Where to sail
Destinations
The waters we know best — Alicante and the Baleares in depth, the wider Mediterranean, and the global circuits beyond: Caribbean winters, Arctic summers, Antarctic expeditions, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. Season windows, itineraries and the anchorages worth the crossing.
17 waters
The Western Mediterranean
Alicante & the Costa Blanca
The home coast: a sheltered, sun-reliable shoreline of clear coves, a protected island marine reserve at Tabarca, and easy day-hops between Alicante, …
Ibiza
The Balearics' glamour anchor: turquoise west-coast calas, the dramatic Es Vedrà rock, and a beach-club and nightlife scene unmatched in the Med, all …
Formentera
The Balearics' Caribbean: powder-white sandbars and shallow, luminous water off Ses Illetes and the uninhabited islet of Espalmador. Shallow-draft yac…
Mallorca South & Palma Bay
The Balearics' capital cruising ground: a world-class marina city at Palma, sheltered south-coast calas, and the long white sweep of Es Trenc. It is t…
Mallorca North & the Tramuntana
The wild side of Mallorca: the UNESCO Serra de Tramuntana plunging into the sea at Sa Calobra and Deià, the dramatic Formentor headland, and the shelt…
Menorca
The quiet, protected Balearic: a UNESCO biosphere of unspoilt calas ringed by pine and limestone, the vast natural harbour of Mahón, and none of Ibiza…
Cabrera Archipelago National Park
A protected marine and terrestrial national park south of Mallorca: crystalline permit-only anchorages, exceptional snorkelling, and the luminous Sa C…
French Riviera & the Côte d'Azur
The Med's classic glamour coast: St-Tropez's beach clubs, the anchorage off the Lérins islands at Cannes, the deep calm of Villefranche, and the harbo…
Corsica, Sardinia & La Maddalena
The Med's most turquoise waters: the cliff-top citadel of Bonifacio, the granite islets of Lavezzi and La Maddalena, and the glamour of the Costa Smer…
Amalfi Coast & Capri
Italy's most romantic coastline: the Faraglioni stacks and Blue Grotto of Capri, the vertical village of Positano, and the storied Amalfi shore. Drama…
Aeolian Islands
A volcanic archipelago off Sicily: chic little Panarea, the night-time eruptions of Stromboli, the thermal mud of Vulcano and the green slopes of Sali…
Sicily
Europe's largest island, with a volcano for a compass bearing: Taormina's cliff-top theatre and Etna's smoke on the Ionian side, Palermo's Belle Époque waterfront and the wild Egadi Islands on the Tyrrhenian.
Naples, Ischia & the Pontine Islands
Marina di Stabia keeps the coast's principal refit yard in sight of Vesuvius; Ischia and Procida sit within the afternoon; Ponza and Palmarola lie a proper passage further out. The Tyrrhenian's working middle distance, between the Riviera and the Amalfi shore.
The Italian Riviera
Portofino's tiny roadstead, Genoa's refit yards and new marina, the cliff villages of the Cinque Terre and the Gulf of Poets, May to September.
Marbella & the Strait
Puerto Banús, Sotogrande, Gibraltar's bunkering berths and duty-free Ceuta — the Mediterranean's gateway to the Atlantic.
Barcelona & the Costa Brava
OneOcean Port Vell's 190-metre quay and the MB92 refit yard, then north past Tossa, Aiguablava and Cadaqués to Cap de Creus — Barcelona and the Costa…
Tunisia & the Gulf of Gabes
Tunisia & the Gulf of Gabes: Carthage and the Bardo ashore, Sidi Bou Said's cliffs to Djerba's souk and synagogue — a southern-Med crossing stop…
12 waters
The Adriatic & Aegean
Croatia & the Dalmatian Coast
A thousand-island coastline: the nightlife of Hvar and the Pakleni islets, the remote clarity of Vis and the Blue Cave, the wilderness of the Kornati and the walled city of Dubrovnik. Superb, sheltered island-hopping.
