A week in Masuria costs as much as a week in Croatia. And rightly so

"Down with rip-off prices!"

May 2024, SailForum, the thread "Masuria is so expensive", page 81. A sailor fresh back from a cruise on a Bavaria 50 on the Adriatic puts a paid-up booking of a Masurian Sasanka up for sale:

"Down with rip-off prices ! I'll sell on my booking(deposit) for a Sasanka Viva 700 boat (built 2023, brand new) in Masuria from 29.05 to 02.06 [...] 295 PLN deposit already paid and then 692 PLN to the owner on site. (988 PLN in total for the charter) I've just come back from a Bavaria 50 in Croatia and my missus said that if I want I can take her a second time in a week or 2. Well I want to !"

A day later he added: "My wife liked the warm sea more than Masuria". In the same thread another sailor puts it bluntly: "for now, looking at Masuria, the prices are accepted. If you overdo it, people will move to Croatia, Italy or Greece. The yachts are already similar" (SailForum, April 2024). This argument has been going on for years and almost nobody in it does the maths. We did.

The charter alone for a sailboat of the 10-metre class can be cheaper in Croatia at the end of September than here: 4699 PLN after a discount for the week of 26.09-3.10.2026, against 5460 PLN, the September rate for an Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter. But the full bill for a week for 6 people is 7112 PLN in Masuria and 14,721 PLN in Dalmatia. All conversions in this text use the average rate of the National Bank of Poland (NBP) of 19 August 2026: 4.3267 PLN per euro (table 160/A/NBP/2026). Below is the whole calculation, with every source given in the text.

Cards on the table: we earn from Masuria

We are a charter platform from Giżycko and we make our living from you sailing on the Great Lakes. That is a conflict of interest, and we state it at the beginning of the text, not in the footer. That is why the deal with the reader is this: every amount in this text has a currency, a period and a named source, so that you can check us. Where Croatia wins, we say so plainly, with a number.

The second reason to do the maths: nobody has done it so far. The only explicitly titled comparison piece in the Polish sailing media, a 2016 blog post by the charter agent YACHTIC, does not contain a single amount and ends with the sentence "Masuria will probably be cheaper". Ten years later there is still no calculation. This is that calculation.

The charter bill: like for like

We compare yachts of the same class: an Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter (10 m, up to 10 people) with a Bavaria Cruiser 34 and an Oceanis 34.1 (10-10.5 m) from Dalmatia; for the comparison we also take a Hanse 348 from the same bracket, from the ACI Pula base in Istria, purely as a price point. We do not compare the 26-foot Twister with a Bavaria, because it is not the same kind of boat.

The Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter costs 6860 PLN for a week in peak season (980 PLN per day, July to mid-August) and 5460 PLN in September (780 PLN per day). That is a drop of 20 percent; on a Twister 26 the September reduction reaches 22 percent (2240 PLN down to 1750 PLN a week). Source: NaCzarter.pl price list and data, as of 19 August 2026.

In Dalmatia the week of 5-12 September 2026 on a 2024 Bavaria Cruiser 34 (the yacht KORA, Sukošan base near Zadar) went for 1785 EUR and is already booked; the list price of this boat is 1600 EUR (12knots offer, checked 19.08.2026). At our rate that is 7723 PLN. A Hanse 348 from the ACI Pula base (that is Istria, not Dalmatia; we cite it as a price point) for the same week: 2600 EUR discounted by 24 percent to 1976 EUR, i.e. 8550 PLN (Croatia Yachting, 19.08.2026).

The end of September reverses the picture: the same KORA for the week of 26.09-3.10.2026 is on offer for 1086 EUR after a 33 percent discount from the list price of 1600 EUR, i.e. 4699 PLN, less than the September Antila 33 at 5460 PLN, which is a regular price-list rate with no discount at all. Similarly Abavela: a Bavaria 34-1 Artina for 1235 EUR (5343 PLN) for the same week, with no list price given. Separately, at Croatia Yachting, a Hanse 360 and a Hanse 388 from the D-Marin Mandalina marina for 1277 and 1307 EUR (5525 and 5655 PLN). Anyone who claims that a charter in Croatia always costs more is wrong, and we say so as a company from Giżycko.

