BOAT-COMPARATOR Guide

France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece: Which Country Has the Most Marinas?

3,349 marinas recorded across 8 countries via OpenStreetMap: France dominates (1,320), ahead of Italy (850) and Spain (453). The full comparison, data biases included.

Which Mediterranean (and Atlantic) country has the most marinas? Our directory, built on OpenStreetMap (ODbL) data extracted in July 2026, records 3,349 named marinas across 8 countries. Here is the exact count, country by country — and what you should know about how the data is built before quoting the figures at a dinner party.

The ranking by country

France crushes the count — for two reasons

1,320 French marinas, more than Italy and Spain combined: the figure is partly real — three sea coasts, Alpine lakes, a dense river network, and a coastal development policy running since the 1960s (we analyse it in the detailed French count). But it is also partly bias: OpenStreetMap is exceptionally complete in France, and a less-mapped country will mechanically look less equipped. These figures measure recorded marinas, not an administrative truth. Treat them as a lower bound everywhere, with the gap between recorded and real likely widest in Turkey and Greece, where mapping communities are smaller.

The Croatian and Greek paradox

Croatia (223 recorded marinas) and Greece (198) are Europe's two capitals of weekly charter — and yet they sit near the bottom of the table. The explanation lies in geography and in the model: in these archipelago countries, cruising relies as much on anchorages and small municipal quays as on fully equipped marinas. Greek research confirms it: yachting weighs heavily in the country's balance of payments even though dedicated port infrastructure remains limited against demand (Diakomihalis, Greek Maritime Tourism: Evolution, Structures and Prospects, Research in Transportation Economics, 2007, see the study on Google Scholar). The same holds on the Croatian and European side: marinas, charter and cruising form the three continuously growing industries of nautical tourism (Luković, Nautical Tourism and Its Function in the Economic Development of Europe, IntechOpen, 2012, see the study on Google Scholar).

What the count includes, exactly

A note on method: we count marinas named in OpenStreetMap — sea marinas, lake harbours and river stops — not plain anchorage areas, isolated slipways or unnamed private pontoons. For France, that brings in Lake Geneva, Lake Annecy and the canals; for Croatia or Greece, it leaves out hundreds of organised mooring fields that nonetheless serve as overnight stops. Two countries can thus offer the same cruising experience with very different counts. Malta illustrates the reverse: only 7 marinas, but on an archipelago you can cross in a single day's sailing.

What it changes for boaters

Many marinas does not mean many free berths in August, and few marinas does not mean difficult sailing. In Italy as in Spain, port density makes coastal motor itineraries easy, with a fuel dock rarely more than a couple of hours away; in Croatia or Greece, you work with anchorages — which is precisely the charm of local charter. Fleet composition follows the same split: dense marina countries favour day boats and motorboats, archipelago countries favour weekly sailboat and catamaran charter. To compare density against coastline length, see our analysis of marinas per kilometre of coast.

Explore country by country

Every marina has its page in the marina directory (town, capacity, fuel and contact where OSM records them). And to turn geography into a day on the water, Boat-Comparator compares rental platforms in Croatia, Greece, Turkey and across all 183 destinations.

Source: data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), extracted July 2026. Count: named marinas, including lake and river harbours. Shares are rounded.

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