First time charting a private yacht (with captain n hostess) for one week out of Athens.
Questions:
1. In order of priority which islands/cities do I visit?
2. Continuation from 1. What two things do we do in each place.
3. This is a bucket list trip and at 80 we hope it goes well.
4. Thanks in advance for all suggestions here. Everything is appreciated
Jim
What you will visit will actually be mostly at the discretion of the Captain. Het will be able to tell you which places you can actually reach given the time you have and the weather that is expected. Het will probably be quite knowledgeable, and be able to suggest you what to see on the islands you visit.
With only a week, the logical choices are those islands closest to Athens/Piraeus, such as Aegina, Spetses and Hydra. How many you are able to visit in a week will depend a lot on the weather, the type of yacht (power vs. wind) and how well you travel at sea. I hope your experience meets all your expectations!
Jim if you sail out of the Athens port of Pireaus, you'll be very limited in the isles you can v isit - especially the ones everyone wants - the "white houses/blue shutters" look of Cyclades, because they' are just too far to sail to, You're better off landing in Athens & taking domestic flight direct to a Cyclades island like Paros, where many charter operations start. I've done 13 trips to greece, but all my sailing has been on ferries, but I planned a vey successful charter-yacht week's sail for my neighbor. Some observations:
• TIMING - If you want it to go well, book between mid-may & late June. After that, the Meltemi winds GREATLY affect sailing except for large boats. Smaller yachts can be forced to skip isles they planned on, and/or even be trapped in harbors for days by rough water. You can't defy mother nature.
• VESSELS - here's a link to the outfit we booked Sailing out of PAROS - https://www.archipelclub.com/en/catamaran-charter-greece/punch-41.php -- everything worked out perfectly. My friend & her brother each had a cabin -- they just had a skipper, who did a lot of the cooking, I think this size yacht has quarters to accommodate a 2nd crew member. There is another Cycladic charter group out of SYROS but it may not have the best size vessels.
You asked “which island?” and “what to do?” but you didn't specified your budget or what time of year you are planning this trip and if it could also be a sailboat or a catamaran
Know that for a private trip (only you and the crew) the minimum rates in summer are generally from €3,500 per week for a 40 ft vessel with 4 cabins (2 cabins are for the hostess and the skipper)
This amount is only for hiring the boat itself, you will have to add the price for a professional skipper (around 200€/day), the hostess (around 150€/day), port taxes, final cleaning, food, drinks , gas for cooking, fuel for a week, etc.
Basically around 400€ / day in addition to the boat rental.
Many of these offers depart from an island like the link to "Archipel" proposed by janet which leaves from Paros
There are also some possibilities from Alimos Marina south of Athens such as Cavos Yachting:
To everyone that replied I’m so happy to see the responses. I wish I would have jumped on here before. There is a tremendous wealth of information.
This is our first yacht charter and I guess the decision was based on the excitement.
I’m excited to take my wife here and experience this. I think, from the replies, we will keep our desired interests close to where we board the yacht. The biggest point I got outta the replies is the sailing from place to place is going to be the biggest time grabber so we should make the most of that travel time and just enjoy what we have. I’m going to look into boarding the yacht in another location to try to maximize or time.
Keep the replies coming. We don’t board until June 2024
-Jim
Oh. Does this mean you already have chartered a vessel, before doing research on what is feasible, and how long the distances are etc? Research is boring, but it does make a big difference in success. Y ou say keep it coming, but how/why do we do this, with no data? Y ou need to tell us where your charter begins, at what exact dates, and what stops they suggest in this 1 week.
