La Perla

La Perla began her working life far from the charter world. She was built as a commercial vessel for the North Sea and delivered in 1976; in 2011 a Croatian owner bought her and turned her into a charter yacht, rebuilding her from the hull upwards with a new superstructure, a new cabin plan and new systems. Little more than the main engine survives from the original ship. A further full refit was completed in 2025, with exterior architecture by Franjo Flesch and an interior by the architects Jelena Bućan-Markov and Lorena Posinković.

What makes her unusual is the sleeping arrangement. Every one of her eight cabins follows the same pattern for two people, with a queen-size bed, a private bathroom and a little balcony of its own above the sea: sixteen guests in all. There is no grand suite set apart from the rest, which suits a group where nobody wants to be the host who gets the best room: four families, eight couples, a wedding party or a company team.

Life aboard is simple and well equipped. Guests can swim from the beach club at water level, soak in the deck Jacuzzi, train in the gym or book time in the massage room; once night falls, the top deck becomes an open-air cinema. A karaoke machine and sound across every deck take care of the rest. She flies the Croatian flag and spends both summer and winter in Croatian and Montenegrin waters.

A single slow-turning engine gives her a cruising speed of around nine knots, so a week aboard is built on short passages between nearby islands rather than long runs down the coast. That suits the Dalmatian archipelago well, where Šolta, Brač, Hvar and Vis sit close together. Choose her for a large group that values equal cabins and a fair price per head. If your party needs twin beds for children or single friends, or you want to cover Split to Dubrovnik and back in one week, a faster yacht with a mix of cabins will serve you better.