Catamaran charter Greece
itineraries.

The Cyclades cluster sits south-east of Athens and forms the iconic Aegean catamaran cruising ground — twenty-four inhabited islands arranged in a rough crescent from Kea in the north to Anafi in the south. Charter departures concentrate at the Athens marinas (Alimos, Kalamaki and Lavrion), with Paros and Mykonos picking up the fly-in market through July and August. Wind drives the routing. The meltemi blows from the north at 4–6 Beaufort through high summer and occasionally surges past 7. Catamarans handle the meltemi better than monohulls on the run south because the wide beam keeps the platform flat in 25-knot gusts; the leeward anchorages of Kythnos, Serifos and Sifnos hold a 1.2-metre draft comfortably on sand at 4–6 metres where deeper-keel monohulls have to stand further off. Returning north against the meltemi is the leg most catamaran crews avoid — one-way charters Athens → Mykonos with the boat repositioned northbound out of season are common. Headline catamaran anchorages include Vourkari on Kea (sheltered north basin, town quay free), Livadi on Serifos (deep sand bay), Kamares on Sifnos (the photogenic Cycladic crescent), Ormos Marathi on Paros, and the Tourlos new marina on Mykonos (lazy lines, US$200+ per night in August). Santorini has no proper marina; catamarans anchor in Vlychada under the cliffs and dinghy ashore for the volcanic-caldera inland tour.

The Ionian Sea sits west of mainland Greece — a chain of seven main islands (Corfu, Paxos, Lefkada, Ithaca, Kefalonia, Zakynthos, plus the smaller Meganisi / Kastos / Kalamos cluster) separated from the mainland by 1–5 nautical mile channels. Catamaran charter activity concentrates at three bases: Corfu (Gouvia Marina at the north end), Lefkada (D-Marin Lefkas on the east coast, accessed via the Lefkas Canal swing-bridge that opens on the hour), and Preveza (Cleopatra Marina on the mainland, 25 minutes from Aktion airport). The wind regime is the Ionian's signature: light afternoon thermals from the south-west (rarely above 5 Beaufort), morning calms through summer, and warm-water bays the colour of a swimming pool. Catamarans handle the chain efficiently because most passages run 8–18 NM line-of-sight between sheltered bays — Lefkas to Meganisi is 6 NM, Lefkas to Ithaca 14 NM — and the wide-beam shallow-draft platform sits comfortably on the sand seabeds at 4–8 metres that line every inhabited bay. Headline catamaran anchorages include Spartochori on Meganisi (cliff-top village reached by a 200-step staircase from the bay), Kioni on Ithaca (Venetian windmills on the headland), Fiskardo on Kefalonia (the only village to escape the 1953 earthquake intact, with the most-photographed pastel waterfront in the chain), and Vasiliki on south Lefkada (the Ionian's kitesurfing capital, west-thermal afternoons routinely above 20 knots). Cross-border one-way charters to Italy via Otranto (Puglia) are technically permitted with a transit log filed in advance — a common early-summer repositioning move for fleet boats out of winter storage.

The Sporades archipelago lies off the eastern flank of mainland Greece, between the Pelion peninsula and the Northern Aegean — a four-island catamaran cruising ground with the gentlest wind regime in the country outside the Ionian. Skiathos Marina is the main charter base (international airport on the island makes fly-in convenient); Volos on the mainland coast is the second option, with significantly cheaper base prices and a 90-NM repositioning leg from Athens for crews willing to give up two days at the start of the week. The signature destination is the Alonissos Marine Park — Europe's largest protected marine area, founded in 1992 to protect the Mediterranean monk-seal population (around 200 individuals, the species' largest known group). Anchorages inside the park boundary are mooring-only and restricted in places; the catamaran-friendly options sit on the leeward south coasts of Alonissos and Peristera, with the Steni Vala fishing village quay as the standard overnight. The Aegean's northern winds reach the Sporades softer than the Cyclades — 4–5 Beaufort is the season norm, with rare meltemi outliers above 6. Short distances and line-of-sight passages make the Sporades a strong first-bareboat cruising ground for catamaran crews — Skiathos to Skopelos is 12 NM, Skopelos to Alonissos another 8. The white-sand beaches on the windward sides (Skopelos's Milia, Alonissos's Megalos Mourtias) hold catamarans at 3–5 metres on clean sand where the bay narrows. Skopelos itself was the filming location for Mamma Mia! — the church at Kastani Beach features in the wedding scene — and the village quay on the south side is the photogenic evening overnight.

The Dodecanese chain stretches from Patmos in the north to Karpathos in the south along the Turkish coast — twelve major islands plus dozens of smaller cays, with the centre of gravity at Kos (international airport, marina at Kos Town) and Rhodes (largest of the chain, multiple marinas). Charter activity here is the most international in Greek waters: cross-border one-way deliveries to Bodrum, Marmaris and Göcek in Turkey are routine, with Rhodes-to-Bodrum running the busiest 7-day repositioning leg in the Eastern Mediterranean. The meltemi reaches the Dodecanese softer than the Cyclades — typically 3–5 Beaufort with peaks at 6 — but the long open-water fetches between Patmos, Leros, Kalymnos and Kos give the chain a different sailing character: longer passages (12–18 NM standard), bigger sea states than the protected Cyclades. Catamarans handle the chain well because the leeward anchorages on Symi, Tilos and Nisyros run shallow sand seabeds where the wide-beam 1.2-metre-draft catamaran sits inside where monohulls have to anchor offshore. Headline catamaran anchorages include Pedi Bay on Symi (the photogenic neoclassical waterfront village), Pothia harbour on Kalymnos (the working sponge-diving port), the Telendos channel north of Kalymnos for the sundowner stop, the Apolakkia anchorage on Rhodes (long west-coast white-sand strand), and the Mandraki harbour at Nisyros for the volcanic-caldera shore excursion. Patmos itself — the island where John of Patmos wrote the Book of Revelation — has the Cave of the Apocalypse and the 11th-century Monastery of Saint John as the headline inland excursion.