Chartering a yacht is a wonderful way to see places that are most easily accessible by water.

We booked our first yacht charter in 2010 with friends. It was a short 3-night trip on the Joanna K, a 70-foot motor sailer, in the Saronic Islands, Greece. Since then, we have booked charters to Croatia, Amalfi Coast in Italy, the Balearic Islands in Spain, Corsica, and the Cyclades in Greece.

We learned a lot from these charter bookings, and want to share that knowledge with others who are interested in traveling by sea.

Choosing a Yacht Type and Destination

Our charter trips are now on sailing catamarans exclusively. They range in size depending on the number of people joining us. We landed on sailing catamarans because of the stability, the ample amounts of deck space, and the stateroom space. We have spent nights on monohull liveaboard boats as scuba divers. They have their benefits as they move faster in the water, but are not quite right for us for these charter trips.

Catamarans don’t move as fast as motorized monohull yachts. But when you’re putzing around the islands, you don’t really need to go anywhere fast. We like sailing, but the sleeping quarters on monohull sailboats are much more cramped compared to a catamaran of the same length. Thus, a sailing catamaran quite nicely meets our needs. Besides choosing the destination, choosing the type of yacht for your charter is one of the first decisions you will make.

As for destinations, anywhere in the Mediterranean is a good start. The other option is the Caribbean. We have the British Virgin Islands on our list, but with our group of friends, Europe has been more appealing. If we can’t convince anyone to go with us, Brian and I may end up sailing the British Virgin Islands by ourselves. However, I do believe that these charter trips are better with a group of friends.

Determining the Budget

Many people think that charters are exclusive, expensive, and out of their reach. However, charter prices vary depending on age, size, and type of vessel as well as the destination, crew, and number of travelers. For a ballpark, we travel with a group of 5-7 and can book a nice exclusive crewed charter for a similar price as a high-end or luxury cruise per person.

When considering your budget, keep in mind that there are a few parts to the cost – the yacht charter, the VAT (or other applicable) taxes, the Advance Provisioning Allowance (APA), and any other fees associated with the booking (e.g. credit card fees for using a credit card or wire transfer fees). These are the line items associated with the yacht booking. You will also have to account for your flights, transportation, and travel costs associated with getting to and from the embarkation and debarkation sites.

The APA is for the fuel, marina fees, food and beverage, and any other expenses incurred while you are onboard. If you go with an experienced yacht charter broker, they are usually pretty good at estimating these costs. But remember, these are estimates, so if you overspend, you will need to supplement at the end of the trip. If you underspend, you can use it as tip for the crew or the charter broker will provide you a refund.

And yes, don’t forget to tip the crew.

For How Long and When?

Many charters now are for a minimum of 7 nights, but you can find shorter charters if that better meets your needs. 7 nights is a good length for us. At about 7 nights, we are ready to disembark. Also, we usually combine these trips with a land-based trip either before or after.

In Europe, the yachting destinations have a season, and generally it’s April/May to September/October. End of June to end of August is the most crowded and the most expensive. We’ve discovered that the water is still too cold in May, so now we usually look for a time in September when the air and water temps are still warm and there are fewer tourists.

Finding a Yacht Charter Broker

Once you decide on a destination, type of yacht, budget, number of people traveling, and when, now you need to find a yacht charter broker. We use Endless Blue, and they’ve been great to work with.

When we booked our first Greece charter many years ago, we used a travel agent, Carrie’s Travel Services. Carrie connected us to Endless Blue, and we still use them both when we book these trips, as they are a bit more complicated than booking airline tickets and hotel rooms. Using both a travel agent and a broker gives us peace of mind as well as a point of escalation if any problems arise.

After you provide your specifications for the charter, the yacht charter broker will then provide you with yacht options that meet your needs and budget. Some yachts move around, so they are not always at the same destination year to year. The yacht charter will typically have standard embarkation and debarkation points. If there is a yacht you like, but it doesn’t normally embark where you want to embark, it may be able to be moved for a fee.

You will also need to decide whether your embarkation and debarkation will be the same or different points. If you are planning a trip, start looking as soon as possible after the current season ends (in Europe, it would be around October/November) to get the best selection of available yachts.

Selecting a Yacht and Sign Contract

Once you have a selection of yachts, send them to your fellow travelers to help select the right yacht for your group. Here are a few things that we look for:

• Staff of 3, which includes a captain, deckhand, and chef/cook; there are bareboat charters where no crew is provided or you can determine the number of crew depending on your group’s needs
• Evenly-sized rooms; often there is a primary stateroom that is larger, but you do want to make sure everyone you are traveling with is comfortable for the duration of the trip
• Access to get and make our own drinks; while it’s nice to be served you don’t want to ask for help every time you need another beer
• Crew that is familiar with the yacht, speaks the local language, and is familiar with the destination; this is the key factor for whether a trip is good or spectacular

After you select the yacht that is right for your group, you will sign the contract and pay the deposit. One person will need to be the point person for signing the contract and this person, henceforth known as the charterer, is the point of contact going forward. Choose wisely here.

Complete Provisions Request

Once this is done, the next step occurs about 6-8 weeks before your embarkation. You will be requested to provide the traveler details and provision information, which is all the food and beverages needed to make your trip spectacular. They will also ask about your interests and activities.

To complete your provisions, determine how much time you will be spending onboard versus in your ports of call. This includes how many meals you will eat onboard. This may vary with your destination of choice. Keep in mind, after they buy it for you, it’s yours whether you consume it or not, so you don’t want to provision too much. However, things get more expensive and less available the further you are from a major port, so you don’t want to run out of the essentials (aka yummy beverages) either.

Our approach for provisions is as follows:

• Breakfast and one other meal, either lunch or dinner onboard; part of our trip experience is eating locally so we want at least one meal in the town every day
• Think about the food items that will be best locally, for example, seafood may be better quality than if you ask for steak when you are near the sea
• Let them know if you have dietary restrictions, and they will do their best to accommodate (we have requested vegetarian, pescatarian, no beef, no lamb)
• Snacks, lots of snacks, and be specific with brands if they are important to you
• Beverages according to the people onboard, sometimes we need a minimum of a case (or two) of beer a day, sometimes a minimum of 2-3 bottles of wine per meal

As for interests and activities, every person is different, so you need to account for the needs of the entire group. Having done this with different groups of friends, we suggest spending 1/2 day of water activities and lounging around and other 1/2 sightseeing and wandering around town. We also recommend splitting time between mooring/anchoring and marinas, but this will be dependent on the weather as well as marina availability.

Welcome Aboard and Ports of Call

Prior to your trip, your yacht charter broker will provide you with all the information you need to board your vessel. This will include any ground transfer details if you have prior made arrangements and the contact information for the captain in case any issues arise.

Regarding the ports of call, if you are looking to hit the major destinations that you can get to by ferry (or cruise ship), you may not be experiencing all that a yacht charter has to offer. Some of our favorite places have been islands and destinations we have never heard of till we were onboard discussing options with the captain. Some of our least favorite places were the ones we decided were a must-see.

Yacht charters are one of our favorite ways to travel. We love being on the water and it’s a great way to see places that are most easily (or only) accessible by boat. The perspective you get from land-based travel and traveling by sea is vastly different. It’s also a great way to uncover new places and hidden gems resulting from the knowledge of the crew that sails the area all season.