Choosing my sailing destination?!

This week I’m talking about choosing a sailing destination and the steps that I go through when I’m choosing a destination for a charter. This is really pertinent because I am actually putting together a flotilla for 2024. I’m currently looking at where do I want to sail? Why do I want to sail there? Who do I want to have join me? What type of boats am I looking at? What are some of the quotes and the budgeting involved and stuff like that?

The first part is to figure out the goal of your charter adventure. Are you looking to sail somewhere really unique where you can experience isolated sailing or boat life? Are you looking to go somewhere where you can go on shore and you can explore all kinds of touristy places? Do you want to relax and take it slow? Do you want to fit in as many destinations as possible? Are you a fair weather traveler or you can put up with some adverse conditions?

Do your research!

To start off, I like to research my sailing destination by asking other sailors! Where have you charted before? Why did you choose that destination? What did you like about it? What didn’t you like about it? Which chartering company did you go with? What were some of the issues that you found with the boats or with dealing with the charter company?

The next thing that I like to look at is for myself is what is the motivation for going on this particular sail charter? For me, what I really enjoy about being out on the boat is going to really isolated places where I’m not going to run into a lot of other people. I’m not going to run into a lot of other boats. I might be in a position to experience some really unique anchorages or really unique kind of adventures.

The next thing that I like to do is I like to do some online research. One of the things I’m looking for are travel guides or travel blogs that talk about the sailing destinations I’m looking into. I will also do some high level marina and amenities research to see what is available in the area.

Start planning the specifics…

Where can I refuel the boat? How difficult is it for me to provision the boat? What kind of grocery stores are nearby? Depending on if I have paid clients on the charter, I’m looking for what kind of tourist attractions are there close to the marinas. Because you might not want to end up going to a marina and then you have to pay to hop into a taxi to get to a tourist destination. So you’re going to organize your itinerary based on what types of activities you want to do as a group.

Some popular destinations

I’ve been to Croatia already and Greece is the next destination on my list. The British Virgin Islands and the Caribbean are very, very popular destinations as well for their warm waters and light breezes. Other destinations on my list include Alaska, Norway and French Polynesia. A less popular destination that I’ve started to look into is Cuba! Seems to be a newer destination that is just starting to take off for chartering, so you can probably get a boat for a pretty decent rate.

Different Charter Companies…

There are several large sailing charter companies that offer many different sailing destinations. Some of the bigger ones are Dream Yacht Charters, The Moorings, Sunsail, and Boat Bookings. Some destinations will also have smaller charter companies. It may be beneficial to go with a smaller company depending on your budget and what level of service you are looking for. Overall, I find that calling up the charter company and discussing your sailing destination with them will quickly give you an idea of if this is a company you’d like to book with!

Hope you have fun planning your next charter experience!

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