A yacht the size of the ones on Below Deck charters for roughly $150,000 to $300,000 per week, and the biggest hulls in the franchise reach $400,000. That is the charter fee alone, before provisioning, taxes, and the tip. The crewed experience itself starts far lower: a fully crewed catamaran with a captain and chef books from around $30,000 a week, often with meals and the bar included in one price, and that is the tier most of our first-time clients book.
Both numbers are real, and the distance between them is the whole story. Here is the full bill, line by line, with the rates we work with every week.
Expert insight
The show films one shelf of the market, the 50 meter shelf. The boats are real and the rates are real, but a crewed week with a captain, a chef, and someone bringing you drinks on the aft deck does not require 50 meters. The entry price for that is roughly a tenth of what the show's yachts charge.
Klara Braga Jakobsen
Yacht Reviewer at DMA Yachting
Show Guests Pay About $65,000 for 3 Days
The current price for appearing as a charter guest is about $65,000 for a 3-day trip: roughly $50,000 for the charter itself plus a prepaid crew tip of $15,000. Those figures come from casting materials shared publicly by people the production approached, and they include round-trip flights for the group, 2 hotel nights, and everything consumed on board.
Split among 8 guests, that is just over $8,000 a person, or around $16,000 a couple, for 3 days on a 50 meter superyacht. It reads like a bargain because it is one. The production rents the yacht for the whole filming block, so guests pay roughly a third of what the same trip costs commercially. Booked through a broker at market rates, 3 days on a boat that size runs past $200,000 once the extras are in.
The tips handed over on camera are real money, too. The largest in the franchise so far, $50,018, was given during Season 11.
Money is only part of what the show compresses. We covered what Below Deck gets right and wrong about a real charter separately. This page stays on the bill.
Yes, 3-Day Charters Are Real
The show books its guests for short hops because filming needs turnover, but 3-day charters exist off camera too, and brokers price them with a standard convention: the weekly rate divided by 6, times the number of nights. A 6-night charter costs the full weekly rate, and very short bookings often carry a premium of 10 to 20 percent on top.
Run that math on a Below Deck size boat and the show’s discount becomes obvious. A yacht charging $340,000 a week prices 3 nights at $170,000 before the premium, and past $200,000 once the APA and tip are added. Roughly triple what show guests pay.
When does a short charter make sense in real life? Mostly outside peak weeks. Many large yachts decline anything under a week in July and August, and in our experience it is easier to place a 3 or 4 night booking on a catamaran than on a big motor yacht. The move that works is targeting boats with open calendars: a yacht with a gap between bookings will consider a short charter it would refuse in peak season, and finding those gaps is broker work.
The Bill, in Plain English
A crewed yacht charter bill has 4 lines: the charter fee, the APA, VAT where it applies, and the crew tip.
The charter fee covers the yacht, the crew, and everything permanently on board, including the water toys. Everything consumed or bought during the trip is extra, which is what the next line is for.
The APA, short for Advance Provisioning Allowance, is a fund the captain draws on for fuel, food, drinks, and port fees. It is accounted for transparently, and any unspent balance is refunded after the trip. Sailing yachts and catamarans run 20 to 25 percent of the charter fee. Motor yachts run 25 to 40 percent, and on a large motor yacht we would budget 30 to 35. In our experience the APA usually lands close to the quoted figure, and often leaves a small refund, because it is set against your actual itinerary rather than guessed.
VAT is charged on the charter fee in most Mediterranean countries and is due where the charter starts: 20 percent in France, 22 in Italy, 13 in Croatia, and a 13 percent headline rate in Greece, where licensed yachts qualify for significant reductions. The Bahamas charges a consolidated 14 percent tax, and the BVI has no VAT at all. Our yacht charter VAT guide has every country side by side.
The tip gets its own section below, because it is the line the show has done the most to distort.
Put together on a typical mid-size booking, the stack looks like this: a EUR 125,000 motor yacht week in Greece comes to EUR 125,000 plus EUR 16,250 VAT plus EUR 37,500 APA at 30 percent, EUR 178,750 in total before the tip.
The Tip: 5 to 15 Percent in the Med, 15 to 20 in the Caribbean
The tip is discretionary everywhere, calculated on the base charter fee only, never on the APA or VAT, and handed to the captain in one envelope on the last night to be shared by the whole crew.
How much is normal depends on where you sail. Under MYBA terms in the Mediterranean, the guidance is 5 to 15 percent, with around 10 percent for excellent service. In the Caribbean and the US market, 15 to 20 percent is the working norm, because American tipping culture carries over to the water. We give both ranges rather than averaging them, because one number would misstate both markets.
It is never invoiced on a real charter. The prepaid tip show guests hand over is a production arrangement, not how the industry works. Budget for it honestly, then decide at the end of the week.
Broker insight
Every contract mentions the tip, and every contract says the same thing: it is discretionary. We tell clients to plan on 10 to 15 percent in the Med and 15 to 20 in the Caribbean, hand it to the captain on the last night, and never feel invoiced for it.
John Boullin
Charter Broker
What One Week Really Costs on 3 Boats From the Show
Here is the formula from above, run on three of the franchise’s own boats, all bookable through us. One week, low-season charter fee, the standard 30 percent APA, the tax of each boat’s home cruising ground, and a mid-band tip.
BG
About EUR 214,000 all in, the lowest bill on this list.
