Your day-to-day transportation depends a lot on where you happen to call home.
Just like New Yorkers walk almost everywhere, people who live in Venice or the Greek Islands often find that it's quicker to go by water than by land.
DON'T MISS: Airline Unveils Ultra-Luxury Cabins That Are Basically An In-Air Home
With this in mind, Uber (UBER) recently announced that it would launch its first chartered boat service on the Greek island of Mykonos. Dubbed Uber Boat, the latest branch of the popular ride-hailing platform is aimed at tourists looking to organize water rides for up to eight people. It works similarly to hailing a ride but is limited to popular tourist destinations near a harbor.
Uber
First Uber Boat Ride Reviews Are in
While designed primarily for cruising and sightseeing, the new Uber Boat service is meant to test the market for potential future expansion to regular transportation to cities where it's easy to move around the water. Uber briefly tested the "Boat to Work" concept in San Francisco amid a metro worker strike in 2013 and, in 2020, put the "Uber Boat" name on the long-running Thames Clippers River Bus service in London.
Mykonos is the first large-scale Uber Boat market and, earlier this month, the first journalists were offered the chance to test it out. To book a ride, the customer logs into the app, picks between a speedboat and plan out a route between 20-plus pick-up points at least 45 minutes in advance since getting the boat ready takes more time than driving up with a car.
"Much like Uber's options on four wheels, Uber Boat pricing is presented up front and based on the time of booking and distance," wrote Christine Burroni of Travel + Leisure. "Scheduling multiple stops and splitting fares with friends is also possible."
"We got the boat from the beach to a restaurant," writes Time Out reporter Agnes Sali. "To start with it was quite slow, letting us look around and enjoy the views. Then the skipper put some speed into it."
Uber Looks at More VIP Experiences, Boat Service Destinations
For regular Mykonos visitors and residents, the Uber Boat service will launch in the coming days. To keep it running, Uber has partnered with local Greek boating companies that will also continue to offer similar services directly.
The idea behind Uber Boat in Mykonos is to both make it easier for customers to book a chartered ride while also creating a "VIP-style" vibe that makes it attractive as an experience rather than only transportation. Expect to spend a few hundred euros for a 30-minute ride.
Uber's General Manager for Greece Sarita Varouch told Travel + Leisure that they are looking to soon launch the service in other places along the Mediterranean and Balearic Seas.
Throughout the last two years, Uber has been working to expand its branch of premium services. Uber Comfort, which charges more for guaranteeing customers more spacious high-end cars and drivers with better ratings, launched in March 2022 and has recently been brought to popular tourist hotspots such as Santorini, Malta, Sicily and Sardinia.
"Uber Boat gives you the ability to plan a day on the water," Varouch said when announcing the Mykonos expansion last May. "You can even see reservation details right in the app, making it an ideal way to visit Mykonos and tour around the island."
