When is the best time to book a sailing holiday?

Whatever the time of year, it’s almost always a good idea to book a yacht charter, and there will be somewhere with sunshine, reliable winds and gorgeous places to sail to – either in the Med (April to November), the Caribbean (November to June) or Australia / Thailand (October to March).

But when is the best time to book a yacht charter?

 Best for maximal choice:  Book 10+ months in advance 

In terms of choice - and making sure you book the exact size, model and age of boat, with all the right mod cons, you want - then the further in advance you can get it booked the better. That means booking around a year in advance, as then almost all of the boats will be available, and you’ll have a free choice to pick THE best boat in the marina.

For the Med, we’re already seeing bookings flying in thick and fast for summer 2022, and each one takes another boat out of the water – the early bird gets the worm, and in this case, the early booker gets the best boat!

 Best for price:  Book 8+ months in advance or gamble on <1 month before 

In terms of price, the yacht and catamaran charter companies like to get things booked up nice and early, so their best prices are usually reserved for their ‘early booking discounts’ – when you can get as much as 25% or 30% off the price-list for the boat. For the Med, the early booking discounts tend to run up until the end of January for the following summer season.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, you can also get some good last minute discounts if you’re prepared to wait it out. The one down-side to that being that you’re basically stuck with whatever boats remain unbooked at the time you want to sail – usually the older, less appealing boats – and you might not get such good prices on flights, accommodation, depending upon if you get them booked now (whilst they’re cheaper) or you book them last minute too (which could easily erode any savings you make from getting the boat a bit cheaper). You can get good value last-minute, but you might not get the boat you really want, or one that necessarily meets your needs.

One other point worth noting is that there’s plenty of joy in the anticipation of a holiday – booking things last minute means you don’t get as long to look forward to your sailing holiday…

 Best time all-round:  Book NOW! 

Weighing it all up then, to get both the best possible prices and the best possible availability for your summer 2022 sailing holiday, then the absolute sweet-spot right-time-to-buy is now – that is, in the November and December before the season starts, when you’ll have excellent early-bird prices coupled with good availability of the top boats.

So what are you waiting for? Search in the pink box now and see what bargains you can find.