Renting Eros? You Could Also Buy These 7 Things

The cost for a charter on the Below Deck super yacht Eros is a considerable expense for anyone except for the super rich. But if you can afford to spend a quarter of a million dollars on a week at sea, there are plenty of other things you can buy for the cost of an Eros charter. And they're all pretty fantastic, even though none of them can buy you reality TV infamy like Below Deck can. Sometimes, though, episodes of Below Deck will make it seem like the hefty price is barely worth the experience of a subpar charter. If Kate wasn't the best chief stew in the business, the guests who desperately wanted Don Julio would have been left with nothing.

The guy who desperately wanted the Don Julio tequila (which Kate had shipped in and motored out to him) and his friends on board were also disappointed by the bad weather that left them trapped inside the yacht for most of the trip. That's got to be the most frustrating thing about booking a trip on a boat — there's so much you can't control. Sure, you can put the cast through their paces once they get there, but they can't slow down the winds or stop the waves from being choppy. So if you'd rather make sure you can get your money's worth, spend the money you would have used on Eros to buy one of these things, instead.

A European Castle

Castles and old manor estates in Europe are relatively common, and most of them aren't as luxurious as the Eros, so you can buy one for less than a quarter of a million — just look through the listings on Posh Journeys, which have castles on sale for as low as 100,000 euros.

A Private Island

A tropical private island filled with white beaches that the Eros would stop at for a picnic is one thing, but owning your own permanent vacation spot would mean that even a week of bad weather wouldn't matter — you could just reschedule. And this almost four-acre property in Mexico, Isla Esmerelda, is only a $145,000 investment, half the price of a charter.

A Jet

Just like a yacht, a private jet is a form of transportation. But with a jet, you can go on a quick half-hour trip to get from city to city or travel halfway around the world, but in order to have a good time on a yacht, you have to go to the yacht, which is preferably in a nice location so you can enjoy it. Prices for jets are hard to come by (they operate on the "if you have to ask, you can't afford it" principle) but Private Fly suggests that a cheap jet would be in the $400,000 range, which is a bit more than an Eros charter. But you could use the jet indefinitely, and if you're even thinking of spending this much, you're rich, so... you can probably swing it.

An Original Piece of Art

You only get to look at the beautiful sunsets in the Caribbean for a week if you're staying on the Eros. But if you buy a piece of art, you can look at it on your wall for as long as you have eyes. Famous person/art ogler Leo DiCaprio just nabbed an original Walton Ford for precisely $250,000 — exactly how much you'd be spending on a charter.

A Summer In The Hamptons

This listing for a four bedroom AirBnb is $1,143 a night, which means for the several hundred thousand plus tips you'd be spending on the Eros, you'll easily get a summer-long stay out of a house like this.

Nights At The Plaza Hotel

Because staying on the Eros is all about finding a home away from home, and the Plaza is known for its beautiful accommodations — I mean, Eloise lived there and seemed to have a good time. one of the Plaza's most expensive suites is $2,195 a night, which makes it a bargain compared to Eros.

A Wine/Tequila/Scotch/Whiskey Cellar

The guy who desperately wanted Don Julio 1942 would have never had a problem picking up a bottle if he had his own personal bar. The great thing about that is it only costs as much storage and your favorite booze combined. A case of six bottles of Don Julio 42 is $600 bucks. Add some Twister in your living room and a dip in a hot tub and that's basically the Eros experience.

Below Deck's Eros offers a fantastic opportunity for a wannabe reality star or a lazy vacationer who wants to be waited on hand and foot. But for the hefty price of a week-long charter, plenty of other, comparable experiences are available for just about the same.

Image: Screenshot, Giovanni Rufino/Bravo; Barnyz, Andy Rusch, Christian, /Flickr; Giphy (3)