Miami on the Water: Jet Skis, Boat Tours and What They Cost
By Matt Spaulding · August 29, 2026
Photo: Photograph: Radomianin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Miami jet ski ads quote $130 to $155 an hour. What leaves your account depends on three things the ad skips: whether Florida will let you rent one at all, how big a hold the operator puts on your card, and what parking costs at the marina. Prices below come from five operators' own booking pages in August 2026, and they move often.
What an hour on a jet ski costs right now
Ocean Force Adventures, at Miami Beach Marina, sells a jet ski with a guide boat alongside: $155 for an hour, $275 for two, $395 for three, plus $55 per extra passenger, with fuel, insurance and life jackets in the price. Miami Beach Jet Ski looks cheaper at $130 an hour for a single and $180 for a double, with taxes and marina fees added on top. Funwaves advertises a combo from $145 an hour and takes a 30% deposit at booking. At Dinner Key Marina in Coconut Grove, singles are $135 and doubles $165, one-hour minimum, with 250 lb and 350 lb weight limits.
SF Jet Ski Rentals builds the discount into the ad: a one-hour ski plus 30-minute boat combo listed at $199 and sold at $155. Whether $199 was ever charged is not checkable from a booking page. Pickup is at Haulover Marina, DKR Marine or the Kimpton EPIC Hotel downtown.
The rule that stops people at the counter
Two ages apply. Florida sets the minimum age to operate a personal watercraft at 14, but you must be at least 18 to rent one, and a livery cannot knowingly rent to anyone younger. A 16-year-old can legally ride the jet ski you rent, and cannot rent it.
The card is the bigger catch. Anyone born on or after January 1, 1988 must carry a Florida Boating Safety Education ID Card plus photo ID to operate any vessel of 10 horsepower or more, and a rental jet ski counts. Statute 327.395's exemption list has nothing in it for renters. The one exemption that helps is having a card-holding adult aboard who takes responsibility for the vessel. Ride solo, born in 1988 or later, and you need that card before you reach the dock.
An FWC-approved online course gets it: Boat-Ed's Florida course is $54.95 and runs three to four hours, others roughly $35 to $60. Funwaves points customers at a $9.99 Florida Temporary Boating Certificate from boattests101.com instead, about 30 minutes. Since July 1, 2025 every Florida livery also needs a free annual FWC Livery Operator Permit and must give each operator a pre-ride safety briefing recorded on a signed FWC form. That briefing happens before you ride, so leave time for it.
The deposit is the number to ask about first
Operators diverge most here, and hardly any advertise it. The Dinner Key operator collects a refundable $150 security deposit per jet ski at check-in, with up to $500 more assessed for severe damage. Jet Ski On the Go instead puts a $1,000 hold per jet ski on your credit card, released only after safe return and inspection, which its policy page says takes one to three days. It adds that recovery of damages is not limited to that hold. Same machine, same city, and either $150 or $1,000 of your credit limit is tied up all afternoon.
Fuel surcharges, and the fees that are genuinely there
Fuel surcharges are what people warn each other about, and they do not appear on these operators' own pages. Ocean Force includes fuel and insurance, and Jet Ski On the Go delivers the ski full. Miami Water Sports includes fuel on its speedboat tour, then adds tax and a separate marina fee at check-in. The gaps are elsewhere: Miami Beach Jet Ski's $130 excludes taxes and marina fees, Ocean Force's tour pages exclude marina parking and gratuity, extra riders are $55, a GoPro at Dinner Key is $39, and Funwaves wants 30% up front.
A $129 seat, or a $499 boat
Ocean Force's sightseeing tours are two hours in a rigid inflatable capped at six guests. The Ultimate Miami Boat Tour starts at $169 per person shared or $499 private; the Biscayne Bay Speed Boat Tour starts at $129 shared, same $499 private. The arithmetic turns at four: four shared seats at $129 is $516, and the private boat holds six for $499.
Cancellation is the catch. Cancel inside 48 hours on standard terms and you get a 12-month credit voucher instead of your money. A refund up to four hours out exists, but only if you bought roughly $10 of cancellation insurance at booking, and using it costs $6 more in processing. Flexibility is a separate purchase.
The big cruise covers the same water for $35
If you want to look at the bay rather than drive across it, Island Queen's Millionaire's Row cruise is 90 narrated minutes at $35 an adult and $25 a child, from inside Bayside Marketplace on Biscayne Boulevard. A family of four pays $120 against $676 for four shared speedboat seats, on a 74-foot double decker rather than a six-seat inflatable. The catches are on land: swap the emailed voucher for a boarding pass at a Bayside booth 45 minutes before departure, tickets are non-refundable, and all parking at Bayside is paid.
Where you launch, and what that does to your parking
Departures spread across the whole bay: Miami Beach Marina at the south end of South Beach, Haulover past Bal Harbour, Dinner Key in Coconut Grove, and the Island Queen from Bayside downtown. Parking is on you at every one.
Where you sleep is part of the price. South Beach is nearest the Miami Beach Marina departures, though nearly every hotel there is valet only: Loews Miami Beach is $60 a night for valet on top of a $50 resort fee, and Kimpton Angler's is $45 plus tax with no self-park option. Moxy Miami South Beach is one of the few that lets you self-park, at $54 a day. Downtown suits the Bayside cruise and the EPIC pickup: Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay self-parks at $45 a day with no published resort fee, while the EPIC is valet only at $58 plus tax with a $40 amenity fee. Leaving the car in the hotel garage and taking a rideshare usually beats paying to park twice.
Rules that can end a ride early
Three Florida rules catch visitors out. Personal watercraft cannot run from a half hour after sunset to a half hour before sunrise, navigation lights or not, so a sunset ride has a hard stop built in. Every rider wears a Coast Guard-approved non-inflatable life jacket; the inflatable belt-pack kind is banned on a PWC. And the engine cutoff lanyard, where fitted, clips to your body, clothing or life jacket rather than looping over the handlebars.
Price the day as a stack: the advertised hour, plus tax and any marina fee, plus $55 for a third rider where that is charged, plus parking at the launch, plus $150 to $1,000 held on your card until the boat is back and inspected. Born in 1988 or later, add $9.99 to $54.95 for the certificate, and buy it before ride day.
