Boat hire in Palma: no-licence rentals are over, skippered boats are not

The rules for boat rental in Palma de Mallorca changed on 1 October 2026, and plenty of websites have not caught up. You now need a nautical qualification to rent any motor boat in Spain, including the small 5-metre, 15 hp boats that used to be hired out "licence-free". Here is what legal options you have left, what they cost and where they leave from, so you do not pay for a booking the harbour then will not let you use.

Boat hire in Mallorca with no licence: what has changed

Until then, any adult could rent a boat of up to 5 metres and 15 hp with no paperwork: two hours out of Can Pastilla or S'Arenal, a cove, and back.

Real Decreto 1188/2025 rewrote that exemption. The new wording, in force since that date, only lets you skipper those boats without a qualification for private use, meaning the boat is yours. And the decree spells it out: when a boat is rented, the person renting it must hold the relevant qualification. You can read it in the BOE, Spain's official gazette: https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rd/2025/12/26/1188/dof/spa/html

What still needs no qualification are "beach craft": pedal boats, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards. They have limits too: no more than 2 nautical miles from where you set off, daytime only, and you must be 18 or over.

The Balearic rules on top

The Balearic government also has its own boat rental decree (Decreto 44/2025). In practice, this is how it affects you:

• Only boats registered as commercial can be rented out. A privately owned boat cannot be rented to tourists.
• Adverts must show a Balearic registration number. If you cannot see one, ask.
• If you rent without crew, the company has to check your qualification. If it comes with a skipper, the skipper must hold a professional qualification.
• The company must tell you that anchoring on posidonia is banned and which protected areas are off-limits for anchoring.

Put simply: "a friend's boat" paid for in cash is illegal in the Balearics.

Your three legal options without a licence

With no qualification and no wish to spend a day at a sailing school, the answer is a boat with a skipper. If there are only two of you, also look at shared boat trips: they work out far cheaper per person.

Skippered boat hire in Palma: real prices

The most Mallorcan option is the llaüt: the traditional wooden Balearic boat, once used for fishing and carrying cargo. It is slow and stable and has a shaded deck, so it works well with children and with anyone prone to seasickness. It is not for those after speed.

These are examples of llaüts and sailing boats with a skipper around Palma:

• Llaüt from the Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP): €590 per group, maximum 5 people, 5 hours. Includes a snack and three drinks per person, snorkelling gear and a SUP board. Route Cala Major → Illetes → the Punta Negra coast. Meeting point: the San Telmo chapel by the club entrance. Free cancellation up to 48 h before.
• Llaüt in Can Pastilla: half a day (10:00–14:00 or 16:00–20:00) at €690 per boat, up to 9 people, with skipper, fuel, insurance, VAT, Mallorcan nibbles and drinks included.
• Private llaüts in the bay: from €550 for 4–5 hours, with drinks, snorkelling and cured meats with pa amb tomàquet (bread rubbed with tomato). Watch out: in that advert the skipper's fee is listed separately.
• Private sailing boats from Club de Mar: boats for 7 to 12 people for a half day, full day or sunset, with skipper, fuel and SUP. Paella with an open bar costs extra, €25 to €40 per person depending on the time slot.

On the booking platforms, private skippered boats around Palma start from €295 (2.5 to 6 hours, with drinks, snorkelling and SUP) and go up to €790 for the most exclusive sailing yachts. The best rated right now:

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See everything on GetYourGuide →Prices checked on 6 October 2026

What to ask before you pay

Every advert presents its price differently. Before booking, check:

1. Price per boat or per person? Nearly all private trips are priced per boat, but extras (paella, cocktails) are per person.
2. Fuel included? On skippered llaüts it usually is; on motor boats where the skipper is hired separately, often not.
3. Skipper included? Some adverts show the boat "from" a price and add the skipper afterwards.
4. Balearic registration number? If there is none, be wary.

Bear in mind that on GetYourGuide the "reserve now, pay later" option charges your card before the activity date, not on the day.

