Boat charters with lunch included in Turks and Caicos: what’s on every menu

• A full lunch on a half day: the 35ft Luxury Yacht, the 44ft Luxury Catamaran Yacht, the three menu yachts (the 51ft, the 62ft and the 51ft power catamaran), and the 29ft Sports Cruiser and 30ft Luxury Boat.
• A beach BBQ: the eight-hour charters on the 43ft Ultra Luxury Yacht and the Adventure Boats.
• Lobster in season, August 1 to March 31: on the full-day menu of eight boats and as a main you can order on the menu yachts; outside the season nobody in Turks and Caicos may serve it.
• Choose your own menu: the 51ft and 62ft yachts and the 51ft power catamaran, two or three mains and three sides, sent in before the day.
• Bring your own: every charter welcomes your own food and drinks on top, with ice and a cooler on most boats.

On most boats, a four-hour charter means snacks. On a handful, it means lunch. The 35ft Luxury Yacht and the 44ft Luxury Catamaran Yacht serve glazed ribs, chicken wings, rice, mac and cheese and a fresh green salad on their four and six-hour charters, and the 29ft Sports Cruiser and 30ft Luxury Boat bring chicken kebabs, BBQ chicken and ribs, sandwiches and wraps, rice and baked mac and cheese.

On the 51ft and 62ft yachts and the new 51ft power catamaran, you choose. Pick two or three mains and three sides from a full menu and send it in at least the day before: coconut shrimp, grilled mahi-mahi, jerk chicken, chicken pasta or, in season, grilled or curried lobster, with peas and rice, mac and cheese or steamed vegetables alongside, and vegetable pasta, a veggie burger or stewed red beans for anyone who doesn’t eat meat.

On a full day, some boats take lunch ashore. The 43ft Ultra Luxury Yacht’s eight-hour charter ends up on the beach with a BBQ of lobster in season, conch, ribs, peas and rice, mac and cheese, fish, salads, and steak and veggie kebabs.

The Adventure Boat and Adventure Boat XL do the same on their eight-hour charters: chicken, ribs, and peas and rice off the grill, with fresh conch ceviche on the side.

Good to know

A beach BBQ is an eight-hour thing: the crew needs the long day to get out, set up ashore, cook, and still give you the snorkel stops. On a four or six-hour charter the same boats serve platters or sandwiches, so if the BBQ is the point, book the full day.

What a beach BBQ really involves

It’s a small production. The crew carries the grill, the charcoal, the coolers and the food ashore, often wading the last stretch because few cays have a dock, sets up in the shade and downwind of the towels, and cooks while you snorkel or hunt for sand dollars. Count on an hour or more ashore, with lunch in the middle of the day after the morning’s first stops. The one thing guests can do to help: leave the beach as you found it, because everything that comes ashore leaves with the boat.

From August 1 to March 31, Caribbean spiny lobster is in season in Turks and Caicos; the 2026–27 season opened on August 1, 2026 and closes on March 31, 2027. It’s a clawless lobster, all tail, and outside the season it’s illegal to catch, keep or serve, so no boat and no restaurant will have it from April to July. In season, the full-day charters on eight boats put it on the menu, the two Adventure Boats list it as a seasonal catch on their eight-hour days, and on several it’s catch and cook: the lobster comes out of the water on the day and goes straight to the grill for lunch.

Locally it’s crawfish, and the islands take opening day seriously: in the first three days of the 2026–27 season, fishers landed more than 35,000 pounds, nearly three-quarters of it at South Caicos. The rules are strict for everyone, visitors included: anyone 16 or older needs a fishing license, lobster and conch are taken by free-diving only, never with scuba, and nothing may be taken inside a national park, which covers Grace Bay, Bight Reef, Smith’s Reef and Malcolm’s Road. On a catch-and-cook charter the crew handles all of that and takes you where it’s allowed.

It’s on the full days of the 35ft and 43ft yachts, the 44ft catamaran, the 40ft Ultra Luxury Yacht, the 29ft Sports Cruiser and 30ft Luxury Boat (seven hours), the 26ft’s seven-hour charter and the 22ft Sports Cruiser’s eight-hour charter; on those last two it’s catch and cook, so it depends on what comes out of the water that day.

On the three menu yachts, lobster is one of the mains you can order in season, grilled, curried or cracked, on any length of charter, so a four-hour lunch can have it too.

Good to know

Lobster is served only in season; outside it, the same full days serve the rest of the menu. Conch is legal to eat all year, so the ceviche and the conch salad don’t depend on the calendar.

