Yacht Vacations - Luxury, Adventure & Complete Freedom

Episode Overview Join travel advisors Ryan and Julie as they explore the world of yacht vacations - a luxury travel experience that's more accessible than you think! Discover how small vessel cruises offer privacy, flexibility, and exclusive destinations that mega cruise ships can't reach.

What You'll Learn About Yacht Vacations

Types of Yacht Experiences:

• Private charters (book entire yacht and crew)
• Cabin charters (book individual rooms like regular cruises)
• Sailing yachts vs. motor yachts
• Catamarans and small vessel options

Key Benefits:

• Privacy and flexibility with customized itineraries
• Luxury service with personal crew and chef-prepared meals
• Access to exclusive, secluded destinations
• Intimate experience (30-50 guests vs. thousands)
• Family-friendly with water sports and flexible schedules

Popular Yacht Vacation Destinations

Caribbean: Perfect for beginners, shorter trips, access to Grenadines and St. Lucia's smaller ports

Mediterranean: Greece, Croatia, French and Italian Rivieras with handpicked itineraries

Worldwide Options: South Pacific, Adriatic, Americas through luxury travel companies

Pricing & Accessibility

Yacht vacations aren't just for the ultra-wealthy! Pricing comparable to higher-end river cruises or concierge-level cruise experiences. Companies like Riviera, Scenic Ocean Voyages, and Kensington Tours offer various price points.

Planning Tips for Your Yacht Vacation

Timing: Book 12 months in advance due to limited vessel capacity

• Europe peak season: Summer
• Caribbean peak season: Winter

Travel Style Considerations: Perfect for intimate, luxury experiences and multi-generational family trips

Essential Preparations:

• Work with experienced travel advisors
• Purchase comprehensive travel insurance
• Consider weather factors and remote destinations
• Match destination to optimal travel seasons

What to Expect Onboard

Spacious cabins with large windows, personalized service, flexible activity schedules, gourmet dining experiences, and casual dress codes. Life slows down while luxury amenities elevate your experience.

Featured Travel Partners: Kensington Tours, Riviera River Cruises, Scenic Ocean Voyages

Ready to explore yacht vacation options? Contact Wonder and Beyond Travel for personalized planning assistance.

Next Episode: Airport navigation tips for families and travelers

Keywords: yacht vacation, luxury travel, small ship cruises, Caribbean yacht charter, Mediterranean yacht cruise, private yacht charter, cabin charter, travel advisor, luxury cruise alternative

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Visit our website www.allthingstravelpodcast.com and click on "Plan Your Next Vacation"

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Transcript

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 0:05

Hello and welcome to All Things Travel. Today we're diving into a type of vacation that blends luxury, adventure, and complete freedom yachting travel. Have you ever dreamed of waking up to turquoise waters hopping off your private yacht into a quiet harbor village, and dining under the stars on the deck with no other travelers in sight? Yacht, vacations make this dream a reality, and it may be more accessible than you think.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 0:32

Listen in with travel advisors and destination experts, Ryan and Julie. He is your travel professor teaching you everything you need to know to have a magical vacation. And I am a Disney loving Maryland mom of three and a specialist and family travel. Whether we're discussing incredible destinations, top vacation tips are sharing personal stories. It's always all things travel.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 0:57

Julie, how are you doing this week?

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 1:00

We are doing good. as my email said today, business is booming. We are moving right along. we are in summer,

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 1:08

Yes, yes.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 1:09

up for summer home with my children.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 1:12

very nice. Well, I am working on, different travel itineraries. I've got folks going to Universal. I've got folks that are falling in love with Disney Cruise Line, so they're wanting to do more and more Disney Cruise line. I've got all sorts of stuff going on. I'm working with folks that are going to Switzerland. lots of good stuff. And personally, I got a puppy. Jasmine and I went to Ohio this past week and picked up the puppy that we adopted, her name is Nala and she is a teddy bear dog, and she is an itty bitty little thing. I don't think we were prepared for how small she is.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 1:51

really?

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 1:52

Yes. So we spent all this money,

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 1:54

to get?

