There is a moment I have seen replay on charter quays from Alimos to Mykonos: a beautiful family arrives for the finest week of their summer, and behind them a porter wheels a hard-shell suitcase the size of a small fridge. The crew smile, because crews always smile, and then spend twenty minutes finding a home for a rigid box on a vessel where every locker is curved. Packing for a yacht is not packing for a hotel. Get it right and you will live barefoot and weightless for a week. This is the list I give my own clients, the same one I used in my years holding the wheel.
How much luggage can I bring on a yacht charter?
One soft duffel of roughly 60 to 70 litres per guest, and a small day bag. That is the honest answer, and it is enough. Yacht stowage lives inside berths and behind panels, spaces that swallow a squashable bag whole and reject a hard case completely. On a crewed catamaran you will have more cabin volume than on a monohull of the same length, but the soft-bag rule holds everywhere, from a family catamaran to a 40-metre flagship. If a hard case must travel with you, tell us before boarding day; on most of our crewed yachts the crew can arrange for empty luggage to wait ashore with our base partners until you return.
A practical word about the travel day itself. Your bags will ride a tender or a passerelle at least once, so anything truly precious, passports, medication, the camera, travels in the small day bag that never leaves your shoulder. If you land in Athens the morning of embarkation, we time the transfer so that luggage goes from the airport belt to your cabin in one move; you will be swimming before the unpacking is finished, because unpacking a soft bag into a yacht wardrobe takes exactly eleven minutes. I have timed it.
What shoes do I need on a yacht?
Fewer than you think, and softer than you own. On deck the rule is bare feet or clean, soft, non-marking soles; dark rubber leaves lines on a teak deck that someone will spend an afternoon erasing. Pack one pair of boat-friendly shoes for underway, espadrilles or sandals for island lanes, and one respectable pair for dinner ashore. Leave the heels at home: stone alleys, cobbled harbours and passerelles are their natural enemies. Your crew will quietly appreciate a guest who arrives, slips off their shoes at the passerelle, and steps aboard the Greek way.
What should I wear during the day in the Greek islands?
Linen and cotton, and less of both than you planned. Daily life on a Greek charter is a swimsuit, a cover-up and sunglasses; you will dress properly only in the evening. Bring three or four swimsuits so one is always dry, a wide hat you genuinely like, and a light long-sleeved layer, because the meltemi breeze that keeps July afternoons perfect also cools the cockpit after sunset. Shoulder-season guests, and I say this as the man who wrote a love letter to September in Greece, should add one light sweater for the night passages. Everything else, the islands will provide.
Two small things earn their place in every bag I pack. First, sunscreen you actually trust, and a reef-friendly one; you will live in it, and island pharmacy prices for the good brands will not improve your mood. Second, a small personal pharmacy: seasickness tablets even if you have never needed them, plasters for new sandals, and after-sun. The crew keep a proper first-aid kit aboard and your captain knows every island's doctor, but the small comforts are nicer when they are already yours.
Is there a dress code for dinner on a charter?
There is, and it is the most pleasant dress code in the world: island elegant. Nobody in Greece will ever hand you a tie. For dinners in Hydra, on the Spetses waterfront or above the caldera, men do beautifully with a linen shirt and trousers, women with a summer dress and a shawl for the breeze. One such outfit per three evenings is plenty; the same restaurants that host shipping families every August will welcome you in it twice. Aboard, dinner is as dressed or as barefoot as you declare it. My crews have served black-tie birthdays and swimsuit birthdays with the same silver.
Does packing change between a sailing catamaran and a motor yacht?
A little, and in opposite directions. On a sailing yacht or sailing catamaran the wind is part of the pleasure, so the light long-sleeved layer earns its keep underway and a wind cord on the hat stops being optional. On a fast motor yacht you trade sail-handling romance for open flybridge miles, and the same breeze you would tack through now flows over your sundeck at twenty knots, so sunglasses with a retainer and a cap that fits snug matter more than anything warm. Catamarans, sail or power, are the most forgiving of all for packing: flat, stable and generous with stowage, which is one more reason families keep choosing them for a first Greek week.
What does the yacht already provide, so you can leave it at home?
More than most first-time charterers expect. A crewed yacht sails with bed linen, bath and beach towels made up and refreshed by the crew, so pack none of them. Galley, water and daily provisioning are arranged through the APA, your advance provisioning allowance, which means the drinks you love are already cold when you board if you have told us what they are. Water toys vary by yacht and her listing tells you exactly what she carries: paddleboards and snorkelling sets are common across the fleet, and some, like our power catamarans, carry serious inventories. The full picture of what a charter includes, and what it does not, is in our what's included guide; read it once and half your imagined packing list disappears.
What should you leave at home?
The hard suitcase, as established. High heels. A hairdryer, because the yachts carry them. Expensive jewellery you would mourn, since the sea takes a small tax on shiny things every season. Bluetooth speakers for public anchorages; the Aegean at anchor has a soundtrack already and your neighbours chose it too. And the drone, unless you have spoken to us first: recreational drone flight in Greece is regulated and several islands and archaeological sites restrict it, so if aerial photographs of your week matter to you, raise it early and we will find the lawful way or a photographer who has one.
When does packing light NOT apply?
I owe you the honest chapter, because there are weeks where minimal is wrong. If your charter carries an occasion, a proposal on the aft deck, a milestone birthday, a vow renewal, the dress, the ring and the fragile things travel with you, and we plan their stowage in advance like any other logistics. Families with infants should bring what the baby trusts; the fleet can arrange cots and the crew have seen everything, but a child's own sleeping bag beats any arrangement. And guests with medical needs should carry a full week of medication in the day bag, never in checked luggage. Tell me these things when we plan the itinerary and the yacht will be ready before your shoes are off.
What do repeat charterers pack that first-timers do not?
Watching the same families come back season after season teaches you what actually earns its litres. A real book, because the anchorage after lunch is the best reading room in Europe. Thin swim shoes for the pebble coves the itineraries love and postcard beaches ignore. A little cash in small notes, because the finest grilled fish of your week will come from a family taverna that has never seen a card terminal. A dry bag for the tender ride to dinner. And an empty third of the duffel, left deliberately, for the olive oil, the honey and the ceramics that will insist on coming home with you. Nobody has ever regretted the empty third.
The broker's own list
For the Cyclades or any Greek water, per guest, in one soft 60 to 70 litre duffel: three or four swimsuits and a cover-up. Two or three linen or cotton day outfits. One island-elegant evening outfit per three nights. A light long-sleeved layer and one sweater in the shoulder months. Soft-soled deck shoes, sandals, one dinner pair. A hat with a wind cord, sunglasses with a retainer, reef-friendly sunscreen. Medication in the day bag, passports and charter papers in one folder, and a phone cable more than you think you need. That is the whole science.
Pack the soft bag, and leave room in it; the islands are excellent at filling luggage on the way home. If your week does not have its yacht yet, our Greek Charter Index shows what real weeks cost this season, from a fast motor yacht to a family catamaran, and the step-by-step guide walks you from first email to first swim. Or skip the reading: write to me with the month, the group and the mood, and I will answer with yachts, not brochures.
