The Turkish Odyssey
Marmaris to Fethiye under sail, with Lycian ruins reachable only from the water.
Eight days along the Turkish Riviera on a chartered gulet, weighted toward the sites that cannot be driven to: Kaunos above the Dalyan reed beds, the unexcavated Lycian outpost at Lydae, the ghost village of Kayakoy, and the Byzantine monastery on Gemile Island.
Two days come off the water, for Pinara above the Xanthos valley and a wet walk through Saklikent Gorge.
The 8-day itinerary
Day 1 Arrival in Marmaris Gulet
Met at Dalaman airport and transferred to Marmaris marina to meet the crew and settle aboard.
Day 2 Kaunos and Ekincik Gulet
A morning passage to Ekincik cove, one of the last nesting beaches for loggerhead turtles. After lunch a local boat takes you up the Dalyan reed channels to Kaunos, with its Greek temples, Roman baths and Byzantine church, and the Carian rock tombs cut into the cliff above. The walk back to the boat is through pine and olive.
Day 3 Ag Limani and Lydae Gulet
Across Fethiye bay to the cove called Harbour of Nets, then a walk over the peninsula to Lydae, an unexcavated Lycian site reachable only from the sea. Its only inhabitants now are yoruk herders, who will usually offer you tea. The boat rounds the headland to collect you.
Day 4 Sea Gull Cove, Sarsala and Gocek Gulet
A hidden rock pool the boats call Cleopatras Bath, then Sarsala cove, then Gocek town in the late afternoon for the back streets and the marina shops.
Day 5 Gemile Island and Kayakoy Gulet
Gemile in the morning, then Kayakoy: a village of three thousand Anatolian Greeks, empty since the 1920s population exchange and left standing. The walk back to the boat at Soguksu passes the ruins of a fourth-century monastery.
Day 6 Pinara and Saklikent Gulet
An hour inland to Pinara, a Lycian city on a hillside over the Xanthos valley, founded around the fifth century BC and still largely to itself. Then Saklikent gorge, twelve miles long and invisible until you are inside it, for a wet two-and-a-half-mile walk through the snowmelt.
Day 7 Belen and Fethiye Gulet
A short hike down to Fethiye, then the fish and produce market, where you choose what the chef cooks for the farewell dinner.
Day 8 Fethiye, and home
Breakfast aboard and a transfer to Dalaman airport, or on to a post-tour extension.
What travellers usually ask
How far ahead should we plan?
Three to six months is comfortable for the high season, and the gulets in particular go early. That said, we have put together good journeys on three weeks notice more than once.
Can we change the route once we have started?
Yes, and people often do. A private charter is yours; if a cove turns out to be worth another night, the captain will simply reshape the next day.
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.