Marmaris–Fethiye–Marmaris Blue Cruise – 8 Days

After breakfast the gulet sails along the coast to the Ekincik Gulf. Stay on board to swim and sunbathe, with lunch served on the boat, or join the optional trip to Dalyan and Kaunos: a riverboat to the tombs carved high in the cliffs, the ancient city, a mud bath and sulphur pool, and time on Turtle Beach, where loggerhead turtles still nest. Lunch on the trip is at a riverside restaurant. In the evening everyone is back on board for dinner and a night at anchor in Ekincik Bay. Meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, fruit and dinner.

An early start avoids the rough water around the Dişibilmez and Kurtoğlu capes and brings you into the sheltered Gulf of Göcek. Breakfast and a swim are at the Sunken Bath, or Cleopatra's Bay, where walls and columns of an old bathhouse lie just below the surface in a pine-fringed cove. Next is Tersane Island, the largest island in the gulf, whose name means 'shipyard island' after its use for building and repairing ships in Ottoman times; older ruins are also visible ashore. Dinner and the night are at Kızıl Island, named for its reddish shoreline. Meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, fruit and dinner.

The gulet sails to Fethiye harbour early in the morning, where you can join an optional jeep safari. Guests who stay on board spend the day at anchor in Samanlık Bay with lunch, swimming, snorkelling and sunbathing, before the boat returns to Fethiye in the early evening and moors at Ece Saray Marina for the night. Fethiye stands on the site of ancient Telmessos: the 4th-century BC Lycian rock tombs, led by the Tomb of Amyntas, overlook the harbour, and the abandoned hillside village of Kayaköy, left empty after the 1923 population exchange, can be visited nearby. The promenade with its restaurants and bars is within walking distance of the boat. Meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, fruit and dinner.

Breakfast is in Fethiye before the gulet cruises among the pine-covered islets of the Gulf of Göcek, a protected sailing area with calm water. You anchor at the Yassıca Islands, where shallow, warm channels with sandy bottoms make natural swimming pools and some islets are close enough to wade between. After lunch the boat moves to one of the gulf's bays to watch the sunset and moors there for the night. Meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, fruit and dinner.

The morning is spent at Bedri Rahmi Bay, named after the artist Bedri Rahmi Eyüboğlu, who painted a fish on a rock here in 1974 that can still be seen. Swim in the clear water or swim to the small beach and find the Lycian ruins among the trees. Then sail to Sarsala Bay, a sheltered inlet surrounded by pine forest, for a swim and afternoon tea, and continue to Ağa Limanı, a bay enclosed by steep hills, for dinner and the night. Meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, fruit and dinner.

After breakfast the gulet sails early to Kumlubük Bay, one of the longest beaches on the Marmaris peninsula, with a gently sloping shore and calm water. The morning is free for swimming, sunbathing or building sandcastles, and lunch is prepared on board. You then anchor at Cennet Island, just outside Marmaris, for afternoon tea, and reach Marmaris harbour at 16:00. The last night is spent in port; dinner is not served on board, so you can explore the town centre, marina and waterfront restaurants. Meals: breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and fruit.

Breakfast on board, then at around 10:00 you say goodbye to the crew and your fellow passengers. Meals: breakfast.