Ten ways to spend a week on the water in Malta at the top end of the fleet, from a Sunseeker 86 day to a Tansu explorer crossing to Sicily, with what each one actually delivers on board.
Malta is small enough to drive across in an hour and old enough to have walls that pre date most of Europe. From the deck of a yacht the islands look different. The honey coloured fortifications of il-Belt Valletta, the gap between Comino and Cominotto where the Blue Lagoon turns electric, and the cliffs of Gozo on the western side are the headline images, and they all read better from the water than from a coach window.
This piece walks through ten different ways to book a luxury yacht charter Malta at the top of our list. We charter every week of the season, so the angles below are the ones our clients actually choose. Some are single day plans on a flagship motor yacht. Others are week long superyacht itineraries that cross to Sicily or run east to the Aeolian islands. Pick the one that matches the trip you want, then read the section under it for what is included and what to expect on board.
- What does a luxury charter in Malta cost per day?
- Day rates on premium motor yachts in Malta sit between roughly six thousand and eleven thousand euros, depending on length, crew size, and whether VAT and fuel are inside the headline number. Superyacht weekly rates start higher and exclude APA.
- What comes with a luxury yacht and not a standard one?
- Crew of three to six, a hostess setting the table, a chef option for lunch, a tender driver for shore drops, premium water toys on board, and a salon that functions as an air conditioned indoor room with a sea view.
- When is the peak season for luxury charter in Malta?
- July and August carry the highest day rates and the busiest anchorages. June and September are the sweet spot for warm water and calmer winds. The flagship yachts book six to nine months out for July dates.
1. The Sunseeker 86 flagship day from Sliema
The Sunseeker 86 is the headline daily charter on the Maltese fleet. It sails out of Sliema or Marsamxett in the morning with a crew of four, twelve guests on the day list, and a deck plan that gives every group on board a different place to sit. The flybridge stays open for the cocktail hour, the aft cockpit holds the lunch table, and the forward sunpad is where the teenagers end up by mid afternoon.
On board the salon is the room most guests forget exists until the wind picks up. Air conditioned, full glass on three sides, the bar at one end and the chart table at the other. Lunch can move inside in fifteen minutes if a southern breeze settles in. The bathrooms are full size with proper showers, which is the small detail that separates an 86 from anything in the 50 to 70 foot range.
Most 86 days run a Comino loop in the morning, lunch in San Niklaw or off Mġarr ix-Xini in Gozo, and a slow run home along the Maltese north coast in golden hour. The captain plans the route the night before, and the day flexes from there.
2. A superyacht week with a full crew, chef and hostess
Above thirty metres a charter stops being a day boat and becomes a small floating hotel. The Tansu Cuda Class 124 is our 38 metre explorer, and a week on board changes the relationship between the guest and the crew. The captain holds a morning briefing with coffee, the chef sends the menu through the day before, and the hostess handles the laundry and the table without anyone needing to ask.
A six person professional crew sounds like a lot until you start a week on board. The captain runs the bridge and reads the weather. The first mate handles the tender and the toys. The chef is in the galley from seven in the morning. The hostess and stewardess run the cabins and the service. The engineer keeps the systems quiet. By the third day the rhythm is invisible, which is exactly the point.
Weekly rates on this size of yacht exclude VAT and APA. APA is the Advance Provisioning Allowance, usually thirty percent of the charter rate, paid in advance to cover fuel, food, drinks and marina fees. The captain sends a daily statement and the unspent balance is refunded at the end. It is the standard structure across the Mediterranean above thirty metres.
First time charter guests almost always over plan the week. By day three the boat has rewritten the schedule, lunch has moved an hour later, and the route has stopped being a list and started being a feeling. We set that expectation at the briefing on day one.
3. The 124 foot explorer for a Mediterranean crossing
Malta sits in the centre of the Mediterranean, and a true explorer yacht earns its name on a longer route. The Tansu 124 has the range and the build to leave Maltese waters and run to Sicily, the Aeolians, the Egadi islands or the Tunisian coast. The hull is steel, the cruising range is comfortable above a thousand nautical miles, and the tender is a SPX 32 RIB with twin 300hp Mercury engines that can run shore parties forty minutes from the mother ship.
A week long crossing usually starts in il-Port il-Kbir or at Grand Harbour Marina. The boat clears out, the captain files the passage plan, and by mid morning on day two the south coast of Sicily is on the bow. Pantelleria, Lampedusa and Linosa work as one route. Syracuse, Taormina and the Aeolian islands work as another. The Egadi islands work as a quieter alternative, with anchorages most charter guests have never heard of.
