.
- 03Marina Del Rey: Christmas Eve Buffet Brunch or Dinner CruiseFestive menus replace the standard fare for a few weeks, at a higher price and on fewer sailings.
- 04Bateaux Parisiens Seine River Gourmet Dinner & Sightseeing CruiseGourmet seatings are a fixed number of covers with a fixed menu. The window tables are allocated in booking order, not at the gangway.
By city - where you are sailing from
By kind of evening - menu, show, deck or river
Boarding call to last dance: the shape of a dinner cruise night.
Cast offThe newest dinner cruise reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Noah 6 Stars Luxury Chaophraya River Dinner Cruise
Read our review →
Carnival Dinner Cruise with Free-Flow Beer & Buffet
Read our review →
Bali/Benoa: Sunset Dinner Cruise with Show and Live Music
Read our review →
Bahamas: Swimming Pigs & Snorkeling Cruise with Lunch & Rum
Read our review →
Ayia Napa: Afternoon Catamaran Cruise with Lunch & Open Bar
Read our review →
Balchik: 4-Hour Black Sea Cruise With Lunch and Drinks
Read our review →
Athens Riviera: Semi-Private daily sailing cruise with lunch
Read our review →
Athens Riviera Private Catamaran Cruise with Meal and Drinks
Read our review →
Island Cruise with Lunch & Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Ticket
Read our review →
