Four Seasons vs Aman vs Ritz-Carlton vs Orient Express: Luxury Yachts Compared

Four Seasons built a resort of 95 suites and gave it a hull.

Every suite faces the sea, and there are no interior cabins. At the bow, the Funnel Suite spans four levels behind what Four Seasons calls the largest contiguous piece of glass at sea. At the stern, a 20-metre saltwater pool takes its cue from the classic yacht Christina O. At water level, the marina opens through both sides of the hull, so the sea becomes part of the resort.

The floor plan is where Four Seasons pulls ahead. Three of the Signature Suites have two bedrooms and four have three, and the Suites with Studio add a room with its own entrance for children, a nanny or staff. A modular wall system opens more than 100 connecting options, enough to reserve an entire side of a deck. No other yacht in this comparison was designed so deliberately around families and groups.

The Funnel Suite is the headline: three bedrooms across four levels, and nearly 10,000 square feet with its terraces. For most bookings, the more useful detail sits further down the list. Four Seasons builds two- and three-bedroom suites behind a single front door rather than relying only on connecting cabins, which matters when parents, children and grandparents, or two couples, want to live as one household. The largest take six adults plus an infant or child.

Four Seasons II takes the idea further when she arrives in 2028: 79 suites, twelve of them Yacht Residential Suites with two to four bedrooms.

Here Four Seasons parts company with the other three. The fare is priced per suite. It covers breakfast, Wi-Fi, the marina and its water toys, group fitness classes and entertainment, soft drinks and snacks in the suite, and taxes and port fees; Four Seasons also says no tipping is expected. Lunch and dinner are charged, and so are wine and spirits, in-suite dining, Shore & Sea Experiences, spa treatments and laundry.

The 11 restaurant and bar concepts run from Miuna's omakase counter to a Champagne & Caviar terrace, and Four Seasons' own estimate for food and drink is roughly USD 250 per person a day. Budget for using them. Financially, the yacht behaves like a Four Seasons resort on land: a room rate first, then the restaurants.

Voyages run from three to 18 nights, and the routes lean on ports. Where another line would schedule a sea day, Four Seasons often schedules a Marina Day: the yacht anchors in a sheltered bay and opens the marina. That answers the client who says, "I don't want to spend my holiday stuck on a ship." On many Mediterranean routes, you barely are. Every sailing is on our Four Seasons I voyage calendar.

Aman did what Aman usually does: it took a very large space and put very few people in it. Amangati is 180 metres long and will carry 94 guests in 47 suites, looked after by 207 officers and crew. Sinot Yacht Architecture & Design drew her interiors after a Japanese ryokan home, with high ceilings and full-height windows that frame the horizon instead of competing with it.

If the published numbers carry through into service, this will be the least cruise-like vessel of the four.

Even the smallest suites are large. Deluxe Suites run from 60.7 to 65.3 m², and the 354 m² Aman Suite is a private apartment at sea, with its own massage room and a terrace with a whirlpool bath.

Wellness gets the same weight. The Aman Spa covers 740 m², which Aman calls the largest spa in luxury yachting, with eight ocean-facing treatment suites, a hammam, a banya, a two-storey Japanese garden and a Medi Spa. There is a heated 16-metre infinity pool, two helipads, and a Jazz Club inspired by the one at Aman New York.

The 2027 calendar follows the same thinking, with sailings built around the Cannes Film Festival and the Monaco Grand Prix. Every voyage, with Aman's live fares and the suites still open, is on our Amangati calendar.

Amangati's suites are one-bedroom suites. Each takes two adults and one infant under two at most, so children from two upwards need a suite of their own.

Aman planned for it. Adjoining Deluxe and Premier Suites combine into two- and three-bedroom layouts, and the Aman Suite joins a Premier Suite to make a two-bedroom suite of 416 m², terraces included. Aman can work for a family. It simply starts from privacy for two rather than from a family of six.

The fare sits between Four Seasons and the two more inclusive yachts. All-day dining at Alira is included, with breakfast in the suite, beer and soft drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities, the marina and its water toys, and daily laundry and pressing. Wine and spirits are charged beyond the welcome bottles in the suite, and so are dinner at Akari, Hiori and the Aman Grill, in-suite dining after breakfast, the Shore Experiences and spa treatments.

Amangati welcomes her first guests in May 2027, so every judgement today rests on the yacht Aman has designed. Nobody has sailed on her yet. The specifications are exceptional; the execution is still to come.

Corinthian is the outlier: the only one that sails. At 220 metres, Orient Express calls her the world's largest sailing yacht, and behind that scale are just 54 suites for up to 110 guests, with 170 crew.

Maxime d'Angeac, Orient Express's architect and artistic director, drew the interiors from the golden age of travel: the Orient Express train, and ocean liners such as the Normandie. The materials are leather, precious wood veneers and marble, and every suite has its own butler. Where Four Seasons feels residential and Aman deliberately quiet, Corinthian is theatrical, and that is the point.

