Who Windstar is for
Windstar is for people whose reason for going is the itinerary, who want the ship small, and who are content that nothing much happens on board in the evening. The largest vessel in the fleet carries 342 guests and most carry around 150 to 212. There is no theater, no production show and no children’s program.
That size buys two things. The first is access: a shallow-draft yacht ties up in the middle of small harbors in the Aegean, the Adriatic, French Polynesia and the Caribbean that the large ships anchor an hour offshore from, or skip. The second is informality. The bridge is open to walk onto except when a pilot is aboard, the galley tour is a standing offer, and there are no formal nights at all: no tuxedos, no gala evening, nothing you need to pack a suit for.
It is the wrong line for a family vacation, the wrong line for anyone who wants the ship to be the entertainment, and the wrong line for a nervous sailor. It is the right line for a couple who have done the big ships and want to be somewhere smaller and closer to the water.
Two fleets under one name
The distinction matters more than the brochure lets on.
Wind Star and Wind Spirit are 5,307-ton sailing yachts from 1986 and 1988 carrying about 150 guests. Wind Surf, from 1989, is 14,745 tons and 342 guests, and Windstar describes her as the largest sailing ship in the world. All three carry computer-controlled sails that deploy in minutes and are genuinely used when the wind and the schedule allow, with engines underneath for when they do not. Sailing under canvas out of a harbor at dusk is the thing people book this line to do.
Star Pride, Star Breeze and Star Legend are motor yachts of 212 guests with no sails. Between 2018 and 2021 all three were cut in half at Palermo, had eighty-four feet of new hull inserted and were re-engined, as part of a $250 million program. They are the more conventional, more comfortable half of the fleet. Newer still are Star Seeker (2025) and Star Explorer (2026), purpose- built at around 9,900 tons.
Book the Wind ships for the sails. Book the Star ships for the cabins. Both are Windstar; they are not the same evening.
Where it sails
Europe dominates the calendar, then Asia, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, Alaska and the Panama Canal. Tahiti is the standout: Windstar has operated there year-round since 1987, which is long enough that the Society Islands routing is the most practiced itinerary the line runs.
Sailings on this site range from three nights to voyages of two months and more, with the typical one nearer a fortnight than a week, longer than the mainstream seven-night norm, because the line’s itineraries are built around getting somewhere rather than getting back.
The company was founded in 1984 by Karl Andrén as Windstar Sail Cruises. It is now owned by the Xanterra Travel Collection, which also runs the lodges in several US national parks, under the Anschutz Corporation. It is the official cruise line of the James Beard Foundation, and runs chef-hosted sailings under that partnership.
What to know before you book
The base fare is not all-inclusive, and the upgrade is not cheap. The fare covers meals and entertainment; a hotel service charge of about sixteen dollars per person per day is added to your account, and drinks and Wi-Fi are extra. The All-Inclusive add-on that folds in unlimited beer, wine and cocktails, Wi-Fi and gratuities runs about ninety-nine dollars per person per day at list price. Promotions that give it away for free come and go, and are worth waiting for.
Small ships move. A 5,300-ton yacht crossing Biscay or the Tasman is a different physical experience from a 130,000-ton ship on the same water. In the Mediterranean in summer this rarely matters. On a repositioning or a transatlantic it very much does.
Every cabin is an outside cabin. There are no inside staterooms on any Windstar ship, which is part of why the entry price is well above a mainstream line’s headline fare. You are comparing against a mainstream balcony, not against its cheapest advertised number.
There is a watersports platform, and it depends on the sea. Every ship folds one out of the stern for kayaks, paddleboards and swimming. It opens when the anchorage is calm enough, which is most of the time in Tahiti and less of the time elsewhere.