Licencia de Navegación: the one-day licence

If you want to take the helm yourself, the quickest route is the Licencia de Navegación. It is issued by recreational sailing schools and by the sailing and powerboat federations. There is no exam: you do a theory part and a practical part, about 2 hours of theory and 4 of practice in total, which can be done in a single day.

With it you can:

• Skipper leisure boats up to 6 metres, with whatever power the manufacturer allows (more than the old 15 hp).
• Ride jet skis on your own, not only on a guided tour.
• Sail in daylight only and no more than 2 miles from a harbour or shelter.

Minimum age: 18, or 16 with parental consent. The legal basis is Real Decreto 875/2014: https://www.boe.es/eli/es/rd/2014/10/10/875/con

If you hold a qualification from another country, get the rental company to confirm in writing that it is accepted before you pay: Spain recognises some foreign qualifications, but do not take anything for granted.

What rental costs once you have a licence

The small motor boat market is still there, but now only for people with a qualification. Before the change, small boats in Palma on Click&Boat started from €185 a day, averaging about €352; of 121 boats listed, only 9 included fuel. An example from Can Pastilla: a boat for 6 people from €270 for 4 hours, with a €500 deposit, fuel extra (€20 for 4 h, €30 for 8 h) and €20 for cleaning.

Where boats leave from in Palma

• Real Club Náutico de Palma (RCNP): at the western end of the Paseo Marítimo. Skippered llaüts leave from here; you meet at the San Telmo chapel.
• Club de Mar: on Muelle Pelaires, on the western side of the port. Home to many private sailing boats and yachts. It is the closest marina to Illetes and Portals Vells.
• Can Pastilla: to the east, next to Playa de Palma. Llaüts, motor boats and kayak hire. It is close to Cala Blava and Cap Enderrocat: less time at sea getting there, more time in the water.
• S'Arenal: the far end of Playa de Palma, already in Llucmajor. Private skippered boats such as those of Sa Calma Boats and the Life & Sea trips leave from here.

Posidonia and anchoring: the fine nobody tells you about

Posidonia is a protected seagrass that forms meadows on the floor of the bay. In the Balearics anchoring on posidonia is banned (Decreto 25/2018). Fines follow Ley 42/2007: €100 to €3,000 for minor offences, €3,001 to €200,000 for serious ones and more for very serious ones, depending on how many metres of meadow are damaged. Patrols tend to make you move the boat before fining you, but the scale is real.

How to avoid it:

• Before setting off, check the Balearic government's official posidonia viewer: https://ideib.caib.es/posidonia/ and look for patches of sand.
• At Cala Blava there is a field of 24 mooring buoys (Cap Blanc–Cala Blava). Inside a buoy field you cannot drop anchor: you tie up to a buoy.
• Buoys are booked on the day at https://reservas.portsib.es/reservas/es/buoy-fields/ . Half a day costs €3.93 for an 8 m boat and €9.08 for a 12 m one.

If you go with a skipper, they handle all of this.

Kayak, paddleboard and pedal boat: what you can hire with no paperwork

If what you want is time on the water without spending much, paddle. In Can Pastilla, El Niño Surf Center rents SUP boards at €15 an hour (€45 a day) and kayaks at €15 an hour (€25 for a double). On Playa de Palma, paddleboard hire starts from €15 an hour on the booking platforms.

The beach-craft rules apply: daytime, within 2 miles and aged 18 or over. Spots, prices and routes are in the guide to parasailing, paddleboarding and kayaking.

Were you really after speed? Jet skis have their own rules: no licence only on a guided tour or in a buoyed circuit. I explain it in the guide to jet skis and speedboats.

What about Cabrera or dolphins by private boat?

To enter the waters of Cabrera National Park with a private or rented boat you need a navigation permit, free and online: https://intranet.caib.es/rescabfront/?lang=es . Cabrera is a long way from Palma; the usual way is the boats from Colònia de Sant Jordi. More in the Cabrera guide.

If you want to see dolphins, a trip that knows the area and keeps to the legal distances is the better choice: the options are in dolphin watching. And if you want to dive from the boat, start with the guide to diving near Palma.

My recommendation for your group

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