Seven nights down a forty-mile chain, and no day more than a couple of hours under way. That is what a Grenadines week is.
The islands themselves barely charge you for it. Access fees for the whole group come to about US$200 to US$350 on a yacht up to 100 feet, which is less than a dinner ashore.
We publish the figure because nobody else does and clients ask. The expense here is the yacht, and the thing worth spending your planning on is the order of the stops.
Broker insight
Guests hear Mustique and private island and assume the fees are going to be brutal. They are not. What costs money in the Grenadines is the yacht, and the islands themselves are close to free by Caribbean standards. What I do spend time on is the order of the stops, because getting the Tobago Cays on a settled morning rather than a windy afternoon is worth more to the week than any fee you will pay.
John Boullin
Charter Broker
Access Fees Come to US$200 to US$350 for the Group
| Stop | What the yacht pays | What it covers |
| Bequia | No island fee | Anchoring is free; a laid mooring in Admiralty Bay carries its own charge |
| Mustique | EC$200 to EC$1,000, by length | Three consecutive nights at Britannia Bay and the visitor area ashore |
| Canouan | Day pass at Sandy Lane Yacht Club, price not published | Pool and beach loungers, food charged on top |
| Mayreau | Nothing | Saltwhistle Bay and the village |
| Tobago Cays | EC$15 per person and EC$60 per mooring, each per 24 hours | Park entry and a mooring inside Horseshoe Reef |
| Union Island | Nothing | Clifton, Chatham Bay, the park office |
| Palm Island and Petit St Vincent | Resorts closed | The anchorages are open, nothing ashore, see where the reopenings stand |
Worked through on two real shapes of charter, at the fixed rate of EC$2.70 to the US dollar. Above 100 feet the Mustique fee alone rises to EC$550 or EC$1,000, so the total climbs with the boat:
- Eight guests on a 60 foot catamaran, one night at Mustique and two in the Cays. EC$200 plus EC$240 in park entry plus EC$120 in mooring. EC$560, about US$207.
- Ten guests on a 100 foot motor yacht, same stops. EC$450 plus EC$300 plus EC$120. EC$870, about US$322.
The captain settles these and they appear on the final account rather than arriving as a surprise.
The Week, Night by Night
Seven nights, running south and back. Distances are short enough that no day is more than a few hours under way.
Night 1: Bequia, about 9 miles
Board at Blue Lagoon or Young Island Cut on St Vincent and sail down in the afternoon.
Admiralty Bay is the best harbour in the chain and takes any size of yacht. The Belmont Walkway runs along the water from the dinghy dock, which makes this the one evening of the week with a town in it.
Night 2: Mustique, about 12 miles
Britannia Bay is the only place a yacht may stop, and the harbourmaster decides where a larger one sits.
The conservation fee buys three consecutive nights whether you stay one or three, which is the single most misunderstood cost in the destination. Guests may use the village, the shoreline south to the salt pond and the beach below the anchorage. Basil’s Bar is open to visiting yachts.
Night 3: Canouan, about 15 miles
The marina island, and the one place in the chain with real shoreside infrastructure. Sandy Lane Yacht Club sells a day pass covering the pool and loungers, and two of the Mandarin Oriental’s restaurants take non-residents.
Groups who would rather keep sailing skip this one and push through to Mayreau.
Night 4: Mayreau, about 5 miles
Saltwhistle Bay is small, sandy and completely free, and it has a new breakwater since Hurricane Beryl. The village above it is a ten minute walk uphill.
Nights 5 and 6: the Tobago Cays, about 3 miles
We argue for two nights here, not one. The day boats come over from Union through the middle of the day, so the reef is busiest from late morning to mid-afternoon.
Two nights buys you the early morning, which is when the water is clearest and the turtles are grazing off Baradal. Your crew handles the mooring and the park rangers; you wake up inside the reef with nobody else in it.
Night 7: back north to Bequia, about 25 miles
The longest sail of the week, and it sets up a short run into St Vincent on the final morning rather than a dash.
A night ashore in Port Elizabeth at the end suits groups who have spent six nights at anchor.
Three Reasons We Would Change the Route
Three variations worth knowing before you fix the week.
Starting from Union Island instead. Flying into Clifton by way of Barbados turns the week around and puts the Tobago Cays on day one. Worth doing when the settled weather falls at the start of the week rather than the end.
Swapping a Cays night for Chatham Bay. In a strong easterly the Cays stop being comfortable, because the only thing breaking the swell is the reef itself. Chatham Bay on Union Island is the standard fallback and it is a few miles away.
Dropping Mustique. Paying for three nights to use one is a fair reason to skip it, especially over Christmas, New Year and Easter, when the visitor area closes to anyone without a Cotton House reservation. That time goes into the Cays instead.
Which of these applies is usually decided by where your yacht already is, because the resident fleet is small and half of it shares the season with the BVI.
Four Things the Fees Do Not Cover
Four things that sit outside the table above.
- National clearance into St Vincent and the Grenadines, handled by the captain on arrival.
- Moorings outside the park, where laid moorings in Admiralty Bay or Britannia Bay carry their own charge.
- Restaurants and bars ashore, including Basil’s Bar and the Canouan restaurants, which are normal bills.
- Diving, which both Bequia operators run by collecting divers from the yacht rather than making you come ashore.
None of it changes the shape of the budget. In a destination where the yacht is the expense, the islands are close to free.
People also ask
How much are the fees for a week in the Grenadines?
Roughly US$200 to US$350 for the whole group, depending on the size of the yacht and how many nights you spend in the Tobago Cays. Only Mustique and the Tobago Cays charge a yacht, and Canouan sells an unpublished day pass. Bequia, Mayreau and Union Island are free.
How many days do you need for the Grenadines?
Seven nights covers the chain comfortably running south and back, with two nights in the Tobago Cays. The whole chain is about 40 miles, so no day is more than a few hours under way. A shorter charter means dropping stops rather than sailing harder.
Which way round should you sail the Grenadines?
Most weeks run south from St Vincent and return, because the trade winds give you an easier sail home. Starting from Clifton on Union Island reverses it and puts the Tobago Cays at the beginning, which is worth doing when the settled weather falls early in the week.
What is a Grenadines week actually like?
Short sailing days and long afternoons at anchor. You are on the hook almost every night rather than in a marina, the longest ordinary hop is under twenty miles, and the week is built around being in the Tobago Cays early enough to have the reef to yourselves.
Do you have to pay to anchor in the Tobago Cays?
Yes. The park charges EC$15 per person for each 24 hours plus EC$60 for each mooring for each 24 hours, collected by the rangers or at the office in Clifton. Take a laid mooring rather than anchoring, since the holding is patchy over coral and seagrass and the anchoring zones were redrawn after Hurricane Beryl.
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