Savannah Riverboat Cruise Prices and Ticket Costs Explained

Savannah's riverboat tickets span a wider range than most visitors expect. The cheapest narrated harbor sail on this site's roster costs from $41.82 per person, while a whole-boat private sunset charter runs to $1,195 for up to 35 passengers (checked September 2026). That spread is why pricing questions dominate the planning stage: the same dock on East River Street sells a $42 sightseeing cruise and a $92.52 dinner cruise, and the difference between them is not just the food, it is the format, the boat, the duration and what is included.

This guide lays out every price on the roster, category by category, using only figures verified on each operator's live listing. It also separates the two pricing bases that trip people up most: per-person tickets, which describe nearly every cruise here, and per-group pricing, which applies to one of the two private charters. If you are still deciding which type of cruise fits your trip at all, start with the broader Savannah river cruise guide and come back here for the numbers. Everything on Savannah River Cruises is priced from the same verified roster, so the figures here match what the booking cards show.

What do Savannah riverboat cruise tickets actually cost?

The core sightseeing product costs from $42 per person (checked September 2026) for the flagship narrated harbor cruise, or from $41.82 for the 90-minute alternative with the largest review base on this site, and both run about 1.5 hours from the same dock at 9 East River Street (checked September 2026). That is the floor price for getting out on the Savannah River with narration.

The flagship narrated harbor cruise, operated by Savannah Riverboat Cruises, carries a 4.3-star rating across 1,325 reviews and departs directly from 9 East River Street, steps from the riverfront restaurants and hotels, with no shuttle and no remote parking lot. Free cancellation runs up to 24 hours before departure. The near-identical 90-minute sightseeing cruise from the same operator and dock costs from $41.82 per person and holds the biggest review base anywhere on this site at 3,601 reviews with a 4.0-star rating (checked September 2026). Between the two, the decision is less about price, which differs by pennies, and more about scheduling and which sailing fits your day.

Brunch changes the math. The Sunday brunch sightseeing cruise costs from $77 per person (checked September 2026) and includes a Southern buffet: fried chicken, shrimp and grits, ham, quiche, salads and desserts, over the same 1.5-hour narrated format. It carries a 4.4-star rating from 136 reviews, includes free cancellation, and often shows a likely-to-sell-out flag on the live listing (checked September 2026). A second Sunday brunch product from the same family, with iced tea, lemonade, soft drinks and coffee included, runs from $77.09 with a 4.0-star rating from 166 reviews (checked September 2026).

The Sunday brunch cruise is the strongest value play in this category when a midday meal matters to your group: it bundles the buffet and the narration for roughly $35 (checked September 2026) more than the bare sightseeing sail. If you are weighing it against the other food-led formats, the Savannah lunch cruise guide covers the narrated harbor luncheon format in detail.

How much does a Savannah dinner cruise cost?

Dinner cruise tickets cost from $92.52 per person (checked September 2026) for the standard buffet dinner cruise with live entertainment, or from $77 to $77.09 for the gospel dinner format, and both run 2 hours with the standard sailing boarding at 6pm, departing at 7pm and returning at 9pm (checked September 2026). The gospel cruises carry the highest ratings on the dinner side, at 4.8 stars.

The flagship buffet dinner cruise with live entertainment costs from $92.52 per person, holds a 4.2-star rating across 1,117 reviews, includes free cancellation, and often sells out (checked September 2026). The menu is a Southern buffet: shrimp and grits, a beef carving station, catch of the day, chicken, vegetables, salads and dessert. A second, identically priced dinner cruise product from the same operator runs the same buffet format at from $92.52 with a 4.0-star rating from 998 reviews (checked September 2026). It sails Sunday through Friday.

The gospel dinner cruises undercut both. The Monday gospel dinner cruise costs from $77 per person for a Southern buffet of fried chicken, pulled pork, barbecue, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes, greens, coleslaw, biscuits and dessert, with live gospel music, and it carries a 4.8-star rating from 103 reviews with free cancellation (checked September 2026). The operator describes it as one of its most popular, fastest-selling cruises, sailing April through October plus select December holiday dates aboard the Georgia Queen. Its sibling gospel product runs from $77.09 with the same 4.8-star rating from 128 reviews (checked September 2026).

There is a real $15 gap between the standard dinner and the gospel dinner, and it is not a quality gap: the gospel sailings rate higher. If live gospel music and a Southern buffet appeal more than the entertainment cruise's broader show, the gospel option is the cheaper and better-reviewed ticket. For what the buffet actually holds and what to wear aboard, see the dedicated Savannah dinner cruise guide.

What do sunset and dolphin cruises cost in Savannah?

