Every cruising budget I have ever seen lives or dies on one ratio: how many nights you spend tied to a pontoon versus swinging on your own anchor. Everything else, fuel, food, the odd repair, is noise next to that single line. So instead of vague advice, here are three real 30-day budgets for the same 12-metre boat, the same two people, the same month, varying only where they sleep.
The numbers are 2026 figures from the Atlantic and Channel coasts, the affordable end of France. Run them on the Riviera and every marina line roughly triples.
The one variable that matters
A French marina night for a 12-metre boat on the Atlantic or Channel costs 25 to 52 euros, water and power usually included. An anchor night, or a free town mooring, costs nothing. Over 30 days that single difference can swing the total by more than a thousand euros, which is why I treat the marina-versus-anchor decision as the heart of any budget, not an afterthought.
Drop down to the Mediterranean and the stakes climb hard: a 10-metre boat in Saint-Tropez runs from 80 to over 171 euros a night, so the cost of a marina habit there is brutal, as I detail in the cost of a Cote d'Azur cruising summer.
Model A: the marina-every-night cruiser
This is the holidaymaker default, and the most expensive way to cruise. A berth every night, hot shower on tap, no anchoring skills required.
- 30 marina nights at an average of 38 euros: 1,140 euros
- Tourist tax, roughly 1 euro per crew per night on a modest coast: 60 euros
- Diesel (engine in and out of harbour daily, around 70 litres): 154 euros
- Food (provisions plus frequent meals ashore): 700 euros
- Laundry, gas, water, contingency: 250 euros
Thirty-day total: around 2,304 euros for two. Comfortable, predictable, and the most you will pay short of the Riviera. Every night you sleep tied up, you hand over money you did not have to.
Model B: the balanced cruiser
This is how most experienced cruisers actually run a month: marinas when you want a town, a shower and a proper resupply, anchorages the rest of the time.
- 15 marina nights at 38 euros: 570 euros
- 15 anchor or free-mooring nights: 0 euros
- Tourist tax (marina nights only): 30 euros
- Diesel (a little more, moving between anchorages, around 85 litres): 187 euros
- Food (provisions plus weekly meal ashore): 550 euros
- Laundry, gas, water, contingency: 200 euros
Thirty-day total: around 1,537 euros for two. That is over 750 euros saved against Model A, for the price of learning to anchor well and accepting that not every night ends with a quayside shower. The balance is the sweet spot most people settle into, and it is the model behind what a two week France cruise really costs.
Model C: the anchor-out cruiser
This is the budget end, the way I run a month when money matters more than convenience. Marinas become rare, reserved for resupply, fuel and the worst weather.
- 5 marina nights at 38 euros: 190 euros
- 25 anchor or free-mooring nights: 0 euros
- Tourist tax: 10 euros
- Diesel (more motoring to anchorages and to charge batteries, around 95 litres): 209 euros
- Food (provisions, almost no meals ashore): 400 euros
- Laundry, gas, water, contingency: 180 euros
Thirty-day total: around 989 euros for two. Less than half of Model A. The anchor-out month asks more of you, your ground tackle, your weather judgement, your tolerance for cold-water washes, but the saving is enormous and the nights at anchor are often the best of the trip.
What the three models actually teach
Lay them side by side and the lesson is plain. The food line barely moves between the extremes, a few hundred euros. The diesel line actually rises slightly as you anchor more, because you motor between bays and run the engine to charge. The marina line is the entire story, swinging from 1,140 euros down to 190.
So if you want to cruise France for less, the lever is not eating cheaper sandwiches. It is sleeping on your own anchor. The deeper version of this argument, with the trade-offs spelled out, is in anchoring vs marina in France: the cost.
The hidden costs of each choice
Marinas are not pure expense. You get power to charge without running the engine, water without rationing, a shower, secure overnight peace of mind, and somewhere to leave the boat while you explore ashore. Anchoring trades all of that for freedom and zero cost, but you pay in attention: a dragging anchor at 3am is its own kind of expensive.
Anchoring also has small real costs people forget. You run the engine or a generator more to charge, you buy better ground tackle up front, and you accept the occasional sleepless night watching the snubber. None of that erases the saving, but it is honest to count it.
The kit that makes anchoring pay
Model C only works if your boat can actually anchor for nights on end without forcing you into a marina for power or water. That means three things, and they are worth getting right before the season rather than discovering them mid-cruise.
Ground tackle first: an anchor properly sized for the boat, plenty of chain, and a snubber to take the snatch. Skimp here and you do not save money, you just trade it for sleepless nights and the occasional dragged anchor. Power second: enough solar and battery to run the fridge and the instruments without firing up the engine every few hours, because diesel burned at anchor quietly eats the saving. Water third: tankage, careful use, and ideally a watermaker if you cruise remote coasts.
Fit the boat to anchor and the anchor nights are genuinely free. Fit it badly and every third night you are back on a pontoon paying for power and water you could have made yourself.
What about the Mediterranean
These three models run on Atlantic and Channel prices. Move them to the Med and the marina line explodes while everything else stays roughly the same. A 10-metre boat in Saint-Tropez at up to 171 euros a night turns Model A's 30 marina nights into a five-figure month, which is why nobody sensible cruises the Riviera that way.
On the Med, Model C is not a budget option, it is the only sane one. You anchor by default and treat marinas as the rare exception, because the cost of doing otherwise is absurd. The same logic applies in Corsica, though the marina rates there are kinder, as the figures in the cost of a Corsica cruise show. The hotter and more fashionable the coast, the harder you anchor.
How to choose your ratio
Pick your model by what you actually value. If shore power and certainty matter more than money, Model A is fine, just budget for it. If you want to cruise longer on the same funds, slide towards Model C and put the marina nights where they earn their keep: resupply, laundry, foul weather, a town worth walking.
For a flexible cruiser the balanced Model B is the default I would recommend, and the further savings tricks beyond the berthing line are gathered in money-saving cruising in France. It also helps to plan the ratio by leg rather than for the whole month. A stretch of settled weather over good holding ground is the time to anchor hard and save; a forecast blow, a town you want to explore on foot, or a week when you simply need showers and laundry is the time to spend on a berth without guilt. The cruisers who stay solvent treat marinas as a tool they reach for deliberately, not a default they fall into every evening.
Whatever you choose, decide the ratio on purpose. The cruisers who run out of money are almost always the ones who drifted into a marina every night without ever deciding to.