Corinthian carries three SolidSail rigs, the fruit of ten years of research and development at her builder, Chantiers de l'Atlantique. Each sail is about 1,500 m², more than 4,500 m² in all, built as a rigid structure of fibreglass, carbon and epoxy rather than cloth. The balestron rigs rotate through 360 degrees to hold the best trim, the masts reach close to 100 metres above the water, and they tilt to 70 degrees to pass under the great bridges. In sea trials in February 2026 she made 12 knots under sail alone, in 20 knots of wind. When the wind drops, hybrid LNG propulsion takes over.

That changes what a sea day means. On the other three yachts, a day without a port is a day spent enjoying the ship. On Corinthian, being under sail is a reason to book.

Yannick Alléno directs the cooking across five restaurants and two private dining rooms. La Table de l'Orient Express is the principal room, and the one charged outside the fare. Then come eight bars and lounges, an Art Deco speakeasy, a cabaret, a recording studio and the Guerlain spa. Corinthian wants you to remember the yacht itself.

The same Orient Express house runs the La Dolce Vita train in Italy, and our guide to Europe's luxury trains explains why two companies now use the Orient Express name.

Five of the six penthouses have two full bedrooms, which suits two couples or a family of four, and all six can be taken together as a private top deck for up to 22 guests. The restriction is the calendar. Children under 16 sail only on designated Family Voyages, and an infant under two needs a dedicated babysitter aboard, arranged when you book. A family cannot pick any date. On a Family Voyage, the accommodation is excellent.

Corinthian's fare covers more than any other here. Dining across the restaurants is included, except La Table, along with 24-hour in-suite dining, fine wines, spirits and soft drinks, Wi-Fi, the marina and its instruction, entertainment, gratuities, laundry, and the hammam and sauna. Private transfers come with the suite, within 50 miles for Signature Suites and 100 for the penthouses, and select itineraries include Destination Experiences ashore. The extras are La Table, a short list of premium bottles, Guerlain treatments and flights. It is the fare that lets you think least about the bill.

Orient Express publishes voyages of two to 14 nights, and the current calendar starts at three. A three- or four-night passage can sit between two hotels or become one chapter of a longer European trip, which suits anyone who likes the idea of a yacht but not seven nights of one. And unlike almost any other ship, this is one where I would look for a proper day under sail.

Ritz-Carlton's best argument is the view from your terrace on the days the others cannot offer. Luminara easing up Alaska's Inside Passage toward a tidewater glacier. Evrima at anchor off Taha'a as the lagoon turns from turquoise to ink. A Norwegian fjord sliding past at dinner, with the wine already paid for.

That reach comes from something the other three cannot build quickly: time at sea. Evrima began sailing in 2022, Ilma in 2024 and Luminara in 2025, which makes Ritz-Carlton the only brand here that already runs a fleet. It is the most cruise-like of the four, in the best sense. The operation is established, the fare is easy to read and the map is far wider.

The three yachts are not interchangeable.

If the destination matters more than having the smallest ship, the fleet changes the equation.

For Marriott loyalists, the name on the hull comes with something practical. Bonvoy members earn five points per US dollar on the cruise fare and one Elite Night Credit for each night aboard, can redeem points against the fare (180,000 points take USD 1,000 off), and have their Elite status recognised during the voyage. On a yacht booking, that adds up.

Ritz-Carlton carries far more guests. Evrima takes up to 298, and Ilma and Luminara around 450 each. That is still small next to a conventional cruise ship, but it is a different density from 94 guests on Amangati or 110 on Corinthian.

The entry suite shows it too. A Terrace Suite on Ilma or Luminara is 27.3 m² with a private terrace: a handsome hotel room rather than a floating residence. For larger families the answer is connecting suites; on Evrima, select Terrace Suites join a neighbour as a second bedroom.

The fare is straightforward. Dining across the restaurants, premium wines and spirits, 24-hour in-suite dining, the minibar, Wi-Fi, gratuities, entertainment and the marina's water toys are included, and on Ilma and Luminara that can mean SEABOBs and Flitescooters at anchor on select voyages. Spa treatments, shore excursions and flights are extra, as are the three specialty restaurants that charge: S.E.A. on Evrima and Seta on the two sisters. The guest launderette is free; laundry and dry cleaning are charged. For most guests, once aboard, it feels all-inclusive.

This is where Ritz-Carlton wins outright. Voyages run from three to 15 nights, and the three yachts cover the Mediterranean, Northern Europe, the Caribbean, Alaska, Japan and wider Asia, Hawaii and the South Pacific. For the Greek islands, all four compete. For Alaska, Japan, Hawaii or French Polynesia, Ritz-Carlton is the only one that goes.