Packing for a luxury yacht charter can be a daunting task, not only is there the climate to consider but other factors such as clothing choices, technology and space limitations.
Whether you’re cruising the turquoise seas in Sardinia for a week or lunching on deck on a yacht charter in St Tropez, choosing to pack smart for your private yacht charter can make or break your trip.
There are some holiday essentials that you’ll never have to remember to squeeze into your luggage – for a glimpse of extravagance, here’s 5 decadent things you may find on your next luxury yacht charter.
Rare Champagne
It’s true that the allure of premium bubbly fits well with the superyacht set! Champagne is the ultimate celebratory drink, but its reputation reaches beyond the frivolous spraying at the best French Riviera beach clubs or popping a bottle following a romantic proposal on a honeymoon yacht charter.
Champagne is labour-intensive to make and the good stuff isn’t cheap, but it is surprisingly joyful paired with all sorts of food. From the big Champagne houses with marketing juggernauts that define the concept of terroir to small producers with delicate blends, Champagne is here to stay in the superyacht industry.
Popular Moët & Chandon has some of the world’s priciest bottles including Moët & Chandon Dom Pérignon White Gold with a plated white gold bottle sheath laser engraved with the Dom Pérignon label, and Moët & Chandon Cuvée Dom Pérignon 1961. This royal sparkler – 1961 was the year Princess Diana was born – was the official Champagne chosen for the wedding of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer and the few bottles from the vintage that was sent to England for the nuptials are coveted by collectors.
Champagne Salon have only declared and released 40 vintages since the first vintage in 1905, whereby founder Aimé Salon chose a one-hectare parcel of land at the beginning of the 20th century and 19 other smaller parcels in Le Mesnil-sur-Oger, 13km south of Épernay. Each declared vintage must be exceptional or the grapes go into Champagne Delamotte. Around 60,000 bottles are released with each vintage; to give a comparison Krug releases about half a million bottles each vintage. The Salon 2002 vintage was regarded as impeccable, and their Salon 2004 is rare and highly sought after.
An intriguing history accompanies the cool quarter of a million dollar price tag for a bottle of Shipwrecked 1907 Heidsieck. Swedish freighter Jönköping was carrying spirits and bound for the Imperial Court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia when it was sunk by a German submarine in 1916 off the coast of Finland. In 1998, the shipwreck was discovered and 2,000 bottles were salvaged. Today, the bottles command high auction prices as well as a suitably nautical story to go with your glass of bubbly.
For a bottle with an eye-watering cost and a fair amount of bling, Champagne GDD Chapuy also known as Goût de Diamants has a bottle designed by Alexander Amosu with a Superman-style white gold logo bedecked with a deep-cut white diamond weighing 19 carats. If the €1.8 million price tag doesn’t faze you, you deserve to open it though if you’re not partial to bubbly the original creator also founded JULIET Immaculate Vodka for lazy days sipping a cool drink in the breeze on your private yacht’s sun deck.
Gourmet Cuisine At Any Cost
Where else can you find your own private chef who caters to your culinary desires at every meal? Yacht chefs are superbly skilled; not only can they plan exceptional cuisine while being moored at sea without access to food markets, specialist stores or supermarkets for lengthy periods, but they are accustomed to whipping up amazing snacks at 3.30am and catering for various diets such as gluten-free, kosher or vegan.
Yacht provisioners have close relationships with chefs as they source difficult to find items, rare food and beverages or specific brands that charter guests like. Enjoying first-class gastronomy is experiential on board – whether you want wild Scottish salmon, Kobe Wagyu or Blonde d’Aquitaine beef, Ayam Cemani chicken, organic strawberries and maqui powder for your sundeck smoothie or black ice cream made of coconut ash.
If you enjoy sublime cuisine, then a luxury yacht charter will go beyond your expectations.
The Hottest Superyacht Toys
Chartering a luxury yacht enables you to experience some of the world’s coolest and technologically innovative gadgets, accessories and toys for water, land and air.
From the leisurely fun of paddle boards to water jet-propelled boards or friendly battles on inflatable jousting platforms, being on top of the sea rates highly with water toys.
Try the Lampuga electric surfboard or the Jetsurf Pro Race which is a surfboard-jet ski-wakeboard hybrid developed by Formula One engineers to be piloted from an upright position, with your feet strapped in and using a hand-held control that cuts out if you dive into the sea.
Submarines are some of the ‘must have’ superyacht toys with the ability to dive and explore underwater pushing technological boundaries on adventurous designs such as the DeepFlight Dragon or Super Falcon Submarines, or upping the fun factor with sea life exteriors such as the orca-inspired Seabreacher Y.
