Yachts, Catamarans, Sailboats & Motorboats
Boat Rental Alicante — Step Off the Boat Into the City
Rent a Boat in Alicante
A city port, not a resort marina — and it changes the whole shape of the day.
Most of the Costa Blanca keeps its boats in resort marinas you have to drive to. Alicante does not. The Marina Deportiva sits at the foot of the old town with the Explanada running parallel to the water, so you walk off the pontoon and you are already in the city — lunch, the old quarter and the castle are all right there. It is also a serious port rather than a pretty one: 744 berths, vessels up to 60 metres, 12 metres of draft in the entrance, Blue Flag every year since 1997. The Real Club de Regatas next door adds about 542 more berths and 9 metres of draft. We charter from both.
That scale is worth a moment. Alicante can berth a 60-metre yacht; Benidorm's own harbour, forty minutes up the coast, tops out at 8 metres and 110 berths. It is the single fact that separates the two cities on the water — Benidorm charters have to leave from a marina in another town, and Alicante charters leave from Alicante. If you want to sleep in the city, walk to the boat and walk back to dinner, this is the port on this coast that lets you.
Why Take a Boat Out of Alicante
What this port gives you that the resort marinas up the coast do not.
The marina is in the city
Berths at the foot of the old town, the Explanada running parallel to the port — palm-lined, its wave-pattern marble mosaic laid from millions of tesserae — and the castle above it all. There is no transfer, no resort shuttle, no forty-minute drive to a marina in a different town. You walk off the boat and you are out for dinner. On this coast that is genuinely unusual.
It takes real boats
744 berths at the Marina Deportiva, vessels up to 60 metres, 12 metres of draft in the entrance channel, Blue Flag since 1997, plus roughly 542 more berths and 9 metres of draft at the Real Club de Regatas. For contrast: Benidorm's own port is capped at 8 metres. Alicante is a port that happens to have a city attached, not a marina built for postcards.
Spain's first marine reserve is twelve miles out
Tabarca was declared Spain's first marine reserve in 1986 — the order was signed on 4 April and came into force on 10 May — and it protects 1,754 hectares. All fishing is prohibited, as is any extraction of marine flora or fauna. The posidonia around it is officially described as extensive, dense and in optimal health, which is precisely why the water there looks the way it does. It is about 11.9 nautical miles from Alicante.
A sailing city, not a beach town
Alicante has been the start port of The Ocean Race since 2008, and January 2027 will be the sixth consecutive start — the race's global headquarters are here, and so is the only museum in the world dedicated to the round-the-world race. The 2027 first leg is 14,000 nautical miles to Auckland, the longest in the race's 53-year history. You are chartering out of a port that takes the sea seriously.
Boat Rental Alicante — Pick Your Vessel
Four fleet categories, every group size and budget.
Private Yacht Charter
Motor yachts with skipper or crew. The comfortable way to reach Tabarca and still have hours at anchor before the run home.
From €800/day
View yachtsCatamaran Charter
Twin hulls, room to spread out and barely any roll at anchor. The choice for families and for bigger groups doing the island day.
From €300/day
View catamaransSailboat Rental
Monohull sailing yachts, in the city that has started The Ocean Race since 2008. If you are going to sail anywhere on this coast, sail out of here.
From €150/day
View sailboatsMotorboat Rental
Speedboats and RIBs, including licence-free options you can drive yourself. Enough for the bay, the castle rock and a swim.
From €100/hour
View motorboatsWhere You Can Go From Alicante
Six places worth pointing the bow at.
Tabarca
The only inhabited island in the Valencian Community — 51 residents at the last INE count, and around 150,000 visitors a summer. It is 1,800 metres long and about 450 wide, roughly 11.9 nautical miles from Alicante, so reckon on 50 minutes to an hour and three quarters depending on the boat. Spain's first marine reserve since 1986, and the water shows it.
The Tabarca walls and old town
The island has a story most people miss. In 1768 Carlos III ransomed 323 people of Ligurian origin held captive at Tabarka in Tunisia and resettled them here; the first houses went up in 1770 and the engineer Fernando Méndez de Ras built the walls around them. The whole ensemble has been a Conjunto Histórico-Artístico since 27 August 1964. It is a fortified 18th-century town on a 1.8-kilometre rock.
Santa Bárbara castle from the sea
The fortress on Mount Benacantil, 166 metres over the port, with origins in the late 9th century under Muslim rule; it was taken on 4 December 1248, St Barbara's day, which is where the name comes from. Everyone photographs it from the town. From the water you get the thing the town cannot show you — see the next one.
La Cara del Moro
The Moor's face: a warrior's profile in the rock of Benacantil's southwest slope. It is on the seaward side, which makes the approach by boat the definitive view of it — you are looking at the face straight on while everyone up on the Explanada is standing on the wrong side of the hill. Ask the skipper to slow down for it.