Ionian Islands & Corfu
The green, sheltered Ionian: Corfu's Venetian old town, the sea caves and vivid water of Paxos and Antipaxos, and the calm island-studded channels around Lefkada. Gentler winds than the Aegean make for relaxed cruising.
Greek Cyclades
The postcard Aegean: whitewashed Mykonos, the sacred ruins of Delos, the flooded caldera of Santorini and quieter Paros and Naxos. Iconic scenery, though summer meltemi winds shape the route.
Montenegro & the Boka
A drowned river valley the locals call Europe's southernmost fjord, closing around a UNESCO old town, a car-free Baroque quarter and the Adriatic's one purpose-built, duty-free superyacht homeport.
Göcek & the Turquoise Coast
A gulf of pine-covered coves at the hinge between Aegean and Mediterranean — the birthplace of the gulet at Bodrum, Yalıkavak's mega-yacht scale, and a slow run east to the sunken city at Kekova.
Malta & Gozo
Two harbours either side of a fortress capital, the world's largest superyacht flag, and a turquoise channel between two islands — a compact Mediterranean base that works all year round.
The Saronic & Peloponnese
Car-free Hydra, Spetses' old harbour and the rock of Monemvasia — a gulf the meltemi rarely reaches, a short cruise from the Athens Riviera marinas.
The Dodecanese
A walled medieval city, a monastery cut into a mountainside, a live volcano you can walk down into — Greece's furthest islands, and a gentler wind than the Cyclades ever give up.
Istanbul & the Bosphorus
The only strait in the world that runs straight through a city of close to sixteen million — Ottoman palaces and timber waterfront mansions lined up along the water, the Golden Horn at its elbow, and the car-free calm of the Princes Islands a short crossing south.
Venice & the Northern Adriatic
Venice Yacht Pier's Giudecca Canal berths, Trieste's Barcolana, Slovenia's Portorož and Rovinj's ACI marina, May to September.
Crete & the Southern Aegean
the palace at Knossos, Spinalonga's fortress off Agios Nikolaos, Chania's Venetian harbour, Balos's lagoon and Gramvousa, and a south coast the…
Cyprus & the Levant
Limassol's 115m marina, Ayia Napa, Paphos mosaics and the Akamas turtle coast, Troodos wine villages and painted churches ashore, April to November.
20 waters
The Caribbean
The Bahamas & the Exumas
The definitive shallow-water cruising ground: a chain of cays over impossibly bright sandbanks, the swimming pigs of Big Major, the snorkel grotto at …
British Virgin Islands
The Caribbean's charter heartland: short, protected hops between islands, the granite grottoes of The Baths, legendary beach bars on Jost Van Dyke and…
St Barths & St Martin
The Caribbean's glamour twins: chic Gustavia, quiet Colombier reachable only by boat or trail, the wild sand of Saline, and the uninhabited islet of Î…
Antigua & the Leeward Islands
A cruising hub with heritage: the Georgian naval dockyard at English Harbour, reef-protected Nonsuch Bay, and the pink sand and frigate-bird colony of…
The Grenadines
The southern Caribbean at its most unspoilt: the reef-ringed lagoon of the Tobago Cays, seafaring Bequia, exclusive Mustique and quiet Mayreau. Fewer …
Grenada & Carriacou
Twelve degrees north and low enough to stay in commission through the Caribbean's quiet season — a lagoon marina, the world's first underwater sculpture park, and sister islands beyond.
Panama & the San Blas
More than 350 Guna-governed islands scattered across a coral-strewn Caribbean shelf, and — fifty-odd miles south — the lock-by-lock passage that has carried ships between two oceans since 1914.
St Lucia
Two rainforest peaks drop straight into the sea at Soufrière, a landlocked hurricane hole splits the coast at Marigot Bay, and every December the Atlantic's longest-running ocean rally sails in to finish at Rodney Bay.
