Have you heard of The Yacht Week? If not then let me introduce you to what could be the best week of your life. Back in 2014 I spent a week sailing around Greece on an all girls Yacht Week boat. We had an incredible time but there were some things I wish I would have known before the trip that could have made it even better. So here are eight things you should know before you go on The Yacht Week!
1) THE YACHT WEEK COULD BE THE BEST WEEK OF YOUR LIFE – JUST GO!
As you can see from the video above The Yacht Week looks like a lot of fun, and it is! This video is of The Yacht Week Greece trip I was on featuring some clips of our boat. I booked with one of my friends and prior to the tip I hadn’t met any of the other girls who were going to be on our sailboat. All the girls turned out to be awesome and we all made fast friends.
If you can’t get a group of friends together to book your own sailboat don’t let that stop you from going on The Yacht Week. Just find one friend to go with you and book a two-person cabin! You’ll make new friends, and have the time of your life, especially after reading all my tips so you’ll know what to expect.
2) THE YACHT WEEK IS MORE ABOUT PARTYING THAN SAILING
The Yacht Week is basically one big floating festival! If you want to have a serious week of peaceful sailing then The Yacht Week is probably not for you. You will sail from location to location but you’ll spend a lot more time partying than sailing on most of The Yacht Week routes. You need to be in the right frame of mind for this prior to the trip. So if you plan on going on The Yacht Week put your party hat on and be ready to have some fun!
3) CHOOSE YOUR YACHT WEEK ROUTE BASED ON PACE
You’ll likely look at The Yacht Week website and see a destination you want to go to and decide this is the route you want to take. I advise against this. In order to have the best time possible book a route based on the pace you want to go at.
Since I went on The Yacht Week they have added several new routes including an Italy route which they are marketing as slower paced for “sophisticated sailors and the food fanatics.” I have only been on the Greece route so I can’t vouch for this claim but if you want to do less partying, and more sailing and exploring, booking the Italy route seems like the way to go.
The Greece route I went on is labeled at a mid paced route. I love music and parties but I personally would have preferred more sailing and sight-seeing. Based on my experience, I would describe the mid paced Yacht Week routes (Greece, Montenegro and BVIs) as party routes and the fast paced routes (Croatia and Croatia Ultra) as ultra party routes.
4) SKIP SOME OF THE DAY PARTIES & EXPLORE
As I said above The Yacht Week, overall, is more about partying than anything else but you are visiting amazing places on all of their routes so I suggest skipping some of the parties and exploring your surroundings. On the Greece route there was a day party and a night party at each stop. When we docked at Hydra Island, my friend and I skipped the day party and explored the island which turned out to be one of my favorite days on the trip! There are plenty of parties so don’t worry about skipping some of them and opting to take in some sights and local culture instead.
This is a gross topic but I have to bring it up because I would never want anyone to be in the same situation the girls on my boat were on. Our Yacht Week boat was a cheaper, economy sailboat and it was not equipped for us to be able to do anything besides pee in the toilets. That’s right, we did not have proper use of toilets on our boat for an entire week! Because of this my friend and I ended up renting several hotel rooms during Yacht Week (read Nikki Beach Porto Heli and Hotel Miranda Hydra Island) just so we could have use of a toilet and shower.
So what is the moral of this story? Don’t go for the cheapest boat you can find. There are now four types of yachts you can book with The Yacht Week – Economy, Standard, Premium and Premium Plus. Spend the extra money to book a premium sailboat, and check that you’ll have unrestricted use of the toilet onboard before you book.
6) THE YACHT WEEK IS MORE EXPENSIVE THAN YOU THINK
I budgeted around $75 a day for food, drinks and extras for our seven-day trip and quickly realized this was not going to be enough. Upon arrival we were told we needed to go shopping for costumes for the sailing competition and parties. Next, we had to put money in for the “Kitty Fund,” which is food and drinks for the boat for the week. We also had to pitch in money to tip our skipper and pay for gas for the boat.
At The Yacht Week parties you usually get one or two free drinks with your wristband, but after, that you have to pay for your drinks. Drinking every day can get expensive, especially if you want to splurge on bottle service. If you plan to drink and eat out and don’t want to worry about running out of money, you should plan to spend around $130 USD/day.
$150 Kitty
$50 Costumes
$525 ($75/Day Restaurants + Cocktails x 7 Days)
$100 Gas/Tip for Skipper
$100 Bottle Service
_______
$925 TOTAL
7) YOUR SAILBOAT WILL GET DIRTY REALLY QUICKLY
We had an all-girls crew and our sailboat still got very dirty every day. In order to keep your boat from becoming filthy get everyone on your boat to agree from the start to all help clean. If everyone pitches in, it takes less than 20 minutes a day to keep your boat clean. Do your dishes right after you are done eating, and keep all your personal stuff in your own cabin. No one wants to spend a week in a tiny cramped, dirty space. This is the real Yacht Week v. your Instagram Yacht Week…
8) CHOOSE WHO YOU BOOK WITH WISELY
The last thing you want to do is go on what could be the week of your life with someone who can’t go with the flow, relax and enjoy an adventure. If you’re booking a two-person cabin with a friend make sure you are on the same page about what type of trip you both want to have.
If you can’t wait to get to The Yacht Week and party all week and your friend is looking for a peaceful, relaxing week of sailing and sightseeing it is not going to work. If your friend wants to do a luxury sailing trip but you want to book an economy sailboat to save money it is not going to work. This seems pretty obvious but I saw both of these scenarios happen and it is a buzz kill for everyone. Make sure you are on the same page with whoever you book The Yacht Week with, wether you are booking a two-person cabin or an entire sailboat.
Have you been on The Yacht Week? If you have any additional tips for our readers or questions for me please leave these in the comments below.
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Coco says
Hi,
where did you get your bikinis? I love them!
Thanks!
James Methew says
Great Blog! Yacht Charting is considered the best way of spending your holidays and is an interesting activity to include in your traveling.
Liv says
Im about to book the Greece trip with a friend but now I am really concerned about the bathroom situation… can you maybe tell me a little bit more about that?
James says
The boats have marine toilets; you can use them for #1 and #2, you just can’t flush anything else down them. So that means you have a baggie for toilet paper you throw out once or twice a day. It’s not ideal, but it’s not as bad as you might think, and you get used to it pretty quick. Plus, you’re on land a lot and can use regular toilets pretty much any time you’re not sailing.