There are three different ways to go out on the water in San Blas, and people call them all the same thing. A private boat is for one day: you leave in the morning, choose the islands and come back. A sailboat or catamaran is chartered by the day and you sleep on board. And the crossing to Colombia is a four- or five-day trip through to Cartagena. They are nothing like each other, and mixing them up is the most expensive mistake made here.
We do not publish a rate because there is no single one: charters are quoted by boat, days and season. Tell us what you want and we will tell you what is possible for your dates and what it costs.
Choose by what you want to do, not by the name of the boat.
| Option | How long | What it is for | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private boat | One day | Working the islands at your own pace, sharing with nobody | It is an open panga: fast, no roof. You get wet and the sun is on you. No sleeping on board. |
| Sailboat | 2 to 7 days | Sleeping at anchor between islands and moving slowly | Small cabins and shared space. If you get seasick, a monohull moves a fair bit. |
| Catamaran | 2 to 7 days | Same as the sailboat but with more space and less roll | The comfortable option and also the dearest. It fills up earliest in high season. |
| Crossing to Colombia | 4 or 5 days | Getting from Panama to Cartagena via San Blas | The last two days are open sea, no islands and no signal. It is not a tour, it is a passage. |
It does not matter who you book with, here or anywhere else. These five questions separate a good trip from a bad one, and whoever you ask should answer without hesitating.
The more specific you are, the faster you get a real figure instead of "it depends".
There is no single rate, and anyone who gives you a figure without asking you anything is making it up. It depends on the boat, how many nights, how many of you, and the season — December to April is dearer and fills up sooner. Give us those four things and we will price your dates.
A sailboat has one hull: it heels when sailing, it moves more and the cabins are smaller. A catamaran has two: it stays flat, there is more shared space and far fewer people get seasick. It costs more in exchange. If anyone in your group gets seasick, the catamaran pays for itself.
Yes, and it is the most requested option. It is the same panga used on the tours but for your group only: you choose the islands and the pace. There is no sleeping on board and you return to port in the afternoon, because nobody sails the archipelago at night.
Four or five days. The first two or three are spent among the San Blas islands, anchoring and swimming, and the last two are open sea to Cartagena — no islands, no stops and no signal. That is the part that surprises people: it is sold as a trip through San Blas and half of it is a genuine ocean passage.
No. Every boat comes with a captain and crew. On a charter you can lend a hand with the sails if you feel like it, but nobody expects you to know anything.
The port authority decides: if the port closes, nothing leaves — not a panga, not a sailboat. In that case you either move the date or get your money back. It is the only thing that cancels a departure; rain on its own does not.