Dominica
Rainforest running straight into deep water, a coastline too steep anywhere for a marina, and a resident clan of sperm whales offshore — the wildest charter in the Antilles.
Puerto Rico & the Spanish Virgins
Puerto del Rey, the Caribbean's largest marina, opens onto Culebra's reefs, Culebrita's tidal pools and a Vieques bay that glows after dark — all under a US flag, a short hop from the Virgin Islands.
The Dominican Republic
A 76-metre marina at a river mouth in the south, an island national park a morning’s run beyond it, and a bay in the north that fills with calving humpback whales each winter — two very different weeks under one flag.
St Kitts & Nevis
Christophe Harbour's purpose-built marina, Basseterre's Georgian streets and Nevis' plantation inns across the Narrows — St Kitts & Nevis, December…
Turks & Caicos
Blue Haven's 67-metre superyacht marina, Grace Bay's reef, the impassable Caicos Bank, French Cay's sharks and Grand Turk's wall dive, December to…
Martinique & Guadeloupe
Le Marin's charter fleets, St-Pierre under Mont Pelée, Les Saintes' celebrated bay, Marie-Galante's rum and Deshaies — EU territory, December to May.
Barbados
Port Ferdinand & Port St Charles on the calm west coast, Carlisle Bay's wrecks off Bridgetown, and the Caribbean's first Atlantic landfall, December…
Cartagena & the Rosarios
the UNESCO walled city, Club de Pesca marina, the coral islands of the Rosario and San Bernardo archipelagos, Playa Blanca on Barú, and a…
The Yucatán & Riviera Maya
Isla Mujeres' anchorage off Cancún's reef, Cozumel's drift-diving walls, whale sharks off Holbox and the Sian Ka'an wilderness, November to May.
Belize & the Barrier Reef
Belize & the Barrier Reef: Placencia, San Pedro and the Great Blue Hole, Turneffe and Glover's atolls on the world's second-largest barrier reef, dry…
Cuba
Marina Hemingway's marlin grounds, the Caribbean's largest marina at Varadero, and Jardines de la Reina's permit-only flats — Cuba's charter waters,…
Jamaica
Errol Flynn Marina's 183-metre superyacht dock in Port Antonio's quiet northeast, Blue Mountain coffee, Dunn's River and Boston Bay jerk, December to…
6 waters
The Atlantic Islands
The Azores
Nine volcanic islands scattered a third of the way from Europe to America — Horta's harbour walls painted by generations of passing crews, craters holding lakes and hot springs ashore, and waters that carry sperm whales year-round.
The Canary Islands
Spain's volcanic archipelago off the coast of Africa — a mild, wind-reliable winter base built around one of ocean sailing's great departures, with a 3,715-metre summit at its centre and a run of wild, marina-free anchorages to the west.
Bermuda
Six hundred nautical miles from the nearest land, ringed by reef and talked in through the gap by radio — a UNESCO harbour town, a Royal Navy dockyard turned marina, and pink sand facing the open Atlantic beyond.
Madeira
Funchal and Quinta do Lorde marinas, Porto Santo's golden beach, the Desertas monk-seal reserve and levada trails inland. Mild year-round, prime May…
Lisbon & Cascais
Belém's UNESCO waterfront, the Sintra coast and Cabo da Roca, Doca de Alcântara to Cascais Marina, May to October.
Cape Verde
Mindelo's ARC+ marina on São Vicente, Santo Antão's hiking country, Sal's salt crater and Boa Vista's turtle coast — a dry, trade-wind waypoint on…
12 waters
Northern Europe & the Arctic
Greenland & Disko Bay
Cathedral-sized icebergs calve from a UNESCO glacier, a heart-shaped mountain watches over Uummannaq, and whales work Disko Bay under a sun that never sets.