Time ashore can be spent trying out the features on the latest amphibious quads, bikes or electric scooters; Gocycles and iRiders are great for families on yacht charter who want to get around marinas easily or zip around sightseeing. And to capture it all, drones are exceptionally popular with brands such as DJI, Parrot and Yuneec high on toys wish lists.
Check out The 25 Best Superyacht Tenders and Toys in 2023
Remarkable Cigars
As anyone will tell you that enjoys a cigar during a yacht charter, cigars are like a digéstif after a gourmet dinner – a pleasant way to end an evening over a perfect glass of premium liqueur, game of chess or soak in the Jacuzzi as the sun sets.
Rare cigars are blended and matured just as a fine wine is and many are no longer made thereby guaranteeing they make the list of most expensive cigars in the world. Pre-embargo cigars gifted to foreign diplomats by Cuban officials and ambassadors are some of the most desirable cigars at auctions today, as are limited edition humidors 1990 Cubatabaco 1492 Humidor, Partagas 165 Aniversario Humidor 109 or Padrón Series 1926 Maduro.
So, whether you pair your humidor selection with Havana Club Unión rum or a tipple of vintage Cognac, a rare cigar is a true decadence for many charter guests.
Davidoff cigars are some of the most desirable collectibles for quality with limited editions such as golf, art and Year of the Rooster joining rare Oro Blanco blends on superyacht wish lists. But serious aficionados hold high esteem for Cuban Davidoff cigars, and in particular the Davidoff 80 Aniversario that was created in 1986 to commemorate Zino Davidoff turning 80 years of age.
Back in 2000, only 1,000 humidors were released of 100 cigars of Padrón 1964 Anniversary Series Millennium cigars. Somewhere out there on the surface of the great blue, a lucky yacht guest may be enjoying one of the remaining cigars.
In 2006, the Cohiba Behike Original Release humidor was released to celebrate Cohiba’s 40th anniversary. The 100 humidors contained 40 individually numbered Behike cigars rolled by Norma Fernandez, Fidel Castro’s personal cigar roller. Since their release over a decade ago, the Cohiba Behike Original Release cigars have found their way to personal collectors and the world’s finest cigar lounges such as at The Wellesley in London who sell them for £5,000.00 each, plus a service charge.
And the world’s most expensive cigar? That title belongs to the Royal Courtesan from Gurkha Cigars which will set you back one million dollars. Opulent, extravagant or excessive, if you’re wondering what your money gets, this cigar is infused with Remy Martin’s Black Pearl Louis XIII before the tobacco is wrapped in golf leaf with a 5-carat diamond band.
Luxury Board Games
You have the privacy and seclusion to do as you please when evenings onboard during a yacht charter can vary from a sunset cruise with dinner to lounging on the decks enjoying the ambiance of a starry sky.
Luxury board games may not be first choice when high-tech audio-visual systems provide countless hours of entertainment, however they can give yacht charter guests a great chance to bond over friendly competition during warm evenings on the French Riviera or Amalfi Coast when Monopoly or playing cards don’t suffice.
For an uber luxe activity, there are plenty of lavish chess sets such as the Carolingi XIV Chess Set with gold and silver pieces on an onyx table and limited edition sets by designer Alexander Gelman with Ishikawa-lacquered chess pieces handmade by artisans in Japan. The Jewel Royale Chess Set is the king of chess craftsmanship and available by commission from British-based jewelry company Boodles. Expect your gilded set to be crafted with gold, platinum and precious jewels ensuring an ultimately posh way to say ‘checkmate’.
Backgammon fans can settle in for a luxurious evening in the salon with a Backgammon Set designed by the renowned artist Bernard Maquin for Charles Hollander Collection and embellished with black, white and yellow diamonds, or a custom made Deluxe Backgammon Table from the Orange Line complete with Waterford Crystal Champagne bucket and pair of Champagne flutes.
Classic and vintage board games can provide a retro thrill for charter guests with quirky illustrations or interesting history. The Travellers’ Tour through the United States was released in the late 19th century with the aim to teach American geography and is credited as the first game ever published in America. An extremely rare board game, players take a tour across a map of states and territories, challenged to guess the population and name of each city that they stop at. Fittingly, due to the era when it was released there is a spinner instead of dice which were considered components of gambling and vice at that time.
For a nautical rarity, Trafalgar that was self-published by Roger Corimer in 1968 is a board game based on the Battle of Trafalgar and was sold by mail order only. It may be hard to find but charter guests will enjoy the nostalgia of this classic naval game and hours of fun.
This article was written by Rebecca Whitlocke on behalf of Bespoke Yacht Charter.
Bespoke Yacht Charter has over 15 years’ experience arranging luxury yacht charters throughout the Mediterranean and rest of the world, contact us to book your next yacht charter:
Alexander Coles