Peak season is another league: a Bavaria Cruiser 34 from Split is listed in the broker Adria's price list for July and August 2027 (downloaded 19.08.2026) at 2990 EUR list price and 2414 EUR with early booking, i.e. 12,937 or 10,445 PLN a week, against 6860 PLN for the Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter in the 2026 peak. A fair caveat: this is next year's price list set against this year's, so part of the difference may be ordinary year-on-year price indexation. On NaCzarter the peak sold out completely: all the boats we checked were sold out between 25 July and 8 August, and the calendar loosens from the third week of August: for the week of 22-29.08, 12 of 27 Twisters were free, for 29.08-5.09 already 19 of 27 (NaCzarter.pl database, 19.08.2026). On the Croatian side, the Oceanis 34.1 Rookie from ACI Marina Split that we checked has every week booked from 29 August to 3 October 2026.

Mandatory surcharges and deposits

The transit log has no equivalent of this scale in Masuria: it is a mandatory, non-refundable surcharge on every booking in Croatia, 258-300 EUR in the offers we checked, i.e. 1116-1298 PLN (Croatia Yachting 258 and 300 EUR, 12knots 290 EUR; offers downloaded 19.08.2026). At 12knots the KORA booking summary also shows a "Tax 13%" item of 146 EUR (632 PLN); we do not include it in the bill, because the broker does not explain it, but in fairness we warn you that the bill may be higher by that amount. On the Masurian side the only mandatory surcharge is service and cleaning: 150 PLN on a Twister, 300 PLN on an Antila 33, payable on site (NaCzarter.pl price list, 19.08.2026).

The deposit for a 10-metre boat in Croatia is 1000-1500 EUR, i.e. 4327-6490 PLN blocked for the duration of the cruise (KORA 1000 EUR, Oceanis 34.1 Rookie 1300 EUR, Tina at the broker Adria 1500 EUR). Rookie alternatively offers a non-refundable damage waiver of 250 EUR plus 100 EUR refundable. The deposit for the Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter: 3000 PLN in cash. On a Twister: 1000 PLN.

The tourist tax costs a few zlotys per person per day on both sides: Croatian operators charge approx. 1-1.33 EUR per person per day (4.33-5.75 PLN; rates according to the price lists of Navaboats, Fair Wind and 12knots, while Abavela charges a flat 21 EUR per week), Giżycko charges 3.30 PLN (resolution XI/78/2024), Mikołajki 3.46 PLN from 1.01.2026 (resolution XXIII/94/2025). For 6 people that is approx. 26-35 PLN a day there and approx. 20 PLN here.

Harbours and marinas: 90-150 PLN versus 75-130 euros

A night at Ekomarina Giżycko for a 9-12 m yacht costs 140 PLN, a shower 15 PLN (price list downloaded 19.08.2026). Mikołajki: 100 PLN plus 25 PLN for electricity and 18 PLN for a 4-minute shower. Sztynort: 90 PLN from 30 feet plus 30 PLN per person. Ognisty Ptak according to the 2025 price list: 130-150 PLN plus 15 PLN per person. A record from a forum, autumn 2024: "On the way I passed a new harbour under a new apartment complex marked »residents only«. [...] I stopped at Ognisty Ptak. For my MX 22 and two people I paid 160 PLN. Including two compulsory showers. A Masurian record." That Masurian record is about 37 euros at the NBP rate, and the shrinking of public quays that the same sailor writes about is a separate Masurian problem, and we do not pretend it does not exist.

