Bodrum by Sail: The Gulet Charter Experience, Bozburun Boat Building Village, Knidos Ancient City at the Peninsula Tip, Datca Peninsula Almond Orchards, and the Bodrum to Marmaris Blue Cruise Route
The Bodrum sailing route covers the gulet charter experience for the independent boat charter, the Bozburun village where the gulet boats are built, the Knidos ancient city at the very tip of the Datca peninsula with the Apollo temple, the Datca peninsula landscape and the almond orchards, and the classic Bodrum to Marmaris Blue Cruise route.
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Gulet Charter: The Independent Boat Experience
The private gulet charter from the Bodrum marina, ranging from the 4-berth wooden gulet at 500 euros per day to the 10-cabin luxury gulet at 3,000 euros per day with the captain, the cook, and the crew included, provides the most complete and the most liberating experience of the Turquoise Coast with the freedom to anchor in the secluded bays, to swim from the boat in the clear water, and to follow the itinerary that the wind and the preference determine rather than the organized tour timetable. The private gulet charter is the most consistent single luxury experience recommended by the experienced Turkey travelers.
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Bozburun: The Gulet Building Village
Bozburun on the Hisaronu Gulf south of Marmaris, the small fishing and boat-building village where the most important concentration of wooden gulet boatbuilders in Turkey practices the traditional craft of the large wooden vessel construction that was developed in the Bodrum area in the 1940s, is the most authentic single cultural stop on the Bodrum-Marmaris Blue Cruise route. The Bozburun boatyard, where the gulet hulls are built from the pine and the oak with the traditional tools and the master boatbuilder knowledge that is not written down, is the most direct encounter with the living craft tradition that produced the Turkish Blue Cruise gulet fleet.
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Datca Peninsula: The Almond Orchard Landscape
The Datca peninsula, the long narrow peninsula extending 90 kilometers westward from the Bodrum area into the Aegean between the Gulf of Gokova and the Gulf of Hisaronu, is the most scenically unspoiled peninsula in the Turkish Aegean with the almond orchards, the wild herb landscape, the preserved village architecture of Eski Datca, and the extreme western climate that the Aegean wind creates at the peninsula tip. The Datca almond and the Datca olive oil are the most regionally specific agricultural products of the Turkish Aegean peninsula.
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Knidos: The Ancient City at the World Edge
Knidos at the very western tip of the Datca peninsula, the ancient Dorian Greek city of the 4th century BC that possessed the most famous nude female statue in the ancient world - the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles that established the precedent for the nude female figure in Western art - is accessible only by sea or by the 90-kilometer road from the Datca town and provides the most remotely located major archaeological site in western Turkey. The Knidos site with the two harbours, the theatre, and the round temple believed to have housed the Aphrodite statue occupies the most dramatically positioned ancient city site in the Turkish Aegean.
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Gokova Gulf: The Sailing Paradise Waters
The Gulf of Gokova between the Bodrum peninsula and the Datca peninsula, the deep-water gulf with the consistent meltemi wind in the summer afternoons and the sheltered anchorages in the coves and the bays along the 80-kilometer gulf coast, is the most technically rewarding sailing ground in the Turkish Aegean with the wind conditions that challenge the experienced sailor and the anchorage options that provide a different cove for each night of the Bodrum-Gokova-Datca circuit. The Gokova Gulf sailing is the primary reason that the yacht charter fleet in Bodrum is the largest in Turkey.
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Bodrum to Marmaris: The Classic Blue Cruise Route
The Bodrum to Marmaris Blue Cruise route, covering the Gulf of Gokova, the English Harbour anchorage at Cleopatra Island, the Datca peninsula stop, and the Bozburun to Marmaris final leg, is the most consistently recommended single 5 to 7-day Blue Cruise itinerary in Turkey and the route that the organized cabin cruise boats from the Bodrum marina follow most frequently in the summer season. The route combines the most beautiful sailing waters in the Turkish Aegean with the most historically interesting coastal sites between the two major gulet ports.