Iceland
Glacier-crowned peninsulas, a million puffins and humpbacks under the midnight sun — the Atlantic's emptiest cruising ground, with Michelin stars waiting ash…
The Scottish Hebrides
Painted harbours, basalt sea-caves and Michelin seafood beneath the Cuillin — Britain's last great cruising wilderness, with St Kilda 40 miles out in the Atl…
The Norwegian Fjords
Thousand-metre rock walls, water deeper still, and anchorages you'll have to yourselves — a short, glorious season between a Hanseatic city and an art nouvea…
Lofoten & Arctic Norway
Granite peaks straight from a glass-clear sea, red rorbu villages, sea eagles over the Trollfjord — and eight weeks when the sun never sets. The Arctic, done…
Svalbard
Polar bears, walrus and glacier-front anchorages under a sun that never sets all summer long — the northernmost, strictest and wildest charter ground there i…
The Stockholm Archipelago
Thirty thousand pine-and-granite islands east of Stockholm — Sandhamn's racing summers, Vaxholm's fortress and midsummer nights that never quite go dark.
The Baltic Capitals
Copenhagen's Langelinie to Helsinki, via Bornholm, Karlskrona, Riga and Tallinn's Old City Marina. June to August, white nights.
The Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands by superyacht: turf-roofed Tórshavn, Klaksvík, Vestmanna's bird cliffs and Mykines' puffins — North Atlantic anchorages, season and…
Ireland's West Coast
Kinsale, Crosshaven's Royal Cork — the world's oldest yacht club — Bantry Bay, Dingle and a permit-only landing on Skellig Michael.
The Channel Islands & Brittany
St Peter Port, St Helier, car-free Sark and walled Saint-Malo, with Cancale's oysters and Mont-Saint-Michel in reach — one of the world's largest…
The Northwest Passage
The Northwest Passage by superyacht: Pond Inlet to Cambridge Bay via Beechey Island's Franklin graves and Gjoa Haven — ice class, NORDREG and a brief…
8 waters
The Americas
Alaska & the Inside Passage
Tidewater glaciers, brown bears and bubble-netting humpbacks in a thousand miles of sheltered fjord — the Americas' wildest charter water, entered on permits.
British Columbia & Desolation Sound
Fjords warm enough to swim in, granite anchorages with no one else in them, and orcas on the tide line — bookended by Vancouver's marina and Victoria's Empre…
The Sea of Cortez
Cousteau's 'world's aquarium': whale sharks off the La Paz malecón, sea lions at Los Islotes, and red-desert islands where you anchor alone. October to June.
New England — Newport & the Islands
America's yachting capital and its islands: 12 Metres off the mansions, oysters shucked at the rail in Cuttyhunk, Nantucket a day-sail east. June to Septembe…
Costa Rica's Pacific Coast
Sailfish raised by the dozen off Los Sueños and Quepos, a rainforest wilderness at Corcovado, and a private-peninsula marina in Guanacaste — three very different waters inside one dry season.
Florida & the Keys
Miami's 167-metre Island Gardens, Fort Lauderdale's refit row, Rybovich in Palm Beach, and the reef line south to Key West.
Southern California & Catalina
San Diego's superyacht berths and refit yards, Newport Beach, Catalina's Avalon and Two Harbors moorings, and Channel Islands National Park.
Hawaiʻi
Hawaiʻi by superyacht: Honolulu's thin small-boat harbours, Maui's humpback channel, Kona's night mantas and the roadless cliffs of Nā Pali.…
4 waters
The Expedition South
The Galápagos
The hardest invitation in yachting: permit-only cruising through Darwin's archipelago, where penguins cross the Equator and nothing on land fears you.
Patagonia & the Chilean Fjords
A thousand miles of glacier fjords from Puerto Montt to Cape Horn — blue whales off Chiloé, calving ice at San Rafael, king crab ashore and days without anot…
The Antarctic Peninsula
Two days across the Drake to the emptiest coast on earth — a live volcano harbour, glass channels, thousand-strong penguin colonies and whales at arm's lengt…
Brazil & the Costa Verde
Three hundred and sixty-five forested islands scattered across a bay sheltered enough to be rated the best sailing water in Brazil — a UNESCO-listed colonial port at one end of the run, Rio's skyline and Sugarloaf at the other.
