Gulets and Drinks on board: Useful Information
Gulet cruises are a combination of 4 things:
- Gulet rental with the crew.
- Food on board.
- Drinks on board.
- The route you have.
This post will explain everything about drinks organization. People are not aware that there are several different possibilities of how to organize drinks and not all of them are always possible.
So read everything about Gulets and Drinks on board.
Drinks are an important part of your gulet holidays. If you like good wine, cold beer, strong spirits or you just like the taste of cold and fresh lemonade then read this. It will give you a very good idea of what is possible.
Possibility No.1 – Buy drinks from the supermarket and bring them on gulet
This concept is only possible in Turkey charters (free of charge). You go to the supermarket and buy what you think you will drink. You pay supermarket price and then the crew serves you these drinks.
This is actually the cheapest option and it will save you money. Some people do not like the hustle of doing the shopping on their own so there is also the possibility we give you a drinks order form and the crew buys the drinks for you…and you just pay the supermarket bill.
While this is a standard in Turkey in Greece charters and Croatia charters this is not so easy. While in Greece this possibility does not exist in Croatia you can most of the times pay “service fee” or “corkage fee” (around € 500 – € 1.000 per week max) and then you can buy your own drinks.
If you do not which to pay this then you can have option no.2 (very popular in Croatia) or option no.2 (very popular in Greece).
Possibility No.2 – Buy drinks from ships bar
Most of the gulets have this as a standard option. It means you are not allowed to bring drinks on board with you because you can buy them from ships bar.
The bar has a price list of drinks. You order drinks from there and at the end of your trip, you pay the bill.
Usually, prices are not OVER THE TOP but are quite decent. This, of course, depends on the gulet. Some gulets have also expensive drinks. It is good to check this before you decide on your cruise.
In Turkey, this is usually like this when it comes to Cabin charter gulet cruises.
In this option usually, during breakfast, there is water, juice, and coffee included in the price while during the meals you have to pay for everything extra (including water).
Possibility No.3 – APA – Advance Provisioning Allowance
This is maybe even the best option. You pay 20% or 25% on top of the charter price and all costs are covered by this money. If your gulet had the price around € 10.000 per week you pay extra € 2.000 on top of this and from this money all expenses are paid (fuel, food, food and port taxes).
If you spend more than this money you pay at the end of the trip the difference. If you spend less than this money you get the difference back.
This concept is mostly used on luxury private charter gulets and it is also popular in Greece.
Possibility No.4 – All Inclusive concept
A couple of years ago this concept was the most popular one but I am happy to say it is less and less popular (with clients as well as with gulet owners). Why? Because in this concept there is always 1 person that loses money. All-inclusive concept is quite expensive and it is like this for a reason.
Usually, prices are determined on a “worst-case scenario” for the owner…which is an assumption that all-inclusive is mostly taken by heavy drinkers that will pay this money only because they are 100% sure they will drink much more than they pay.
The extra payments for drinks are around € 100 per person per week and up to € 180 per person per week (for domestic drinks only) and if you do not drink A LOT this is usually not a very good idea.
This concept is the most common in Croatia.
Before you book a gulet you should always double-check how drinks are organized on each gulet.
You do not want to bring 10 boxes of quality wine with you on a gulet only to find out later it is not allowed to bring your own drinks on board.
