A family of four looks at the same catamaran and asks two different questions. The parents ask what it costs. The child asks whether they will be let on board at all — and that answer moves by ten years between one boat in Morro Jable and the next one along the same quay.
On Fuerteventura the age is usually written down, and it is written down as a number: two, three, four, seven, eight, ten, twelve, fifteen, sixteen, eighteen. Each of them opens a different kind of day, and none of them is an island-wide rule.
- The whole ladder of published minimum ages, from babies who travel free to the sports that begin at fifteen
- Where a child pays less, and how much less — the gap runs from a fifth off to about half
- The dive format that takes a ten-year-old under water with no tank on their back
- Where the door is shut: the boats, the machines and the courses that take no children at all
- Why weight, height and swimming decide as often as the birthday does
- How long a small child actually lasts on a deck, and what the operators ask you to bring
Every age and every fare below is printed on the operators' own pages, read on 7 September 2026. Where an operator publishes no age, ask that operator — in writing, before you pay.
The ladder, year by year
Read this as a list of doors, not as a regulation. Each figure is one operator's own condition, and the same activity starts at different ages with different schools — kiting at one school, a course for eight-year-olds at another.
| From | What it opens | Where it is written |
|---|---|---|
| Birth | Free passage as a baby — under two, under three or under four, depending on the boat | Catamarans and the Lobos boats |
| 2 years | Child fare on the big Jandía catamarans, on the water taxi and on the Corralejo sunset and cetacean boats | Morro Jable, Corralejo |
| 3 years | Child fare on the ten-guest Lobos catamaran and on the paella catamaran | Corralejo |
| 4 years | Child fare on the electric ferry to Lobos and on the mini-cruise | Corralejo |
| 7 years | Passenger on a jet ski, on a Double, with an adult | Corralejo |
| 8 years | Windsurfing, with a course built for eight- to twelve-year-olds; pool diving | Sotavento, Corralejo |
| 10 years | A first dive in the sea: try dives, and Peter Diving at Lobos | Corralejo, Costa Calma, Morro Jable |
| 12 years | Coastal sea kayaking; scuba courses in the ocean; the twelve-and-over catamaran | Corralejo, Jandía |
| 15 years | Kitesurfing and wing-foiling — with a minimum of 50 kg alongside the age | Sotavento |
| 16 years | The kayak crossing to Lobos and the kayak day trips; driving a jet ski in the south | Corralejo, Morro Jable |
| 18 years | Driving a jet ski in the north and east; skippering a hire boat; the sunset gulet | Corralejo, Caleta de Fuste, Morro Jable |
The boats: where a child pays less, and how much less
You can get onto the water with a child for the price of the crossing alone. The water taxi to Isla de Lobos is €17 for an adult and €10 for a child of two to eleven, with under-twos free: two parents and a six-year-old cross for €44 and then have the islet for the day. The electric ECO ferry charges €17 and €11, but its child fare starts at four rather than two.
Both of those pages also print a Canarian residents' fare — €14 and €9 on the ferry — proved at check-in. It is not your price unless you live here, so do not build a family budget on it.
Half a day on a catamaran costs more and discounts more. The Magic Select out of Morro Jable is €79 for an adult and €40 for a child of two to eleven — close to half — with babies under two free; two adults and an eight-year-old come to €198. The twelve-guest Magic Deluxe asks €99 and €60 on the same terms.
Out of Corralejo the numbers are gentler. The ten-guest Lobos in Catamaran is €65 and €45 for ages three to eleven; the OBY paella catamaran is €69 and €41, its child fare running to twelve and babies free up to three. Two adults, a child of eight and a baby of one pay €179 on the OBY. The five-hour cetacean combo with paella is €75 and €50 for two to eleven, babies under two free.
The gap narrows on the two-hour trip. The two-hour dolphin and whale search is €49 and €39 — only €10 off — and it refuses the youngest outright: babies of nought to two cannot come, for safety reasons the operator states itself. Two adults with children of six and nine pay €176.
Two sunset boats leave at the same hour and divide on exactly this question. The Sunset Deluxe is the family one: €50 an adult, €35 for a child of two to eleven, babies under two free — two adults with children of five and nine come to €170. The Sunset Luxury is the adults-only version at €60. A €55 child rate does sit in that operator's record, but the adults-only setting blocks it, so it is not a price you can buy.
Other boats keep children off altogether. Magic Dreams takes guests of twelve and over, which the operator calls its way of keeping the boat quiet, and the Aphrodite Sunset gulet is eighteen and over. Both sail for the same fleet as the family catamarans, so the alternative is one page away.
