Discover the Dodecanese
Rhodes, Symi, Tilos, Nisyros and Kos on a privately chartered gulet.
Eight days through the southern Aegean on a chartered wooden ketch, with a crew of four that includes a chef and a licensed guide. The route runs Rhodes to Bodrum: the Crusader citadel and the UNESCO-listed old town of Rhodes, the Italianate harbour of Symi, the mule tracks of Tilos, and the floor of an active volcanic crater on Nisyros.
Customs formalities between Turkey and Greece are handled for you. An Istanbul pre-tour can be added ahead of the sailing.
The 8-day itinerary
Day 1 Arrival in Marmaris Gulet
You are met by name at Dalaman airport and driven to Marmaris marina, where the crew and the boat are waiting. The chef cooks a welcome dinner aboard on the first evening.
Day 2 Rhodes Gulet
Customs in the morning, then a three-hour crossing to Rhodes. The Colossus is long gone, but the Crusader citadel the Knights of St John built is not: two miles of wall around a UNESCO-listed old town, walked in the afternoon with your guide. Dinner is ashore, in the medieval quarter.
Day 3 Symi Gulet
A morning swim off an islet, then the monastery at Panormitis, then Symi harbour itself in the afternoon: Italianate facades stacked up the hillside in ochre and white. Dinner in one of the tavernas, night in the marina.
Day 4 Tilos Gulet
The least visited island in the group. A swim stop, lunch aboard, then old mule tracks inland to Megala Chorio, where a church sits on the wall of a classical temple and a Venetian castle watches the town. The small museum holds the bones of dwarf elephants found on the island.
Day 5 Nisyros Gulet
Mandraki with its whitewashed houses and painted balconies, then Nikia on the rim of the caldera and a walk down onto the crater floor, which still bubbles and smells of sulphur. The afternoon is for the two castles above the town.
Day 6 Kos Gulet
A forty-mile passage around the Datca peninsula to Kos, birthplace of Hippocrates. The afternoon walk takes in the Hellenistic agora, the odeon, the Roman baths and their mosaics, and the Crusader castle at the harbour mouth.
Day 7 Bodrum Gulet
Back into Turkish waters for Bodrum: the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, another of the seven wonders and now a foundation and a few columns, and the castle the Knights built partly from its stone. A carpet weavers cooperative in the afternoon, farewell dinner aboard.
Day 8 Bodrum, and home
Breakfast aboard, then goodbyes to the crew and a transfer for your flight. A post-tour extension can be arranged from here.
What is included
- A deluxe wooden gulet or ketch with air-conditioned cabins, private bathrooms and linen changed three times in the week
- Seven breakfasts, seven lunches and five dinners aboard, with bottled water and soft drinks
- Wine with the welcome and farewell dinners
- A professional English-speaking guide throughout
- All land transfers by private air-conditioned vehicle, including arrival and departure
- Entrance fees, harbour and embarkation fees, baggage handling, taxes, and one laundry aboard
Not included
- International airfares, airport taxes and fuel surcharges
- Alcoholic drinks with meals
- Visa, where one is needed
- Gratuities, personal expenses, and travel and health insurance
Shape this journey around you
Travel the route as it stands, or make it private on your own dates. Add days, change the pace, combine it with the Greek islands. Tell us what you have in mind.