Yacht Charter Benidorm — the Whole Bay to Yourself

Marina Greenwich in Altea, about 11 km up the coast — officially Puerto Deportivo Luis Campomanes. This is not us being awkward: Benidorm's own port is a small club harbour with 110 berths, an 8-metre length limit and 2.5 metres of draft, so no charter yacht can berth there. Marina Greenwich has 543 berths, fuel, a 60-tonne travelift and 24-hour staff. It is a short taxi or drive from Benidorm, there is parking, and we send you the exact meeting point with your confirmation. Anyone advertising "our marina in Benidorm" is describing something that does not exist.

No. Every yacht charter we run for Benidorm comes with a professional skipper, so no licence or experience is required from you. If you hold a valid licence and want to take the helm yourself, bareboat charter is possible on certain boats — send us your certification and we will tell you which of the fleet you can take. Most people take the skipper anyway, because of the park rules along the Serra Gelada coast.

Capacity is set by the individual boat and its certification. Sailing yachts and smaller motor yachts typically take up to 10 to 12 guests for a day charter; catamarans are usually the roomiest for the same number; larger crewed yachts take more. Benidorm bookings tend to run bigger than most of this coast, so tell us your real number and we will only show you boats that legally and comfortably fit everyone.

Yes, and it is the main reason to take a full day rather than a half. It is the only island in the Serra Gelada park with public access — Illa Mitjana, La Galera and L'Olla are restricted. There are hourly ferries from the port, a restaurant the same family has run since 1968, and a walk up to the lighthouse at 73 metres. From your own yacht you can swim off the back, go ashore for an hour, and be somewhere else by the afternoon.

It is a lovely story and it is false. The legend says Roland — Roldán, one of Charlemagne's paladins — struck the notch out of Puig Campana, the 1,406-metre peak behind town, and the fallen chunk landed in the sea as Isla de Benidorm. The notch and the island genuinely do line up when you look from the water, which is exactly why the legend exists and why we will point it out. But Professor B. Granier of the Université de Bretagne Occidentale settled it with rocks: Puig Campana's core is Late Jurassic, the island's limestone is Early Cretaceous — Albian — roughly 50 million years apart. They cannot be the same stone. The island is a detached remnant of Serra Gelada's eroded palaeocliff. Better story, in our view.

They are real, they bind every boat, and our skippers keep to them. Anchoring is only permitted at the designated buoys and zones — there are two, both on sandy bottom, chosen specifically to keep anchors off the posidonia: one on the northeast flank near Albir and Altea, one on the southwest side by Benidorm. Speed is limited to 3 knots inside the special marine protection zones and 12 knots elsewhere in the park. Diving needs authorisation in advance: 48 hours for individuals, 30 days for dive centres. Anchoring on posidonia is prohibited outright under regional law, and the regional Fondea app shows exactly where you cannot drop.

The skipper makes the call, and safety comes before the schedule. If the forecast makes the day unsafe or simply unpleasant, we offer you an alternative date or a full refund. Often the answer is a different route rather than a cancellation — the bay is fairly sheltered and the island gives you something to duck behind, so a marginal day frequently just becomes a shorter one.

June to October, when the sea holds above 20°C and peaks around 26°C in August. August is also when the town is at its absolute fullest — the council's own mobile-data study counted about 365,000 people in Benidorm on 12 August 2023, against a resident population of 74,663. June and September are our pick: warm water, more boats free, and the anchorage off the island has room in it.