One of the biggest advantages a superyacht offers is the freedom to travel wherever you like, from popular cruising grounds to under-the-radar destinations offering eye opening opportunities to experience different cultures and hidden heritages. Whether you’re looking to revisit an old favourite charter ground, or venture somewhere different this year, here are some of the best cultural yacht charter destinations for 2024.
Sculptors have long been inspired by the stories of Greek and Roman mythology, and these tales of love and revenge, loyalty and envy set around epic voyages and places of antiquity are all around you on a superyacht charter in the eastern Med.
In Turkey – a cultural meeting point for millennia – superyacht guests can visit Ephesus to see the ruined Library of Celsus, a reminder of the might of the Roman Empire, while slightly further south at Didyma you can find temples of both the Greek god Apollo and his twin sister Artemis.
Sculptors have long been inspired by the stories of Greek and Roman mythology, and these tales of love and revenge, loyalty and envy set around epic voyages and places of antiquity are all around you on a superyacht charter in the eastern Med.
In Turkey – a cultural meeting point for millennia – superyacht guests can visit Ephesus to see the ruined Library of Celsus, a reminder of the might of the Roman Empire, while slightly further south at Didyma you can find temples of both the Greek god Apollo and his twin sister Artemis.
Greece itself is often considered the cradle of western civilisation and with a myriad of islands to explore, superyacht guests are spoiled for choice when it comes to cultural and artistic inspiration. Visit the birthplace of Apollo at Delos or admire the Venetian influence of the Old Town of Corfu, which in 2007 became Greece’s newest UNESCO World Heritage Site.
For Renaissance art, the Italian Riviera is unbeatable. From the hallowed halls of Florence’s Uffizi gallery where you can see Botticelli’s Birth of Venus painting and the huge pieces by Bellini and Carpaccio on display in Venice’s Accademia, to the many frescoes found in Italy’s churches, such as the remarkable interior of Padua’s Scrovegni Chapel.
A Mediterranean superyacht charter offers access to some of the world’s best cultural and heritage sites, many within easy cruising distance of each other, you just need to choose which area appeals to you the most.
When you think of Caribbean yacht charters, it’s easy to just focus on the translucent waters, marine wildlife and sugar-white beaches of the holiday brochures, but these heavenly islands also offer lots of cultural attractions to appeal to even the most demanding of art lovers.
While much indigenous art from the Caribbean island may now reside in museums and galleries in places as far afield as New York and London, there is still a huge amount of vibrant art to be found in the islands themselves. There are fantastic galleries set throughout the Caribbean islands. The Gallery of Caribbean Art in Saint Peter Barbados has artworks from Cuba in the north to Guyana in the south, while The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas is a great place to admire works by both established and emerging artists who wish to tell the story of the islands.
For a more immersive artistic experience in the Caribbean, you should take a wander through one of its art communities. In the San Nicolas district of Aruba, you can view an outdoor gallery of 44 technicolour murals that often take nature as their theme, with tours through local organisation Artisa explaining how the artworks have helped transform this previously run-down part of the island.
On Aruba’s neighbouring island of Curaçao in Otrobanda in the historic quarter of Willemstad, there’s also bright street art amid the colourful buildings and lots of local artists offer painting classes for visitors feeling similarly inspired.
When it comes to yacht charter destinations in Croatia, many guests focus on the many islands, historic cities, national parks and those areas with the best sailing credentials. However, not only does Croatia have a complex and fascinating heritage, which you can learn more about at the Red History Museum, but it also has a revered artistic side.
In Dubrovnik, the Museum of Modern Art houses thousands of works from the 19th and 20th centuries, while the Meštrović Gallery in Split is like a monument to its namesake Ivan Mestrivic – an accomplished sculptor who worked in marble, bronze, and wood – and houses many of his masterpieces.
If you are looking for your own painting muse, then look no further than Croatia’s glistening waters, blue skies, crumbling ruins, and beautiful flora and fauna, all of which can be captured on a painting tour with the likes of Silkamilna Painting Tours.
A galapagos yacht charter offers the opportunity to experience nature in its most pure form. Here amid the rich eco-diversity you can see a huge amount of wildlife that you won’t see anywhere else in the world, with 80% of its birdlife and 97% of its reptiles endemic.
It was this sense of separateness that Charles Darwin found so thrilling, using the Galapagos in the development of his Theory of Evolution which he presented to the world in his Origin of the Species book.
One way Darwin documented the species he saw in the Galapagos was by drawing them and Artists for Conservation is an organisation that uses art (often created in places like the Galapagos) to fund its conservation work.
If you would like to create your own piece of art on your Galapagos yacht charter, then Art Safari runs both sketching walks and snorkelling expeditions led by an experienced artist.
It’s for good reason that the French Riviera remains one of the most popular yacht charter destinations in the world. For art enthusiasts there are many elegant towns, villages and cities where you can see world-class art, from Nice to Cannes, but for the ultimate art-lover’s tour of the French Riviera, you should pay a visit to some of the places that influenced many of the world’s greatest artists.
In the 1880s, Impressionists such as Pierre August Renoir and Claude Monet were some of the earliest ambassadors for the artistic allure of the French Riviera, with Monet stating: “It is so beautiful, so bright, so luminous. One swims in blue air and it is frightening.”
Decades later, other artists, such as Matisse and Picasso, were drawn here, with the historic port of Antibes becoming a particularly favoured spot for the painting set.
Meanwhile, Aix-en-provence was the birthplace of Paul Cēzanne, the abstract artist who is considered the father of modern painting. A stroll through the streets and landscapes that formed the backdrop to his early life and the studio he built towards the end of his life, is a fitting pilgrimage on any cultural French Riviera yacht charter.
And so, from the Americas to the Eastern Med, a yacht charter is a great way to experience some of the world’s best cultural attractions. The hardest part is deciding which of the world’s best cultural yachting destinations to choose for 2024 and which to save for another time.
To book your next superyacht charter, speak with Edmiston’s brokerage team today.