In the ACI network (price list valid from 1.04.2026, including 25% VAT) a 10 m yacht pays in September: Split 130 EUR (562 PLN), Trogir 114 EUR (493 PLN), Skradin 104 EUR (450 PLN), Piškera 120 EUR (519 PLN, with a Kornati park ticket included). In July and August Split rises to 138 EUR, and the price list adds 10 percent on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Marina Kaštela charges commercial vessels, and a charter yacht is a commercial vessel, 98 EUR in September and 132 EUR in summer (the private rate of 85 EUR is sometimes wrongly quoted as "the marina price"). Cheapest in Betina: 75 EUR (325 PLN). From the account of the sailor with the Bavaria 50 (SailForum, May 2024): Zlarin 70 EUR, a buoy in Primošten 50 EUR, Pučišća 73 EUR, Trogir SCT 80 EUR, and Drvenik Veliki free (no services); the marina on Krapanj for a 10-metre boat in 2023: 65-75 EUR.

Masuria charges nothing just for access to the water: recreational sailing on the Great Lakes waterway costs 0 PLN, and you pay only for going through locks (Guzianka: 10.90 PLN by day, 22 PLN at night, 2026 price list). Kornati National Park, if you sail there, charges boats of 7-10.99 m 65 EUR per day (and 95 EUR for 11-17.99 m), with the ticket valid until 12:00; buoys in the park are free for ticket holders. Entry to the Krka waterfalls: 40 EUR per person in September 2026. On top of that, in Masuria a night at anchor in a bay is legal and free; we have written about who owns the shore of a Masurian lake. We have also collected the rates in our guide to harbours and marinas in Masuria.

Getting there: 262.5 km versus 1421.5 km

From Warsaw to Giżycko it is 262.5 km and 3.6 hours of driving; to Trogir 1421.5 km and almost 15 hours (OSRM route calculations, 19.08.2026; Rome2rio gives 1335 km). This is not a cosmetic difference but the main item of the bill.

Fuel for the round trip per car: 54.4 EUR (235 PLN) to Giżycko and 306-326 EUR (1324-1411 PLN) to Trogir, at the prices in the European Commission's Weekly Oil Bulletin quoted on 17.08.2026 (Pb95: Poland 1480.83 EUR, Croatia 1623 EUR per 1000 litres). Road charges to Giżycko: 0 PLN. To Dalmatia and back: about 97.60 EUR (422 PLN) per car for Slovak, Austrian and Slovenian vignettes and HAC tolls (Zagreb-Split motorway, category I: 26.40 EUR one way), plus 460-480 Czech korunas for the Czech vignette; all according to the official vignette and HAC toll price lists, as of 19.08.2026. Fuel prices are a snapshot: the government cap on the price of diesel in Croatia rises from 1.71 to 1.80 EUR per litre from around 20 August 2026 and does not apply at motorway stations.

You can also fly to Split. We do not have flight prices in our verified data, so we do not count them; instead we ran a tougher test: even if the whole journey were free, the Croatian scenario costs 11,228 PLN and the result does not flip (figures in the section with the scenarios).

Qualifications: licence, radio and one mile from the shore

In Masuria you can sail a sailboat up to 7.5 m without any paperwork (Art. 37a(3) of the Inland Navigation Act), and a motorboat even up to 13 m and 75 kW, at speeds of up to 15 km/h, after training from the rental company (para. 4). For an Antila 33 you need the "żeglarz jachtowy" (yacht sailor) licence: a 7-day residential course costs 1550-1750 PLN (GRAAL school price list, exam not included), the exam 250 PLN, the licence 50 PLN, with half rates for students up to the age of 26 (Regulation, Journal of Laws 2013 item 460). In total approx. 1850-2050 PLN, once for life, from the age of 14.

