3 of the best superyacht experiences money can buy

You may have a £60 million boat and millions more each year to run it, but scraping together two weeks to relax on board with your family is a herculean task. So making those days worth every second is the best gift you can buy a superyacht owner. Three companies exist to ensure that time is worth the investment: record-breaking journeys into the wild, Michelin-starred meals on a glacier or dancing in the desert. Discover three incredible experiences that money couldn't buy... until now.

1.Take part in a cross-continent treasure hunt

Picture this: a family, holidaying on their superyacht north of Morocco, take a day trip to a dusty town on the edge of the desert. They stop for a drink in a bazaar and one of the children buys a brass teapot from a nearby stall. As they drive away the children find a note in the teapot’s spout that says: “A man named Ali Zabor holds an ancient map that could lead to mountains of gold.”

So begins an adventure by 4x4, helicopter, camel and hot-air balloon in two continents and ends, 10 days later, on a Balearics beach with a battle between hundreds of pirates.

This utterly bespoke experience is one of the “thrilling fantasies” put on by the VIP travel company Based on a True Story (BOATS) – massive (and massive budget) productions built around extremely lucky children.

The scope is limitless – the minimum investment is £250,000 and can run to many millions – and the direction is led by the imagination and knowledge of an eclectic team.

“We encourage clients to completely trust us, so they often don’t know where they are going, or what might happen. They just know what sort of clothes to pack,” says founder Niel Fox. And it’s not always a swimming costume. “In Scandinavia last year, our clients’ children found a troll under a glacier while a Michelin-star chef set up a meal for the adults on top of it.”

“The other day a guy called me and he said: “Look. Party, Norway, 70 degrees north. Can you build me an ice palace?’” says Kit Harrison.

Harrison is MD of world-romping events company Dreamsmith, whose spectacular bashes have included a bespoke tented game-camp in the Maasai Mara, dinner atop a dune in the Kalahari and a dance party in the Agafay desert outside Marrakech, where they built a stage and flew in the band.

Intriguingly for superyacht owners and charterers, the company is partnering with Burgess for an initiative called Ship to Shore. These events, for which clients stay on superyachts, will be highly tailored to customers’ demands but examples include a 50-person 50th birthday that includes dinner with Alain Ducasse, lapping the Monaco Grand Prix circuit and a treasure hunt rally through the French countryside in classic cars; a culture-packed 60-person 60th birthday in Istanbul; or a 70-person 70th in Mustique.

In essence, Harrison believes people are bored with the cookie-cutter marquee, Champagne and canapé parties that he describes as an expensive social arms race. “Why not do something for four days with people you really want to spend time with?”

Planning a true adventure – a voyage to the Antarctic or a drift along the Pacific’s remotest shores – gives a special purpose to superyacht ownership or charter. It also involves a huge investment in a tough boat and experienced crew. This is where EYOS Expeditions comes in: the adventure specialist company enhances and bulletproofs the experience. “A few vessels have gone through the Northwest Passage without a guide, but they missed the good stuff,” says Tim Soper, founder of EYOS. “Some didn’t even see a polar bear. It takes a lot of local knowledge to know where the concentrations of wildlife are and a guide enhances the experience immeasurably.”

EYOS takes on the logistical work, from itineraries to technical recommendations or permits before a trip, and arranges for an ice-pilot to accompany a yacht. Safety is a serious concern and precautions run from constant reading of weather conditions to carrying survival gear on trips ashore, just in case.

Here the polar bears crop up again: Soper has fired flares to stop one approaching guests and, as he says, “A guide is always looking to see a bear from far away. If you’re not paying attention they can sneak up on you.”

Soper gained his nous on commercial expedition ships as a dive master and Zodiac driver, and he has assembled a crack team of specialists. Trips have ranged from Papua New Guinean villages on 48 metre Hanse Explorer, to Antarctica on 88 metre Arctic P – they went further south than any vessel in history. “We are about presenting a place in the purest possible form and giving clients the safety and comfort to enjoy it on their terms,” says Soper. “There’s no club quite so exclusive as those who have reached the last true wilderness.