Princess yacht rental in Sweden

The Stockholm archipelago scatters more than 30,000 islands and skerries across sheltered Baltic waters, and under Sweden's allemansrätten - the legal right of free access to nature - it's possible to drop anchor and go ashore on almost any of the uninhabited ones. Around 60 guest harbours serve the archipelago, with Sandhamn, Utö and Möja among the busiest. It's also home to most of the fleet: more than four boats in five listed for Sweden on Boataround sail out of the Stockholm region. Nationally, sailing yachts are by far the most common type, well ahead of motor yachts, motor boats, and a small group of houseboats built for a very different kind of trip.

A Harder Coast in the West

Around Gothenburg, the coast turns to face the open Skagerrak instead of the sheltered Baltic. The Bohuslän archipelago's 8,000-plus islands are bare granite rather than pine-covered, the water runs saltier, and there's more swell to plan around. Marstrand, home to Sweden's largest guest harbour, is the usual base here - a distant second to Stockholm in fleet size.

The Canal That Isn't Really Sailing

Inland, the Göta Canal offers a completely different kind of trip. Opened in 1832 after 22 years of construction, it climbs through 58 locks to link the Baltic Sea to the North Sea via lakes Vänern and Vättern. The handful of houseboats built for this route move through the lock system at walking pace rather than sailing open water - closer to a slow-motion road trip than a coastal charter.

A Short Season, Twice Over

• June to August is the main sailing window on both coasts, timed to the short but long-daylight Nordic summer.
• The Göta Canal keeps its own, even shorter season - open to boat traffic roughly from spring to early autumn, and closed the rest of the year.
• Outside summer, guest harbours on the smaller archipelago islands scale back or close, and fewer charter boats are on the water generally.

No Licence Needed, Up to a Point

Sweden doesn't require any licence to skipper a recreational boat under 12 metres long and 4 metres wide - a threshold that covers most of the fleet on Boataround, which is why bareboat and no-licence charter are so common here. Past that size, the law requires a kustskepparintyg, a coastal skipper's certificate. Below it, a förarintyg is available as a voluntary qualification - some insurers reward it with a discount, but Swedish law doesn't ask for one.

What It Costs to charter a yacht in Sweden

Prices for four of the five boat types checked fell from the short June-to-August peak to the shoulder week checked in September: sailing yacht dropped from about €2,117 in August to about €974 in September, a different boat cheapest each time. catamaran fell from about €1,502 to about €1,091 - the same boat both times, discounted from a lower list price. canal boat fell further, from about €1,511 to about €625, a different boat and a 50% discount as the Göta Canal's own short season winds down. motor yacht dropped by half, from about €2,290 to about €1,145 - the same boat both times, undiscounted in August and at 50% off in September. motorboat was the exception, holding at about €634 in both weeks, the same boat and the same discount each time. With a small, mostly Stockholm-based fleet in several categories, the cheapest available boat reflects both the drop-off after the short Nordic summer and, for the Göta Canal's boats specifically, the approach of its own even shorter season.

Princess yacht rental in Sweden

Boats are available in many of the country's most popular regions, including Baltic Sea, Stockholm Region, Gothenburg, Östergötland, North Sea, Orust, Västergötland and Västernorrland County.