BG is the boat the original series called Valor through seasons 4, 5, and 7: a 154 ft Feadship refitted in 2022, sleeping 12 guests in 6 cabins. Her cruising grounds include Croatia, which is exactly why she leads this list.
The layout gives you a full-beam master on the main deck with walk-in closets and a two-person shower, a main-deck VIP, and an expansive sundeck with a deck jacuzzi and BBQ. Stabilizers run at anchor and underway, and the toy deck is the show made real: a two-story inflatable slide, two waverunners, two e-foils, two jetsurfs, sea scooters, and an inflatable climbing wall.
Her charter fee starts at EUR 140,000 a week, EUR 170,000 in high season. Add 30 percent APA, Croatian VAT at 13 percent, and a 10 percent tip, and a week on a real Below Deck boat lands around EUR 214,000.
SIROCCO
About EUR 292,000 all in for a real week.
SIROCCO is the 154 ft Heesen from Below Deck Med seasons 2 and 4, and she still charters today, running Sicily, Italy, the Riviera, and Sardinia in summer with 12 guests in 6 cabins and a crew of 9.
Onboard she is what the show made famous: a deck jacuzzi backed by sun pads, a gym, and a full-beam movie theatre for the quiet nights. Stabilizers run both underway and at anchor, and the toy garage covers a giant inflatable slide, two jet skis, a waverunner, a seabob, and a stack of tow toys.
Her charter fee starts at EUR 180,000 a week in low season and EUR 195,000 in high. Add the standard 30 percent APA for fuel, food, and mooring, Italian VAT at 22 percent, and a 10 percent tip, and a real week on the actual show boat lands around EUR 292,000.
ST DAVID
About EUR 520,000 all in, and she cruises Croatia.
ST DAVID is the boat fronting the original series from season 10 onward: a 197 ft Benetti sleeping 12 guests in 6 cabins. Her summer grounds include Croatia alongside Italy, Sicily, and Greece, so the show’s current flagship is genuinely bookable in these waters.
She is built around her sun deck: an extra-large jacuzzi, an outdoor cinema for movies under the stars, and a pool that sits over the skylight of her three-deck spiral staircase, the heart of a Winch Design interior of mosaic floors and marquetry. Stabilizers keep her steady at anchor, and the toys run four Seabobs, a Lift e-foil, waverunners and jet skis, and full scuba and snorkel gear.
The charter fee starts at EUR 340,000 a week, EUR 360,000 in high season. Add 30 percent APA, Croatian VAT at 13 percent, and a 10 percent tip, and the week lands around EUR 520,000.
Three honest footnotes. APA is a deposit, not a fee: whatever the crew does not spend on fuel, food, drinks, and mooring comes back to you at the end of the week. The tax line follows the cruising ground, so the same boat costs differently in Italy at 22 percent or Croatia at 13. And the tip stays discretionary: 10 percent is the honest middle in the Med, 15 the floor in the Caribbean.
One more perspective worth keeping: the show’s boats are not the top of the market. CHRISTINA O, also on our list, charters from EUR 700,000 a week, nearly double the biggest Below Deck yacht.
Tell us the week you have in mind and the budget you are working with, and we will match you with crewed yachts that fit both, at any point on this ladder. Get your yacht shortlist.
People also ask
Do people really charter a yacht for just 3 days?
Yes. Brokers price part-weeks at the weekly rate divided by 6, times the number of nights, usually with a 10 to 20 percent premium for very short bookings. Many large yachts decline anything under a week in July and August, so short charters are easiest to place in shoulder season and on catamarans. A yacht with a gap between bookings will often take a 3 or 4 night charter it would refuse in peak weeks, and finding those gaps is exactly the kind of thing we do.
Is everything included in the yacht charter fee?
No. The charter fee covers the yacht, the crew, and everything permanently on board, including the water toys. Food, drinks, fuel, and port fees run through the APA, VAT applies in most Mediterranean countries, and the tip comes at the end.
The exception is the all-inclusive tier of crewed catamarans, where one price genuinely covers meals, the bar, and fuel. That predictability is a big part of why we point most first-time charterers there.
Can you charter the actual Below Deck yachts?
Several of them, yes. Most Below Deck boats charter commercially between filming seasons at their normal market rates, and we have verified 13 of the franchise’s hulls chartering across our network, several under new names. Our own list includes all three boats above, and the wider network holds more, from STARSHIP 185 (My Seanna on the show) in the Bahamas to hulls from the Med and Down Under seasons. As for whether the week on board matches what you watched, we broke down what the show gets right and wrong separately.
Do you really tip 15 to 20 percent on a yacht charter?
In the Caribbean, yes: 15 to 20 percent of the base charter fee is the working norm. In the Mediterranean, the MYBA guidance is 5 to 15 percent, with about 10 percent for excellent service. Everywhere, the tip is discretionary, calculated on the charter fee only, and handed to the captain at the end of the week to be shared by the whole crew. It is a real cost to budget for, but it is never an invoice line.
What is the cheapest way to get the crewed Below Deck experience?
A crewed catamaran, booked all-inclusive. From around $30,000 a week you get a captain, a chef, and the service arc the show is built around: meals cooked on board, drinks appearing, toys launched off the back. The BVI is where we find the most choice at this level. What you give up against a 50 meter motor yacht is size and interior volume, not the crew.