In Croatia a document is mandatory on every boat (mmpi.gov.hr, requirement for vessels under a foreign flag). And here is a surprise for holders of the Polish "żeglarz jachtowy" licence: according to the MMPI list of recognised documents of 21.05.2026, this licence allows you to charter, but only up to 1 nautical mile from the shore and on condition that you hold a radio certificate. That is not enough to reach the islands. Full freedom comes with the "jachtowy sternik morski" (sea yacht skipper) licence: exam 350 PLN, licence 50 PLN, and before that a qualifying record of 2 cruises and 200 hours. Holders of the old "sternik jachtowy" licence are better off: their licence entitles them in Croatia to charter yachts up to 18 m in territorial waters. Then the radio: with VHF on board someone must hold an SRC certificate (exam and issue at UKE, the Polish Office of Electronic Communications: 175 PLN, course approx. 500 PLN). Croatian penalties for lacking qualifications according to the Maritime Code (Pomorski zakonik, Art. 1011, text still in kunas, NN 17/19): 2000-5000 kunas for the person in charge, and 5000-10,000 kunas when the user of the vessel is a legal person. A charter company from Split describes the practice plainly: "at least one person... SRC mandatory".

The same week, costed: Masuria versus Dalmatia

Common assumptions, deliberately symmetrical: 6 people, two cars from Warsaw, the week of 5-12 September 2026, 5 nights away from base and 2 free nights (in Masuria at anchor, in Croatia at the base on pick-up and return; this assumption favours Croatia). In scenario B one of the five nights is on a buoy in the Kornati, paid indirectly through the park ticket, not as an overnight fee. We do not count yacht fuel on either side: these are sailboats, and charter contracts leave it out of the price anyway ("Consumed fuel, berth costs in other marinas... not included", Hanse 348 offer). We do not count showers on either side either; we add electricity in Mikołajki, because the price list shows it separately. Exchange rate as above: 4.3267 PLN per euro.

Scenario A, Masuria: Antila 33 from Giżycko, route as in our 7-day cruise plan: two nights at Ekomarina Giżycko (2 × 140 PLN), two in Mikołajki (2 × 100 PLN plus electricity 2 × 25 PLN), a night in Sztynort (90 PLN + 6 × 30 PLN = 270 PLN), two nights at anchor for 0 PLN. Charter 5460 PLN, service 300 PLN, harbours 750 PLN, electricity 50 PLN, local tax 81 PLN, fuel for the journey 108.8 EUR in total for two cars, i.e. 471 PLN (approx. 235 PLN per car). We count the local tax for the harbour nights in Giżycko and Mikołajki, because that is where it is charged; Croatian operators charge their tax for all days of the charter, and that is how we count it in B. We have not verified the local tax rate for Sztynort, so we do not add it; the total may be a dozen or so zlotys higher because of that. The asymmetry of base nights works the other way: in scenario B we count the nights at pick-up and return as 0 PLN, while here both Giżycko nights are at Ekomarina's full price. The 3000 PLN deposit is returned after the cruise.

Scenario B, Dalmatia: Bavaria Cruiser 34 (2024) from Sukošan for 1785 EUR. This is a realised price: the week was already booked at the time of writing, and the available Hanse 348 cost 1976 EUR (ACI Pula base in Istria, price point), so we count the variant that is cheaper for Croatia. Route: Skradin (ACI, 104 EUR), Betina (75 EUR), Piškera (120 EUR with the Kornati ticket), a buoy in the Kornati, Trogir (ACI, 114 EUR). According to the park's price list the Kornati ticket is valid until 12:00, so for the buoy day we count a second 65 EUR ticket to be on the safe side (buoy free with a ticket); without it the scenario is 281 PLN cheaper. Marinas with tickets together 478 EUR, transit log 290 EUR, tax 1 EUR per person per day (the lower end of the 1-1.33 EUR range, again in Croatia's favour). Travel: fuel 612 EUR (we count the lower end), vignettes and tolls 195.20 EUR for two cars plus 920-960 CZK, which we do not convert, because the koruna rate is not in our dataset; the B total is therefore slightly understated. The 1000 EUR deposit (4327 PLN) is returned after the cruise.