12 waters
The Pacific & Australasia
The Kimberley
Ten-metre tides, a waterfall that runs sideways, a reef that rises from the sea, and crocodiles that outnumber the visitors — cruising's last true wilderness…
The Whitsundays & Great Barrier Reef
Seventy-odd islands in the Great Barrier Reef's lagoon: Whitehaven's silica swirls, Hamilton Island's August race week and helicopters out to Heart Reef.
New Zealand — Bay of Islands & the Hauraki Gulf
Auckland's America's Cup waterfront to 144 subtropical islands — Waiheke's vineyards, Kawau's wallabies, and the Hole in the Rock, all within a week's cruisi…
Fiji
Two reef-strewn island chains off Nadi, a dry-season trade wind, and anchorages that range from a torch-lit cave to a yacht club you join by simply arriving.
Tahiti & French Polynesia
Bora Bora's reef, Moorea's twin bays, Taha'a's vanilla and the shark-thick Tuamotu passes — a Pacific circuit built for weeks, not days, from Papeete's Marin…
Far North Queensland & Lizard Island
Cairns and Port Douglas are the last proper marinas before the Great Barrier Reef runs into open water — the Ribbon Reefs, a private island with its own research station, and, from September, one of the world's great runs of giant black marlin.
New Caledonia
Nouméa's two harbours open onto the largest lagoon on Earth — a UNESCO-listed reef world reaching south to Prony Bay's hot springs and out to Île des Pins, with the Loyalty Islands a further passage beyond.
Vanuatu
A live volcano glowing above the anchorage Captain Cook named for his own ship, a sunken WWII troopship the length of two football pitches, and a kastom culture that still sets the terms ashore — a South Pacific archipelago few charters reach more than once a season.
Sydney & New South Wales
Sydney Harbour and New South Wales: superyacht berths at Jones Bay and Rozelle, New Year's Eve at anchor, and the sheltered cruising ground of…
Tasmania
Hobart's Sydney Hobart finish and MONA, the D'Entrecasteaux Channel and Bruny Island, Port Davey's wilderness anchorage and Wineglass Bay, December…
Tonga — Vavaʻu & Haʻapai
Neiafu's Port of Refuge, licensed whale swims July–October, Swallows and Mariner's caves, and Haʻapai's untouched atolls.
The Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands by superyacht: Iron Bottom Sound's WWII wrecks, Marovo Lagoon's double barrier reef, Gizo and Kennedy Island — an anchorage-led…
24 waters
The Indian Ocean & Southeast Asia
The Seychelles
115 granite and coral islands cruised year-round from one marina on Mahé — boulder beaches, free-roaming giant tortoises, and a remote atoll south by permit…
The Maldives
Twenty-six atolls of reef-fringed lagoons, the manta cyclone at Hanifaru Bay, and sandbank dinners that move nightly — the Indian Ocean's most private charte…
Phuket & the Andaman Sea
Limestone karsts, a Bond-film island and the Andaman's only 100-metre superyacht berths — Phuket's charter season runs calm and dry from November to April.
Komodo & Flores
Wild Komodo dragons on the beach by breakfast, manta rays working the reef passes by lunch, and a phinisi-masted anchorage with no other yacht in sight by ni…
Raja Ampat
Fifteen hundred karst islands over the world's richest reef: climb Wayag and Piaynemo's viewpoints, dive the record-holding waters off Cape Kri, no marina re…
Dubai & the Arabian Gulf
Glass-tower marinas, an F1 circuit with berths inside the paddock, and Oman's desert fjords two hours north — the Gulf's contrast-rich season, October to Apr…
The Saudi Red Sea
Two marinas that did not exist five years ago, a barrier reef Red Sea Global ranks among the world's largest, and ninety-odd islands with almost nothing built on them yet — the Kingdom's Red Sea coast is opening its first full seasons, October to April.