Sunset riverboat cruises cost from $55.05 per person (checked September 2026) for either sunset product on the roster, while dolphin eco tours range from $47 per person for the standard eco tour up to $88 for the small-boat sunset dolphin tour, and the long Tybee Island excursion runs from $79.18 for a 5 to 6 hour day (checked September 2026). Dolphin tours vary more in price than any other category.

The flagship sunset riverboat cruise costs from $55.05 per person with a 4.3-star rating from 800 reviews and free cancellation (checked September 2026). A second sunset product at the identical from $55.05 price runs 2 hours aboard a boat carrying up to 200 travelers, rated 4.0 stars from 562 reviews (checked September 2026). Timing matters more than price here: real 2026 Savannah sunsets run from about 5:31pm in early January to a July peak near 8:34pm, so the same ticket buys very different evenings by season.

Dolphin watching splits by operator and dock. The Savannah Dolphin Eco Tour, departing River Street Landing in front of Spanky's, costs from $47 per person, rates 4.7 stars from 188 reviews, includes free cancellation and often sells out (checked September 2026). Its sunset-timed sibling from the same dock costs from $53 with a 4.8-star rating from 63 reviews (checked September 2026). Two smaller-boat products depart a different dock at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa: a 2-hour sunset dolphin eco tour at from $88 per person rated 4.7 stars from 20 reviews, and a coastal dolphin eco tour at from $77 rated 4.7 stars from a thin sample of 14 reviews, both capped at 13 travelers per sailing (checked September 2026). That 13-passenger cap is real capacity, not marketing urgency, and it is the reason those two sailings feel like a different product despite the higher price.

The outlier in that table deserves its own sentence: the Savannah to Tybee Island dolphin cruise is the single highest-rated, most-reviewed product on this entire site at 5.0 stars across 1,574 reviews, and at from $79.18 it undercuts the small-boat dolphin tours while including hotel pickup in the Historic District, lunch and a dolphin cruise through Tybee's waterways (checked September 2026). It departs 301 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd rather than the riverfront, a detail worth knowing before you book. The Savannah dolphin cruise guide covers sighting timing and the law on viewing distances.

What do Savannah combo tours cost, and are they worth the bundle price?

Savannah combo tours cost from $78 to $81.32 per person (checked September 2026) across the four products on the roster, with the two top combos both priced at $81.32 for a trolley tour plus a riverboat cruise, and the two cheaper alternatives at $78 and $78.39 carrying noticeably weaker ratings (checked September 2026). The bundle saves money only if you want both halves.

The land-and-sea combo tour, run by Savannah Riverboat Cruises from the Savannah Visitors Center at 301 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, costs from $81.32 per person, rates 4.4 stars from 590 reviews, includes free cancellation and often sells out (checked September 2026). Its twin, the river cruise plus hop-on-hop-off trolley product, prices identically at $81.32, runs about 5 hours with up to 100 travelers, and carries the stronger 4.5-star rating from 2,161 reviews with free cancellation (checked September 2026). For a first visit, that second product is the one to beat: the hop-on-hop-off trolley leg lets you set your own pace on land between the cruise legs.

The two cheaper combos are honest bargains with a caveat. The historic trolley tour and riverboat cruise, departing 215 W Boundary St, costs from $78.39 but holds the weakest rating on this site at 3.5 stars from 36 reviews (checked September 2026). The harbor cruise and historic trolley combo, which pairs Savannah Harbor Cruises' boat leg with a Historic Tours of America trolley leg from 217 W Boundary St, costs from $78 with a 3.8-star rating from a thin 12-review sample (checked September 2026). Both include free cancellation. Saving a few dollars against the 4.5-star twin is a poor trade unless the departure point or schedule fits your day better.

If you are comparing a combo against booking a cruise and a trolley separately, the math is straightforward: the flagship sightseeing cruise at from $42 (checked September 2026) plus a standalone trolley tour can approach or exceed the $81.32 bundle price, which is exactly the value case for the combo. If you only want the boat, skip the bundle entirely and put the difference toward a brunch or dinner sailing instead.

What do port tours and private charters cost in Savannah?

Port tours cost from $53 per person (checked September 2026) for the cruise port tour and from $70 for the 90-minute informational port tour with food and beverages included, while the two private charters split their pricing basis: $1,195 buys the whole 35-passenger boat, but the 14-passenger sunset cruise sells per person at from $45 (checked September 2026). Reading the per-group price as a per-person price is the most common booking mistake here.

The port tours are niche products with small review bases, and the honest framing is that both are rated well but lightly reviewed. The cruise port tour costs from $53 per person with a 4.5-star rating from just 10 reviews and free cancellation (checked September 2026). The 90-minute informational port tour costs from $70 per person, includes food and beverages, departs either 300 West River Street or the Westin Savannah lobby, and rates a perfect 5.0 stars from 21 reviews with free cancellation (checked September 2026). For a visitor curious about the working container port, the upriver narration on the standard sightseeing cruise covers a lot of the same ground for less money, but the dedicated port tours go deeper.

