Best Yachting Destinations For Foodies

Because gourmet food is central to the yachting experience, we assembled three excellent foodie destinations for yacht charter. These culinary destinations all have one thing in common: a dizzying range of cuisines and flavours, making them perfect for any group’s varied tastes.

Barcelona and the Balearics

Kick off your Balearics yacht charter in Marina Port Vell in the heart of Barcelona, one of the great gastronomic cities of the world. The city is famous for its trio of triple Michelin-star restaurants — Cocina Hermanos Torres, Lasarte, and ABaC— as well as 16 other Michelin-starred restaurants featuring food from Spain and worldwide.

Yet Barcelona’s foodie appeal extends far past its celebrated fine-dining establishments. This vibrant city is alive with food at every turn. Feast on small dishes of patatas bravas and fire-charred chorizo at a cosy tapas bar, crunch on the city’s famous empanadas at a street stall, or grab one of the stools at El Qium de la Boqueria market stall and dig into their iconic fried eggs topped with baby squid. 

Barcelona has also become iconic for its drinks offering. The city is now considered one of the great cocktail capitals of the world, with Paradiso, rated at number three of the world’s top 50 bars, a must-visit experience reached through a fridge door at the back of a pastrami shop.

But behind all the cutting-edge cocktails served in a cloud of dry ice, don’t forget to sample Barcelona’s extraordinary traditional drinks, such as cava, Catalan’s version of champagne, or sangria, Spain’s national drink. Why not combine the two with a cava sangria?

When you’ve had your fill in Barcelona, your yacht will float out into the Balearics, where the foodie capitals of Palma de Majorca and Ibiza await. 

Miami and the Florida Keys

Miami holds the title of ‘America’s hottest dining scene’ and has been named the 2023 Food City of the Year. So naturally, this means that any gourmet worth their Maldon Sea salt will want to kick off a Florida yacht charter in this high-energy city on the edge of the Atlantic. 

Miami is a cultural melting pot — and one thing we know about melting pots is that they lead to some pretty incredible culinary results. As a result, it’s pretty hard to pinpoint what makes the Miami foodie scene so unique, as the city offers a glorious cacophony of Latin American, North American, Caribbean, and international flavours and techniques.

In the mood for Michelin-starred American cuisine? Head to Stubborn Seed in South Beach, run by Top Chef winner Jeremy Ford. For soul food with Caribbean and Latin influences, tuck into a slab of cornbread with jalapeño honey butter at Red Rooster Overton. Want to eat exceptional Asian-Mediterranean fusion without leaving the nightclub? Giselle Miami’s rooftop restaurant is the place for you. Are you craving modern Greek? Get on the Avra Estiatorio bandwagon. Middle Eastern? Branja, led by MasterChef Israel winner Tom Aviv. Fine dining Indian? Ayesha by a mile. 

But just like Barcelona, we’d be mad not to also divert you to some of Miami’s fabulous hole-in-the-wall restaurants, where you can hang out with the locals and feast on delicacies like ceviche, fried snapper chunks, Cuban sandwiches, churrasco steak, mofongo and, for the culinarily adventurous, alligator bites. We’d also suggest you try the Key Lime Pie, but you should probably get back to the boat and head to Key West for that! 

Corfu and the Ionian Islands

Are you getting hungry yet? Set your course for Corfu. It was devilishly difficult to choose one foodie island in Greece because, as we all know, Greek food is sensational. We ultimately landed on Corfu because it has a stunning reputation for gastronomic fusion due to its history of invasion by the Venetians, the French, and the British, as well as its own proud culinary heritage.

Unlike most parts of Greece, local Corfiot cuisine uses quite a lot of beef and spices like cloves, allspice and cinnamon. Be sure to try the local specialities such as sofrito beef with garlic and onions, meatballs in red sauce, pastrokio fried eggplants, and pastitsada — a slightly sweet spiced marinated beef and chicken served on pasta. Fish also features heavily, with bourdeto and bianco fish the standouts. For the sweet at heart, try Corfu desserts such as mandoles (meringue with caramelised almonds), corn pancakes, pasta flora, and fogatsa, a sweet brioche pastry. As for drinks, you must try the local kumquat liqueur.

So, where to experience this cornucopia of Corfu? Corfu has some excellent fine-dining restaurants, including Etrusco, owned by Michelin-starred chef Ettore Botrini. However, we’d suggest, for a more traditional taste of Corfu, visiting some of the iconic restaurants, including Rex in Corfu Town for a taste of old and new, Klimataria fish tavern in the village of Benitses, and Toula’s Gastronomy Restaurant in Agni Beach, with tables right by the lapping blue-green sea. Ambelonas Winery is also a delightful farm-to-table experience you won’t forget quickly. (You’ll want to pick up the owner’s cookbook!)

This is just the beginning. Please talk to our brokers about crafting a food-centred yacht charter in one of the hundreds of foodie destinations, including the culinary playgrounds of the French Riviera, Sicily, or the Amalfi Coast.