Yacht charter worldwide

01 · Overview

Yacht charter worldwide

Outside the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and North America, our desk lists about 1,400 boats in 32 more countries. Most of them make one of two very different trips. One is a slow week on the canals and lakes of the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Poland or Britain, often on a houseboat you can drive without a licence. The other is a catamaran in warm, remote water: the Seychelles, the Galápagos, French Polynesia or the Maldives.

02 · The sailing grounds

The sailing grounds

Inland Europe holds most of this fleet. Friesland and the Holland lakes in the Netherlands, the Mecklenburg lake district north of Berlin, the River Shannon in Ireland, the Masurian lakes in Poland, and the Thames and the Caledonian Canal in Britain are all cruised at walking pace, with a town or a lock every few hours. Sweden, Norway, Slovenia and Portugal add coastal sailing, and Portugal reaches out to the Azores.

Further away, the Seychelles and the Galápagos are catamaran waters, and French Polynesia has the lagoons of Raiatea and Tahiti.

Countries on our desk:

Netherlands: about 270 boats

Germany: about 260 boats

Seychelles: about 110 boats

Poland: about 95 boats

Ireland: about 90 boats

United Kingdom: about 70 boats

Belgium: about 60 boats

Portugal: about 50 boats

Sweden: 47 boats

Ecuador: 43 boats

French Polynesia: 42 boats

Maldives: 33 boats

Slovenia: 32 boats

Norway: 29 boats

Smaller fleets sail from Brazil, Hungary, Belize, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, Panama, Cape Verde, India, Tanzania, Egypt and Mauritius.

03 · Season and weather

Season and weather

On the northern European canals and lakes boats go out from about April to October. High summer is both the warmest and the most booked time, and many inland operators close for the winter. The tropical bases work the other way round: the Seychelles, the Maldives and French Polynesia have boats out all year, each with its own windier and calmer months, and the Galápagos has its warmest water from about December to May.

04 · The fleet on our desk

The fleet on our desk

We list about 1,400 boats here from 109 charter companies. The fleet is houseboats (31%), motorboats (28%), catamarans (21%) and sailing yachts (20%). The median boat dates from 2013, measures about 42 ft and has 3 cabins. The biggest have 14 cabins. The most common named models are the Leopard 45 and the Lagoon 42.

05 · Ways to charter

Ways to charter

Many boats here offer more than one kind of charter:

Bareboat (1196 boats): you run the boat yourself. Sailing yachts and catamarans need a skipper's licence the operator accepts, and most also ask for a VHF radio certificate.

Crewed (188 boats): the boat comes with its skipper and crew, and often a cook or host.

Cabin charter (69 boats): you book a cabin on a shared cruise rather than the whole boat.

Day charter (52 boats): one day out, normally with crew aboard.

Skippered (25 boats): you have the boat and a hired skipper runs it.

Most canal and lake houseboats can be driven without a boating licence once the operator has briefed you. You'll find the licence rule for each boat on its own page.

06 · What a week costs

What a week costs

These are whole-boat prices for seven nights, from the 2027 weekly offers on our desk as of November 2026.

April is the cheapest month here: about €1,500 a week for a well-priced boat, about €1,950 for a mid-range one.

March is the dearest on these offers, at about €3,700 for a mid-range boat.

One boat in ten starts under €1,000 a week; the priciest tenth begin at about €7,500.

On a bareboat week you normally pay on top for fuel, mooring, the end-of-week clean and a skipper if you want one; on a crewed week the crew is already in the price. Every boat page lists what its operator includes, with its live price for your week.

07 · Bases and start days

Bases and start days

The biggest bases are Eden Island Marina in the Seychelles (106 boats), Marina Müritz (82 boats) and Marina Wolfsbruch (69 boats) in Germany, Jachthaven Drachten in Friesland (55 boats), Vinkeveen in the Netherlands (51 boats) and Baltra in the Galápagos (36 boats). Saturday is the most common start day, and many canal and lake boats can also start on a Friday or a Monday.

08 · Getting there

Getting there

Most inland bases in the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium are a train ride or a drive of a few hours from Amsterdam, Berlin or Brussels. Eden Island is a short drive from the Seychelles' international airport on Mahé. Galápagos charters start at Baltra, which has its own airport with flights from mainland Ecuador.