Under water: ten, twelve, and one format at six metres
Ten is the age that opens a first dive. The try dive from the boat in Morro Jable bay gives ten as the legal minimum rather than a house rule, and adds a figure worth knowing: twelve metres is the ceiling for a try dive, and two metres for children up to twelve. It costs €105 before the 7 % IGIC.
The same ten appears in the north and in the south-west. The Corralejo morning publishes being at least ten and in good physical health as its only prerequisites, and the Costa Calma half-day, with a hotel transfer both ways, states the same two.
Twelve is the age that opens a course. At the Corralejo centre that dives Lobos, children go into the ocean from twelve: that is the minimum on the SSI Basic Diver and on the four-day Open Water course. Below twelve the same centre keeps a pool-only product, Scuba Explorers, at €70 — so a family can split the day rather than skip it.
Between the two sits the format worth planning a trip around. Peter Diving at Isla de Lobos takes families from ten because the cylinder never leaves the surface: it rides a purpose-built float and feeds air down a hose, which caps the depth at six metres and takes the weight off a child's back. No certification is asked for — you must be able to swim, be healthy and be comfortable in the water.
It also solves the group problem. The instructor goes down with two people at a time while everyone else snorkels or waits on the boat, which is precisely what makes it work across a mixed age range. From €89; the centre's own listing marks it available from July to November, which the activity page does not repeat, so confirm your dates.
No tank at all is the other answer. The guided boat snorkelling out of Morro Jable is €40 a person before the 7 % IGIC, described by the centre as suitable for all ages and designed for families. It publishes no minimum age and asks you to say so at booking if your child is small.
Kayak: twelve along the coast, sixteen across to Lobos
One operator runs both, and the four years between them are the difference between a sheltered morning and an open-water crossing. The coastal kayak and snorkel morning from Corralejo is €50 a person, four hours at an easy pace, from twelve, with wetsuit, buoyancy aid and tuition in the price.
The crossing to Isla de Lobos is a nine-kilometre paddle across a six-hour day, and it is sixteen and over — there is nothing on it for a younger child, and the operator says so plainly. The full-day trips on the west and southeast coasts are sixteen as well, and ask for reasonable physical condition.
Younger than twelve, the answer is a hire rather than an excursion. Kayaks and paddleboards by the hour at Puerto Castillo are €15 for a single kayak, €25 for a double and €15 for a board, in a marina bay that visitors describe as a harbour with no waves. No minimum age or weight limit is published there, so agree it with the marina; a double kayak is the obvious seat for an adult with a child.
In the south the two-hour kayak and snorkel from La Lajita beach publishes no minimum either. Guests have paddled it with a nine- and a ten-year-old, and the operator briefs in six languages. It is €45, or €40.50 booked online.
Jet skis and the wind: this is where the door shuts
A child can ride a jet ski on this island but not drive one. On both Corralejo tours — the forty-minute PowerSafari along the dunes and the ninety-minute loop around Isla de Lobos — the driver must be eighteen with valid ID, while the passenger on a Double may be seven or older, with an adult and with a parent's consent if under eighteen.
The price is per machine, not per person, which is what makes a parent-and-child ride affordable: €85 for one rider and €100 for two on the PowerSafari, against the operator's standard €99 and €119; €145 and €160 on the Lobos loop, against €169 and €189.
In the south the Jandía safari drops the driving age to sixteen, with a parent or guardian's authorisation and their identity document for riders of sixteen to eighteen: €80 per machine for thirty minutes, whether one rides or two, and €149 for the hour. The twenty-minute circuit at Puerto Castillo goes the other way — eighteen to drive, €68 for one or two people.
The wind sports split by discipline rather than by school. At Sotavento windsurfing starts at eight, with a dedicated children's course for eight- to twelve-year-olds on child-sized boards and sails, eight hours for €220. Kiting at the same centre and wing-foiling begin at fifteen and a minimum of 50 kg; younger children are not taken on the kite there at all.
Elsewhere the number is simply absent. The Flag Beach kite course in Corralejo states no minimum age on its page — that is the school's own silence, and it is worth breaking before you pay. Matas Bay says it teaches whatever your age, weight, strength or level and asks for height, weight and age at booking so it can choose the kit, but publishes no figure either.
Fishing: the ticket for the child who only watches
The bottom-fishing morning out of Caleta de Fuste prints two prices for the same four hours: €79 for an angler and €60 for a spectator. That second line is the useful one with a family — a parent fishing and a child watching pay €139 between them rather than €158, on a boat the operator lists for twelve, with a picnic and a drink included.