The Ocean Race quay
Muelle 10, where the round-the-world fleet has started every edition since 2008 and where the race museum opened in June 2012 — the only one in the world dedicated to the race. Alicante hosts the start again on 17 January 2027, the sixth in a row. Worth a slow pass on the way out if anyone aboard sails.
The bay and the city front
The short version, and a good first hour: out past the harbour wall, turn and look back at the castle standing over the Explanada and the old town stacked below it. Alicante is a city that reads properly from about half a mile offshore, and most visitors never see it from there.
How Boat Rental in Alicante Works
From first message to leaving the dock.
1. Tell Us Your Day
Send us your dates, your group size and what you want — Tabarca and a long swim, a couple of hours in the bay, or a sunset under the castle. We come back with the boats that fit and real prices.
2. Confirm Your Booking
Reserve with a deposit and we lock in the boat and the skipper. You get the full brief: which marina, which pontoon, what to bring, and what happens if the weather turns.
3. Meet at the Marina
Marina Deportiva or the Real Club de Regatas, both at the foot of the old town — walk from most of the city centre. Safety briefing on the pontoon, then out past the harbour wall with the castle behind you.
Boat Rental Alicante — Price Snapshot
Indicative rates. Your exact quote depends on boat, date and duration.
| Motorboat (no licence) | €100-150/hour | Small groups, hourly rentals |
| Sailboat (skippered) | €150-300/day | Half-day or full-day options |
| Catamaran | €300-700/day | Families and larger groups |
| Private yacht | €800-2,800/day | Motor yachts with skipper |
| Luxury yacht | €1,500-3,500/day | Larger yachts with full crew |
More Ways to Get on the Water
Dedicated pages for every kind of charter.
Boat Rental Alicante — Frequently Asked Questions
From Alicante itself — which sounds obvious until you look at the rest of this coast. The Marina Deportiva de Alicante has 744 berths, takes vessels up to 60 metres, has 12 metres of draft in the entrance and has flown a Blue Flag since 1997. The Real Club de Regatas de Alicante next door has around 542 berths and 9 metres of draft. We charter from both, and both are at the foot of the old town, so most people walk. You get the exact pontoon with your confirmation.
Not always. Spanish rules allow licence-free rental of boats up to 5 metres with engines up to 15 HP, for up to 6 people, if you are over 18 — you stay near the coast and we brief you first. For anything bigger, or if you would rather enjoy the day than drive, you take a skipper. Anything involving Tabarca is a skippered job: it is roughly 11.9 nautical miles of open water each way.
It depends on the boat, the season and the hours. A licence-free motorboat starts around €100 an hour. A skippered sailboat or catamaran for a day runs roughly €150 to €700 depending on size. Private motor yachts with a skipper start around €800 a day. July and August cost more than May or October. Send your dates and group size and we will give you a firm number.
About 11.9 nautical miles from Alicante — call it 50 minutes on a quick motor yacht and up to an hour and three quarters on something slower. You will see "8 miles" quoted around the internet; that is somebody muddling kilometres and nautical miles, and it will cost you an hour of daylight if you plan around it. Worth knowing: Tabarca is only about 4 nautical miles from Santa Pola, which is why the day-trip ferries run from there and not from here. From Alicante it is a full-day trip, and a much better one for having the boat to yourselves.
Tabarca has been a marine reserve since 1986 — Spain's first — and the founding order prohibits all fishing and any extraction of marine flora or fauna, full stop. Diving requires express authorisation, and there is a maximum-protection zone at the Bajo de la Nao. Anchoring is a separate matter: the 1986 order does not cover it, but regional posidonia law does, and the meadows around Tabarca are officially described as extensive, dense and in optimal health, so where you can and cannot drop is set by that. Our skippers know the difference and follow both.
Yes, and the second one is the reason to bother. Santa Bárbara castle sits 166 metres up on Mount Benacantil, founded in the late 9th century and taken on 4 December 1248 — St Barbara's day, hence the name. La Cara del Moro, the warrior's face in the rock, is on the southwest slope facing the sea. That means the boat gives you the proper view of it and the city does not. It is a two-minute detour on the way out of the harbour.
We do not sail if it is not safe or not enjoyable. If the skipper or the marina calls it off, you choose: another date, or a full refund. The bay itself is workable in most conditions, so a marginal day usually means we swap the Tabarca crossing for a coastal route rather than cancelling outright — the crossing is open water and it is the first thing to go.
June to October, when the sea holds above 20°C — August peaks around 26°C. June and September are the sweet spot: warm water, more boats free, and Tabarca without its 150,000 summer visitors all arriving at once. Getting here is easy in any month: Alicante–Elche airport is 9 km southwest of the city and handled 18.38 million passengers in 2024, the busiest in southeast Spain.
Ready to See Alicante From the Water?
Tell us your dates, your group size and the kind of day you want. We will send real boats with real prices — usually the same day.