What a Crewed Catamaran Charter in Greece Really Costs: One Week, Every Line (2026)

Published August 2026. The figures come from a real charter settlement we handled this season.

Most guides to the cost of a yacht charter in Greece take a list price and multiply it by a percentage. That gives you a range, and the range is usually about right, but it does not tell you what a week actually costs once the boat has been fuelled, provisioned and settled. This article follows one crewed catamaran week in Greece from the quote to the captain's settlement, and then works out what it came to per person.

The boat was a 46-foot sailing catamaran, the class that makes up much of the Greek crewed fleet, with 2 crew and 8 guests for 7 nights in peak summer 2026. The charter fee was €15,000, the VAT €1,800, and the captain spent about €4,450 of the €4,800 APA on running costs, returning the balance at the end. Before the crew tip, the week cost €21,250, or about €2,650 per person.

How much does a crewed catamaran charter in Greece cost per week?

For this boat and this group, €21,250 before gratuity. That figure is the charter fee, the VAT charged on it, and the running costs the captain actually paid out of the APA. The table below sets out each line and the per-person figure at 8 guests.

The APA convention held up well on this charter. Yachts in Greece usually quote around 30% of the fee for a sailing catamaran and this week spent just under that. The all-in figure came to 1.42 times the charter fee before the tip and 1.52 times with a 10% tip, which is a little below the 1.5 to 1.65 that most online guides suggest, and the difference is almost entirely that they fold the tip in and we show it separately.

Where did the APA actually go?

The APA is money the guests put up before the charter so the captain can pay for fuel, provisioning, drinks and port fees as the week goes on. It is spent at cost, with receipts, and the balance is returned. This is how the settlement broke down, by category, for the week in question.

Fuel was the largest line, which is unusual for a sailing catamaran and worth understanding. The engines ran for about 25 hours over the whole week, which is under 4 hours a day and normal for a Greek itinerary of short hops between anchorages. The generator ran for close to 100 hours, or about 14 hours a day, because at anchor in a Greek summer it is the generator that powers the air conditioning, the fridges and the watermaker. On this boat the generator burned around 60% of the diesel, and we have written that up in more detail in a separate article on catamaran fuel costs.

Provisioning came to about €30 per person per day, which reflects a hostess shopping in Greek markets and cooking on board rather than a chef flown in for the week. Drinks were about €11 per person per day on local wine and beer. Port fees were close to nothing because the captain chose anchorages for most nights, which in Greece is both the cheaper option and usually the better one.

What does it work out to per person?

Split 8 ways, the week cost about €2,650 per person before the tip and about €2,840 with a 10% gratuity, which is €380 to €405 per person per night for a private crewed yacht with a cook, all meals and all drinks included.

The headcount matters more than people expect, because only some of the running costs scale with it. Provisioning and drinks grow with the number of guests, while fuel and port fees do not. On this boat about €2,340 of the APA went on food and drink and about €2,120 on fuel and port, so if the same charter had run with 6 guests instead of 8, and the food and drink had scaled down accordingly, the per-person cost would have risen to roughly €3,450 before the tip. A full boat is the most economical way to charter one.

How does this compare with the figures published online?

Most published cost guides are written from list prices and assumed percentages rather than from settlements, and a real week shows where those assumptions drift.

The most widely read Greek cost guide puts sailing-catamaran fuel at €500 to €1,200 a week. This boat burned about €2,000, and the difference is the generator, which the estimates leave out. The same guides put provisioning at €80 to €150 per person per day, where this crew fed 8 people well for about €30 a head, because a good Greek hostess shopping locally is a very different cost base from a private chef. Marina berths are quoted at €100 to €800 a night, which is accurate for a berth but irrelevant to a week spent mostly at anchor; the total port spend here was about €120. And the usual advice to budget 50 to 65% on top of the charter fee came out at 42% before the tip and 52% with one, so the guidance is sound as long as you know that a third of that margin is the gratuity.

What does a crewed catamaran charter in Greece cost by size?

The same calculation applied to larger boats gives a useful budget frame. The fees below are current 2026 listing rates for crewed catamarans in Greece, from low season to high, and the VAT and APA are applied at the same 12% and 30% as the real week above. The per-person figure is at each boat's listed capacity.

