A Blue Voyage is a yacht or gulet cruise along Turkey's Aegean or Mediterranean shores.
The favored boat is a comfy Turkish gulet. These sturdy motor-sailers are built for comfort, not speed, with wide decks and lots of room.
The crew cooks your meals, perhaps of fish caught an hour before, and bay leaves collected from shore.
Bodrum, Marmaris and Fethiye are the chief yacht charter ports.
You can enjoy a Blue Voyage in any of three ways:
Day Cruise
Board the yacht after breakfast, cruise along the coast, stop for lunch and a swim, perhaps visit an ancient ruin ashore, and return to port by late afternoon or early evening. An unbeatable value! More...
Full Charter
The very best cruise is when you assemble a congenial group of family and/or friends and charter a yacht for a cruise of a few days or a week. The group can be as small as four people, or as large as 18. The cost per-person is surprisingly affordable, especially in the earlier and later months of the season. More...
Cabin Charter
At first glance, cabin charter—where you rent just one cabin on a yacht rather than the entire yacht—seems the perfect solution for those who want a yacht cruise but who don't have a group of friends or family to do a full charter. It can work, but there are numerous perils in renting a boat with strangers. More...
Tour & Cruise Combinations
Many travelers want both a cruise and a guided tour of Turkey's top sights, such as Argeus' Highlights of Turkey with Gulet Cruise, a 14-day tour of Turkey's top sights which includes four days cruising on a gulet. More...
If you'd like more cruising, but still seeing the sights, consider a Blue Voyage organized by British archeologist Peter Sommer: fun, informative, educational.... You'll be sailing this ancient ruins-strewn coast, so why not with someone who can tell you what it all means? More...
Want a private or small-group tour or cruise tailored to your own schedule and preferences? You can reserve your yacht or cabin(s) through Travel Atelier, a TurkeyTravelPlanner.com partner travel agency experienced in yacht arrangements. They can also make any other travel arrangements (hotels, flights, car rentals, etc) you might need. More...
Best Times to Cruise
Mid-July through mid-September are the busiest and costliest seasons to cruise the Turkish coast. May, with its long warm days, and late September are perfect and cheaper; April and October are usually rainy, but can be fine with a little luck from the weather, and are cheaper still.
Why "Blue Voyage"?
"Blue Voyage" (Mavi Yolculuk) got its name from a book by the Turkish painter and author Cevat Şakir Kabaağaç, who explored the pine-clad coasts around Bodrum during the first half of the 20th century.
—by Tom Brosnahan
Best Travel Agencies 