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The day-charter quote that lands in your inbox at €4,500 for a 22m motor yacht in Ibiza, full day, water toys included, has a column at the bottom that says "catering: from €80 per person." The "from" is doing a lot of work. By the time you have selected the lunch tier, the bar package, and the inevitable rosé upgrade, the catering line for 10 people is €2,800 to €3,200, which is most of the way to a second yacht. This post sorts the four standard catering tiers, what each actually delivers, and the line items that move the bill the most.
Tier one: the snack tray
Standard on every legitimate operator. Water, soft drinks, a fruit platter, and a tray of crisps or crackers. Sometimes a small cheese board. Usually included in the day rate at no separate charge on yachts under €3,000 a day. The snack tray exists so that the operator can say "catering included." It will not feed anyone past 1pm.
Tier one is fine for a 4-hour half-day on a 12m boat where the plan is two swim stops and a tender into a shore lunch. If the day is full (8 to 10 hours) and the plan is to stay on the yacht through the middle of the day, tier one alone is not catering, it is a snack.
Tier two: the buffet lunch
The standard on €3,500-plus day charters in the Mediterranean. A buffet set out at 1:30pm with three to five cold dishes (caprese, Greek salad, tuna tartare, prosciutto board, marinated octopus, depending on the kitchen), a hot dish or two (grilled fish, pasta, occasionally a paella), a bread basket, dessert, fruit, coffee. The wine is usually a house white and a house rosé, with sparkling water and soft drinks. Beer on request.
Tier two runs €60 to €110 per person depending on operator, with the upper end in Mykonos and Saint-Tropez and the lower in Croatia and the eastern Aegean. The food is usually prepared shore-side and brought aboard pre-loaded, with the stew warming and plating. It is not bad. It is not cooked-on-board. The fish is usually pre-grilled and reheated. If that bothers you, tier two is not the right level.
The buffet lunch is the right call for 6 to 12 guests on a casual day where the priority is the swimming and the people. It is not the right call if you have a guest with serious dietary needs (vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free), because the buffet menu is built around the centre of the market and the substitutions are rarely strong.
Tier three: the on-board chef
A galley, a chef aboard, and a cooked-on-board lunch (and sometimes a small breakfast). Standard on yachts 30m+ and increasingly on 24m+ in Mykonos, Ibiza, and the Côte d'Azur. The cost is €120 to €250 per person. The chef takes a pre-charter brief two to seven days out, sources fresh fish that morning at the local market, and serves the meal plated, usually one main per guest with starters and dessert.
Tier three is the right product for a serious day, for a group that cares about food, and for parties with strict dietary needs. It is the only tier where the kitchen can deliver a properly vegan or kosher or gluten-free experience on the day with no compromise. It is also the only tier where the lunch genuinely competes with a good shore-side restaurant.
The chef tier is the line item where the day charter starts to feel like a proper week charter, in miniature. You pay for it. Whether you should pay for it depends entirely on what the day is meant to be.
Tier four: the externally-catered Michelin lunch
A small market exists for day charters where the food is sent out from a partner restaurant. The chef is shore-based and the lunch arrives at the yacht via tender at noon, plated and served by the yacht stew. In Mykonos this is most commonly Spilia or Nammos arrangements. In Saint-Tropez, Loulou Ramatuelle. In Cannes, Da Laura. In Capri, La Fontelina. In Ibiza, Cala Bassa Beach Club.
The cost is restaurant-priced plus a tender-and-service fee, usually €180 to €350 per person all-in. The food is the food the restaurant serves. If the shore restaurant is what you actually want and the only reason you are not eating there is the wait time or the beach access, tier four is the cleanest answer. If you are doing it because the restaurant has a name, you are paying a lot for a name. Be honest with yourself.
The bar package
Separate from the food tier. Three common structures.
Beer-and-wine package, €40 to €60 per person per day. House white, house rosé, a beer or two, soft drinks. Standard inclusion on tier two and above.
Premium spirits package, €70 to €120 per person per day. Adds vodka, gin, rum, tequila, a basic whisky, mixers, and ice. Champagne is usually billed separately.
Top-shelf package, €150 to €250 per person per day. Adds aged spirits, premium tequila, a champagne quota, and a cocktail menu. The cocktail menu is the bit that matters because it means the stew has the ingredients to actually make a Negroni or a Margarita rather than handing out flutes.
The single most-common surprise on the final invoice is the champagne line. The operator quotes the bar package; the client orders three magnums of Dom Pérignon over the course of the day; the magnums are billed at retail plus 25 percent. If the day plan involves champagne in any volume, ask the operator for the by-the-bottle price in advance and either bring your own (if the operator allows) or pre-agree the quantity.
The BYOB rule by country
Croatia: standard practice. Most operators allow guests to bring food and drink aboard with no surcharge. The exception is the high-end Hvar fleet, which now charges a €100 to €200 corkage on luxury spirits.
Greece: variable. Mainstream Mykonos and Santorini operators allow BYOB on food and on wine, but the larger luxury operators charge a corkage of €15 to €30 per bottle.
France: the Côte d'Azur is the strictest BYOB market in the Med. Cannes, Saint-Tropez, and Antibes operators almost universally include catering in the package price and discourage outside food. A few operators will accept BYOB on wine with a €20 to €40 per-bottle corkage. Outside food is rarer.
Italy: middle ground. Amalfi, Capri, and Sardinia operators allow BYOB with a moderate corkage. The Costa Smeralda set has tightened up in the last two seasons.
Spain: Ibiza is mostly BYOB-friendly. Mallorca is mixed.
BVI: BYOB is the default. Most charters provision shore-side with the operator providing a grocery list. The day rate often excludes catering entirely.
Cabo: the all-inclusive package model is dominant. BYOB is uncommon and discouraged.
Dietary briefs and what works
The single best thing a client can do to lift the catering experience is to send a written dietary brief at booking, not on the day. The brief should cover allergies (specifically, not vague), strong preferences (the guest who hates olives, the guest who is sober), and target dishes if you have them. The brief works best at tier three. It works at tier two if it is short (two or three items). It does not work at tier one.
The brief that does not work is the one delivered to the captain at 8am on the day. The chef has shopped, the buffet is loaded, the kitchen is set. You will get the substitutions the kitchen has on hand, which is usually a plate of cheese and tomato.
What we passed on
The "lunch ashore" plan as a substitute for tier three. The pitch is: skip the on-board catering, save €100 a head, take a tender into the harbour, eat at the restaurant. In Mykonos, Saint-Tropez, Capri, and Portofino, this is now structurally unworkable on a peak weekend. The marina tender-up takes 30 to 60 minutes. The waiting time at the restaurant is 45 to 90 minutes. The walk in heat is unpleasant. The return tender takes another 30 to 60 minutes. You have lost two and a half hours of the day for a lunch that is no better than what the yacht chef would have served. Save the shore lunch for the destinations where the marina is quiet (Hvar in May, Sardinian Maddalena in June), not the peak ones.
The other thing we would pass on is the operator who folds catering into a single "all-inclusive" line without itemising it. You cannot tell whether you are paying €60 for crisps or €250 for a chef. Ask for the catering tier, the bar package, and the corkage policy in writing before signing.