The list below provides 10 reasons to take sailing vacations. If you typically travel on land when you travel internationally, consider mixing it up in the future with sailing vacations. You will find that chartering a sailboat opens your trip up to wide variety of options, most travelers cannot do since they are stuck in a car on land.
1. It is easy to relax when you are surrounded by water and beautiful scenery on sailing vacations
Sailing vacations are literally the most relaxing vacations we have ever taken. Every day, we enjoyed some period of lounging, reading, and drinking wine. At night when anchored in a small cove or inlet, the silence is deafening. It is pure relaxation.
2. Every morning you can wake up in a new port, harbor, or secluded bay which makes exploring easy
Every day on sailing vacations is a new adventure on the boat. We sailed to a different island every day, stopping for swimming breaks along the way. This allowed us to see a multitude of places and observe the shoreline scenery even when not in port.
3. The lull of the boat is like being rocked to sleep
I slept like a baby at night. Maybe it was the silence but I like to think it was the steady slow rock of the boat. Don’t worry about seasickness. You will adjust fairly quickly, but if you have issues, there are a multitude of remedies including medication that will help such as dramamine or the scopolamine patch. Just make sure to research the potential side-effects of dramamine before you take it for seasickness. Our luggage got lost on the flight over, and of course our sea sickness medicine was in the luggage. We were able to adjust quickly. Travel Tip: Pack all of your medicines in your carry on luggage.
4. Lots of quality time with one another
Because it was just the two of us (and our trusted skipper), Steve and I got to really spend some quality time with each other. No television and limited phone access meant we could focus on ourselves and each other. This quality time allowed us to read and write in our travel journal. Travel Tip: Make sure to bring a journal, and write in it every evening before bed.
5. Sailing to remote islands and beaches on vacations
By renting a boat, we could get places that others couldn’t on our sailing vacation. It also allowed us to be the early bird to some hot spot tourist spots and avoid the crowds. Many days, we were leaving beaches before the crowds showed up, which was a great benefit of having the private charter sailboat.
6. Bathing suits, no shoes and the ease of life
It doesn’t get any easier than to wake up in the a.m., throw on a bathing suit, fashionable cover up and walk upstairs for coffee. I personally love being barefoot and I never put shoes on when we were on the boat. Maybe this isn’t for everyone, but it was ideal in my world. Steve enjoyed a morning dip in the sea every morning and a quick rinse with freshwater located at the stern of the boat. This helped us conserve fresh water on the boat by taking less showers.
7. Adventure, history and geography
I learned a lot the week we were on the boat during our sailing vacation. That includes the history of the islands and the geology of how the beautiful coastline was formed. Oftentimes it felt like we were on our own private adventure exploring the coast of Croatia. In many ways, I guess we were.
8. One hotel room with a view, kitchen, and sun deck for a week
Traveling overseas often means frequent hotel moves as you relocate from one town to the next in an effort to see as many sites as possible. Being on the boat meant our accommodations moved with us. We were able to unpack and settle in which made our boat feel like a home away from home.
9. Control over your schedule and destiny
One big plus is when you charter private sailing vacations, you control your destiny. There is not a set route and you can pick and choose where and when you want to go. Although we did find weather may dictate some of your choices.
10. Wine tasting without the worry of driving
Granted there may be a lot of ways to avoid driving while wine tasting, but we were forced to look for options since our boat didn’t work on land. This resulted in us doing a number of private tours which turned out to be amazing. Once we had wine tasted, we could purchase wine to drink that night on the boat.
If you want to learn more about how to plan sailing vacations, read our article, the Perfect Croatia Travel Itinerary. The article provides the detailed Croatia travel itinerary we took a few years ago. It was an amazing trip and Croatia has a lot to offer in the form of history, culture, food, and wine.