Three fair caveats about scenario B:

• The route is marina-centric: three of the five paid nights are in the ACI network, while a real week on the Adriatic mixes marinas with buoys and anchorages. So we also costed a cheaper variant: the night in Skradin replaced with a free anchorage (like Drvenik Veliki in the account quoted above), the night in Trogir with a buoy for 50 EUR (Primošten according to the same May 2024 account, though that was for the bigger Bavaria 50). The bill drops by 168 EUR, i.e. 727 PLN, to 13,994 PLN and 333 PLN per person per day; the ratio falls from approx. 2.1 to approx. 2.0 times and does not flip.
• We calculated the distance (OSRM) to Trogir, and Sukošan near Zadar lies closer on that route, so the transport items in B are, if anything, marginally overstated.
• The last leg from Trogir to the base is a long day, in practice partly under engine, which is a cost that, in line with our assumptions, we do not count on either side.

Result: the same week, the same yacht class, the same crew, and Dalmatia costs more than twice as much: 351 PLN versus 169 PLN per person-day. Nobody has published these two metrics before, so we offer them for citation: a full sailing week per person costs 1185 PLN in Masuria and 2454 PLN in Dalmatia (first week of September 2026, crew of 6, travel by car from Warsaw). For completeness: with the full permitted crew, the charter alone per person-day in Masuria in September comes to 78 PLN on an Antila 33 (10 people), 31 PLN on a Twister 26 (8 people) and 106 PLN on a Stillo 30 houseboat (8 people); a realistic comfortable crew on a Twister is clearly smaller than the nominal 8 berths, so in practice it works out correspondingly higher.

When does Croatia come out cheaper? We counted that too

The charter alone: at the end of September, yes. KORA for 1086 EUR (4699 PLN) in the week of 26.09-3.10.2026 is 761 PLN cheaper than the September Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter (5460 PLN, regular rate), and that Antila's price list actually ends on 26 September, when the Adriatic is still sailing, so we compare the last available rate. The full bill: we found no scenario in which Croatia wins. Even if travel were completely free, scenario B without the transport items costs 11,228 PLN, still 4116 PLN more than the complete scenario A including travel.

A smaller crew does not flip the result either. With 3 people and one car (the same boats, the same week, the same routes) it comes to 6746 PLN in Masuria and 12,883 PLN in Dalmatia, i.e. 321 versus 613 PLN per person-day: fuel and vignettes are halved, and the per-person items fall on both sides: we count the taxes for 3 people, and Sztynort's 30 PLN per person now gives only 90 + 3 × 30 = 180 PLN a night. The charter and the per-boat rates cost the same. The ratio falls slightly, from approx. 2.1× to approx. 1.9×, but does not flip.

A two-week trip on 5-19.09.2026 brings the results closest together: 258 PLN per person-day in Dalmatia versus 160 PLN in Masuria. We base it on one explicit assumption: the first week exactly as in the scenarios above, the second week in Croatia at end-of-September prices (charter 1086 EUR; this is a modelling assumption, because our material contains no offers for 12-19.09), and in Masuria the second week at the September price list; transit log, service and travel once per trip. It comes to 21,670 PLN there and 13,453 PLN here. The difference shrinks from 182 to 98 PLN per person-day, mainly because travel and the transit log are spread over twice as many person-days and the second charter week there is clearly cheaper, but it does not flip; the cost of the stay alone in the second week (charter, harbours, taxes) is 6949 PLN there and 6341 PLN here. The takeaway for planners: the longer the trip and the later in the season, the better the Adriatic holds up; for a single week the arithmetic is clear-cut.

All the numbers in one table

Method: all rates come from operators' price lists, municipal resolutions, marina PDFs and specific charter offers collected between 17 and 19 August 2026; conversions at the NBP rate of 4.3267 PLN/EUR of 19.08.2026. Rates with grosze from source price lists (the lock at 10.90 PLN, local taxes of 3.30 and 3.46 PLN) and small unit conversions below 10 PLN are given with grosze; other conversions are rounded to whole zlotys. Multiple items (fuel and vignettes for two cars, taxes, tickets) are converted from the total amount in euros, and the "Total", "Per person" and "Per person per day" rows in the scenario table are calculated from the sum of the rounded items; hence possible 1 PLN differences between the conventions.