Corralejo and Morro Jable publish no age rule for fishing at all. The Corralejo captain's review page carries parents who fished with children, one of them with two boys of seven and ten. The Morro Jable operator answers in advice instead: with children aboard the private charter, he writes, it may be better to look for small tunas near the coast and fish the bottom for a few hours than to chase big game. Raise it on WhatsApp when you agree the date.
What decides it is not only the birthday
Weight turns up as a second condition wherever a child has to hold a rig or a machine. The Sotavento kite and wing courses pair fifteen years with 50 kg. The Corralejo jet-ski operator sets no strict maximum but asks Double riders who are both over 100 kg to make contact first, so the right machine is assigned. Matas Bay asks for height, weight and age together — the honest version of the same rule.
Swimming is asked about less often than you would expect, and asked about plainly. Peter Diving wants you able to swim, healthy and comfortable in the water, and nothing else. The Lobos dive centre says you must be able to swim, then adds that it does not matter if you are not a very good swimmer — what matters is feeling comfortable surrounded by water.
The jet-ski operator is stricter in substance than in wording: a life jacket is always worn, but if you go in you have to stay calm and afloat until the guide reaches you. That is a harder test for a seven-year-old passenger than any age on the page, and it is the one to think about honestly.
Then there is the water itself. It runs between about 18 °C in February and March and about 23 °C in September and October, so a wetsuit for a child is worth planning for most of the year — a suggestion, not something any operator publishes. For a swim without a boat, the island's official portal marks the Grandes Playas at Corralejo as calm water, with lifeguards on part of the stretch, and La Concha at El Cotillo as always low swell behind its horseshoe reef, also patrolled.
One beach deserves a warning rather than a recommendation. La Concha on Isla de Lobos — the wide, often sleepy bay ten minutes' walk from the jetty — is listed by the same portal as unpatrolled. Children swim there under your eyes, not a lifeguard's.
How long a small child actually lasts
Duration is the variable you control most cheaply. The short end runs from the twenty-minute jet-ski circuit at Caleta de Fuste to the ten-minute crossing to Lobos by water taxi and the twenty-minute one by ferry, both of which end on a beach rather than on a deck.
The two-hour mini-cruise is the shortest boat trip that still feels like a boat day, and its operator breaks the two hours down itself: fifty minutes stopped at anchor off Playa de la Concha and roughly fifteen minutes of gentle coasting past the village. The rest is getting there and back.
That mini-cruise is also the clearest case of a boat laid out around a mixed family: the stern is the family point with the water slide, the bow is kept adults-only on purpose. It is €30 an adult and €18 for a child of four to eleven, babies of nought to three free — two adults with children of six and nine come to €96.
Above two hours the day becomes a commitment: the catamarans run four hours, the kayak crossing six. The packing list is the operators' own and barely changes between them — sun cream, a cap, swimwear, a towel, flip-flops, comfortable trainers if you are landing on Lobos, and something warm for the way back, because the crossing home is cooler than the crossing out.
Questions that come up before booking
From what age can a child go on a boat trip?
From two on the big Jandía catamarans and the Lobos water taxi; from three on the ten-guest catamaran and the paella catamaran; from four on the ECO ferry and the mini-cruise. Below those ages babies usually travel free — but the dolphin trip takes nobody under two.
From what age can a child dive?
Ten for a try dive, which the Morro Jable centre gives as the legal minimum rather than its own rule. Twelve for a course in the ocean at the Corralejo centre, which teaches from eight in the pool. Peter Diving at Lobos takes families from ten.
Can a child ride a jet ski?
As a passenger on a Double from seven, with an adult and a parent's consent, on both Corralejo tours. Driving is eighteen in Corralejo and Caleta de Fuste, and sixteen in the Jandía south, where riders of sixteen to eighteen need a guardian's authorisation and document.
From what age can a child kitesurf?
At Sotavento, fifteen years and at least 50 kg — the weight counts as much as the age, and younger children are not taken there. The Corralejo and Matas Blancas schools publish no minimum age for the kite at all, so ask them before planning a course around a child.
How much less does a child pay?
Between about a fifth and about half the adult fare, depending on the boat. The narrowest gap is the dolphin trip, €39 against €49; the widest is the Magic Select, €40 against €79. Babies under two or under three are usually carried free.
What if the operator publishes no age at all?
Then there is no answer to read, only one to ask for — in writing, before you pay. That applies to the kite schools in Corralejo and at Matas Blancas, to the fishing captains in Corralejo and Morro Jable, and to the kayak and paddleboard hire at Puerto Castillo.
Ages, child fares, weight limits, prices and included lists: the operators' own pages, read on 7 September 2026. Sea temperature: climatestotravel.com, read on 7 September 2026. Beaches and lifeguard cover: fuerteventuraturismo.es, read on 7 September 2026.
