The good window is late April to June, and again from mid-September to late October. July and August add 30–50% to berth bills and fill the best harbours months in advance. Two government taxes cost more than most owners expect: Croatia charges a tourist tax per boat per period, and Greece charges TEPAI per metre per month — which jumps from €33 to €96.08 a month the moment your hull measures 12.01 m instead of 12.00 m.
That tax arithmetic is the Med’s own game. If your plan reaches past Gibraltar, the cost shape changes completely — the Pacific Northwest runs on moorage buoys and state parks instead of marina quotas, and the budgeting shifts from berth fees to timing the season.
Two taxes that cost more than the berth
Croatia collects two separate fees, and they are not interchangeable. The first is the navigation fee — still called the vignette locally — an annual charge for any vessel over 2.5 m or with more than 5 kW of engine power. It runs to 31 December regardless of when you pay, is calculated on length plus engine power, and is paid at the harbourmaster's office or through the e-Nautika portal. Cruising the whole coast on one receipt is allowed; the Brioni islands off Pula and the Kornati and Telašćica national parks are excluded and charge separately.
The second is the tourist tax, mandatory for every boat over 7 m, Croatian or foreign flagged. You can pay it as a flat rate for the boat, by length band and by period, or per person per night at €1.33. For one or two people staying a fortnight, the per-person method is usually cheaper; for a full crew it is not. The 2025–26 flat rates below show why the difference matters.
| Boat length | Up to 8 days | Up to 15 days | Up to 30 days | Up to 1 year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7–9 m | €27.87 | €47.78 | €79.63 | €238.90 |
| 9–12 m | €46.45 | €79.63 | €132.72 | €398.17 |
| 12–15 m | €65.03 | €111.49 | €185.81 | €557.44 |
| 15–20 m | €74.32 | €127.41 | €212.36 | €637.07 |
| 20 m and over | €92.91 | €159.27 | €265.45 | €796.34 |
Greece works the other way round: no per-day tourist tax on the boat, but a monthly cruising fee, TEPAI, for anything over 7.00 m, whatever the flag. Between 7 and 12 m it is a flat monthly band; above 12 m it becomes €8 per metre per month — counted from the first metre, not from the thirteenth. That single detail reshapes boat choice.
| Length overall | Per month | Worked example |
|---|---|---|
| over 7.00 m to 8.00 m | €16 | 7.5 m sailing yacht: €192 a year |
| over 8.00 m to 10.00 m | €25 | 9 m: €300 a year |
| over 10.00 m to 12.00 m | €33 | 12.00 m: €396 a year |
| over 12.00 m | €8 per metre | 12.01 m: €96.08 a month; 15.25 m: €122; 40 m: €320 |
Pay the whole year in December or January and you get 10% off. A vessel ashore in a yard is not liable, and neither is one outside Greek territorial waters — worth knowing if you winter in Turkey and only cruise Greece from May.
What a berth actually costs, region by region
Croatian marinas quote per metre per day, roughly €7–12/m in high season for a monohull, with catamarans paying 50–100% more because of beam. In practice a 12 m (40 ft) boat pays €70–200 a night depending on the address: ACI Žut in the Kornati €70, ACI Split €130, ACI Dubrovnik €160, Marina Frapa €180, D-Marin Mandalina near Šibenik €200. Town quays run €40–70 a night for the same boat and are collected in person after 18:00.
Greece is materially cheaper. Town quays and public piers charge €0–3 per metre per night, private marinas €3–10, and taverna docks are often free if you eat ashore. Winter contracts for a 12 m yacht land around €6,000–12,000 a year in the Cyclades, €7,000–14,000 in the Ionian and €10,000–18,000 around Athens. That gap is the main reason Greek yards fill with boats that cruise the Med for half the year and sit out the meltemi.
France and Italy invert the logic: no separate cruising tax for a private yacht, but you pay for the postcode. A Riviera berth in July is priced against Saint-Tropez and Cannes, and superyacht berths in Portofino or Capri are allocated by relationship and length, not by price list. For a like-for-like comparison of what each marina actually delivers, our guide to the world's best yacht marinas lists facilities and 2026 rates side by side.
The three winds that write your itinerary
Route planning in the Med is wind planning. Each basin has a ruling wind with its own calendar, and none of them is dangerous if you build the plan around it.
| Wind | Where | When | What it does to your week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mistral | Gulf of Lion, Provence, Corsica's west coast | Year-round, most active spring and autumn | 30–50 kn gusts, steep seas; the Calanques shut, Hyères often stays workable |
| Meltemi | Aegean, Cyclades and Dodecanese | May–September, peaking mid-July to August | 20–35 kn northerlies for days, rarely dropping at night; plan southbound legs |
| Bora | Adriatic, Velebit channel | Mostly October–April, brief in summer | Katabatic gusts to 60 kn; marinas at Zadar, Šibenik and Split shelter well |
The practical consequence: build in one weather day per week in the Aegean in July, and treat a Mistral forecast in the Gulf of Lion as a route change rather than a delay. If you want the forecasting routine — models, windows, bail-out ports — it is set out in our passage planning guide.
