Hotel yacht or private charter: how to choose

Four hotel names now sail. Ritz-Carlton has had yachts at sea since 2022. Four Seasons launched in March 2026 and Orient Express in May 2026. Aman takes its first guests in May 2027.

So a week at sea with friends or family can now be booked two ways. You take suites on one of these, or you charter a yacht of your own.

Here is how the two compare on privacy, on where you can go, on who plans the day, and on price.

A hotel yacht is a small cruise ship run by a hotel brand. The four fleets run from 180 to 241 metres in length. Most of the ships carry 100 to 300 guests.

You book a suite on a set voyage. The route and the dates are published in advance.

A private charter yacht is yours for the week. Most take up to 12 guests, with a captain, a chef and crew who look after your group only. You agree the route with the captain, and you can change it on the day.

On a hotel yacht, you share the ship. Your suite is your own. The pool, the restaurants and the tender ashore are shared with people you haven't met.

On a private charter, the guest list is yours: up to 12 people, all of them invited by you. The crew looks after your group and nobody else.

For guests who are recognised in public, that is often the whole reason to charter.

Size decides this. The four hotel fleets are 180 to 241 metres long. A private charter yacht is much smaller.

A 200-metre ship calls at ports and anchorages that can take a ship of that size. A charter yacht can enter small harbours and anchor in bays where the big ship cannot go, close enough to swim to the beach.

The route works differently too. A hotel yacht follows its published itinerary. On a charter, if you like a bay, you stay another night. If you'd rather skip a port, you skip it.

On a charter, the week is planned around your group. You choose the bays and how long you stay in each. Lunch is served when you're hungry.

If someone in the group trains every morning, we can bring a yoga teacher or a personal trainer on board and plan the days around it.

The start is flexible as well. Three of the four hotel yacht sailings we priced end in Athens or Piraeus on a fixed date. A charter can start there and leave when you're ready, after a day or two in the city. In winter, both options move to the Caribbean.

A hotel yacht works like a hotel. Four Seasons has 11 restaurants and lounges on its ship. Four Seasons and Aman each have a Japanese omakase restaurant, and Orient Express has a restaurant by the French chef Yannick Alléno. You book a table and choose from the menu.

On a charter, the chef cooks for your group only. Before you board, you fill in a preference sheet: what you love, what you don't eat, what the children will accept. The chef can cook for the children at 6 and for the adults at 9, if that's how your family eats.

Lunch can be grilled fish on deck after a swim. Dinner can be a long table at anchor, or a barbecue the crew sets up on a beach. If you want a taverna ashore, the crew books it.

For a group of more than 8, a private charter can cost each couple about the same as a hotel yacht suite, and sometimes less.

Hotel yacht fares for two start at a little over €3,000 a night with Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons. Orient Express starts at around €5,500 a night, and Aman at over €6,000. These are starting fares for the smallest suites, on 7-night Mediterranean sailings in 2027.

What the fare covers changes from brand to brand. Ritz-Carlton and Orient Express include most restaurants and drinks. Aman includes one restaurant, and charges for the others and for wine. Four Seasons includes breakfast, and charges for lunch, dinner and alcohol. Spa treatments are extra on all four.

So the final bill depends on how your group eats and drinks, at prices the ship sets. Ten people ordering wine at dinner for a week will move the total.

A private charter is priced another way. You pay one weekly rate for the whole yacht and its crew. On top comes the APA, an advance of about 35 to 40% of the rate that pays for fuel, food, drink and port fees. VAT is added, and a tip for the crew is your decision.

The APA is the part you control. You tell the chef what you'd like before you board, and you set the budget. The captain keeps the accounts, and whatever isn't spent comes back to you.

Split the full cost between 10 or 12 guests, and a charter can come to about the same per couple as the lower hotel yacht fares, and well under the higher ones.

With fewer guests, the charter costs more per head and a hotel yacht can be the cheaper choice.

A couple can charter too. For 2 people, a hotel yacht suite will cost less. What a couple gets on a charter is a yacht with nobody else on it and a route of their own.

• You're 2 or 4 people and price matters most.
• You want several restaurants, a large spa and evening entertainment on board.
• You like a fixed route and meeting other guests.
• You'd rather book one suite and plan nothing.

Ask for a charter quote before you book suites. We can charter almost any yacht on the market, and we'll give you the whole cost for the week. Put it next to the suite fares and decide.

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