Atlantic Spain, Portugal, Morroco, Canaries marina prices

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anniebray

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These will be our target cruising areas for 2011/12 and so we would be very grateful for information about current prices. Our boat is 8.85m and yes I have heard about the price hikes in the Canaries due to Spanish taxes.
 
Hi, that is a lot of info that you have requested. I would suggest that you list all the Marinas that you want to visit and then send them an e-mail requesting info and prices. For a small yacht like yours it should be quite reasonable. We anchored most of the time on way to the Med.

Peter
 
steve_clayton said:
This site should prove useful:straight from ther

http://www.portbooker.com/
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Yes and no, checked it for the marina I am in, incorrect VHF channel, incorrect postal address, and incapable of dealing with long term bookings.

In simple terms from my experience this year, northern Spain avearage, western Portugal relatively cheap, the Algarve quite expensive especially in the high season.

Every where with the exception of a few overbooked French marinas will do a deal for extended stays. We got discounts for staying more than 2 days and know of others who got escellent deals for a month.

Most marinas now have web sites so do a little googling and get the info from the horse mouth.

A word from experience, in general if you need info from a marina phone many do not seem to respond to emails, which is why I would not trust that on line booking site.
 
Atlantic Spain - Andalucian coast - the majority of marinas are run by EPPA, which is the Andalucian Authority that runs these marinas. They are, in general, well run with decent facilities at a reasonable price (compared to Med). The prices are identical regardless of which marina you stop in. Here is the link to the price list for berthing fee's:
http://www.eppa.es/GContenidos/index.php/english/39
The website will also tell which marinas they run.

Portugal - Algarve - We started treating ourselves to the odd night in a marina after 1st October and the prices are vastly reduced in comparison to the summer rate.
eg - a 12m x 4m berth paid 18 Euro's / night (inc tax, water, elect, wi-fi, good facilities) at Vilamoura.
15 Euro's / night at Portimao (no offical wi-fi but everything else).

Look on their websites:
Portimao - http://www.marinadeportimao.com.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=31
Vilamoura - http://www.marinadevilamoura.com/en/home.asp?idLenguaje=2

There are of course some beautiful places on the Algarve coast where you can anchor free of charge. eg Tavira, Culatra, River Guadiana.
With regards to Canaries - well we're just waiting for Otto to clear up and we'll be on our way!

Hope this helps

Terry
 
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michaelchapman said:
I have never found that site to be any use at all.

Every marina I have ever tried to book has not been hooked up to them. They send an email to the marina, and in general I get a reply several weeks later to say that the marina never answered!
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So that's Portbooker off my list of recommendations then. I noted PB when we were in Spain as they were starting to establish their website several years ago - and for our part of Spain (then) they were pretty good - and accurate; looks like some deterioration has set in. I've messaged them to this thread (any feedback; pos or neg is good).

Anyway, it's a nice day up past Itchenor and I think I'll have another Bacardi and Coke :rolleyes:
 
Thanks all for your advice that gives me some idea of costs. Most time will be spent in the Canaries where I believe the best advice is to stay in privately owned marinas to avoid high Spanish taxes added to marina fees.
 
Have a look at our blog

At the bottem of each brief write up we have noted the price, we have visited quite a few ports this summer and still on the go

also noted if showers and wifi were free
 
Artemis_C2121 said:
Have a look at our blog

At the bottem of each brief write up we have noted the price, we have visited quite a few ports this summer and still on the go

also noted if showers and wifi were free
Click to expand...

Super Blog ! I shall enjoy reading it after dinner this evening, thanks very much.
If you have a moment please pop out to the Canaries & do a recce there.
 
Morocco

we have just visited all the moroccan ports (all but two which we were told were silted), 41ft boat prices from *free* to max 20 euro a day (in the three existing marinas, the rest were fishing ports).

Canaries, Gran Tarrajal is cheap (8-9 euro a day) but frequently has 20-30kt of wind and some chop on the beam, first time my wife got seasick in port; la graciosa on top of lanzarote seems ok, though we were sent away just on arrival from agadir "sorry no places here"
El castillo, Puerto Calero and Marina Rubicon all have prices similar to mainland spain standards.

Las Palmas cheapish (12-13 euro a day) but personally would stop there only for repairs and/or flights, etc; Mogan on SW gran canaria 20 euro a day but it is another continent altogether, a place one can easily decide to live in for a few year; Puerto Rico, pasito blanco, Anfi del mar all on SW coast are really "love or hate" places, prices on upper end.

