The table is on the boat. The city goes past the window.
Which Bosphorus boat serves a real meal. What a gourmet sailing on the Seine costs once the wine is counted. Whether the Nile cruise with the show is the one to take. Reviews of dinner cruises you can book tonight.
Four dinner cruises that fill up before the rest.
The sailings more travellers take than any others, from a jetty in Ortakoy to a dock on the Mississippi. What each costs, and what you actually get for it.
01The Bosphorus nightBosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private TableTwo continents, a set menu and a folk troupe, boarding at Ortakoy. The one first-time visitors to Istanbul book first.
02Paris on the waterSeine River Panoramic Views Dinner CruiseA glass-roofed boat past the Louvre and the tower, with the courses timed to the bridges rather than the kitchen.
03Under steamNew Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner OptionA paddlewheeler on the Mississippi, a live jazz trio on the deck and a Creole kitchen below it.
04Dubai after darkSunset or Dinner Cruise with Live Music & Open BarMarina towers from the rail, an open bar the whole sailing and a buffet that keeps going until the boat docks.
Six ports where dinner on the water is the evening.
A strait between two continents, a river under thirty-seven bridges, the Nile after dark, a temple lit from the bank of the Chao Phraya, a marina built entirely for the view, and a parliament floodlit on the Danube.
America eats afloat on three kinds of boat.
Dinner sailings run out of more American ports than anywhere else, and they divide cleanly. A jazz paddlewheeler on a working river, a bay cruise timed for the light, or a white-tablecloth night in a harbour. There is a cheaper midday version of nearly all of them.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner Option
The white-tablecloth nightPlated courses, a window table, a jacket on the chair.
Golden hour on the bayBoard at six and eat while the skyline turns orange.
Harbour and skylineTwo hours out and back, the city doing the work.
The midday versionSame boat, same water, roughly half the fare.
All 137 American dinner cruises →
The dinner cruises travellers keep choosing.
Every dinner cruise we have reviewed →The sailings with more travellers behind them than anything else afloat, and what earns each one its place.
1
Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table
Cruise Istanbul’s Bosphorus aboard a Mega Lüfer yacht for three hours of dinner, music, Turkish folk dance, flamenco, belly dance, and DJ sets. You’ll pass Dolmabahçe Palace, Ortaköy Mosque, bridges, fortresses, and Maiden’s Tower. Choose hotel transfers, window seating, VIP seating, or drinks packages when booking.
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
On a lot of these boats the floor show is the reason people come.
A tanoura skirt spinning under the Nile bridges, a folk troupe between the mezze and the main on the Bosphorus, a jazz trio on a Mississippi paddlewheeler, a DJ and an open bar off Dubai Marina. The meal buys you the seat. The stage is what you remember.
Paris put dinner on the river first and still runs it best.
The bateaux have worked the Seine since the fifties and the format has barely moved: a glass roof, a set menu with a pairing, and a loop that puts dessert under the tower. The window seat is decided by fare class, not by turning up early, so choose it when you book or take the aisle.
Every Paris dinner cruise →
Egypt runs the cheapest great night on the water.
A Nile dinner boat leaving Zamalek or Giza costs less than a taxi across Cairo: two hours out, an open buffet, a tanoura dancer and a belly-dance set, for $15 to $30 a head. What separates them is the boat itself, whether the buffet stays open the whole sailing, and whether the promised hotel pickup actually arrives.
- 1Dinner Cruise on the Nile River with Entertainmentfrom $25
- 2Nile Sunset Dinner Cruise, Show & Optional Transferfrom $33
- 3Nile Dinner Cruise with Belly Dancer Show with Pickupfrom $25
What a night on the water actually costs.
Every priced sailing, grouped by the fare per head. Almost the whole gap between the bands is food and drink, not the boat.
Nile buffets out of Cairo, rice-barge dinners on the Chao Phraya and the short harbour loops.
The standard evening: a set menu, a drink included, two to three hours on the water.
Gourmet sailings on the Seine, private charters and the fireworks decks on New Year.
Four dinner cruises that will not wait for you.
Most sailings can be booked from a hotel lobby the same afternoon. These four run on fixed departures, allocated tables and a calendar that filled months ago.
- 01NYC: New Year’s Eve Buffet Dinner Fireworks Harbor CruiseOne sailing a year, sold out months ahead, and the fare runs to several times the ordinary night.
- 02Bateaux Parisiens Seine River Gourmet Dinner & Sightseeing CruiseWindow tables are allocated by fare class in booking order. The late booking eats in the aisle.
- 03Seine Dinner Cruise, Eiffel Tower Access and Moulin Rouge ShowBoat and show run to one timetable. Miss the sailing and the show ticket goes with it.
- 04New Orleans Steamboat Natchez Jazz Cruise with Dinner OptionThe steamboat leaves on the dock clock and boarding closes half an hour before it.
Three things that only happen at dinner on a boat.
Restaurants with a view are everywhere. A dining room that changes continent between courses, a skirt dance turning under the Nile bridges and a tower that sparkles on cue are not.
Two Continents Between Courses
The Bosphorus boats push off the European bank around eight and turn under the first bridge with the mezze still going out. By the main course the lit hills to starboard are Asia and the ones behind you are Europe, and the strait is narrow enough that both banks stay in the window the whole way. The turn at Rumeli Hisari is the photograph everybody takes. No other dining room crosses a continent while you eat.
- 1Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Show with Private Table★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 62,058 reviews
- 2Bosphorus Dinner Cruise & Turkish Night Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 12,954 reviews
- 3Bosphorus Cruise with Dinner Show★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 2,181 reviews
The Tanoura Spin
Cairo dinner boats carry a tanoura dancer, a descendant of the Sufi sema, in a weighted skirt lit from inside. He turns for a quarter of an hour without stopping, unhooks the outer skirt mid-spin and holds it over his head like a wheel. A belly-dance set follows, the buffet stays open the whole sailing, and the boat rarely goes further than the bridges, which is not the point.
- 1Dinner Cruise on the Nile River with Entertainment★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 2,190 reviews
- 2Nile Sunset Dinner Cruise, Show & Optional Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 2,184 reviews
- 3Nile Dinner Cruise with Belly Dancer Show with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 835 reviews
The Tower Does Its Thing
On the hour the Eiffel Tower runs five minutes of strobe over the steady gold, and the Seine boats build the loop around it. The good operators are in the pool beneath the tower at the top of the hour with dessert going out. The rest are somewhere near the Louvre, and you find out which yours is from the deck.
- 1Seine River Panoramic Views Dinner Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 10,611 reviews
- 23-Course-Dinner Cruise on the Seine with live music★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 7,248 reviews
- 3Bateaux Parisiens Seine River Gourmet Dinner & Sightseeing Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 6,930 reviews
The sunset sailing is the one that goes first in summer.
Board at six, eat while the light goes, dock in the dark. It costs a little more than the late sitting on the same boat with the same menu, and in Santorini, Cabo and Key West it is the only sitting worth having. In July and August take the earlier departure: the sun sets late and the last boat misses it entirely.
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