Windstar, reviewed honestly

Who Windstar genuinely suits

Guests who want an uncrowded, yacht-style holiday: casual luxury, high-end food, direct access to the sea from a stern watersports platform, and the ability to anchor in coves and harbours a big ship could never reach. Nothing in the fleet carries more than 342 guests.

When you'd be better off elsewhere

Anyone picturing a big-ship resort, or anyone expecting to actually help sail the ship; the vessels are crewed, not hands-on. Families with young children too, since the ships carry no structured kids' provision and there's little for a child to do aboard a yacht built for adult pacing.

What the ships are actually like

Genuinely two different products under one name, and worth being precise about which is which. Wind Star, Wind Spirit and Wind Surf are true motor-sailing yachts, sails included, the smallest and most distinctive ships in the fleet. Star Legend, Star Pride, Star Breeze and the newly delivered Star Seeker are all-suite motor yachts with no sails at all, originally built for Seabourn: still intimate and yacht-styled, but a different vessel doing a similar job.

Don't let "sailing yacht" oversell the whole fleet

The whole brand is built on the romance of sail, and on three ships it is completely real. Wind Star, Wind Spirit and Wind Surf have masts and canvas, and the moment the sails go up to music as you leave harbour is the reason people book this line twice.

The other four do not have sails. Star Legend, Star Pride, Star Breeze and the new Star Seeker are all-suite motor yachts, built originally for Seabourn and rebranded rather than reinvented. They are excellent ships and most people who sail on them come home delighted. But if you booked imagining canvas above you and walked up the gangway of a motor yacht, no amount of quality fixes that, so check which one your sailing uses before anything else.

One honest trade either way: cabins run small by luxury standards. Almost nobody minds, because on a ship carrying under 342 people the cabin is not where you spend the week.

Where Windstar sits

Class

Luxury, on our ladder from Mass Market through Ultra-Luxury.

A sample sailing

Wind Surf, 7 nights: Riviera under sail, Barcelona to Rome, guide price from £2,200pp.

Where Windstar boards in the UK

In the UK, Windstar sails from Edinburgh. Our guide covers who it suits, what actually sails and how to reach it.

Cruises from Edinburgh

Ready to sail?

See what Windstar actually has available

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