EXPLORE TÜRKİYE
Türkiye, One Bay at a Time
Türkiye’s south-west coast, the Turquoise Coast, runs from the Bodrum Peninsula past the long gulfs of Gökova and Hisarönü to Göcek, Fethiye and Kaş. Pine forests reach down to the water, ancient cities stand above the anchorages, and many bays have little more than a restaurant with its own jetty. This is the home of the gulet, the broad wooden yacht built in Bodrum and Bozburun, and of the Blue Cruise, a week spent moving from one quiet bay to the next. Within each cruising area, the next anchorage is usually a short passage away.
Where the Aegean Meets the Mediterranean
THE BEST TABLE IS OFTEN AT THE END OF A JETTY.
The Turquoise Coast lies where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean, and it is cut by long gulfs and peninsulas. The Bodrum Peninsula faces the Greek island of Kos. To the south, the Gulf of Gökova reaches deep inland between the Bodrum and Datça peninsulas, and beyond Datça the Hisarönü Gulf and the Bozburun Peninsula lead to Marmaris. Further east, the Gulf of Fethiye and the Lycian coast continue past Kaş to Kekova.
Much of this coast is protected. The Gulf of Gökova, the Datça and Bozburun peninsulas, Fethiye and Göcek, Köyceğiz and Dalyan, and Kaş and Kekova are all Special Environmental Protection Areas, with rules on building, fishing and anchoring that your captain will plan around.
These are the home waters of the gulet. Bodrum and Bozburun are still centres of wooden boatbuilding, and the Blue Cruise, Mavi Yolculuk in Turkish, began here in the middle of the 20th century. The writer Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, exiled to Bodrum in 1925 and later known as the Fisherman of Halicarnassus, sailed the Gulf of Gökova with his friends on local boats, and their trips gave the Blue Cruise its name. A week on a gulet is still the classic way to see the coast.
Days ashore are unhurried. You might tie up at a restaurant jetty for meze and grilled fish, climb to a Lycian tomb once the heat has passed and finish with tea on a village quay. Plenty of guests keep to one area for a week, Bodrum and the Gulf of Gökova or Göcek and the Lycian coast, and return another summer for the other half.
Six Corners of the Turquoise Coast
From the castle at Bodrum to the drowned ruins of Kekova, a Türkiye charter spends its days in these six stretches of coast.
Kaş and Kekova
The Bodrum Peninsula
The Gulf of Gökova
Datça and Knidos
Bozburun and Selimiye
Göcek and Fethiye
Kaş and Kekova
The Bodrum Peninsula
The Gulf of Gökova
What to Do Along the Way
Swim from a Line Ashore
In Türkiye’s bays, yachts usually drop anchor and take a line ashore to a rock or a pine tree, so the boat lies close to the shore in calm water. It makes swimming easy: step off the swim platform into clear water, take a paddleboard into the next cove or snorkel along the rocks. The Gulf of Gökova and the Göcek islands have dozens of such bays, and the captain picks the ones that are out of the day’s wind and open to visiting boats under the protected-area rules.
Walk Through Ancient Cities
Almost every stretch of this coast has ruins above the water. At Knidos you step ashore from the anchorage straight into the ancient city, rock tombs look down on Fethiye, and the ruins of Byzantine churches cover Gemiler Island. East of Kekova, Myra, just inland at Demre, has a Roman theatre, Lycian tombs cut into the cliff and the church of St Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop of Myra. Go early, before the heat, and with a guide if you can.
Take a River Boat to Dalyan
Between Marmaris and Göcek, the Dalyan River winds through reed beds from the sea to Köyceğiz Lake. Yachts anchor in Ekincik Bay, and local river boats take guests upstream past the rock tombs of Kaunos, carved like temple fronts into the cliffs in the 4th century BC, to the ruins of the city itself. Many trips also stop at İztuzu Beach, where loggerhead turtles nest in summer and the beach closes at night, and at the mud baths near the lake.
Paddle Past the Sunken City
Kekova is best seen from a sea kayak. Guided trips follow the island’s shore past the walls and steps of the sunken town, then cross to Kaleköy for the climb to its castle. In Kaş, the diving centres know the coast well: the Bronze Age Uluburun wreck was found nearby in 1982, and divers can now explore a replica of the ship, sunk on purpose in 2006, and a Dakota aircraft resting at about 22 metres. Swimming and diving over the Kekova ruins themselves are not allowed.
Spend a Day at Ölüdeniz
South of Fethiye, the lagoon at Ölüdeniz is closed to motor boats, so yachts anchor off the beach. From Babadağ, the mountain of almost 2,000 metres behind it, tandem paragliders glide down to land on the sand. A short way along the coast, Butterfly Valley is a steep gorge with a beach that is best reached by sea, and in summer Jersey tiger moths gather in its trees. The Lycian Way, a waymarked trail of more than 500 kilometres towards Antalya, begins in the hills above.
What to Eat and Drink
Begin with Meze and Rakı
A long Turkish dinner begins with meze, small plates shared across the table. On the Aegean coast, look for fava, a smooth purée of dried broad beans, haydari, thick yoghurt with garlic and herbs, samphire dressed with olive oil and garlic, and vegetables cooked slowly in olive oil and served cold. With them comes rakı, the aniseed spirit that turns milky white when water is added and is known as lion’s milk.
Choose Your Fish
In a Turkish fish restaurant you often choose your fish from the counter, and the kitchen grills it whole. Look for levrek, sea bass, çipura, gilt-head bream, and barbun, red mullet, along with octopus and calamari. The waterside restaurants of Gümüşlük, Selimiye and Kaleköy are favourite places to eat fish by the sea. If in doubt, ask which fish the local boats landed that day.
