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Yachting is a feeling. It is a way of exploring a place that sinks into your soul. And there are certain places on the superyacht map that are somehow sprinkled with magic.
In this feature, we’re going to revisit the great yachting hotspots of the Mediterranean and explain what makes these summer destinations retain their exclusivity and charm in a world full of cruising opportunities.
There’s nothing quite like the glittering, heady energy of the French Riviera in summer. A bewitching combination of high glamour and timeless Mediterranean beauty, the South of France remains the greatest superyacht playground on earth, casting its languorous spell on everyone who visits.
The French Riviera is a feeling. It’s the sense that you are at the social centre of the world, the place where the jetset gather. It’s the frisson of excitement as you arrive at the Casino de Monte Carlo, stepping out among the Lamborghinis and the Aston Martins parked under the waving palms. It’s the feeling you get as your superyacht arrives off the infamous beach clubs of Pampelonne Beach, hearing the mighty roar of the anchor drop to the sandy bottom, or stepping ashore for an afternoon shopping at the haute couture boutiques of Cannes.
It’s the spectacle of your superyacht manoeuvring into a narrow berth in one of the great ports of the world — Port Hercules under the Prince’s Palace of Monaco, Cannes by the red carpet of the Palais de Festivals, or Saint Tropez among the pavement cafes. It’s dressing up and stepping ashore to dine at 3-star Michelin Star restaurants, and dancing until dawn among F1 drivers and film stars at Jimmy’z Monte Carlo or St Tropez’ infamous Caves du Roy.
But the beguiling charm of the Riviera also lies in its ancient French heart —the rustic beach cafe in the Porquerolles, the medieval hill villages, its sleepy, pine-scented islands. It’s wandering a Provencal market redolent with the smells of cheeses and lavender, eating a slice of oily, peppery socca served in a piece of tin foil. It’s diving off your yacht into the sapphire waters of the Cannes Islands and smiling underwater — because life, in this moment, is perfect.
And to the south, the wild beauty of Corsica awaits you, as your superyacht powers between a gap in soaring cliffs into the sheltered port of Bonifacio, and anchors in deep cobalt bays underneath a rugged landscape of wildflowered hills and medieval towers.
Italy has a feeling all of its own. It offers a delicious, life-affirming sense of the dolce vita —an embrace of food and history and culture that somehow soaks into the soul. The only moment of discomfort with chartering a yacht in Italy, is deciding where to go. For this ancient land holds an embarrassment of riches for the superyacht guest.
Maybe your Italian dream is floating along the Amalfi Coast, floating into glimmering blue grottos and eating enchanted meals among the lemon groves on cliff terraces in Capri. Soaking in the hotsprings of Ischia, drinking in the vertiginous view from the Villa Rufolo gardens, and exploring pretty Positano, where pastel painted villas spill down the hill.
A Ligurian yacht charter, meanwhile, offers an explosion of colour, a dreamscape of brightly painted villages clinging to the cliffs of the Cinque Terre. The jewel of Liguria is Portofino, its pastel facades gathered around a turquoise port framed by deep green forest and grand Italianate villas. Portofino has drawn the elite since Roman times and continues to do so, with the jetset gathering on the terrace of the Hotel Belmond Splendido and on the assembled superyachts.
On a Sicily and Aeolian Islands charter, no-one can forget the experience of dining on deck as Stromboli volcano spills glowing lava into the sea, or watching a performance in the clifftop amphitheatre of Taormina, drinking in the breathtaking, heart-soaring view. On charter in Sicily you’ll wander the Valley of the Temples, dive off the yacht into the sapphire waters of stunning Cefalu, and glory in the food that has made ‘cucina povera’ renowned throughout the world.
Or perhaps your Italian dream involves floating along Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda, dancing and shopping the boutiques of Porto Cervo and Rotundo, or blissing out in the staggering boulder lagoons of the Maddalena islands. The Emerald Coast is ‘pinch yourself territory’, as you snorkel and swim and walk on sugar-white beaches, returning to the yacht for long, lazy lunches on deck in the afternoon breeze.
With its scattering of thousands of islands in a sunlit sea, the Dalmatian islands of Croatia are a yachting paradise of an almost mythic beauty. On charter in Croatia you’ll fall under the enchantment of medieval cities and pine-scented coves, lavender fields and sunny vineyards that roll down to the shimmering sea.