Two caveats apply to that table. The VAT rate in Greece varies by yacht, from 5.2% to 13% depending on the boat's navigation licence, which we explain in our guide to reading a charter quote, so the VAT line on a real quote may be lower than shown. And the APA is what you pre-pay, whereas what you actually spend is what the week costs; on the real week above the two were within a few hundred euros of each other, which is what a well-estimated APA looks like.

What would change the number?

A larger boat moves every line, as the table shows, although the per-person cost rises more slowly than the fee because more of the boat is shared. A motor yacht changes the shape of the APA entirely, since fuel typically takes 35 to 55% of the running costs on a motor yacht and the APA itself is quoted at 35 to 40% of the fee rather than 30.

Season is the other large lever. This was a peak-summer week at the top of the market, and outside July and August the fees on the same boats typically sit 15 to 25% lower, while the running costs barely move, because the diesel and the groceries cost the same in June. Marina nights would change the port line considerably: a Greek town quay can cost a few tens of euros a night and a marina berth in Mykonos or Paros several hundred, so a week spent alongside every night rather than at anchor would turn a €120 port line into a four-figure one. Drinks are the last variable worth naming, because €640 covered local wine and beer for 8 people, and a single order of good champagne would move that line more than any other decision on the preference sheet.

What is not in this number?

The crew tip, which in Greece is customarily 10 to 15% of the charter fee and entirely at the guests' discretion. Flights and transfers to the embarkation port. Meals ashore that the guests paid for directly, and anything bought in a shop with their own card. Travel or cancellation insurance. Everything else, from the diesel to the market shopping, is in the APA table above.

The short version

A crewed 46-foot sailing catamaran in Greece in peak summer, 8 guests, 7 nights: a €15,000 fee, €1,800 of VAT, and about €4,450 of running costs spent from a €4,800 APA with the balance returned. That is €21,250 before the tip, or about €2,650 per person. Fuel was the largest running cost and most of it was the generator rather than the engines, provisioning came to about €30 a head a day, and port fees were negligible because the boat anchored. If you budget the fee, plus VAT at the rate quoted on the yacht, plus 30% APA, plus a 10 to 15% tip, you will be within a few hundred euros of what the week actually costs.

Common questions

How much does a crewed catamaran charter in Greece cost per person? On the 46-foot catamaran above, with 8 guests in peak season, about €2,650 per person before the tip and about €2,840 with a 10% tip, which is €380 to €405 per person per night. Larger catamarans in the 2026 listings work out at roughly €2,750 to €6,000 per person for the week, depending on size and season.

Is the APA an extra fee on top of the charter fee? It is paid in advance on top of the fee, but it remains the guests' own money. The captain spends it at cost on fuel, provisioning, drinks and port fees, keeps the receipts, and returns the balance. On the week above €4,800 was paid in, about €4,450 was spent and about €350 came back.

Why was fuel the largest running cost on a sailing catamaran? Because of the generator. It ran for about 14 hours a day to power the air conditioning, fridges and watermaker at anchor, and used around 60% of the week's diesel, while the engines ran for only about 25 hours in total.

What is not included in the €21,250? The crew tip of 10 to 15% of the fee, flights, airport transfers, restaurants paid for directly ashore, and travel or cancellation insurance.

About the Author

Maurits is a professional yacht charter broker and founder of Frontier Yachting, based in Belgium. Before moving ashore he worked as a yacht captain, managing APA budgets and presenting settlements like the one above across several Mediterranean seasons. He now helps clients budget accurately before they book.

Contact: hello@frontieryachting.com | +32 487 22 08 22

Ready to Charter?

We quote every Greek charter as fee plus VAT plus APA, and we can show you a settlement from a comparable boat before you commit.

Crewed Yacht Charter in Greece | Browse Available Yachts | Contact Us

Related Articles

• How Much Fuel Does a Catamaran Charter Use? A Real Week in Greece

• How to Read a Crewed Yacht Charter Quote

• What Is APA in a Yacht Charter and Where Does Your Money Actually Go?

• How Much to Tip Yacht Crew: Real Rates by Region

• How to Set a Realistic Yacht Charter Budget Before You Start Looking

Read next: Explore Greece by Yacht | Greece Yacht Charter Regions Compared