BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide

Renting a boat for Christmas and New Year: the Caribbean and Canary Islands’ reverse high season

While the Mediterranean hibernates, the French Caribbean and the Canary Islands enter their peak season. What to know before booking a boat over the holidays.

In December, most of the destinations Boat-Comparator compares are shut down for the winter: the French Riviera, Corsica and Croatia are all waiting for spring. But two regions do exactly the opposite and hit their best conditions right when everyone else is planning the holidays: the French Caribbean and the Canary Islands. Spending Christmas or New Year at sea there is a real option, as long as you understand this reversed calendar.

The French Caribbean: the start of the dry season

In Martinique and Guadeloupe, December marks the end of hurricane season and the start of the dry season, with trade winds settling back into a steady pattern and calmer seas after the wet months — our guide to hurricane season in the Caribbean covers this shift in detail. That's precisely why the year-end holidays draw such strong demand: the bases at Le Marin and Fort-de-France in Martinique, Pointe-à-Pitre and Les Saintes in Guadeloupe, and the lively anchorage at Saint-Martin all run at full capacity. One thing worth knowing before booking: between late December and mid-January, the trade winds tend to strengthen and shift further north, a pattern local sailors sometimes call the "Christmas winds" — great sailing conditions, but ones that can make some exposed anchorages less comfortable for a quiet night at anchor.

The Canary Islands, the alternative under five hours from Europe

For anyone who'd rather skip the Atlantic crossing, the Canary Islands offer a mild climate year-round thanks to their subtropical position and the trade winds that temper the heat, with water that's just as sailable in December as in August. The archipelago combines two real advantages for the holidays: a short flight from most major European cities, and a solid supply of licence-free boats on Tenerife and Lanzarote, making it easy to fit in a spontaneous outing between two family meals rather than committing to a full week of chartering.

New Year's Eve at sea, a different kind of experience

Watching the New Year's fireworks from the deck of a boat, away from the crowds on the quay, changes the experience completely — our guide to watching fireworks from a boat covers how to pick your anchorage and keep a safe distance. In both the Caribbean and the Canaries, the main marinas often put on their own display on 31 December, which turns the anchorage facing the harbour into a prime spot — one that fills up fast and is worth booking several weeks ahead.

Book early: the real constraint of this period

Unlike a summer outing in the Mediterranean, the holiday high season needs to be planned well in advance: the best boats go as early as the previous summer, and prices typically carry a noticeable premium over an ordinary week at the same destination, especially between 20 December and 2 January. A 2011 study by Dutch researcher Jeroen Nawijn, published in the Journal of Travel Research, found that most of the happiness boost from a vacation happens before departure, during the anticipation phase (see the study on Google Scholar) — one more reason to book a Christmas boat as early as spring rather than leaving it to the last minute, if only to enjoy the anticipation for longer.

Compare before booking your holidays at sea

Boat-Comparator queries SamBoat and Click&Boat live across the Caribbean and the Canary Islands to show the boats genuinely available for your holiday dates, before the most sought-after ones are gone — our platform comparison guide helps compare what's left once the high season is well underway.

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Also worth reading

• How much does it cost to rent a boat in 2026? Real prices
• License-Free Boat Rental in France: Rules, Prices & Where to Book
• Renting with or without a skipper: how to choose