Quick answer
If you have chartered in the BVI, you already know the best part of a crewed yacht week. Greece keeps all of that and changes five things around it:
- The price model. Most BVI catamarans are all-inclusive. Most Greek yachts charter plus expenses, with an APA on top of the fee and VAT after that. The week can cost the same; it is invoiced differently.
- The distances. The BVI is line-of-sight hops. The Cyclades are real crossings, planned around wind.
- The wind. Trade winds blow steadily. The Meltemi blows hard in July and August afternoons and the plan bends to it.
- The fleet. The BVI is a catamaran market. Greece is a motor-yacht market with catamarans in it, and the choice above 100 feet is far wider.
- The evenings. Beach bars become harbour tavernas, and a night in port becomes part of the week rather than an exception.
What stays the same: twelve guests is the legal maximum on both sides, the preference sheet still runs the galley, and the crew ratio is comparable boat for boat.
Broker insight
The big difference is that in the BVI the holiday is the boat and the water, and in Greece it is also the country. You cover real distance, so every day ends somewhere new, and that somewhere has a harbour, a village and three thousand years of history. You eat ashore more. The wind is stronger in summer, so we plan around it. And the boats run plus expenses rather than one price. Clients who loved the BVI usually love Greece, for different reasons.
John Boullin
Charter Broker
The money: one price becomes fee plus APA plus VAT
In the BVI, 83 percent of crewed sailing yachts, almost all of them catamarans, put meals, the bar, fuel and toys into one weekly rate. You paid the fee, the small government fees and the tip, and that was the week. Our BVI team explains the whole model in what all-inclusive actually includes.
Greece runs the other way. The standard here is plus expenses: a charter fee for the boat and crew, then an Advance Provisioning Allowance of 20 to 40 percent of the fee that the captain spends on fuel, food, drinks and marina fees and accounts for at the end, then VAT on the fee, currently 13 percent for crewed charters and often reduced to 6.5 percent on licensed itineraries. All-inclusive yachts exist in Greece, mostly catamarans, but they are the exception. We keep the ones that genuinely offer it on one page, and we explain the trade-off in all-inclusive versus APA in Greece.
The totals land closer than the headlines suggest. A 55 foot BVI catamaran at $47,500 all-inclusive and a 65 foot Greek catamaran at €34,000 plus 25 percent APA and VAT arrive at a similar week once the tip is in, and the Greek boat is ten feet longer with a fifth cabin. Two habits to carry over: budget the whole APA as spent and treat a refund as a bonus, and expect the tip to be smaller. Fifteen to twenty percent is the Caribbean norm; in the Mediterranean five to fifteen is usual, always at your discretion.
The distances: from line of sight to real crossings
Between Tortola, Norman, Cooper, Virgin Gorda and Jost you rarely sail more than fifteen miles, and you can see the next stop before you leave the last one. Greece is bigger. In the Cyclades the hops between islands run twenty to fifty nautical miles, and the first leg out of Athens to Mykonos is around ninety. On a 20 knot motor yacht that is a morning, on a sailing catamaran it is a day, and on a motor yacht every one of those miles comes out of the APA as diesel.
So the week is planned differently. A BVI itinerary is a loop you improvise; a Greek one is a route the captain builds around the crossings and the forecast, with more time at each stop and fewer stops. Our guide to how far you can go in a week shows the honest hops. If you want the BVI rhythm in Greece, ask for the Saronic Gulf or the Ionian: short legs, sheltered water, a new bay every afternoon.
The wind: trade winds become the Meltemi
The Caribbean trade wind is the most reliable thing about a BVI charter: fifteen to twenty knots from the east, every day, and the islands break the swell. The Aegean has the Meltemi. From roughly mid-July to the end of August it builds through the afternoon in the Cyclades and can blow twenty-five to thirty-five knots by four o’clock, then drop at night. It is dry, sunny and warm, and it is the single biggest reason itineraries change mid-week.
Three things follow. Captains move in the morning and anchor by early afternoon. The Cyclades in June and September are a gentler trip than in August. And if anyone in your group is sensitive, a motor yacht with stabilizers at anchor, or a week in the Ionian, is worth more here than it ever was in the BVI. We have written about seasickness on a Greek charter honestly, because it is the question BVI clients ask first.
The fleet: a catamaran market becomes a motor-yacht market
You probably chartered a catamaran in the BVI, because that is what the BVI fleet is. Greece has more motor yachts than catamarans, and once you go above 80 feet the motor-yacht choice is many times wider than anything in the Caribbean: classic Benettis and Ferrettis with crews of six to nine, stabilizers and sundeck jacuzzis. The catamarans are here too, and the newest ones are Greek-based, so a group that loved a Lagoon in the BVI can find a bigger, newer one in Athens.
The bridge between the two is the power catamaran. Greece has a deep fleet of them, and they give a BVI crowd the deck space they are used to with the speed to make the Cycladic crossings short. For ten guests it is usually the first thing we suggest to a returning BVI client.
The evenings: beach bars become harbour tavernas
A BVI evening ends at a beach bar reached by tender. A Greek evening often ends stern-to on a village quay, with the crew off duty and a taverna table twenty metres from the passerelle. The anchorages are still the product, and most nights you will sleep in a bay, but a port night in Hydra, Naxos or a Dodecanese harbour is part of what people come for, and the captain will plan one or two into the week. It also changes the food: expect the chef to shop the morning market and the dinner ashore to cost a fraction of a beach club.
The toys: jet skis are legal again
The BVI banned jet skis, and if you chartered there recently you will not have used one. Greece allows them with a licence, and several yachts run RYA water sports centres on board so you can qualify during the week. SeaBobs, e-foils and slides are common on the bigger boats. Snorkelling is thinner than the Caribbean; the water is clearer and cooler, and the reefs are not the point. Swimming off the boat in a Cycladic bay is.
The season and getting there
The BVI season runs December to April. Greece runs May to October, with June and September the sweet spots and July and August the busiest and windiest. So the two do not compete; a household that charters the BVI at New Year can charter Greece in June and never overlap. Getting there is easier than most clients expect: Athens has direct flights from the US East Coast, and the charter marinas at Alimos and Lavrion are forty minutes from the airport. No ferry from St Thomas, no second flight.
One last thing that does not change. Twelve guests is the maximum on a charter yacht in Greece just as it is in the BVI, and the workarounds for larger groups are the same conversations. Your broker is the same too: tell us which BVI boat you loved and we will start from what worked about her.
People also ask
Is a Greek yacht charter more expensive than the BVI?
Boat for boat, no. The headline fee looks lower in Greece because it excludes expenses, then APA and VAT bring it back to a similar total, and the tip is smaller. Where Greece costs more is choice: the market above 100 feet barely exists in the BVI and is deep in Greece, so it is easy to spend more because there is more to spend on.
Is Greece rougher than the BVI?
In July and August in the Cyclades, yes, in the afternoons. The Meltemi is stronger than the trade wind and the crossings are longer. In June and September, or in the Saronic Gulf and the Ionian in any month, the water is as calm as anything in the BVI.
Can I get an all-inclusive catamaran in Greece like the BVI?
A few. Most Greek yachts charter plus expenses, but a handful of catamarans and owner-run boats price the week all-in, and we list the genuine ones on our all-inclusive Greece page. If a fixed price matters more than choice, tell us first and we will start there.
When should a BVI charterer go to Greece?
June or September. The water is warm, the Meltemi is mild or absent, the harbours are not full, and the rates are below peak. It also sits neatly opposite the BVI season, so the same group can do both in one year.
