I mostly travel by fast traveling or by riding Roach, but I don't use boats because I don't find it interesting using boat for traveling.
If I am not using boats, do I miss something or are there any extra advantages of using boats?
The Witcher 3 – Advantages of Using Boats for Traveling
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Best Answer
The main advantage of a boat is that it's a lot faster and safer than swimming.
There are basically 2 main reasons in terms of utility to use a boat:
Secrets in the water
You'll find some secrets that are far out in some lakes or the ocean that are either tedious to swim to or even dangerous since there are a lot of drowners on the way there. Boats allow you to "ignore" drowners whereas swimming and diving requires you to fight them with your crossbow
Quests
There are some quests (IIRC even a main story Quest) That require you to go to an Island. Again this could be done by swimming but you're much faster/safer if you use a boat to reach the destination. Once you've unlocked the fast travel to an island you don't need a boat anymore though.
Also: Sailing is fun. Who doesn't like to relax on a boat after a long day of butchering werewolves and drowners?