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 1:55

her parents are 12 pounds.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 1:57

Oh

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 1:57

So, she'll stay pretty small. I was joking. Today I am like, we spent, a fair amount of money on toys in preparation for her. And her favorite toys thus far are a pine cone and a balloon.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 2:08

I also did not think that my dog was going to get large, and he is currently 70 pounds.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 2:13

He is a big dog. Yes. We're having a good time. we're figuring each other out. And she is, you know, she, she can be a little sassy. She can be a little bity, but, that's, it's all good.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 2:25

And this is like day two.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 2:27

Day two.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 2:28

when Ryan was going to pick her up, I was like, don't do it just because my dog's a pest, but that's okay.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 2:34

You know what, it was a four hour ride home. We had no trouble on the ride home. Two nights in, she slept the entire night. So we're doing okay. I don't want to jinx myself, but we're doing okay.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 2:46

my 7-year-old dog doesn't even sleep all night. He just barks for no reason.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 2:51

Well then it sounds like you need a vacation, Julie. And you know what type of vacation would be great. we're gonna talk about yachting vacations today, and I am super excited because this is a very unique type of vacation and something not a lot of people think they can do. And you can do it. It is more economical than you think. It is more accessible than you think. So we are gonna break it down today, but before we do that, if you did not listen to our conversation last week about Epic Universe, my son was actually on the podcast with us, we talk all about Epic and there is a ton to talk about. All right, so what is a yacht vacation? when we talk about yacht vacations, we're really talking about small vessel cruises and they can be a variety of things. you can have a private charter where you book the whole yacht and crew, you can have a cabin charter, which is more common than you think, where you're on either a sailing yacht or a motor yacht. And you basically have a room just like on a regular cruise.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 3:54

Mm-hmm.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 3:55

and then there's options ranging from full sailing to catamarans, all sorts of things. So really, there's a variety of ways to quote unquote yacht. but each type is intimate, customized, and really a far cry from that mega cruise ship experience that we enjoy, but is very different from what we're talking about today.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 4:17

Yes,

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 4:18

So Julie, why would folks want to start thinking about this vacation?

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 4:23

I think one of the first things is the privacy and the flexibility that it can give you. You can really customize that itinerary to your interest, It's a smaller group, so if the group wants to spend more time in

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 4:37

Yep.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 4:37

You also have that privacy because it's such a small group on the yacht. think when you're on a cruise ship. You walk out of your room, you go up to the pool deck, and there are just.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 4:52

Yes.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 4:52

gonna be like that on your yacht vacation. You also are gonna experience some luxury level service. There's gonna be a personal crew, chef prepared meals and top tier amenities on board. You know, you're not gonna have things like laser tag and big water slides, so if that's your vibe, stick with Royal Caribbean. But if you want this more intimate luxury experience, this is the way to go. You're also gonna be able to travel to more exclusive destinations. So think like some secluded beaches, quieter villages, natural wonders that those large ships cannot port at. I know I have. that were sailing on a princess cruise to the Mediterranean recently. and one of the ports got nixed from their itinerary because the ship was too big to fit into the port. the itinerary changed about. three months before travel. it's a well-known thing that this port is too hard to get to. It's a port in Montenegro and it was beautiful. The excursions they had booked were just beautiful. they did get to go somewhere else in Montenegro. We were able to do a similar excursion, that just shows you, if you were on a smaller vessel it would be so much easier to access those smaller downs.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 6:06

And the good thing is we have several, suppliers that offer these types of vacations. Some you've heard about on this podcast, others you haven't. Kensington has a yacht program. We've talked a lot about Kensington on this podcast. Riviera River Cruises has a yacht program where you are either chartering the entire ship or doing a. Cabin charter scenic. Ocean Voyages has a luxury yacht that, you can charter, but mostly think of it as a smaller cruise ship. that just looks amazing. It looks a lot of fun. So we're gonna be talking about, These, suppliers that we work with throughout our conversation today. to dispel some rumors when we talk about yachting, some quick facts. Is this only for the super wealthy? Not at all. our friends from Riviera and Scenic offer small ship yacht experiences, really, that are a price point to a higher end river cruise. not inexpensive, but not probably the price point that you're thinking about.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 7:08

even like a concierge level

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 7:10

yes,

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 7:11

ship, right?