Croatia: the cheapest mile-for-mile cruising in the Med
More than 1,100 islands between Istria and Dubrovnik, marinas every 20–30 nm, and a coastline that protects you from most of what the Adriatic throws. Base in Split or Šibenik for the Kornati and middle Dalmatia, Trogir for the Hvar run, Dubrovnik for the south. Split to Hvar town is about 20 nm, which is why so many first seasons start there. The paperwork side — the safety fee, the eVisitor sojourn tax and clearing in at the border port — has its own walkthrough in our Croatia taxes and entry procedures guide.
Budget separately for the parks. Kornati and Telašćica charge entry per boat per day on top of the tourist tax, and the Brioni islands are closed to private cruising. The season runs April to October; late September gives warm water, empty quays and half the August price.
Greece: mind the 12-metre line, then pick your sea
Three cruising areas, three different holidays. The Cyclades deliver the postcard — Mykonos, Santorini, Paros — with the meltemi attached, and Athens to Mykonos is roughly 95 nm of open Aegean. The Ionian, from Corfu down to Kefalonia, is greener, flatter and far kinder to families in July. The Saronic Gulf, an hour from Alimos, makes a genuine one-week loop through Aegina, Poros, Hydra and Spetses without a single rough passage.
Paperwork is the other half. Non-EU flags need a transit log; EU flags need the DEKPA cruising log; both come from the port police at entry and stay on board. Some marinas ask to see TEPAI payment before they allocate a berth, so pay before you arrive rather than at the office. Travelling with a dog adds its own file of documents, covered in our pet-friendly cruising guide. Across the border the rulebook changes twice — the Turkey vs Greece clearing-in and fees comparison walks through the Turkish transit log, agent costs and what a 40-footer pays for a night on each coast.
Anchoring has its own rulebook now, too: the meadows of Posidonia seagrass are protected by law across the basin, and the Mediterranean anchoring bans and fines guide lists where the hook is off-limits in 2026, what the courts have been collecting, and the apps that keep you legal.
France and Italy: you are paying for the address
The Côte d'Azur and the Amalfi Coast are still the best-known 200 nm of coastline in the world, and they are priced accordingly. Two events distort the Riviera for a fortnight each: the Cannes Film Festival in mid-May and the Monaco Grand Prix in late May, when berths within 100 nm reprice and Monaco becomes effectively unbookable. For marquee harbours — Saint-Tropez, Porto Cervo, Capri, Hvar, Mykonos — book four to six months ahead, and expect the best-value weeks to be the first week of June and the last two of September.
If you are weighing a season in the Med against a winter elsewhere, our winter cruising guide covers where the boat can sit from November to March without becoming a maintenance project. Owners of larger yachts should also check what berths are realistically available at their length in the superyacht size classes before fixing a base.
A booking order that saves the most money
- Fix the paperwork before the route. Flag, VAT status, insurance with the country's required liability cover, and — for non-EU owners — the Schengen 90-in-180-day count. A yacht that cannot legally stay is an expensive yacht.
- Pick the month first, the region second. Mid-September beats August on price by 15–25% and on berth availability by a wide margin. June is the other sweet spot.
- Price the taxes at your actual length. Run your LOA through the Greek table to two decimal places: 12.01 m is not 12 m. Then add the Croatian tourist tax at the period you will really stay.
- Book marquee berths four to six months out; leave the rest open. Anchor or use town quays mid-week and reserve marinas for the two or three harbours that matter.
- Plan legs against the wind, not the map. Southbound in the Aegean, west-then-north in the Adriatic, and keep one bail-out port per 30 nm in the Gulf of Lion.
FAQ
Do I pay Croatia's tourist tax per person or per boat? Either. The flat rate by length and period is per boat regardless of crew; the alternative is €1.33 per person per night. For two people on a 13 m yacht for a week, the per-person method costs about €19 against €65.
Does TEPAI apply if the yacht is ashore? No. A vessel on hardstanding or in a yard is not liable, and neither is one outside Greek territorial waters. That is why some owners declare lay-up months rather than pay for a full year.
Can I anchor for free? In most Croatian and Greek bays, yes. The exceptions are national park zones in Croatia and Posidonia seagrass beds in both countries, which are protected and increasingly patrolled.
What does a 15 m yacht pay in total taxes for a Greek season? Roughly €1,464 in TEPAI for twelve months at €122 a month, less 10% if prepaid in January, plus the DEKPA fee. Add Croatian tourist tax of €557 if you also cruise the Adriatic for a year, or €111 for a single fortnight.