Where Croatia fairly wins

A charter at the end of September is sometimes simply cheaper there: 4699 PLN for a Bavaria C34 against 5460 PLN for the last September rate of the Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter, a difference of 761 PLN in the Adriatic's favour. On top of that, discounts of 24-33 percent off list prices are real and documented in the offers, and supply is large. A voice from SailForum, June 2025: "I look at the charter sites and there are loads of yachts still available from this Saturday or a week later, and at good prices, which used to be impossible".

The season there is at least a week longer in our comparison: the price list of the Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter ends on 26 September, while Dalmatia sells the week of 26.09-3.10 for 1235 EUR (Abavela Artina). The sea, the islands and the sheltered waters are an advantage we cannot convert into zlotys, but even a critic of the prices there named it plainly (SailForum, 2025): "For me Croatia still has two advantages - it's easy to get to by car and the density of islands means the waves don't really build up". The first of these advantages works against destinations you have to fly to; compared with Masuria, we have counted the kilometres above. The second is real: sheltered waters on a sea cruise. The boats there are often newer: KORA was built in 2024; though in this class Masuria has an answer in the form of the 2022 Antila 33.3. And one caveat in the other direction: a skipper on request costs 220 EUR a day there (952 PLN, Fair Wind, plus meals), while here the media report a range of 300-450 PLN.

Why "and rightly so"

The title of this text is not meant to provoke, but let us clarify it right away: the "as much as" in the title refers to the rate for the charter alone, not the cost of the whole trip. Chartering a yacht of the same class costs about the same in September here and there, 5460 PLN in Masuria against 4699-7723 PLN in Dalmatia, and rightly so, because the yachts are increasingly similar, as the sailor quoted at the start admitted. And that is the cautious version: in peak season the same class costs 10,445-12,937 PLN there (broker Adria's 2027 price list, part of the difference may be annual indexation) against 6860 PLN in Masuria. It is only the full bill that diverges: travel, the transit log and marinas turn similar charters into two different budgets, 169 versus 351 PLN per person-day, and with that first figure it is hard to talk about rip-off prices. A defender of Masuria on SailForum asked back in 2022: "And what are you comparing it to? You throw prices around (small and big), but you don't give a point of reference or any comparative scale... [...] And in the context of the title - why should Masuria be cheap?". This text is exactly that point of reference. And what comes out of it is that the Masurian price list is not inflated but seasonal: outside the peak, rates drop by 20-22 percent, and sometimes they simply fall year on year, as in a forum account of an Antila 26cc chartered for the same dates for 3900 PLN one year and 3500 PLN the next.

The fee structure works in the guest's favour: no transit log, a deposit of 3000 PLN instead of 4327-6490 PLN, the waterway for 0 PLN and a legal free night at anchor, while the Kornati park, if you sail there, costs 65 EUR a day per boat. A harbour night for a 6-person crew costs 125-270 PLN here, counting Mikołajki with electricity and Sztynort with the per-person fee, and 325-562 PLN in Dalmatia, from Betina to ACI Split; in the scenarios we costed, five nights with electricity come to 800 PLN here and 2068 PLN there. Like for like: a night for a 9-12 m yacht at Ekomarina Giżycko is 140 PLN, while the marina on Krapanj charged 65-75 EUR for a 10-metre boat in 2023, i.e. 281-325 PLN per night (account from SailForum).

And it is not free in the peak? An old voice from SailForum (2020) sums up the economics of every resort in one sentence: "in the season it's supposed to be fairly expensive, because the locals have to live on something for the rest of the year". The market confirms this pricing: at current prices the peak sold out completely on every boat we checked, and the Oceanis 34.1 from ACI Marina Split mentioned above has every week taken from 29 August to 3 October. Prices at which the peak sells out completely are not inflated. They are spot on.

