Side days compared
Dolphin Boat or Try-Scuba Diving in Side: Above or Below
Both days are spent on a boat off the Side coast and both get you wet. One keeps you at the surface with your eyes on the horizon; the other takes you under it with an instructor.
Short answer
Pick the dolphin boat for an easy sea day: a calm river cruise, a swim at the river mouth, lunch on deck and a long swim at Dolphin Island, where wild dolphins and Caretta caretta turtles live — you may see them, nobody can promise it. Pick try-scuba diving if you want to breathe underwater for the first time with an instructor beside you. The first asks nothing of you; the second is a small adventure.
Surface or underwater
On the dolphin boat everything happens at the surface. You swim where and when you like at three stops, and the rest of the day is the river, the open water, the island and the deck. If dolphins pass, you see them from the boat or from the water near it — this is a wild chance, not a swim-with programme, and nobody feeds or touches them. Our honest guide to seeing dolphins says what that chance does and does not mean.
A try-scuba day is about going under. It is aimed at beginners, who go under with an instructor beside them. It is a day with something to learn, and the reward is the view below the surface.
Who each day suits
| Dolphin boat | Try-scuba diving | |
|---|---|---|
| Effort | As little or as much swimming as you like | Instruction, then guided dives |
| First-timers | Nothing to learn in advance | Made for beginners, with an instructor |
| Mixed groups | Swimmers and non-swimmers on the same deck | Its own site says who can join and how |
| What you watch | The horizon, the island, a chance of wildlife | The world underwater |
For the nervous swimmer
If someone in your party is uneasy in deep water, the dolphin boat is the gentler day: swimming is optional at every stop, and staying on deck is a perfectly good way to spend it. Our first-timer's guide is written for anyone new to boat days, uneasy in deep water, or travelling at an older age. Anything specific — mobility, health, a worry about the sea — ask us before booking, so the answer comes from the operator and not a guess.
Whether a diving day suits a nervous swimmer is a question for the diving team. Their site explains their own requirements.
Doing both in one week
A holiday week has room for both. One order is the dolphin boat first, to get a feel for the sea off Side, and scuba later once the water feels familiar; the reverse works just as well.
The diving day is sold by our sister site sidediving.com, which lists its own price, times and what is included. On the dolphin day an adult fare is €21, and a child between 2 and 10 is charged €15, with hotel pickup and lunch in the fare. Reserve the dolphin boat with no card details and settle the fare in euros when the trip day comes.
Side Dolphin Island Boat Trip: price, what is included, and booking