Guide · 9 minute read
For a yacht charter with kids in Dubai, book three hours rather than two, choose a boat with a low swim platform and real shade, and keep the route inside the Palm Jumeirah crescent where the water is flat. Children's life jackets are aboard as standard and count towards the boat's guest limit.
By Roshan Shriwastav · Published
Shade first. A shaded aft deck is the difference between a good afternoon and a short one, and it matters more than length or luxury on any boat you are considering.
Then the swim platform. A low, wide platform with a proper boarding ladder is something a seven-year-old can use unaided; a high transom is not. This is the single most useful thing to ask about when choosing a boat for a family.
Then the route. Inside the Palm crescent the water is flat almost every day of the year. Out towards the World Islands it is not. For children under about eight, staying inside the crescent is worth more than the extra scenery.
Three hours is the right length. Two is not enough to anchor and swim, which is the part children care about, and four is longer than most under-tens sustain. Morning charters work better than afternoons in every season: calmer water, cooler deck, and children who are not already tired.
In summer, an 8am start is genuinely pleasant and a midday one genuinely is not. In winter, mid-morning is ideal and the sea is cold for the first few minutes of a swim.
Life jackets in children's sizes are carried on every boat as standard. Tell us the ages when you book so the right sizes are aboard rather than the nearest available.
Children count towards the licensed guest number regardless of age, including infants. That number is a hard limit and a crew cannot exceed it, so give us the real headcount when you enquire.
Crews will ask that children wear jackets while under way and stay off the bow. That is not fussiness. The foredeck moves most and has the least to hold on to.
Rash vests rather than sunscreen alone, hats that will not blow off, and a change of clothes for the trip home. A cool bag of the food they actually eat rather than a catering menu they will not.
One thing worth leaving behind: anything inflatable and unsecured. It goes over the side in the first gust and somebody has to swim for it.
A charter with a two-year-old and a charter with a twelve-year-old have almost nothing in common, and the planning that suits one actively fails the other.
Under two is straightforward and the constraints are shade, heat and length: two hours in the morning, inside the crescent, with somewhere air-conditioned to retreat to. Two to five is the hardest band: mobile, fast, drawn to the edge and too young to be reasoned with about it. That age needs one adult assigned to one child for the whole charter, with no other job, and a life jacket on throughout rather than only at the swim stop.
Six to eleven is the sweet spot and the age this is genuinely built for. They can use a ladder unaided, they will spend forty minutes in the water without stopping, and snorkels and floats occupy them completely. Twelve and up are effectively adults on a boat, and the only real consideration is that they will want longer rather than shorter.
The swim stop takes care of itself. The transit either side is where a three-hour charter with children either works or turns into forty minutes of asking how long is left.
The things that reliably work are the ones that involve looking at something: the towers close overhead in the Marina channel, Ain Dubai passing, Atlantis on the Palm frontage, and other boats, which children find far more interesting than adults expect. Giving a child a job helps enormously: watching for the next landmark, holding the route on a phone map, counting jet skis.
The thing that does not work is a screen. A tablet on a moving boat is the single most reliable way to produce a seasick child, because looking down while the horizon moves is exactly the conflict that causes it. Keep them looking outward.
A children's birthday on a boat works well and it is a common booking, with two things worth knowing in advance.
The first is that the guest count includes every adult who comes along, and family parties grow. Twelve children plus six parents is eighteen people, which is a 55ft or a 62ft rather than the 48ft everyone pictures. Count the adults honestly at the enquiry stage.
The second is that decoration is easy and fire is not. Balloons, banners, a name across the transom and a cake all work; candles do not, and sparkler candles are the usual substitute. Send the cake and decoration down the day before if you can rather than carrying a boxed cake along a pontoon in a crosswind.
Between May and September heat is the binding constraint on a family charter, and it decides the booking more than anything else on this page. A shaded deck in August still sits in high thirties with humidity, and small children cannot regulate temperature or reliably tell you when they have had enough.
The answer is the earliest slot available (7am or 8am), and two hours rather than four. The deck is cool, the sea is flat, and you are alongside before the worst of the day. A midday charter in July with young children is the one combination genuinely worth not booking, regardless of how good the boat is.
October to April none of this applies. The deck is comfortable all day, the sea is around 21°C in January which is cold for the first few minutes, and the only adjustment is a warm layer if the charter runs past sunset.
Yes, at any age. Children's life jackets are aboard as standard, and children count towards the boat's licensed guest number regardless of age. Tell us the ages at the enquiry stage so the right sizes are carried.
One with a low, wide swim platform and a properly shaded aft deck: a 48ft or 55ft rather than the largest boat available. A platform a child can climb unaided matters more than length.
Three hours. Two is not enough to anchor and swim, which is what children come for, and four is longer than most under-tens sustain. Morning charters work better than afternoons in every season.
Inside the Palm Jumeirah crescent, yes. The crescent breaks the swell and the water there is flat almost every day. Routes further offshore have real motion, so we keep family charters inside it.
Yes. The licensed number includes everyone aboard regardless of age, and a crew cannot exceed it. Give us the full headcount including infants when you enquire.
Six to eleven. They can use the ladder unaided, they will stay in the water for the whole swim stop, and snorkels and floats occupy them completely. Two to five is the hardest age: mobile, drawn to the edge, and too young to reason with.
Give them something to look at and a job to do: spotting landmarks, watching for the anchor. The channel, Ain Dubai and Atlantis do most of the work. Avoid tablets and phones: looking down on a moving boat is the fastest route to a seasick child.
Yes, and it is a common booking. Count the accompanying adults in the headcount. Twelve children plus six parents is eighteen, which is a 55ft or 62ft rather than the 48ft people picture. Balloons and banners are fine; candles are not.
Midday in July and August, yes. That is the one combination worth avoiding with young children. A 7am or 8am start for two hours is genuinely pleasant, with a cool deck and the flattest water of the year.
Leave the date and roughly how many of you there are and we will come back with the boats that are free and what each costs. No deposit at this stage.
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