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 7:12

absolutely. if you're doing that level of sailing, this falls within your price point. What about seasickness? Julie?

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 7:21

So most of the routes you're

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 7:22

I.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 7:23

go on with your itinerary hug the coastal waters that are gonna be a lot calmer. and the yachts are gonna still be stabilized. you're not gonna have a lot of motion. Those stabilizers are gonna reduce the motion. I wouldn't be worried about getting

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 7:36

Yeah. Is yachting a family friendly vacation? Absolutely. One, because it's very flexible about what you want, and what you're interested in, but also think of the water sports and smaller shore excursions your kids can really be immersed the way they need to be immersed. having a. Crew catering to you means the type of food that you want, and schedule you want. most people think, well, I can't go on a sailing yacht'cause I don't know how to sail. I can't do a catamaran trip. Well, unless you specifically look for those types of cruises, they don't want you to be the ones sailing. They have a full crew that is more than capable

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 8:16

Yeah.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 8:16

So Julie.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 8:17

you.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 8:17

So Julie, let's talk about popular destination when it comes to cruising, and probably the first one people think about the most.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 8:26

this is gonna be the Caribbean, and this is the perfect starting point if you have not had a yacht vacation before. the Caribbean is where everyone starts with their cruises. one of the benefits is that it doesn't have to be a super long trip. There's so many places you can go in the Caribbean and it's easy to access. Ryan mentioned Scenic cruise line earlier, so their new luxury yacht voyages can get to some of these smaller ports in the Grenadines, St. Lucia and beyond. A lot of times if you're booking an ocean cruise that's going to Caribbean, you're going to the same places. Everyone's

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 8:57

Yep.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 8:59

maybe you're going to Jamaica.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 9:01

if you're really adventurous, you're going to the A, B, C islands.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 9:04

Exactly, but those cruises are kind of hard to come by if you are already going to be looking at that elevated price to go to those a, b, C type islands, you may already be in this price range to do this yap vacation and go really immersed and see these very beautiful

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 9:21

Yes. Second is the Mediterranean. I mean, how cool would it be to say we're going over to the Mediterranean and we're gonna go on a yacht vacation? Julie?

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 9:32

That's amazing.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 9:33

Riviera's yacht cruises, offers handpicked itineraries in Greece, Croatia, the French and Italian Rivieras. You have a small ship experience with just 30 to 50 guests on board. this is really somebody that wants to have that small ship experience, but they don't have either the resources or the inclination to charter an entire ship.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 9:57

Mm-hmm.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 9:57

They can still have that experience how cool would you feel, you know, pulling into those ports that nobody else can get into and have your Mediterranean experience on one of these ships. And then our last option is our friends at Kensington, They can really do whatever you want when it comes to a private yacht vacation across the globe. So thinking of the South Pacific to the Adriatic, even in the Americas and the Caribbean. They can really cater completely to what you want and create the experience that you're looking for. because they've done it all. They've done it everywhere. So that's why we love, somebody like Kensington Tours so much. So what should we expect on these types of vacations? on a yacht, vacation life really slows down. but you have those high-end amenities. for instance, on a lot of. Yachts, your cabin is more spacious than it would be on a large ship. the one place where it may not be is if you're on a true sailing yacht. you have large windows, large rooms, large bathrooms.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 11:03

Mm-hmm.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 11:04

you have personalized service from your captain, your crew, your stewards, your chef. They get to know you. your preferences even more so than on a regular cruise. You're also gonna have activities. This is not a type of cruise where things are gonna be planned out for you. But there's always things that you could do, like paddle boring, snorkeling, but a lot of times it's gonna be based around the weather, where you're at location wise, and how much you want to engage in those types of activities. The meals are also where this really shines. not only on the ship, but having beach picnics, candlelit dinners on the deck, themed dinners. if you're talking about a chartered ship where you have the entire boat, you can do whatever you want. they'll make accommodations for you. if you have a place where there's only 30 passengers on board, think of the personalization that you're gonna get when it comes to dining there's no sense of having to dress up. no sense of having to be formal because it's your ship.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 12:08