Linger over Breakfast
The Turkish word for breakfast, kahvaltı, means “before coffee”, and it is a meal to take slowly. The table fills with white cheese, olives, tomatoes and cucumbers, honey with kaymak, a thick clotted cream, and simit, the sesame-crusted bread ring. Menemen, eggs cooked with tomatoes and green peppers, comes hot from the pan, with glass after glass of tea. Look for the pine honey of Marmaris and the thyme honey of Datça.
Stop for Gözleme
Gözleme is a thin sheet of yufka dough, rolled out by hand, filled with cheese, spinach, potato or minced meat, folded and cooked on a sac, a wide domed griddle. It is often made to order at village markets and roadside stalls, and it makes a good lunch on a day ashore. The making and sharing of yufka and other flatbreads is recognised by UNESCO as part of the intangible heritage of Türkiye and four other countries.
Try Bodrum’s Own Kebab
Bodrum has its own kebab, çökertme kebabı: thin strips of beef on a bed of matchstick-fried potatoes, with garlic yoghurt and tomato sauce, now protected as a geographical indication. Along the coast, look too for köfte, grilled meatballs that every town makes its own way, the spicy minced-meat Adana kebab, and İskender from Bursa, sliced döner over bread with tomato sauce, yoghurt and melted butter.
Finish with Tea and Something Sweet
Tea grown around Rize on the Black Sea coast is brewed strong in a double teapot and served all day in small, tulip-shaped glasses, a custom recognised by UNESCO. After dinner, try baklava, layers of thin pastry filled with pistachios or walnuts and soaked in syrup, or lokum, Turkish delight, whose name comes from an Arabic phrase meaning “comfort of the throat”. A small cup of Turkish coffee, also listed by UNESCO, often comes with a piece of lokum.
Choosing Your Month on the Turquoise Coast
Gulets and yachts work this coast from May until the end of October, and the sea is at its warmest between July and September. Summer brings the meltem, a north-westerly that usually picks up through the day, dies away in the evening and reaches its peak in July and August. It is felt most around Bodrum and in the open Gulf of Gökova, while the bays of Göcek, Fethiye and the Lycian coast are generally more sheltered.
Best for ruins, walks and quiet bays
Spring comes early to this coast. The pine-covered hills are green after the winter rain, and Knidos, Kaunos and the Lycian tombs can be explored in comfortable warmth. A swim is bracing, with the water at about 17°C in April and 19–21°C by the end of May, so these weeks reward guests who come for ruins and walks as much as for the sea. Anchorages are empty, and spring weeks usually cost less than summer ones.
APRIL AND MAY
Best for swimming before the summer rush
By June the water has reached about 22–24°C and the evenings stay light until late. The meltem has not yet built to its full summer strength, and there is still room at the restaurant jetties of Selimiye and Göcek, so June works well from Bodrum to Kekova.
JUNE
Best for the warmest sea and late nights in Bodrum
Midsummer brings the strongest heat and the most boats. The water reaches about 25–28°C, a little warmer around Fethiye and Kaş than off Bodrum. With the meltem blowing at full strength, captains cover the longer legs soon after breakfast and sit out the windy afternoons at anchor in a protected cove. Bodrum’s beach clubs and the Göcek islands are full, so reserve your yacht early.
JULY AND AUGUST
Best for warm water and emptier bays
The water holds at about 25–27°C while the air cools a little and the meltem eases. Turkish families head home when the schools reopen, and by the middle of the month there is space again at the jetties and in the coves. Warm swims, gentler wind and quieter anchorages make September an easy month to recommend.
SEPTEMBER
Best for the last swims and the Bodrum Cup
The water is still around 22–24°C, and the low autumn sun suits long lunches ashore. Showers and unsettled spells grow more likely towards the end of the month, when many gulets are laid up for the winter. October is also when traditional wooden yachts race off Bodrum in the Bodrum Cup, first held in 1989.
OCTOBER
ruins, walks and quiet bays
swimming before the summer rush
the warmest sea and late nights in Bodrum
warm water and emptier bays
the last swims and the Bodrum Cup
PLAN YOUR CHARTER
More from the Turquoise Coast
- Yacht Charter in TürkiyeDestinations, a sample week, the best season and the yachts we offer.
- Turquoise Coast Gulet ItinerarySeven nights from Göcek to Gemiler Island, Butterfly Valley, Kaş and Kekova.
- Eating and Drinking AshoreFish restaurants, meze tables, cafés, bars and beach clubs we rate, from Bodrum to Kaş.
- Yachts in TürkiyeCrewed gulets, motor yachts, sailing yachts and catamarans for this coast.
Choose Your Stretch of Coast
The Turquoise Coast is too long to see properly in seven days, so most weeks begin from one of two bases. Bodrum opens up the Gulf of Gökova and the Datça Peninsula; Göcek leads to the Twelve Islands, Fethiye and the Lycian coast as far as Kaş and Kekova. A longer charter can link the two through Bozburun and the Hisarönü Gulf.
A classic Blue Cruise on a wooden gulet is slow by design: long swims, lunch at anchor and dinner at the end of a jetty. A motor yacht covers more ground, leaving time for ruins, diving and evenings in the marinas of Bodrum and Göcek. Plenty of guests combine the two.
Send us your dates, the size of your group and the bays or ruins you most want to see. We will come back with yachts that suit the season and a route planned around the meltem.