In Croatia, you’ll wander the mighty walled fortress city of Dubrovnik and dine atop its ramparts, perhaps jumping off the mighty walls into the deep Adriatic. Casting off into the islands, you’ll discover a tranquil archipelago where you can swim in the crystal clear water of Mljet’s twin lakes surrounded by pine forest, or fall under the spell of charming Korcula, where the walled Venetian Old Town guards a seashore of date palms and sapphire sea.
No Croatia superyacht charter would be complete without a visit to Hvar, where the marble paved streets are home to fine boutiques and quaint piazzas, while offshore, the Pakleni Islands are home to the iconic Carpe Diem beach club, where you can dance until the dawn with the beautiful people.
Croatia is a land of wonders. Play on the watertoys off Bol Beach on Brac, kayak into abandoned submarine pens on Vis, or dance under the stars at one of the many festivals that light up the summer in this splendid, splendid place. Your final destination for your Dalmatian yacht charter might be the ancient city of Split, dominated by Emperor Diocletian’s palace…or perhaps you might like to venture further north, into the quiet, desolate beauty of the Kornati islands, where seabirds hover over mighty cliffs and empty, perfect bays await.
Greece is the sound of buzzing cicadas and the gentle lap of water against the yacht in a perfect cove. It’s feeling the heat on your skin as you lie on a deckchair, and diving into water so clear it is like diving into the sky. It’s bending over the side of the yacht and seeing turtles float past, and looking up to a clifftop to see a temple, its columns slowly crumbling into the dust.
A charter in Greece can be anything you want. It’s the heightened energy of stepping ashore for a night out in the restaurants and clubs of Mykonos, or earring the clip-clop of your donkey’s hooves as you follow steep tracks down to volcanic beaches. It’s the gasp at the sunset seen from the clifftop of Santonini’s caldera, and the salty, oily crunch of fried calamari in a rustic waterfront taverna. It’s the taste of ice-cream as you walk along whitewashed alleyways lined with boutiques and bougainvillea, and the deep, cool relief of walking into the shade of a forest, walking loamy pathways until you come to a blue and white fishing village on the emerald sea. It’s anchoring your superyacht off Shipwreck Beach, walking in olive groves on Odysseus’ Ithaca, and swimming in grottos guarded by the nymphs of ancient myths.
A charter in Greece is a journey through history under a timeless sky. With over 6,000 islands and a mainland coastline dotted with temples, stunning beaches and vineyards, Greece’s wonders are limitless and would take a lifetime of cruising to discover.
In the far eastern stretches of the Mediterranean, the Taurus Mountains crowd down to the coast and the steep, pine-forested hills drop away into water so perfectly, dazzlingly blue that your heart aches to dive in from the first moment you see it.
Along this bewitching coastline, headlands shelter bays of perfect white sands, and river systems carve through landscape of citrus and pomegranate groves, the high river cliffs hiding ancient Dalyan tombs and ruined cities.
On a yacht charter in Turkey, you can party with the jetset in fashionable Bodrum or Türkbükü,, haggle with stallholders in the bazaar of Fethiye, or kayak over a sunken city off Kekova, lost to an ancient earthquake. The history lies heavy on the seabed here, with shipwrecks and amphorae in a fantastical underwater landscape of limestone caves, reefs and drop-offs. Back on land, pass happy days bathing in Cleopatra’s baths, white water rafting through canyons, and swimming in blue lagoons.
The Turquoise Coast is a place of time-travel and adventure, where you breathe deep and soak up the rich, storied beauty from the deck of your superyacht, and step ashore to wander the narrow, cobbled laneways of pretty villages by the sea.
Each of these cruising destinations have a distinct feeling of their own, a sense of history and place that bewitches and charms. All have the requisite glamour to offer the discerning superyacht guest— the beach clubs and swanky superyacht marinas, restaurants and boutiques we’ve come to expect. But they are combined with the sleepy, breathtaking beauty of the Mediterranean in a way that draws the yachts back every year and keeps these locations perpetually at the top of the summer charter wish-list. Charter a superyacht through Bluewater and make your Mediterranean dream come true.