Conch, the island’s own dish

If lobster is the luxury, conch (say “konk”) is the everyday soul of the islands’ cooking. Queen conch lives on the shallow seagrass beds around the cays, and it reaches the table three ways: conch salad, raw conch diced with onion, sweet pepper and tomato and cured in lime juice the way ceviche is; cracked conch, pounded tender, battered and fried, the islands’ favorite plate; and fritters. Locally it’s eaten year-round; the closed season you may read about, July 15 to October 15, stops it being exported, not served.

The other calendar worth knowing is Nassau grouper, open from March 1 to November 30, so it’s off the menu from December through February. And you don’t need a boat to eat like a local: the Thursday fish fry at the Bight lines up cracked conch, cracked lobster, conch salad and peas ’n’ rice, and the Conch Festival in Blue Hills brings the whole island to the beach each November.

The catamarans keep it fresh and easy. The 30ft, 35ft and 41ft serve fruit and a charcuterie platter of meats, cheeses, hummus and baguette on the shorter charters, and a sandwich platter with caprese salad on the seven-hour.

On the 65ft Ultra Lux Sailing Cat, freshly prepared food comes out all day, with menus and any dietary needs arranged after you book. The 70ft Sailboat serves snacks throughout, and on its five and six-hour charters you can add a gourmet picnic lunch at checkout.

Good to know

The catamaran platters are sized to the group and shift with allergies and what the store had that morning, so tell us when you book. Both big sailing boats ask for nothing in glass, which matters if you’re bringing your own bottles.

On some boats, the food is there to keep you going between swims. The 47ft Luxury Yacht and the 37ft and 28ft boats bring fruit, cookies and a signature dip, with a sandwich or wrap if you’d like one, and the 28ft and 37ft take custom food requests for an extra fee. The 43ft’s shorter charters serve fruit, meat and cheese, chips and dip; the 40ft’s bring fruit, cheese, cold cuts and chips and dip, with gourmet sandwiches joining on its six-hour. The 22ft Axopar comes with a fruit bowl and a cooler of local beer, plus gourmet sandwiches on its six-hour, and the three-hour trips on the 22ft Sports Cruiser and the 26ft come with light snacks.

Rum punch is on most boats, and the bars get bigger with the boat. There’s champagne and white wine on the 35ft, 51ft and 44ft, prosecco and bottomless rum punch on the 47ft, rosé on the 43ft, the 40ft and the 70ft, dark and stormys and Moscow mules on the three catamarans, and on the 62ft and the 51ft power catamaran a full premium bar, Tito’s, Woodford Reserve, Casamigos, three rums and a bottle of champagne for the toast, with a dedicated bartender mixing all day.

Wherever you go, you’re welcome to bring your own drinks and snacks on top, beer and spirits included, and most boats have ice and a cooler for them; on the 65ft and the 70ft, nothing in glass.

Bringing your own, safely

Bringing food is easy; keeping it safe takes one rule. US food-safety guidance says perishable food shouldn’t sit out for more than two hours, and only one hour once it’s above 90°F, which a sunny deck reaches easily, so keep anything with mayonnaise, dairy, raw fish or meat in a cooler on ice at 40°F or below and bring it out when you eat. Pack in plastic or cans rather than glass, freeze a few water bottles to double as ice packs, and in the heat, alternate the rum punch with water: the sun and the swimming dehydrate you faster than a bar stool does.

Allergies need more care on the water than in a restaurant, because help is a boat ride and a drive away. Tell us at booking so the note reaches the crew before the shopping is done, bring your own medication, including any epinephrine, and assume shellfish is on board any boat whose menu has lobster or conch.

If lunch is the point, three bookings do it best. The 35ft Luxury Yacht’s four hours, $3,026 all-in for six, with glazed ribs, chicken wings, rice, mac and cheese and a green salad, and champagne and rum punch on board. The 43ft’s eight-hour day, $8,621 all-in for eight, with a beach BBQ of lobster in season, conch, ribs, fish and steak and veggie kebabs. And for a menu you write yourself, the 51ft yacht’s four hours, $4,796 all-in for six, with two or three mains and three sides chosen before the day. Each option’s menu, right down to the drinks, is on its listing, so you know exactly what’s coming before you pay a deposit; the price you see includes taxes, the balance is due to our charter management, each listing prints its free-cancellation window, and a request is confirmed within a few hours, nearly all within the day. Once you’ve booked: on the menu yachts, send your picks in at least the day before, and on every boat, tell us about allergies or dietary needs so they reach the crew before the shopping is done.

Deciding between a half and a full day? Our guide to half day or full day walks through both, stop by stop, and what’s included on a charter covers everything beyond the food.