The boat leaves at seven. Book the right one.
Which Bosphorus boat serves food worth eating. What a Nile cruise with a show really costs. Whether the Seine dinner boat is worth four times the sightseeing one. Reviews of dinner cruises on every water that runs them.
Four dinner cruises that never disappoint.
The boats travellers keep filling, on four very different waters. What a seat costs and what people say once they are back on the quay.
01IstanbulBosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private TableA private table on the Bosphorus, whirling dancers after the mains, and the old city lit the whole way back.
02ParisSeine River Panoramic Views Dinner CruiseThe glassed-in Seine boat that puts every monument on the correct side of your table. Book a window seat.
03New OrleansNew Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner OptionA paddle steamer with a live jazz band on the deck below. Dinner is an add-on, the music is the reason.
04DubaiSunset or Dinner Cruise with Live Music & Open BarSunset out of Dubai Marina with an open bar, then the towers switching on around you.
A dinner cruise is really a choice of river.
The boat matters less than the water it runs on. Five stretches carry most of the dinner cruises worth booking, and they could not be less alike on price, dress or how long you are aboard.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · Sightseeing Dinner Cruise on Open-Top Glass Boat
The BosphorusIstanbul on both banks, a full show and unlimited soft drinks.
The NileCairo after dark, belly dancing and a buffet, hotel pickup thrown in.
The SeinePlated courses, a sommelier, and the tower doing its thing at the turn.
The Chao PhrayaTemples floodlit off the bow, a buffet the length of the deck.
Harbours and marinasSydney, Dubai, Vancouver: skyline boats that never leave the bay.
All 1,087 dinner cruises →
The dinner cruises travellers book more than any other.
Every dinner cruise we have reviewed →Eight boats that fill night after night, from a $28 seat on the Bosphorus to a plated dinner under the Eiffel Tower.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Review of Istanbul’s Bosphorus dinner cruise, with a private table, Turkish food, live shows, two-continent views, and practical booking tips.
From · $28
Read our review →
2
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Turkish Night Show
from $28
3
Seine River Panoramic Views Dinner Cruise
from $64
4
New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner Option
from $58
5
Budapest Danube Cruise and Dinner Options, Live Music and Dance
from $54
6
3-Course-Dinner Cruise on the Seine with live music
from $135
7
Bateaux Parisiens Seine River Gourmet Dinner & Sightseeing Cruise
from $150
8
Sightseeing Dinner Cruise on Open-Top Glass Boat
from $93
Six cities where the dinner cruise is the evening.
Istanbul runs the biggest fleet in the world. Cairo is the cheapest good night on the water anywhere. Paris charges the most and mostly earns it. Bangkok, Dubai and Sydney each do something the others cannot.
On half these boats, dinner is the interval.
Whirling dervishes off Istanbul, a belly dancer between courses on the Nile, folk dancers on the Danube, a brass band on a Mississippi paddle steamer. The show is why the seat sells, so check what is actually on before you book the cheap one.
Sunset, supper club or set menu: three dinner cruises, three different evenings.
The sub-type decides everything — when you board, what you wear, whether you are handed a plate or a plan. These three cover most of what is bookable.
Sunset Dinner Cruises
The earliest departure of the evening, usually two hours and back on the quay by nine. You get the light, which is the whole point, and a shorter menu because the galley is cooking against the sun. Cheapest of the three almost everywhere, and the one to take if you have a dinner reservation afterwards or small children on board.
- 1Sunset or Dinner Cruise with Live Music & Open Bar★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 6,030 reviews
- 2Nile Sunset Dinner Cruise, Show & Optional Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 2,184 reviews
- 3Key West Sunset Cruise: Dinner, Live Music & Drinks Included★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,707 reviews
River Dinner Cruises
A river boat sits low and moves slowly, so the city passes at the speed of a conversation. Seine, Nile, Danube, Chao Phraya and Vltava all run them nightly. Ask where your table is: the window seats are a separate fare on most Paris boats and worth the difference, while on the Nile every table has a view because the boat is open-sided.
- 1Seine River Panoramic Views Dinner Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 10,611 reviews
- 2Bateaux Parisiens Seine River Gourmet Dinner & Sightseeing Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 6,930 reviews
- 3Seine River Bistronomic Dinner Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 5,272 reviews
Luxury Dinner Cruises
At the top end you are paying for a plated menu cooked aboard rather than a buffet reheated, a smaller boat, and a table held for the whole sailing. Expect a dress code, a three-hour minimum and a wine list. Paris and Dubai run the strongest fleets; a Bosphorus equivalent costs a third of the Paris price.
- 1Bateaux Parisiens Seine River Gourmet Dinner & Sightseeing Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 6,930 reviews
- 23-Course Gourmet Dinner Cruise on Seine River★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 5,205 reviews
- 3Gourmet Dinner Cruise on Seine River with Live Music★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,531 reviews
What a dinner cruise actually costs, from Cairo to Paris.
The same two hours on the water swings from the price of a pizza to the price of a hotel night, and the difference is mostly the kitchen. Every reviewed cruise, grouped by what a seat costs.
Nile buffets out of Cairo, Chao Phraya decks, dhow cruises off Dubai and the shorter Bosphorus sailings. Food is a buffet and the show is included.
The broad middle: Seine sightseeing dinners, Danube boats with live music, harbour cruises in Sydney and Vancouver, most open-bar sailings.
Plated four-course menus on the Seine, private yacht charters, and the packages that bolt a cabaret or a tower ticket onto the sailing.
Five things that decide whether a dinner cruise is any good.
Boarding closes early and the boat does not wait. Window tables are usually a separate fare. Buffets serve in one sitting, plated menus in three. Most operators want long trousers and closed shoes after dark, and almost every dietary swap has to be requested at booking, not at the table. Where hotel pickup is offered, take it: these quays are rarely where you think they are.
The sailings that go before you land.
A dinner cruise runs once or twice a night with a fixed number of covers, so the good boats close weeks out. These four are the ones people write to us about after they have missed them.
- 01Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private TableThe private tables are a small block of covers on a boat that otherwise seats you in a row. They go first, every night.
- 02NYC: New Year’s Eve Buffet Dinner Fireworks Harbor CruiseNew Year on the water is one sailing a year with a fixed capacity and a fixed price, and it sells out in autumn.
- 03Sunset or Dinner Cruise with Live Music & Open BarOpen-bar sailings cap numbers because the bar has to keep up. Weekend departures close days ahead in high season.
- 04New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner OptionThe band plays a set number of sailings a week. Midweek has seats; Friday and Saturday do not.
By city — where you are having dinner
By kind of sailing — the boat, the menu, the hour
The same dinner cruise is a different evening in every port.
The newest dinner cruise reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Golden Hour Cruise RIB Tour Island Dinner Stop & Swim
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Wonderful Pearl Dinner Cruise at River City Pier
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Washington DC: Christmas Eve Gourmet Brunch or Dinner Cruise
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Water Puppet Show And Dinner Cruise On Saigon River Tour
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Vivid Festival of Light Harbor Cruise with Dinner
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3.5-Hour Danube 70s, 80s, 90s Party Cruise w/ Dinner
Read our review →
Valencia: Private Evening Cruise with Dinner and Drinks
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Luxury Northern Lights Cruise with Hot Tub & Dinner
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Evening dinner cruise with possible northern lights
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