Where these numbers come from

We collected the data between 17 and 19 August 2026 in three baskets. Croatia: official PDF marina price lists (ACI from 1.04.2026, Kaštela, Betina), the price lists of the Kornati and Krka parks, and specific, named charter offers downloaded from the websites of the brokers 12knots, Croatia Yachting, Abavela and Adria on 19.08.2026, each with the date of the week and its availability status. Masuria: the NaCzarter.pl price list and booking database (as of 19.08.2026), harbour price lists downloaded the same day (Ognisty Ptak: 2025 price list, marked in the table) and municipal resolutions on the local tax. You can check the price list and September availability live (available yachts and dates): it is the same data from which we calculated scenario A. Fuel, roads and distances: the European Commission's Weekly Oil Bulletin quoted on 17.08.2026, official vignette and HAC toll price lists, and OSRM route calculations. All conversions at the NBP average rate of 4.3267 PLN/EUR of 19.08.2026, with the rounding rules described under the table. What we do not know and therefore do not count: flight prices, the official Croatian tourist tax rate (we give the operators' range), the Czech koruna rate for the vignettes and the local tax rate for Sztynort.

Frequently asked questions

Which is cheaper: a week in Masuria or in Croatia (2026)? A full week for 6 people (5-12.09.2026, ~10 m yacht, travel by car from Warsaw) costs 7112 PLN in Masuria and 14,721 PLN in Dalmatia, i.e. 169 versus 351 PLN per person per day. The charter alone is sometimes comparable, and at the end of September even cheaper in Croatia, but in the same September week the Croatian Bavaria C34 (1785 EUR = 7723 PLN) was 2263 PLN more expensive than the Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter (5460 PLN); travel, the transit log and marinas make up the rest of the difference (data from 19.08.2026).

How much does a week's yacht charter cost in Masuria in 2026? For the 10-metre Antila 33 (up to 10 people): 6860 PLN in peak season (July to mid-August), 5460 PLN in September; for a Twister 26 (up to 8 people): 2240 PLN in peak season and 1750 PLN in September (NaCzarter.pl price list, 19.08.2026). On top of that, a service fee of 150-300 PLN and a refundable deposit of 1000-3000 PLN.

How much does a week's charter cost in Croatia in 2026? A Bavaria Cruiser 34 (2024) from a base near Zadar went for 1785 EUR (7723 PLN) in the week of 5-12 September 2026; at the end of September comparable yachts are on offer after discounts for 1086-1307 EUR (4699-5655 PLN). You have to add the transit log of 258-300 EUR and a refundable deposit of 1000-1500 EUR.

Do you need a licence in Croatia? Yes, a document is mandatory on every boat (MMPI). The Polish "żeglarz jachtowy" licence allows chartering there only up to 1 nautical mile from the shore and requires a radio certificate; full freedom comes with the "jachtowy sternik morski" or the old "sternik jachtowy" (chartered yachts up to 18 m in territorial waters). With a VHF radio on board you need an SRC certificate (UKE: 175 PLN plus a course of approx. 500 PLN).

How much does a marina cost in Croatia, and a harbour in Masuria? In September 2026 a 10 m yacht pays 130 EUR (562 PLN) per night at ACI Split, 114 EUR in Trogir and 75 EUR in Betina. In Masuria: Ekomarina Giżycko 140 PLN, Mikołajki 100 PLN, Sztynort 90 PLN plus 30 PLN per person (price lists downloaded 19.08.2026).

When is it cheapest? In Masuria in September: rates on NaCzarter are 20-22 percent lower than in the peak (Antila 33: 5460 instead of 6860 PLN). In Croatia at the turn of September and October, when discounts reach 24-33 percent: for example 1600 → 1086 EUR for a Bavaria C34 (offers from 19.08.2026).

Do you pay to use the waterway in Masuria? No, recreational sailing on the Great Masurian Lakes costs 0 PLN; only locks are charged (Guzianka 2026: 10.90 PLN by day, 22 PLN at night). In Croatia the Kornati park costs 65 EUR a day for boats of 7-10.99 m, and Krka 40 EUR per person (September 2026).

Photo: an Antila 33 offered on NaCzarter.