On a private yacht rental Malta at this scale the toy garage matters. The Tansu carries two SeaDoo jet skis, an electric foil, kite surf gear and a Tiwal sailboat. The boat is built for guests who want to be in the water at every stop, not just at the marina.
4. Sunseeker Manhattan series for couples and families
Below the flagship sit the Sunseeker Manhattan models. The Manhattan 52, 66 and 73 are the three boats most repeat clients eventually settle on. They are smaller than the 86 and the Tansu, and they handle a couple, a family, or a group of eight friends without the operational weight of a full superyacht.
The Manhattan 73 has three cabins, two bathrooms, a flybridge and an aft cockpit large enough for twelve at lunch. The Manhattan 66 is a touch smaller and faster on the run to Comino. The Manhattan 52 is the most affordable entry into the Sunseeker brand and still ships with a captain and deckhand. All three carry a Williams tender, a Seabob and a snorkel set as standard.
For a family with two or three children the Manhattan 73 is the boat we recommend most often. The salon doubles as a wet weather room, the cabins sleep six in real beds, and the deck has enough sunpad space that the children and the parents can spread out without sharing a chair.
5. Sport luxury, the Predator and Superhawk for fast island runs
Some guests book a luxury charter for the speed. The Sunseeker Predator 52 and 72 are the sport boats in the fleet. They run faster than the Manhattan and the Elegance, they sit lower in the water, and they reach Comino from Sliema in twenty minutes. The Sunseeker Superhawk pushes that further. These are the boats for guests who want to do Comino, Gozo and a Sicilian lunch in the same day.
On the deck the Predator feels closer to a sports car than to a hotel. The cockpit is open, the helm sits forward, and the engine note is a real part of the experience. The Superhawk takes the same idea further, with a deeper vee, twin diesels and a cruise speed that opens up the Egadi islands as a real day option.
Sport boats this size still come with full crew. The captain handles the helm, a deckhand handles the lines and the tender, and the salon below is air conditioned with two cabins for short overnights. The toys on board lean toward the active side. Towables, water skis, a Seabob and a wakeboard are standard.
What separates a luxury yacht from a standard one is what happens when the wind shifts. On a day boat the day stops. On a luxury charter the captain repositions, the hostess moves the table inside, and the guests do not notice. That is the difference. The boat absorbs the day.
6. The catamaran option for stable family days
Not every group wants a deep vee planing hull. For families with small children, for guests who do not love the heel of a monohull at speed, and for groups who want a flat dance floor in the evening, a luxury catamaran is the right call. The wide beam means a salon that is genuinely a living room, two hulls of cabins for proper privacy, and a swim platform that runs the full width of the stern.
Stability is the headline benefit. At anchor in the Blue Lagoon a catamaran sits flat. The kids can run from one hull to the other without the slope of a 70 foot motor yacht. Lunch on the aft deck does not need plates clipped down. By the second day on board most parents stop noticing the boat at all, which is the highest compliment a charter can earn.
We charter sailing catamarans and power catamarans across the Maltese fleet. Both work. The sailing version trades a few knots of cruise speed for the option of a quiet engine off afternoon. The power version runs faster and reaches Gozo in the same time as a Sunseeker 70.
7. A private chef on board
The food on a luxury charter is not catering. It is a chef, in a galley, cooking three meals a day for the guests on the manifest. On the Tansu and on the Sunseeker 86 the chef is part of the standard crew. On smaller motor yachts a chef is added on request, usually at four hundred to seven hundred euros per day plus the cost of the provisions.
Menus are agreed the day before. Most chefs working in Malta lean into the local fish, the Gozitan cheeses, the Sicilian produce that arrives weekly through the southern markets, and the simple Mediterranean preparations that the climate calls for. A typical lunch is a grilled local fish, a couple of salads, a plate of pasta and a small dessert. Dinner is more structured, often a tasting menu with three or four courses paired to the wine list.
Allergies, children's preferences and dietary requirements are all handled at the planning stage. The hostess sends a short questionnaire when the booking is confirmed. The chef plans around it. The kitchen on a 30 metre yacht is closer to a small restaurant kitchen than to a domestic one, and the food on board reflects that.
8. Premium water toys included with the boat
A modern luxury yacht is not a static lunch platform. The toy garage is a real part of the spec. On the Sunseeker 86 the standard kit is a Williams tender, two Seabobs, a stand up paddleboard, water skis, a wakeboard, towables and full snorkel sets in adult and child sizes. On the Tansu 124 the list is longer, with two jet skis, an electric foil, kite gear and a small sailing dinghy on the upper deck.