Singapore & the Malacca Strait
Sentosa Cove holds Asia's most-awarded superyacht marina and a cluster of refit yards; Langkawi, 382 nautical miles north, has been duty-free since 1987 — with the Strait of Malacca's working shipping lanes running between the two, and Phuket and Indonesia beyond.
Musandam & Muscat
Bare mountain khors cut into the Strait of Hormuz, a dhow-building harbour at Khasab, and Muscat's white waterfront two hundred and fifty miles south — Oman's own season, and the quietest corner of the Gulf.
The Egyptian Red Sea
A wreck divers travel the world for, a reef wall where two gulfs meet, and a coastline newly open to foreign-flagged charter — Egypt's Red Sea, in winter sun from October to May.
The Seto Inland Sea
A vermillion gate standing in the tide off Miyajima, two once-quiet fishing islands turned into one of the world's great open-air art collections, and a floating hotel that calls Onomichi home.
Mauritius & Réunion
A lagoon-and-reef circuit from Port Louis to the UNESCO shoreline at Le Morne, then a hundred and twenty miles of open water southwest to a volcano that erupts more often than almost any other on Earth.
The Zanzibar Archipelago
Coral-stone Stone Town, clove-scented Pemba and a marine park off Mafia where whale sharks gather every season — three islands worked at anchor and tender, with no marina anywhere in the archipelago.
Nosy Be & Northern Madagascar
A flooded volcanic crater at Hell-Ville doing duty as Madagascar's one real yachting hub — black lemurs in the rainforest at Lokobe, a Russian battle fleet's old anchorage, and the Mitsio and Radama archipelagos scattered across open water beyond it.
Sri Lanka
A Dutch fort that still works as a harbour, blue whales off a fishing beach, and a natural anchorage among the world's largest, waiting out the opposite season on the other coast.
Palawan
Limestone islands rise sheer from Bacuit Bay off El Nido, a sunken Japanese fleet rests in Coron's reef-locked lagoon, and Busuanga closes the loop between them — the far north of Palawan runs on anchorage, agent and the calm of the amihan season.
Coastal Vietnam
A UNESCO karst labyrinth in the north, a reef-fringed bay at the centre and a turtle-nesting archipelago in the south — three cruising grounds along one coastline the charter world is only now starting to chart.
Palau
Four hundred and forty-five forested limestone islands inside a UNESCO lagoon, a wall dive rated among the best on Earth, a lake of nearly stingless jellyfish and sixty-odd wrecks from 1944 — held inside some of the most strictly protected water anywhere.
The Bazaruto Archipelago
Five dune-backed islands off Vilankulo, laced by a tidal channel of shifting sandbanks and seagrass — home to the Western Indian Ocean's last viable population of dugongs, cruised at anchor through the May-to-November trade season.
Cape Town & the Cape
Cape Town & the Cape: the V&A Waterfront's superyacht marina and refit yards, Hout Bay and Simon's Town, the Cape of Good Hope rounding and the Cape…
Bali, Lombok & the Gilis
Bali, Lombok and the Gilis for superyachts: Benoa's marina in the making, Nusa Penida's manta cleaning station, three engine-free islets and temple…
Lamu & the Kenyan Coast
Lamu's UNESCO Old Town, Manda Bay, the Kiunga reserve, Kilifi Creek and Mombasa's Old Port — Kenya's dhow coast in the kaskazi season, October to…
Qatar & Bahrain
Doha's Old Doha Port and Porto Arabia, Bahrain's Amwaj Marina, I. M. Pei's MIA and the Pearling Path. Season November–April.
The Andaman Islands
Port Blair's permit-first clearance, Radhanagar Beach, Neil's Natural Bridge and a live-volcano dive at Barren Island, November to April.