When we mention a sailing holiday to anyone considering coming to Croatia, a common response is, But don’t I need to know how to sail to go on a sailing holiday?!
And our answer is NO! The beauty of a sailing holiday with 45D is that we take care of the sailing for you. Nick is a qualified sailing instructor, so not only is he totally capable of handling all of the driving and sailing single-handedly, you can also rest assured that he is very experienced at teaching complete newbies how to sail. If you want to get involved, of course!
Many parents are also quite concerned about sailing with kids. Which is a totally valid concern. Being out on the water can be scary for anyone with children who is not used to the environment. And that’s where I come in! My experience out on the water, sailing and living on board combined with my many years working with children of all ages and capabilities means that I can work with you as a family to ensure that the boat is a safe and fun environment for everyone on board. Our youngest guest yet had just celebrated her first birthday before she came on board with her parents!
We get it. Holidaying with young kids is TOUGH! You have to be watching them eery single moment. And because we are on the boat with you 24/7, you actually have two extra adults added to your family to help out with the kids. Ask any one who has sailed with us, we LOVE kids and love to make sure that they enjoy themselves too. And if you are comfortable with the idea, we can totally arrange a kid-free night where we send you off on a romantic meal on shore, or an on-island activity during the day, keeping the kids with us so that you can have some much needed adult time! We are happy to be flexible and work out with you what works best for your family.
You can read more about our recommendations for how to enjoy a sailing holiday with children here.
If you are a sailor yourself, you might be thinking, can’t I just charter my own boat and do this myself? And you totally can! If you are an experienced, licensed sailor, then you will know all about ‘bare boat charters’ and how it’s basically like car-hire but for boats. You pick the boat you want, you organise the insurance, you plot your course and which ports you want to go to, you pay the costs involved in each port, you pay for the tourist taxes and other fees. Everything for the whole week, from itineraries to provisioning, are completely up to you. You can even hire your own skipper, whose role is to drive the boat wherever you tell him/her to go. This is totally an option (An option that we can help you to organise! More about that in another email), and many people come to Croatia each summer to do exactly this kind of sailing holiday.
The difference between sailing in Croatia on your own and the sailing experiences that we offer, is that you might never have been to Croatia before, where as we have lived here for almost five years, having worked here for five summer seasons. This means that we have spent a lot of time and energy creating amazing relationships with local businesses, discovering hidden gems and have even hidden treasure that you and your family can go hunting for! We have worked very hard to build up our extensive knowledge and network here in Croatia so that we can really show you the heart of this region and some of the amazing experiences that it has to offer that regular visitors to Croatia will probably miss out on.
Do you have any other questions for us? I am sure you do! If our years of running sailing holidays here in Croatia has taught us anything, it’s that when it comes to planning a holiday, no two families are the same. In order to ensure that right from the moment you start thinking about a sailing holiday, you get to ask all the questions you have, to get clear on exactly what is involved and we get to understand exactly what you and your family are looking for in your holiday, we encourage you to call us and start asking straight away! We want you to feel totally at ease asking anything that comes to mind. No question is too small, too silly or too repetitive. It is important to us that you get to know us and we get to know you. We can then do our magic to design a holiday experience that checks each of your individual personal travel boxes, as well as fitting you as a family.
We realise that trust is a vital component of being able to relax and enjoy a summer holiday. And we aim to build that trust with you as soon as possible.