Beyond the boat's own kit, we add premium water toys for the day or the week. Jet skis, eFoils, flyboards and inflatable parks all come from our water toys inventory. Most clients add at least one toy that is not on the boat as standard, usually a flyboard for the older children or an eFoil for the adult who wants to learn something new.
The toys turn a charter into a full day of activity. Without them, most days compress into the swim windows around lunch. With them, the boat stays alive from the first anchor drop to the last. Children spend hours in the water while parents read on the foredeck, and the captain only has to move the boat twice.
9. Multi day routes to Sicily, Sardinia and the Amalfi coast
Malta is a perfect base camp for a longer route. From il-Port il-Kbir, Sicily is a single overnight passage. The Aeolian islands sit twelve hours north. The Amalfi coast is a three day run on a comfortable cruise. Sardinia is further but reachable on a two week charter. Each of these routes turns a Maltese charter into a Mediterranean trip.
A typical week long crossing leaves Malta on day one, anchors in Pozzallo or Syracuse on day two, runs the Sicilian east coast through Catania and Taormina on day three, and reaches the Aeolian islands by day four. The return leg traces the same line in reverse, with a different lunch stop on each crossing. Two weeks opens up the Amalfi coast or the Egadi run depending on weather.
Customs and clearance between Malta and Italy are handled by the captain. The boat stamps out of Malta and into Italian waters with no impact on the guest list. Wine and food provisioning is reset in Sicily, where the markets are cheaper and the produce sits closer to the source. Our yacht charter Malta experiences journal piece walks through how a route like this looks in practice.
10. Concierge service from booking to disembarkation
A luxury charter is not just the boat. The work that surrounds the booking is what makes the week feel effortless. We handle airport transfers from Malta International Airport, hotel pre nights in il-Belt Valletta or San Ġiljan, restaurant reservations along the Sliema waterfront, and helicopter transfers to Gozo if a guest joins the trip mid week.
On the booking side, the concierge desk runs the contract, the deposit, the APA structure on superyachts, and the daily statement during the trip. The hostess sends a pre arrival questionnaire that covers pillows, food preferences, music, and the dietary needs of every guest. The captain reads it the day before and sets the cabins up to match.
On disembarkation day the same desk handles the departure transfer, the luggage, and any onward routing. Most clients who book a private yacht rental Malta at this level mention the small things in their feedback, and almost never the obvious ones. The boat is the obvious thing. The concierge layer is what holds the rest of the trip together.
About four in ten of our luxury clients in Malta book again the following season. The reason is rarely the boat itself. It is the small things between the bookings. The driver who knew the airport, the table reserved in Mdina, the chef who remembered the children do not eat fish.
What separates a luxury charter from a day boat
- A trained crew of three to six on board, with defined roles for the captain, the chef, the hostess and the deckhand.
- A salon that functions as a real indoor room, with air conditioning, full bathrooms with showers, and cabins that sleep guests overnight.
- Premium water toys included as standard, not as optional add ons billed by the hour.
- A tender large enough to run shore drops to a beach club without compromising the day on the mother ship.
- Concierge service that covers transfers, restaurants, and any logistics on land before, during, and after the charter.
- How many guests fit on a Maltese luxury charter?
- Most yachts in the luxury segment carry up to twelve guests for a day charter and sleep six to eight overnight. Larger superyachts above thirty metres sleep up to twelve and host the same twelve for the day.
- Can the captain change the route on the day?
- Yes. The route is planned the night before based on weather and the group's preferences. The captain reads the wind in the morning and adjusts. Small changes are normal and are part of why a private charter beats a fixed schedule excursion.
- Do we need a passport for a charter that stays in Malta?
- An ID is required for the passenger manifest. A passport is required if the route crosses into Italian waters or stops in Sicily. We confirm the documents needed at the contract stage.
- Is gratuity included on a luxury charter?
- No. Crew tip is paid separately at the end of the trip. Standard practice in the Mediterranean is between five and fifteen percent of the charter rate, depending on the level of service. Guests pay it directly to the captain or through our office.
Why luxury charter clients return to Malta
Malta does something a few other Mediterranean ports do not. The country is small enough that a charter feels like a private weekend, and central enough that the route can leave the islands and come back inside a single trip. The harbours are deep, the fuel is reliable, the customs office is straightforward, and the local crews speak fluent English alongside Maltese. The infrastructure is built for the boats.
A first luxury charter in Malta sells the second one almost on its own. The photos from the day on the Sunseeker 86 or the week on the Tansu do most of the work. The brief from the guests on the second booking is usually a single line. Same boat, same crew, slightly different week. We hold the calendar for them and the rest of the planning takes ten minutes.
Sunseeker, Tansu, Cranchi, and more — every yacht in our list ships with a vetted crew.
View the Malta luxury fleet