Next report from western islands as we visit them :smile:
 
Thanks Roberto ! I couldn't hope for more up to date information than yours.
Rather bad news about Agadir because that's where we hoped to embark from. Perhaps an increasing no from the ARC are beginning to make their way via Morocco. I reckon we had better request HMs to phone ahead for us as we make our way South in Morocco. Hopefully there will room in Graciosa which seems a very attractive place to stay while waiting for the ARC to clear out. (btw Just about to purchase a Honda generator in Machinemart sale which we'll need in Graciosa cos they don't have shorepower)
 
Dear all,

let me introduce myself a bit, my name is Andy Halcón and I'm Deputy Director of Portbooker. I've been noticed by one of our users, user here also, about this conversation and some comments about our company.

First of all, thanks for all your comments. All of its let us grow and improve our service.

Well about maxi77 comments. We have more than 8500 marinas world wide and we know how difficult is to have all information 100% updated. This is why we contact, at least once monthly with marinas and ask them for any update. We also are working to make arrengements with marinas in orther to update all information. We have also a Dept. in charge of searching and inserting new information and udpating marinas from mails received from users and marinas. So if you know any wrong data don't hesitate to contact us.

About long term bookings. We do not have berth availability. We manage all bookings received from users and contact (by mail, telephone and fax) with marinas. If the choosen marina do not have berths for long stayings we can not book any berth. Mr. michaelchapman talk about "after weeks" he received a negative answer. Well we have a strong Quality Policy as follows:
1.- All bookings should be closed not longer than 15 days
2.- If arrival date is shorter than 15 days from requested day, all bookings should be closed in no longer than 48 h.

The term "closed"" means that all contacts should be done (mail, phone and fax). And just when marina never reply to this messages we have to close it without any cause. The rest of situations (ex. they are complete) we insert a comment saying that the mairna is complete.

So michaelchapman please let me know any comment about your non satisfaction and I personally will check and have a meeting with Booking Dept.

We manage more than 3300 bookings world wide and we know that we have a problem with conversion rate. Causes of why is too low our conversion rate:
1.- Marinas overbooked
2.- Users just want a quotation
3.- Less than 5 days to manage the booking

About marinas, we are working to sign up with most of them and we are in touch with the most important marina's groups, we have signed up with American Express as Berth and charter peferred Supplier, we have implemented Marinaweb in Portbooker (this is a marina management software), and we are working in order to improve our services.

Thanks again for all your comments and I hope to collaborate with you.
 
Commenting on Steves reply below, I have had nothing but good experiences with Portbooker. They have always found me a berth even if I had to wait a day or so on those marinas without online booking facilities. There have been occasions when I have contacted a marina directly to be told that there was no available berths when in fact there were. Portbooker was able to confirm a berth for us in the very same marina! With bad weather predicted it was nice to know we had a berth waiting on our arrival.
 
anniebray said:
Thanks Roberto ! I couldn't hope for more up to date information than yours.
Rather bad news about Agadir because that's where we hoped to embark from. Perhaps an increasing no from the ARC are beginning to make their way via Morocco. I reckon we had better request HMs to phone ahead for us as we make our way South in Morocco. Hopefully there will room in Graciosa which seems a very attractive place to stay while waiting for the ARC to clear out. (btw Just about to purchase a Honda generator in Machinemart sale which we'll need in Graciosa cos they don't have shorepower)
Click to expand...

I would try again with Agadir: most boats use two pontoons to moor, one on port and one on starboard side, when the Port Captain manages to ask boat owners to use only one pontoon there you have a new place which is freed up :smile:
Also, many are big boats overwintering there, with a 30' boat like yours I reckon there may be quite a few free berths available, the inner part of the marina has lower depths (where we bumped after being sent there by the night guard)

Agadir port "captain" is Samir, young and fluent in different languages (I reckon he is a relative of writer Tahar Ben Jelloun), he often goes a long way to satisfy people.

Careful as you arrive from the north and go around Cap Ghir (west of Agadir) the wind easily picks up 2-3 beaufort notches in a few hundred metres. It is one of the few Moroccan ports where electronic chart datum is correct and you do not find your plotter gps trace going over a hill before showing you are moored in the middle of the local kasbah
 
ahalcon said:
Dear all,

let me introduce myself a bit, my name is Andy Halcón and I'm Deputy Director of Portbooker. I've been noticed by one of our users, user here also, about this conversation and some comments about our company.

First of all, thanks for all your comments. All of its let us grow and improve our service.

Well about maxi77 comments. We have more than 8500 marinas world wide and we know how difficult is to have all information 100% updated. This is why we contact, at least once monthly with marinas and ask them for any update. We also are working to make arrengements with marinas in orther to update all information. We have also a Dept. in charge of searching and inserting new information and udpating marinas from mails received from users and marinas. So if you know any wrong data don't hesitate to contact us.

About long term bookings. We do not have berth availability. We manage all bookings received from users and contact (by mail, telephone and fax) with marinas. If the choosen marina do not have berths for long stayings we can not book any berth. Mr. michaelchapman talk about "after weeks" he received a negative answer. Well we have a strong Quality Policy as follows:
1.- All bookings should be closed not longer than 15 days
2.- If arrival date is shorter than 15 days from requested day, all bookings should be closed in no longer than 48 h.

