A catamaran holiday in Greece appeals for simple reasons: two hulls, a wide deck and enough room for a family or a group of friends to spend a week at sea without getting in each other’s way. The boat itself is only half the plan, though. The summer wind, the way your group copes with motion, children on deck and where you drop anchor all shape how relaxed the week actually feels. This guide walks through those practical points.
Why groups choose two hulls
A catamaran sits flat on the water. Instead of heeling over under sail as a monohull does, it stays level, which makes cooking, moving around and sleeping noticeably easier. Cabins are usually split between the two hulls, which gives couples and families more privacy. The large cockpit, saloon and foredeck give everyone somewhere to be at the same time.
There are trade-offs worth knowing before you book. Catamarans do not sail as close to the wind as a good monohull, they feel less lively under sail, and their width can mean higher marina fees and fewer available berths in busy harbours. Two engines also mean more fuel. For most holiday crews who value comfort over speed, these are acceptable costs, but they matter if your group includes keen sailors.
Picking the right charter format
The next decision is who runs the boat. On a bareboat charter, someone in your group holds the required sailing licence and acts as skipper. A skippered charter adds a professional who handles navigation and mooring, and a crewed charter adds service and catering on top. Some operators also offer cabin charters, where you book a cabin on a shared yacht with set departure dates.
Astra Yachting, for example, offers bareboat, skippered and crewed options for its catamaran charter holidays in Greece, with charter bases that include Alimos and Lavrio near Athens, as well as Kos and Rhodes in the Dodecanese. Whichever format you choose, send the operator your dates, the number of guests, the type of charter and any must-see stops, so they can check which boats are free and prepare a written quotation.
Planning around the meltemi
The single biggest factor in an Aegean summer is the meltemi, the seasonal summer wind also known as the Etesian. It blows mainly from June to September, and the strongest and longest spells usually arrive in July and August. A typical day starts calm, then the wind builds in the early afternoon to around 4-5 Beaufort and can reach 5-7 Beaufort. It does not always ease at sunset, and a spell can last several days in a row.
The wind is strongest in the open stretch between the Cyclades and the Dodecanese, and it funnels hard through some of the channels between islands, such as the gap between Paros and Naxos. For a holiday crew, the practical answer is simple: plan shorter hops, leave at dawn when you need to cover distance, and keep a spare day or two in the itinerary so you can sit out a windy spell in a sheltered harbour. If your group is new to sailing, June or September tend to be gentler than the peak of midsummer. A catamaran also earns its place here, since it rolls far less at anchor in a breeze.
Keeping seasickness at bay
A stable catamaran helps, but it does not make motion sickness impossible, especially on a longer crossing. Sit near the middle of the boat, where movement is smallest, and keep your eyes on a fixed point such as the horizon. Fresh air helps, as do slow, steady breaths with the eyes closed. Avoid reading or looking at screens while underway, and skip heavy meals, spicy food and alcohol just before or during a passage. Ginger, as tea, biscuits or tablets, is worth trying. Anyone who suffers badly can ask a pharmacist about tablets, patches or acupressure bands before the trip.
Children on board
Families often choose catamarans because a wide, level deck is easier for children to move around than a heeling monohull. That is true, but the basic rule of water safety does not change: a lifejacket only works if it is worn. Children’s lifejackets are sized by maximum weight and chest size, and a jacket that is too big can let a child slip out or float too high in the water. Children’s models come with crotch straps, and these should always be fastened. To check the fit, adjust the jacket and then lift it by the shoulders; it should not ride up. Agree simple rules from day one, such as lifejackets on whenever the boat is moving and whenever children play on the bow nets.
Anchoring in shallow bays, responsibly
One of the joys of a catamaran is its shallow draft, which lets you tuck into bays that deeper boats pass by. Many of those bays have clear water over sand and meadows of Posidonia oceanica, a seagrass found only in the Mediterranean. These meadows grow extremely slowly, with a root system that spreads just 1-6 cm a year, and anchor scars in them can persist for around 15 years. Greece is one of the Mediterranean countries with recognised anchoring hotspots on seagrass.
Avoiding it is easy. Drop anchor on patches of pale sand rather than dark seagrass, use eco-moorings where they are available, and carry enough chain, roughly three to five times the water depth. Snorkelling over the anchor once it is set is a good habit.
Putting the week together
The best Greek island catamaran holidays usually come from realistic planning rather than ambitious routes. Choose the charter format that matches your group’s experience, build your days around the afternoon wind, prepare for seasickness and child safety before you board, and treat every anchorage as somewhere you would like to find unchanged next summer. Do that, and the space and stability of two hulls will make the week feel like a real holiday rather than an expedition.
Sources
- Springer Nature, Present climate trend analysis of the Etesian winds in the Aegean Sea. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00704-011-0443-7
- Sailing Issues, Meltemi. https://sailingissues.com/meltemi.html
- NHS, Motion sickness. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/motion-sickness/
- RNLI, The RNLI guide to lifejackets and buoyancy aids. https://supporttool.rnli.org/-/media/rnli/downloads/rnli-guide-to-lifejackets-and-buoyancy-aids.pdf
- WWF, Safeguarding Mediterranean Seagrass Blue Forests from Anchoring Damage. https://wwfeu.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/a4_anchoring_2025_summary_1.pdf
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