Almost everybody asks for the same two weeks.
The first half of August is when European schools stop, so it is when the anchorages fill, the marinas quote their highest rates and the good restaurants stop answering the telephone. It is a perfectly good time to be at sea. It is simply the most expensive and most crowded way to do something that is better done four weeks either side.
The Mediterranean charter season runs from roughly late April to the end of October. That is six months, and the differences between them are large enough to be worth planning around.
May and early June — the west
The water is still cool for swimming in May, which puts some people off and should not. The land is green, the light is clean, and the French Riviera and the Balearics are effectively empty of other yachts.
This is the moment for the coasts that get overwhelmed later: Saint-Tropez before the season, Ibiza before it becomes Ibiza, the Amalfi Coast when you can still get a table at Lo Scoglio on a few days' notice. By the second week of June the sea has warmed and nothing has filled up yet — for many parties this is simply the best fortnight of the year.
July — Greece and the Adriatic
July is hot everywhere and busy in the west. It is the month to go east.
Croatia's islands are close together and sheltered, so the heat is manageable and there is always somewhere to tuck into. The Ionian has a gentle afternoon breeze rather than a serious wind, which makes it the easiest cruising ground in Greece and the one most families end up preferring.
One caution: the meltemi builds in the Aegean through July and August. The Cyclades in a strong meltemi are a sailing challenge rather than a holiday, and any captain who tells you otherwise is selling.
August — go where the wind is not
If August is the only month available — and for most families with children it is — the question becomes where the crowding hurts least.
The Turkish coast is the honest answer. Göcek's twelve bays, the Lycian shore and Kekova absorb traffic in a way the Riviera cannot, the water is warm, and the anchorages are deep and numerous. Sardinia's La Maddalena archipelago works for the same reason: sixty-two islands is a lot of places to put a yacht.
September — the month people learn about second
Ask anyone who charters regularly which month they book, and a surprising number say September.
The sea has had all summer to warm and is at its best of the year. The crowds leave in the first week. The light lengthens and softens. Everything that was impossible to book in August becomes available, and the coast returns to the people who live on it.
The Amalfi Coast, Capri and the Aeolians in mid-September are close to the ideal version of themselves.
October — the quiet end
The season winds down and the weather becomes less predictable, but early October in Sicily, the southern Tyrrhenian or the Turkish coast is still warm, still swimmable and almost entirely yours. Rates soften. It suits couples and small parties more than families.
The pattern underneath
Set out like this, the calendar has an obvious shape: go west early, east in high summer, and west again in September.
Most people do not have that freedom — the dates are chosen by school terms and by whoever else is coming. But knowing the shape means that when there is a choice of a fortnight, it can be made for the right reason rather than by default.
Tell us the weeks you can actually take and we will tell you honestly which coastline they suit.