Right. That sounds amazing. Wow. so

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 12:12

So.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 12:12

talk about a few tips for when you're thinking about your vacation. If you think this is in your future, you wanna think about planning this about a year in advance. because the vessels are so much smaller, obviously they're not accommodating as many people, which is a huge perk. But that also means, there's not a lot of room to book, If you wanna book a cabin, you only have a couple to choose from kind of thing. There's gonna be a couple of peak seasons. So in Europe the peak season will be summer and in the Caribbean, your peak season will be winter. So think about that when you are thinking about that 12 month window to plan.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 12:50

Yep.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 12:51

just, be honest about your travel style. Are you the type of person who will enjoy a more intimate vacation experience? something more luxury, Is that gonna make you go crazy after a couple

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 13:03

Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 13:03

not having things to do? being honest about that I think is important as well.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 13:08

Well, For the price point of some of these vacations, are you gonna take advantage of everything that a private crew has to offer? Or is it better to be in a concierge club on a larger cruise ship and have that experience? I think it's really how do you see your vacation and does a yachting experience really fit that.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 13:27

Yeah. And you know what I think a yacht experience would really fit is like a multi-gen trip,

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 13:33

Absolutely. Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 13:35

you would have enough people potentially to fill that yacht. And how amazing would that be to just have this great boating experience with just your family?

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 13:44

Yeah. Yeah. The third planning tip is work with somebody like us, a travel advisor, because we are connected to suppliers That can really help you with those experiences. at Kensington, Riviera, scenic, who are the players when it comes to a yacht vacation, and how can we get the best bang for our buck, and get the vacation that we want. That's our job to help you do that.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 14:08

We also do not want you to forget about travel insurance, which is especially important on this type of vacation. Number one, because there's so many weather factors that can interrupt or delay your trip. And number two, you're going to much more remote destinations. a lot of times the biggest pushback I get about travel insurance is we are going on this trip no matter what.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 14:32

Right.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 14:32

if you are exploring one of these more, secluded beaches and you fall, you break your ankle, there's not a hospital They may have to take you somewhere. you really don't wanna pay for that helicopter ride.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 14:44

Yep, absolutely. And then lastly, just to reiterate, know where the best place to yacht is for the time of year that you're going on the vacation. just because you want to go there, it may not be the right time. looking ahead, like Julie said, knowing that Winter's perfect for the Caribbean and Summer's ideal for the Mediterranean and what that means for your travel schedule.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 15:07

As we wrap up, I have a question for you When you picture yourself on a yacht vacation, where are you? What destinations are you going to?

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 15:17

I am in Greece

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 15:20

Oh.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 15:20

I am in some remote Caribbean island.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 15:24

Yeah, Greece was my answer. Greece or South of France was my answer. I don't know if that's partly because I associate a yacht vacation with those areas

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 15:34

Yeah.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 15:35

I don't know if that makes sense.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 15:36

And I think for me, when I think of the different varieties, I think a yacht that I'm not chartering the entire ship. I think just having a small'cause I've had a small cruise experience and I really enjoyed that.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 15:48

Mm-hmm.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 15:49

when I sail with Atlas Ocean Voyages in Greece, That felt like a yacht, even though it was bigger. but it had that feel. I like that better than the idea of chartering a whole ship, I think.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 16:01

Wow, that sounds amazing. And you know, if you're listening to this and you're like, wow, I never considered doing a yacht vacation going around the islands of Greece or the South of France, or to these more remote islands in the Caribbean, definitely keep that on your list of options.

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 16:18

Absolutely. The world is full of wonder and your next great adventure is waiting at Wonder and Beyond Travel. We work with you to create a one of a kind journey, taking the stress off your plate so you can focus on the joy of exploring and the memories that will stay with you forever. If you're ready to start planning or just want to dream a little bigger, maybe about a yacht vacation, head over to Wonder and beyond travel.com. We would love to help you get started. You can reach out to us at Wonder and beyond travel.com. We look forward to talking to you next week on All Things Travel. When we discuss tips and tricks for navigating the airport with kids​Yacht, vacations make this dream a reality, and it may be more accessible than you think. Let's raise, anchor, and set sail.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 17:14

Can I not be associated with you sometimes?

ryan_2_06-01-2025_202031: 17:17

No, you have to be.

j_1_06-01-2025_202031: 17:19

Such a dad? All right.