Girls Getaway on a Sailing Holiday

It is often observed that life ramps up the pace the older you get. We have more to do and not enough time to do it in. This ‘time pressure’ goes hand in hand with stress and mental wellbeing. The journey through 30s, 40s and 50s flies by. The increased pace of life, with family and work commitments, means it is hard to coordinate diaries and prioritize time with your best friends. But at the same time, this is the most stressful period of your life.

It is incredibly important to carve out a bit of time to remember who you are. To ground yourself, relieve the stress, regain some balance, have fun and reignite a bit of youthful innocence. How often is ‘we really must try to meet up more’ the parting phrase between you and your friends?

It is time to think big and forward plan a girls vacation. Don’t let another year slip by… agree to go all out on a ‘big girls’ holiday. Somewhere fantastic, bold and beautiful that you will have time to plan and save for.

Friends are often not financially equal, so work out a realistic amount you can all commit to regularly saving for your girls getaway. Even putting away just $20 per month into a group saving pot helps to spread the cost and focus everyone on your goal. Once you have a shared pot of money, the reasons that you can’t go become less important, flakiness falls away and everyone drives the dream forward.

Have fun meeting up to mull over all the potential girls trips you could take. Considering the practicalities of leaving behind ever-growing families can be daunting, but you are worth it and you can do it! Although others may not do quite as good a job as you, they will survive your absence, and both you and they will actually be better off afterwards. See it as a lesson in independence! If you are lucky you might not even return to complete chaos… maybe a pile of washing and some unfinished homework… but you can cope with that!

We may be biased, but we think a sailing holiday with the girls around Croatia is the perfect choice!

After the concept comes the coordination. A girls getaway is best taken during term time. If you don’t have to travel during school holidays it is better not to – it is much cheaper and less crowded. Furthermore, with the kids at school, the impact on family time and childcare arrangements is lessened.

September in Croatia is a wonderful time of year. The sea is warm, there is still plenty of sunshine and there is a more reliable wind for unfurling the sails. If you are planning to sail in Croatia, then the shoulder season is the best time to come!

Late September or May are brilliant value. At the beginning and the end of the season, you can also get half-week deals if you can’t wangle a whole week away.

Booking a boat can sometimes be a little like booking an economy flight. You need to be wary of all the add-ons, obligatory extras that aren’t usually included in the price that, on the surface, looked good value. As well as the price of the yacht, there is the transit log (cleaning, documentation, etc) and the cost of hiring a skipper.

At The Yacht Break, we are open about the price of each yacht. We display the price for each week the boat is available to book so you can see where the value is. You will see the breakdown of the costs included in the booking price, which includes the obligatory transit log. Then you can build the package that suits you – adding on any crew and seatoys you want to take along. The other costs do not need to be paid until departure day but we let you know at the beginning so you can budget for them.

As with any holiday, there will be running costs that you will incur during your trip. On a yacht, these include mooring fees, fuel, and provisions. Make sure that you have at least an additional 25% of your booking price to cover all this. In boating circles, we call it the Advanced Provisioning Allowance (APA). So, for an €8000 sailing holiday, make sure you have a further €2000. With a group, it is worth organizing this in advance so there are no disagreements when you are on holiday and no one is out-of-pocket.

You will also want to have some money to spend onshore on meals out and extra activities for your girls trip. It is safe to assume that you will eat breakfast and lunch on the boat (this food comes under the APA), but dinner in a restaurant. That said, cooking on the yacht some nights will help to keep costs down.

In part, this decision will be driven by cost. Catamarans are more expensive but they give you more space to spread out. They are also much more stable, so if some of you are clumsy or suffer from motion sickness, a catamaran is a good choice.

Most yachts and catamarans have double cabins. Are you a group of friends that is happy to pair up or do you need your space? It is a good idea to think about who is sleeping where ahead of the departure day. Use the layout pictures to make sure everyone is happy and on board with the plan. Don’t forget that the skipper will need somewhere to sleep as well. On catamarans as well as some monohulls there are dedicated ‘crew cabins’.

Each boat says how many berths it holds. This is the total number of people legally allowed on board at any one time, crew and guests. The lounge area of the boat often converts into a sleeping area. So, although a boat may have 12 berths, two of those are likely to be expected to sleep in a communal area. For obvious reasons, this is not ideal and is best avoided if possible.

In yacht speak, heads are toilets. How many do you need? It depends on how many girlfriends are going along, and how much time they need to ‘get ready’. If you are moored in a marina then the onshore facilities can be used. If you are on the buoy or anchor you will need to get ready on the boat.

Evenings tend to be spent enjoying the local restaurants and bars. Logistically you want a reasonable ratio of heads to crewmates to avoid queues for the loo!

If you are going somewhere hot, make sure your yacht has air conditioning. Going to Croatia in September this is a must-have as the days are still hot. A comfortable nights’ sleep makes for a more restful holiday and helps to stop people from getting tired and irritable.

Book your sailing holiday with a company that nourishes a relationship between you and your skipper before you go. If the crew knows what sort of guests they are getting ahead of time, they will be better able to help you get the most out of your sailing holiday.

Sailing with The Yacht Break you will benefit from being the center of our attention! We are an independent operator, a local company with a good reputation and company ethos. It is a big market place so finding someone who will invest time in you and offer a personalized service is vital. You will find your booking carries more weight and you will get the attention you deserve.

Make sure that everyone can get to your chosen base marina in time for check-in so that you don’t have to curtail your sailing week. Look at flight schedules and transfer times to the base marina. Charters generally run from Saturday to Saturday. If you embark on time (5 pm unless you book early check-in), you can sail out that first night. If you are hanging around waiting for latecomers, the likelihood is that you will end up spending the first night onboard moored in the base marina rather than being able to set sail.

Check to see if the company that you charter your yacht with can arrange airport transfers. Having someone meet you at the airport saves time, makes traveling less stressful, and it is generally cheaper than jumping in a taxi from the rank (if there are any left!).

If you don’t intend to hire a hostess, you will also need to make a trip to the supermarket before you sail to stock up on provisions. That is going to take a couple of hours to complete even if you are super organized with a shopping list. Finding everything you want in a foreign supermarket and getting it back to the marina and safely stowed on board is a logistical challenge.

And you guessed it, The Yacht Break is happy to help – we don’t stop with booking, we help with everything! Just ask, we are here for you.

To make the most of your sailing holiday, why not spend the final Saturday night on shore after your sail? Sneek an extra day in and don’t head home until Sunday!

This gives you a chance to explore the mainland without having to cut short your time on the yacht to catch a plane. What is more, it makes space for some serious debriefing of your amazing holiday, rather than having to rush off!

With everything booked, it is now time to get excited. Make sure to travel light; you don’t need many clothes for a week on a yacht. It is mainly swimwear, cover-ups, and flip flops! Maybe a few outfits for evening meals. Most importantly, pack in softshell cases that can be stowed away when you are on the yacht. If everyone brings hard-sided suitcases it will be like a giant game of Tetris onboard as there are no cupboards big enough to store them.