Yacht charter and Boat rental in Germany

In Germany you choose between two kinds of charter: sailing on the Baltic Sea coast, or cruising the lakes and canals of the north-east in a houseboat you can rent without a licence. Of the 609 boats on Boataround available in Germany for the week of 11–18 September 2027, 338 were canal boats and houseboats, 262 sailing yachts, 6 motorboats and 3 motor yachts (search on 12 November 2026). Yacht charter in Germany means one or the other: the two fleets do not share waters.

Why Sail in Germany

The Baltic Sea has a tidal range of under 20 centimetres, so the wind changes the water level more than the tide does. You plan a passage around wind and shipping lanes, with no tide tables. Inland, on the lakes of Mecklenburg and the rivers and canals around Brandenburg and Berlin, you cruise on flat water at up to 12 km/h and plan each day around the locks.

When to Go

• Late March to mid-October: the weeks for which you can book a sailing yacht on the Baltic coast. For 2027, more than 260 yachts were on offer in each of these weeks and 2 in November.
• April to mid-October: the houseboat season. For 2027, 350 to 440 houseboats were on offer in each of these weeks, 157 in late March and 61 in November.
• Late June: Kiel Week (Kieler Woche), a nine-day sailing event held since 1882 that brings around three million visitors to Kiel.
• July and August: peak season with the highest prices.

Charter Options: Licensed, Licence-Free, Skippered

Bareboat charter with a licence. German law requires a licence for a boat with an engine over 11.03 kW (15 hp), at sea and inland. Charter sailing yachts on the Baltic have stronger engines, so you need the German Sportbootführerschein See or a foreign licence the charter company accepts. Germany recognises the International Certificate of Competence (ICC).

Licence-free charter up to 15 hp. From the age of 16 you can skipper a boat with an engine of up to 11.03 kW (15 hp) without a licence on most German waters. The exceptions:

• On the Rhine the limit is 5 hp.
• On Lake Constance the limit is 6 hp.
• In central Berlin, on the Spree between Kanzleramtssteg and Oberbaumbrücke, you need a licence for any motorboat.

Licence-free houseboat charter with a charter certificate. On designated waterways you can rent a larger houseboat without a licence: up to 15 metres long, limited to 12 km/h and to 12 people. The rules:

• The rental base gives you a briefing of at least three hours and issues the certificate for your charter.
• The certificate covers the waterways listed in the , among them the Müritz-Elde and Müritz-Havel waterways, the Upper and Lower Havel, the Dahme, the Peene, the Saale, the Saar and the Lahn.
• You may not cruise at night or in poor visibility.
• On the Müritz you keep to the fairway along the west bank, everyone on board wears a life jacket, and you phone the rental base before you enter the lake.
• From wind force 4 you may not cruise on the Müritz, the Plauer See, the Kummerower See, the Schwielowsee or the Breitlingsee.

Skippered charter. A professional skipper handles navigation and the boat. This suits crews without the required licence, and a first passage through the Kiel Canal with its commercial traffic.

Types of Boats in Germany

The sizes, brands and bases below describe the boats available on Boataround for 11–18 September 2027.

Houseboat rental Germany

Canal boats and houseboats make up more than half of the German fleet. Most measure 9 to 14 metres and have 1–3 cabins for 4–8 people. Le Boat, Tom Sawyer, Linssen, Nautilus and Pénichette are the most common fleets. Of the 338 boats, 187 are in the Mecklenburg Lake District and 113 in Brandenburg; the largest bases are Fürstenberg/Havel, Wolfsbruch and Zehdenick.

Sailing yacht rental Germany

Sailing yachts are the main boat type on the Baltic coast. Most measure 10 to 14.5 metres and have 2–4 cabins for 6–10 people. Bavaria (152 of 262 yachts), Hanse and Dehler are the most common brands; HanseYachts, which builds Hanse and Dehler, is based in Greifswald on the Baltic coast. The yachts sail from four bases: Breege on Rügen, Flensburg, Großenbrode and Rostock. For bareboat charter you need a licence.

Motor yacht rental Germany

Motor yachts are rare in Germany: 3 were available for the September week, in Travemünde, Rostock and Speyer. If you want to cruise under engine, look at the houseboats first.

Where to Sail in Germany

Yacht charter Schleswig-Holstein

Schleswig-Holstein has 130 sailing yachts: 76 in Flensburg and 51 in Großenbrode. Kiel hosts Kiel Week every June and is the Baltic end of the Kiel Canal, a 98-kilometre link to the North Sea at Brunsbüttel, opened in 1895. In 2024, 24,866 ships passed through it.

Yacht charter Rügen

On Rügen, all 83 sailing yachts sail from Breege. In the north-east of the island you pass the chalk cliffs of Jasmund National Park. The Königsstuhl cliff rises 118 metres above the Baltic, and the park's beech forest has been part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2011. At 30 square kilometres, Jasmund is Germany's smallest national park.

Boat rental Mecklenburg Lake District

The Mecklenburg Lake District is a network of connected lakes around the Müritz, which at 117 square kilometres is the largest lake entirely within Germany. All 187 boats here are canal boats and houseboats. The largest bases are Fürstenberg/Havel (79 boats), Wolfsbruch (57) and Waren (17), the largest town on the Müritz.

Boat rental Brandenburg

Brandenburg has 113 canal boats and houseboats, with the largest bases in Zehdenick (41 boats), Königs Wusterhausen (17), Berlin (14), Hennigsdorf (13) and Potsdam (9). You can cruise towards the capital without a licence, but not through its centre: on the Spree between Kanzleramtssteg and Oberbaumbrücke you need one.

What It Costs

The figures below come from Boataround search on 12 November 2026: weekly prices (Saturday to Saturday) for the boats available in Germany in the weeks of 11–18 September 2027 (609 boats) and 7–14 August 2027 (688 boats), after the discounts on offer that day, rounded to €10. The median means that half of the boats cost less.

• Sailing yacht: median €2,140 in September and €2,370 in August; the cheapest from €1,040 and €1,190.
• Houseboats and canal boats: median €2,010 in September and €2,400 in August; the cheapest from €600 and €790.
• Motor yacht, 3 boats: from €2,560 to €10,800 in September.

For the same boat, a week in August costs a median 11% more than a week in September for sailing yachts and 15% more for houseboats.

On top of the charter price you pay charges at pick-up, such as final cleaning and a refundable security deposit, and on some houseboats a fee for the charter certificate. Each boat's page lists them with prices.

Yacht charter and Boat rental in Germany

Charter a yacht and explore Germany! Prices start from 65 € per day. Choose from the largest selection of houseboats, sailboats, motor boats, motor yachts and catamarans.

Popular regions are Mecklenburg-Pomerania, Mecklenburg Lake District, Baltic Sea, Schleswig-Holstein, Brandenburg, Müritz, Berlin, Rügen, Lake Constance, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Bavaria, Lake Constance, North Sea, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen and Saarland.