The term "closed"" means that all contacts should be done (mail, phone and fax). And just when marina never reply to this messages we have to close it without any cause. The rest of situations (ex. they are complete) we insert a comment saying that the mairna is complete.

So michaelchapman please let me know any comment about your non satisfaction and I personally will check and have a meeting with Booking Dept.

We manage more than 3300 bookings world wide and we know that we have a problem with conversion rate. Causes of why is too low our conversion rate:
1.- Marinas overbooked
2.- Users just want a quotation
3.- Less than 5 days to manage the booking

About marinas, we are working to sign up with most of them and we are in touch with the most important marina's groups, we have signed up with American Express as Berth and charter peferred Supplier, we have implemented Marinaweb in Portbooker (this is a marina management software), and we are working in order to improve our services.

Thanks again for all your comments and I hope to collaborate with you.
Click to expand...

Having just sailed some 2000 miles waiting even 48 hours to have a booking confirmed is not acceptable, I prefer to use the phone, instant and got me into places in France that many were suggesting weree not open for transiters. 48 hours means missing weather windows, extra delays and is just not good for my use.

The info I suggested was wrong was available from the marina website all year and is in their booklet. In fact the VHF channel mistake was really a gross error as they marina in question uses the almost universal contiental 9.
 
Dear Maxi,

Thanks again for your comments.
We can understand that after 2000 miles you would like to have a berth booked ASAP but in our experience marinas do not use to reply in 48 h. The reason? very easy, they try to make business so they take all reservation and starts confirming those which they get more incomes. There are a lot of circunstances involved in their decission to confirm a booking: season, days of staying, yacht lenght,... and some of them have a waiting list so the most times is not easy to have a reply in 48 h. But I can guarantee that our Booking Dept. is all day in touch with marinas by mail, fax and phone and as I say Portbooker do not have availability.
Our main advantage is that marinas have seen that Portbooker send them a lot of clients so they give priority to our booking over individual requests.
If you could tell me your booking locators I personally will check what's on each and check if something didn't work as should do it.
About information, could you be so kind to tell me which marina are you talking about? I also will check it and in case that needs any update I'll send it to the Content Dept.
Thanks again for your feedback.

Kind regards
 
ahalcon said:
Dear Maxi,

Thanks again for your comments.
We can understand that after 2000 miles you would like to have a berth booked ASAP but in our experience marinas do not use to reply in 48 h. The reason? very easy, they try to make business so they take all reservation and starts confirming those which they get more incomes. There are a lot of circunstances involved in their decission to confirm a booking: season, days of staying, yacht lenght,... and some of them have a waiting list so the most times is not easy to have a reply in 48 h. But I can guarantee that our Booking Dept. is all day in touch with marinas by mail, fax and phone and as I say Portbooker do not have availability.
Our main advantage is that marinas have seen that Portbooker send them a lot of clients so they give priority to our booking over individual requests.
If you could tell me your booking locators I personally will check what's on each and check if something didn't work as should do it.
About information, could you be so kind to tell me which marina are you talking about? I also will check it and in case that needs any update I'll send it to the Content Dept.
Thanks again for your feedback.

Kind regards
Click to expand...

I accept your service may be of use to those wanting to make bookings for the season, and in some cases you may well get favourable consideration as you bring more business. On the other hand for those on passage instant responses are needed, especially if you want to change your destination during a passage, so even 24 hours is of little use.

Equally the marina I am in has responded to my emails usually the same working day and I have not felt the need for agency assistance. That of course may well have been different if I had been aiming for one of the marinas with a waiting list though there seem to be fewer of them these days, with many offering a discount on published rates to boats that just turn up.
 
maxi77 said:
I accept your service may be of use to those wanting to make bookings for the season, and in some cases you may well get favourable consideration as you bring more business. On the other hand for those on passage instant responses are needed, especially if you want to change your destination during a passage, so even 24 hours is of little use.

Equally the marina I am in has responded to my emails usually the same working day and I have not felt the need for agency assistance. That of course may well have been different if I had been aiming for one of the marinas with a waiting list though there seem to be fewer of them these days, with many offering a discount on published rates to boats that just turn up.
Click to expand...

yes, for those people who needs a 24 hours reply it is not easy for us to book it. Why? We can have a reply from marina, if they use to confirm quick, very fast but in the other hand our service is developed to get the money from the user and pay to the marina so if there is and international marina at least 48-72 hours are needed to international transferences.

In few days we will flight to Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show in order to sign up with the most important groups of marinas, specially in US, in order to improve our service and grow in the US market.

Thanks one more time for your feedback.
 
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