Marina booking tips

If we need to book a place in the marina, we expect to encounter a service comparable to the well-known Booking.com or something similar to it. But in fact, it turns out that each marina has its own Internet representation at its disposal - it can be a business card site, a regular page on a social network, or a whole Internet portal. And in each individual case, it is necessary to independently clarify the information on the conditions, parking and service rates.

Before embarking on an interesting and exciting journey on a yacht, you need to decide in advance not only with the planned route, but also plan the marinas along the way for anchorage. First of all, it is worth determining the sequence of actions. Having chosen the country of departure, dates of departure and arrival at the port, as well as a suitable yacht for rent, you can begin to plan your trip in detail. In fact, everything is not as complicated as it might seem at first glance - you can find many instructions for booking pleasure boats. After studying such instructions, you can start choosing places in marinas - and here our advice will come in handy.

First, you need to find out if there are yacht clubs or large yacht ports near the key points of the route (the cost of parking in them can be much lower). There is also a common misconception that it is usually very difficult to find free space in such marinas, but this is not the case. The sooner you start planning stops along the way, the more likely you are to find marinas with favorable rates and save money on it.

Secondly, you save a lot of money by booking in advance not only yachts, but also places for them, while there are significant discounts. In most marinas, the cost of parking is one day higher than multi-day parking. Be sure to take this into account if you are going to travel across the sea for one or more weeks, while making long stops.

Thirdly, you need to clarify what is included in the cost of parking (for example, whether it includes drinking water supply or electricity) and whether you will need to pay separately for water and electricity. This way you can better plan your travel expenses.

Recently, many start-ups have appeared - services that help yachtsmen find places in marinas, for example: My Sea, MarineBook, Dockwa and others. And if Marina Exchange is designed to help the people of Australia, then the first three should be considered in more detail.

My Sea is the leading internet portal for online booking of berths in Europe (Greece, Croatia) and Turkey, which allows you to search for all marinas on the home screen, simply zoom in on the parts of the map we need or use a special search filter. In the service you can get acquainted with the most popular Hotspots addresses of the Mediterranean and other regions, placed under the search form.

The descriptions of the marinas are equipped with high quality photographs, descriptions of the types of services offered, as well as their level, depth, capacity and wind characteristics. You can enter data about your yacht (type of vessel, length, draft) in order to clarify the cost of services and book a place in the marina. If necessary, users of the service can leave their comments, reviews and ratings, and thus invite other customers to visit the sights and catering establishments that are located nearby.

Among the advantages of this service, it is worth noting registration through the social network Facebook, simplicity and ease of navigation on the site, indication of information about the rules of arrival and payment - to receive a full inquiry about the reservation you will need no more than 2 clicks.

The disadvantages include the lack of information about free seats, if you did not bother to indicate the details of the vessel. And although this gives us the opportunity to ultimately find out the cost of parking as accurately as possible, in this case we cannot first know the approximate amount of the service. The service will also ask you to enter a phone number, although this is not entirely justified in terms of using the site's functionality (it is available without registration). The English and German versions of the site are working.

The Dockwa app is very useful for those sailors who are planning to travel along the coast of Panama, America or Puerto Rico. A very convenient and functional service designed for English-speaking clients and contains accurate information on prices, as well as detailed descriptions of the marinas. Here you can see all the prices for a day of parking in each of the popular marinas, for example, on the East Coast of the United States, and if necessary, request a parking space and, after receiving confirmation from the marina, immediately pay for parking directly in the application using a bank card. In addition, the service offers additional round-the-clock support for both yachtsmen and yacht clubs.

The application also shows the list and level of services offered, if necessary, you can leave a review and contact the staff of the marina through the specified contacts. One of the inconveniences is that in order to create a travel itinerary, you will definitely need to register on the website.

The app was created by co-founder Mike Melilo with the sole purpose of reducing the time between a request and a booking (through observation, he found out that from the moment a berth is requested to its booking, information flows through a chain of 20 or more interactions). Recently, the owners of the service canceled the fee that was previously established for the provision of services and was included in the booking price and now you can rent a berth using the application at the same cost as when contacting the marina directly.

MarineBook is a European marina reservation service created by the developers of the site of the same name in Croatia. It supports English, Italian, German and Croatian languages and shows descriptions of marinas with detailed information. With the help of MarineBook you can see contacts, prices, additional services. If necessary, it is very easy to use the search function - just enter the desired name, and if there are no results, you can search for a place directly on the map. Which is very convenient at sea, the map showing the filling stations does not require an internet connection.

Also, as in the version for computers, the site for mobile opens the main part of the functions only after registration. Then you get the opportunity to compile a list of selected marinas, monitor the cost and read reviews of grateful customers. In addition, there is an electronic guide to establishments - here you can choose restaurants to your liking, just use an assistant in Croatia. The disadvantages of the application include infrequent updates, as well as the inability to quickly register using an account on social networks.

We hope that the tips in this article will help you find a place in the marina with the best conditions!

If you are interested in renting, selling or purchasing a yacht, we are always ready to find the most advantageous offers, and if necessary, tell you about the marinas in the region and help with the selection of the route. With the help of 2yachts specialists, you will find the best option and you will be able to go on an exciting journey on your dream yacht!