Has anyone tried charter yachts as a way to visit Greek Islands? Can you recommend a company or an itinerary?
A friend wants to do this instead of taking a ferry from island to island and thinks in Late April to Early May the prices will be reasonable.
We have not yet tried this, though I have considered the idea of sailing on a gullet boat for 4 or 5 days as part of a Greece or Turkey trip.
Do a google search for "greece gullet charter."
I've looked at this particular site a few times because they have alot of choices- https://www.goolets.net/gulet-cruises/Private-charter/Greece/. Though again, I've never actually gone so far as to book a trip, so I have no real good idea of which gullet company might be best.
How much a private charter yacht will cost will depend on how many of you there will be, the size of the yacht, which islands you want to visit and how many of them are on your itinerary. You will be paying for food and drinks, the fuel, the crew's time as well as profit for the owner.
I need to look at the cost of housing and ferry to compare costs. The Greek Islands Eurailpass looks pretty hard to beat.
With a charter perhaps we can avoid the cruise ship crowds!
We used Cosmos Yachting out of the UK to book our charter.
No, we haven't tried a charter yacht, but we have made seven island-hopping trips through Greece using ferries. If you plan your route carefully, usually staying within one island group (i.e. Cyclades or Dodecanese) you can have a wonderful and very economical trip.
If you want to do a little research, get a Thomas Cook Greek Island Hopping book, possibly a used one on Amazon. The ferry routes won't be current but they sketch out dozens of island hopping scenarios. Then you can do research on the Greek ferry websites to find you exact connections.
Cruise ships crowds are usually only a problem on Santorini and Mykonos, maybe Rhodes. But you can have a wonderful trip by avoiding or minimizing time on these islands.
I too am looking into this, though I'm not sure if it's reasonable, advisable, or even possible.
Our Best of Turkey tour ends in Kusadasi in July. I booked us a fabulous Air BnB in Santorini Greece to relax at afterwards, but only then discovered how challenging it will be to get from one point to the other in one day's time. Because of work schedules it would be best to get there as quickly as possible, and I got to wondering if one could charter a boat to take us (five adults) there directly. If it were a sturdy vessel and reasonably priced I'd consider it--but I'm wondering if maritime law even allows for that. Perhaps I should look into the cost of chartering a private plane. Probably way too expensive.
gtanaki, the answer about charter boats & planes is the same as the famous one about a yacht, if you have to ask what it costs, you can't afford it. You're going to have to see if you can get out of your Santorini rental. and besides --- do you have ANY idea how long it takes for even a fast boat to get from the Turkey Coast to the Southernmost part of the Cyclades??? Time after time, season after season, we implore newcomers NOT to book accommodations until they've researched the logistics ...
If you would look at a map, you'd see that SAMOS is only a 1-hour ferry ride from Kusadasi, and has some wonderful beaches on which to relax. For more luxury, look at PATMOS, which is the secret getaway for Greek celebrities and VIPs ...a google of Patmos Villas will show you a big array of lovely places & beaches. Ther may not be a direct ferry from Kusadasi, but a quick ferry to Vathy on Samos, & you can ferry to Patmos in 90 minutes or so.
