I was chatting at the St. Maarten boat show with Beverly Parsons, a longtime charter broker whose company, Interpac Yachts, is based in San Diego, California. She was lamenting that the Caribbean and the Mediterranean–while lovely cruising destinations–seem to be the only places clients call for bookings most of the time.

“I’ve been to the charter show in Turkey every year for the past 25 years,” she told me, explaining that most clients want the Western Mediterranean, not the Eastern side, for their summertime vacations. “I book about 30 charters a year in Turkey. I could book a lot more. There are great boats there. It’s beautiful.”

Then she started talking about Mexico, which is to the Caribbean what Turkey is to the Western Med. “I know three great boats down in Mexico. All of them are available for the holidays. I can’t get anyone to go. They’re great last-minute deals.”

Any frequent reader of mine knows I’m a huge fan of chartering off the beaten course in places like Turkey and Mexico, which are emerging destinations on the worldwide charter scene. Heck, I even devoted a whole chapter to emerging destinations in my new book Have the Whole Boat: The Insider’s Guide to Private Yacht Charter Vacations. I think emerging destinations are fabulous because they have fewer crowds, more pristine scenery and, usually, zero cruise ships. And I love brokers like Beverly Parsons who make it their business to personally scout out reputable charter boats in such places, so they will be able to help you book the vacation of your dreams based on firsthand knowledge.

If you’re interested in a cruising vacation but are tired of the same old scene, look to work with a reputable charter broker like Beverly Parsons who gets out there into the world year after year and does her homework about which charter yachts are running the best operations, even in the most far-off locations. There are a good number of brokers like her with different levels of travel expertise all over the planet, just waiting for your call.

And if you’re looking for a last-minute holiday cruise, think about those boats down in Mexico. Feliz Navidad, anyone?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 19th, 2006 at 9:25 am and is filed under Destinations, Charter Brokers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.