Boat trips with kids on Fuerteventura: what is the minimum age?

Parents booking a boat trip are usually looking for a number. From three? From six? That number does not exist. On Fuerteventura every operator sets its own limit, and what applies is written on the individual booking page. There is no island-wide rule.

Among the trips on the water, only three offers state an age limit at all. For the jet ski circuit in Caleta de Fuste, the operator writes that anyone over 18 with an ID can take part. Two catamaran trips to Lobos Island carry their limit in the title: the day trip from Corralejo (€85, 4 hours) and the sunset cruise (€60, 2.5 hours) are both “adults only” — which rules them out for families before the question of the children’s age even arises. For the remaining trips nothing of the sort appears: not for the Lobos ferry, not for the speedboat, not for the glass-bottom boat, not for the dolphin trip from Morro Jable and not for the catamaran trip with food. So read the page, and if it says nothing, ask before you book. Anyone who gives you a general age limit for Fuerteventura has invented it.

Duration matters more than age

The more useful question is a different one anyway: how long will your child last on a boat they cannot get off?

The range is wide. The ferry to Isla de Lobos from Corralejo costs €17, the speedboat on the same route €16 and takes 15 minutes. Dolphin and whale watching from Morro Jable lasts 2 hours and costs €49. The glass-bottom boat cruise with lunch and drinks (€75) and the catamaran trip with food and drinks (€79) are 4 hours each, half a day on the water. The jet ski from Morro Jable costs €80 and lasts 30 minutes.

Fifteen minutes, two hours and four hours are three different undertakings, even if the same words sit above all three. On the Lobos crossing the boat is only the transport, the island is the destination, and once there you set your own pace. On the four-hour catamaran trip the boat is the destination. If your child has had enough after forty minutes, three hours and twenty remain.

The youngest travellers work by different standards. What is possible with a baby and what is not is covered in Fuerteventura with a baby; the two-to-five age group is dealt with in Fuerteventura with a toddler. And everything the island offers away from the water is in Fuerteventura with kids.

Lobos is the smallest dose

For a first attempt, the Corralejo–Lobos route has a lot going for it. It is short, it is cheap, and it is well rated: 4.7 stars from 3,521 reviews for the ferry, 4.8 from 1,928 for the speedboat. If the mood on board collapses, the whole thing is over in a quarter of an hour, and you are standing on an island rather than on a deck.

One thing to know: Lobos is a nature park, and access requires a permit. The permit from lobospass.com is free, it is issued to a named person, every child needs one of their own in their own name, and it is valid for a time slot, morning or afternoon. Your ferry time has to match it. Some tickets already include the park entry; when booking, check whether the permit comes with it or whether you have to apply yourself. There is no supermarket on the island and almost no shade. Water, hats and sun protection come with you.

When a speedboat is the wrong choice

A speedboat is not a small ferry. It runs on the plane, and in a swell the hull slams down. Every one of those impacts travels through the backs of the people sitting on it. For a school-age child who finds exactly that great fun, the 15 minutes to Lobos are the highlight of the week. For a small child who cannot make sense of what is happening, they are fifteen minutes of fright. The same route is available more slowly on the ferry, for one euro more.

For the jet ski, what stands above applies: only someone old enough may ride. Whether a child may sit behind is a question for the operator and not one to guess at.

What the Atlantic does here

Fuerteventura sits in the trade winds. The wind comes from the same corner almost all year, north to north-east, and that splits the island into two seas. The west side, with Cofete, La Pared, Ajuy and the coast near El Cotillo, lies open to the Atlantic. The swell rolls in unchecked there, that is where people surf, and not a single family boat trip departs from there. All departures are on the east and south: Corralejo, Caleta de Fuste, Costa Calma, Morro Jable. That is not coincidence, it is shelter from the wind.

Off Morro Jable and the Jandía peninsula the sea is considered particularly calm, which is exactly why the trips to whales and dolphins are based there. Between Corralejo and Lobos lies the El Río strait, shallow and clear. On a still day you barely notice you are moving; in wind the same quarter of an hour can turn unpleasant. Along many stretches of coast the wind only picks up as the morning goes on. If you have the choice, take the early departure.

Seasickness

It happens, to children too, and on short crossings too. What actually helps is not much, but it costs nothing: a seat amidships rather than right at the front or right at the back, outside rather than in the cabin, eyes on the horizon rather than on a phone or on the water just beside the hull. Fresh air. And the earlier departure, while the sea is still flatter.

Nothing here is said about medication, neither which nor how much. That belongs in a pharmacy or with your paediatrician, and ideally before the holiday rather than the evening before the trip.

The questions to ask before booking

The things no offer description states reliably, and which matter more to families than the star rating:

• From what age do children come along, and do they pay a separate price?
• Is there shade on board, and shade for all guests rather than for the first ten?
• Is there a toilet? Over four hours that is not a side issue.
• Are there life jackets in children’s sizes on board?
• Is the swim stop compulsory or optional? The dolphin trip and the catamaran trip both have one, and with snorkelling a lot depends on whether your child wants to go into open water or only watch.
• What happens if there is too much wind: cancellation, postponement, refund?

None of this is owed to you simply because it is customary. Better to ask once too often, because then you have the operator’s answer in writing.

When you are better off not going

If the child is ill, if they have slept badly, if they are afraid of deep water: no boat trip improves any of that, and three out of four hours on the water cannot be cut short. The day’s plan can argue against it too. Corralejo to Morro Jable is a good 110 kilometres and, depending on the route, one and a half to two hours of driving. A two-hour dolphin trip in the south is, from the north, a whole day with two long car journeys around it. It is doable, but you want to know that beforehand rather than realise it on the FV-2 in the evening.

One more honest point: dolphins are wild, and no trip guarantees a sighting. Dolphin and whale watching from Morro Jable is, with 5,142 reviews, the most reviewed boat trip on the island, and at 4.2 stars it also has the weakest score of all the trips named here. That is typical of wildlife trips: people who see nothing rate lower. It can turn out the same way for you, and a child who was promised dolphins beforehand forgives that less easily than one who was promised a boat trip.