The private charters, both operated by Island Head Savannah from the Savannah Convention Center parking lot across from the marina, are priced on completely different bases. The 35-passenger private sunset cruise costs from $1,195, (checked September 2026) and that figure is for the whole boat, not per person: split across a full 35 guests it works out to roughly $34 each, which is cheaper than any public ticket on this page, but a couple booking it alone pays the full amount (checked September 2026). It includes food and beverages, runs 2 hours, offers free cancellation, and is a new listing as of September 2026 with no reviews yet, which is worth knowing rather than a red flag. The 14-passenger private sunset cruise sells per person at from $45, includes food and drinks over the same 2 hours, and rates 5.0 stars from a very small sample of 1 review (checked September 2026).

For groups, the per-group charter is the only product on this site where the effective per-person price drops as your headcount rises. A party of 12 on the 14-passenger charter pays from $45 each (checked September 2026), while the same party on the 35-passenger boat would pay the full $1,195 unless they filled it. That arithmetic, not the sticker price, is what makes one charter right for a family and the other right for a wedding party.

What is the cheapest Savannah riverboat cruise in each category?

The cheapest sightseeing cruise is the 90-minute riverboat sightseeing cruise at from $41.82 per person (checked September 2026), the cheapest dinner cruise is the Monday gospel dinner cruise at from $77, the cheapest sunset cruise is either sunset product at from $55.05, the cheapest dolphin tour is the standard eco tour at from $47, and the cheapest combo is the harbor cruise and trolley combo at from $78 (all checked September 2026). Cheapest is not always best-reviewed.

Two patterns stand out. In the brunch, dinner and sunset categories the cheapest ticket is also the best or equal-best reviewed, so there is no quality penalty for saving money there. In the combo and port categories the opposite holds: the cheapest products carry the weakest ratings, and paying a little more for the 4.5-star combo is the better buy. The dolphin category is a third pattern entirely, where the cheapest tour is excellent but a longer, pricier excursion rates a perfect 5.0.

How do Savannah riverboat cruise prices compare with other harbor cities?

Savannah's riverboat cruise prices sit at or slightly below the comparable Charleston, South Carolina benchmarks: Charleston's 90-minute to 2-hour narrated harbor cruises run $40 to $65 per adult (checked September 2026), its 2-hour sunset sails about $65 to $66, and its dinner cruises $72 for a buffet to about $100 for a plated three-course meal. Savannah's $41.82 sightseeing floor, $55.05 sunset and $77 gospel dinner all land inside or under those bands.

That comparison matters because Charleston is the most common alternative destination in coastal Georgia and South Carolina travel planning, and its cruise market is the closest like-for-like benchmark. Savannah's standard $92.52 (checked September 2026) dinner cruise prices above Charleston's $72 buffet option but below its plated $88 to $100 tier, which tracks with the format: the Savannah product is an entertainment-led buffet, not a plated service. On sightseeing, the two cities are effectively tied at the entry level.

The demand backdrop explains the sell-out behavior you will see on several listings. With roughly 12.9 million visitors hitting the Savannah area in 2025 and the riverboats departing from a single downtown dock, the food-led sailings, brunch, gospel dinner and the entertainment dinner cruise, are the ones that fill first. Booking the cheap sightseeing sail a day ahead is usually safe; booking a Sunday brunch two days out is a gamble.

How can you save money on Savannah riverboat cruise tickets?

The reliable ways to save are picking the gospel dinner over the standard dinner cruise for a $15 per person (checked September 2026) difference, choosing the 90-minute sightseeing cruise over the flagship for near-identical money, splitting the 35-passenger charter across a large group to bring the effective rate to about $34 per person, and booking early on the sell-out-prone listings rather than chasing discounts (checked September 2026). There is no published seasonal discount schedule for these cruises.

A few practical notes on where the money goes. Free cancellation is the norm on this roster, so booking early costs nothing on most products and protects you against the sell-out flags on the brunch, dolphin eco, entertainment dinner and land-and-sea listings. The two pricing bases stay the trap to watch: confirm whether a figure is per person or per group before comparing, especially on the charters. And if your budget only stretches to one sailing, the data in the table above points one direction: the categories where cheap equals highly rated, brunch, dinner and sunset, are where a tight budget loses nothing.

Savannah riverboat cruise tickets span from $41.82 per person for a 90-minute sightseeing sail to $1,195 for a whole 35-passenger private boat, with most categories landing between $47 and $92.52 per person (checked September 2026). The questions below cover the figures visitors ask about most, including the per-person versus per-group distinction on the charters.

Common questions about Savannah riverboat cruise prices