DINNER CRUISES · WORLDWIDE
Dinner, after dark, on the water.
The Seine gliding under floodlit bridges, the Bosphorus between two continents, Sydney Harbour at golden hour and a candlelit dinner out in the Agafay sand. The world’s evening cruises, reviewed and ranked by the people who book them.
The unmistakable three
Three dinners you can’t book anywhere else.
A dinner cruise turns up in most port cities. These three don’t travel: a glass boat that has worked the Seine since 1949, a table set between two continents, and an evening dinner with no boat under it at all.
Since 1949
The Seine by Bateau
The glass-roofed dinner boat is a Paris institution. The Bateaux Mouches have run the Seine since 1949, and the route has not changed: cast off near the Pont de l'Alma, glide under a dozen bridges past Notre-Dame and the Musee d'Orsay, and turn at the Ile Saint-Louis as the Eiffel Tower starts its hourly sparkle. Dinner is plated French; the city is the floor show.
- 1 Bateaux Mouches Dinner Cruise on the Seine River in Paris
- 2 Paris en Scene 3 Course Seine River Dinner Cruise
- 3 Seine Dinner Cruise, Eiffel Tower Access and Moulin Rouge Show
Two continents
Dinner on the Bosphorus
There is one strait on earth where you eat with Europe off one rail and Asia off the other. Istanbul's dinner boats leave from the Golden Horn after dark, slide beneath the lit suspension bridges and past the Ottoman palaces along the shore, usually with a live folk-and-fasil show and a table held just for you. The crossing is the whole point.
- 1 Bosphorus Dinner Cruise with Show and Private Table
- 2 Istanbul Bosphorus Dinner Cruise: Live Folk Dance & DJ Experience
- 3 ISTANBUL: Dinner Cruise On The Bosphorus with Turkish night show
No boat at all
A Desert Dinner Near Marrakech
Forty minutes from the Marrakech medina the ground turns to pale rolling sand, and the one dinner on this site with no water beneath it. The Agafay evenings set a table among the dunes - tagine and mint tea, drummers and a fire, camels at dusk and a sky with nothing between you and the stars. The same idea as a river dinner, stood on its head.
- 1 Marrakech: Agafay Desert Escape with Quad or Camel Ride
- 2 Marrakesh: Sunset Dinner in Agafay Desert with Show & Transfers
- 3 Sunset Dinner & Camel Ride in Agafay desert
If you book only one
The most booked dinner cruise in the world.
More travellers reserve a table on this one than on any other evening cruise we cover. A safe first booking in any season.
The classics
The World’s Most Popular Dinner Cruises
The Seine and the Bosphorus, the Yarra and the Chao Phraya. The boats that fill up first, wherever the table is set.
Where to begin
Start with a waterway.
The Seine and the Bosphorus, Sydney Harbour and the Hudson, the sunset bays and a desert with no water at all. The handful of evenings most worth planning a night around, and the best boat on each.
The one everyone asks about
How to do the Seine.
A dozen boats leave the same stretch of river every night, and they are not the same evening. Three ways to dine on the Seine, depending on the budget you bring and how much of Paris you want folded in.
Sydney Harbour
Dinner past the Opera House.
Few harbours put on a show like this one. The boats slip out of Darling Harbour or Circular Quay as the sandstone goes pink, glide under the Harbour Bridge and hold off the Opera House sails while dinner is served on the open deck. A glass-and-steel skyline on one side, the dark of the Pacific on the other.
Read the guide: the best Sydney Harbour dinner cruises →The golden hour
Booked for the light, not the clock.
The sunset sailings are a category of their own. Departure times shift with the season so the boat is mid-water when the sky turns - a catamaran off Kaanapali, a junk off Bali, a deck on Sydney Harbour as the city lights come up. Dinner runs second to the half hour the whole trip is timed around.
See the best sunset dinner cruises →The great rivers
Europe dines on its rivers after dark.
No continent does the river dinner like the old one. The Seine slides past a floodlit Notre-Dame, the Thames runs beneath a lit Tower Bridge, the Danube splits Buda from Pest under the chain bridge, and the Vltava carries you through a golden Prague. Slow water, monuments close enough to touch, the whole city turned on for the night.
Best dinner cruises in Europe →Music on the water
A band, a paddlewheel, the river going by.
Some boats put the music first. The Creole Queen churns the Mississippi out of New Orleans behind a live jazz trio; the General Jackson showboat works the Cumberland with a full stage revue; the Prague jazz boats turn the Vltava into a floating club. Dinner, a river, and a set list - the meal keeps time with the band.
- 1 Paddlewheeler Creole Queen Jazz Dinner Cruise in New Orleans
- 2 Jazz Boat: Popular LIVE JAZZ dinner cruise
- 3 VIP Jazz Dinner Cruise with Private Tour and Open Bar Option
By the setting
Pick your water.
A dinner cruise is really three different evenings. A city river with the monuments an arm’s length away. A working harbour with room to open up. Or the open sea, timed to the last of the sun.
On a city river
Between the bridges.The great river dinners - the Seine past Notre-Dame, the Thames under Tower Bridge, the Vltava through floodlit Prague. Slow water, close-up monuments.
On a working harbour
Out past the landmarks.Harbour and bay sailings with room to open up - Sydney past the Opera House, New York along the skyline, San Diego out toward the Pacific.
On the open water
Timed to the last of the light.Boats that push off as the sun drops - a catamaran off Maui, a junk off Bali, the Bosphorus turning gold between two continents.
The Bosphorus
Dinner with Europe on one rail and Asia on the other.
Istanbul has the one strait on earth that splits two continents, and the dinner boats run it after dark. You cast off from the Golden Horn, pass the floodlit Ortakoy mosque and slide under the suspension bridge into Asia and back, a live folk-and-fasil show on deck and a private table held for the night. It is the biggest dinner-cruise scene we cover, and the best value.
See all 66 Istanbul Bosphorus cruises →By city
Pick your skyline.
Paris for the Seine and the bridges. Istanbul for the strait between continents. Sydney for the Opera House at dusk. New York for the Hudson skyline. Maui for the Pacific going gold. Marrakech for a dinner in the sand.
By region & setting
Or start with the part of the world.
Europe for the river dinners. The USA for the harbour skylines. Asia for the warm-water nights. Australia for the harbour-and-bay sailings. Then the settings that cross every map - sunset, live jazz, the northern lights, a desert with no water at all.
If you only book three
Three evenings worth the flight.
A short bucket list, one from each corner. The river everyone starts with, the strait between continents, and the one that breaks the rules entirely.
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