Taking a Blue Voyage (Mavi Yolculuk) is one of those "bucket-list' things you must do at least once in your life in Turkey.  There is nothing like waking up on your gulet (turkish wooden sailboat) and jumping into the crystal clear turquoise water that surrounds you.  It is an amazing and liberating feeling.  I have never experienced another time where I was more relaxed, more free and more at one with nature.  

Four other couples joined us in Marmaris (nearest airport is Dalayan- about an hour bus ride away) and we set sail that afternoon.  We were immediately greeted by our captain and 2 crew members who took care of our every need.  All we had to do was put our feet up and set sail for our adventure.  

The next few days were a complete departure from our life of schedules, emails, and any contact with anyone or anything that was not on our boat or in the vicinity of it.  We ate fresh fish caught by our crew, lots of fresh fruits and veggies purchased in our main ports of call, all prepared by our fantastic crew.  We even had the Turkish Aegean version of the Dairy Queen sail right up to our boat for desserts.  Now That's service!  We drank (our good friends at Kavist.com sent our order of a weeks worth of wine and spirits straight to our boat company in Marmaris , who then put it directly on board, ready and chilled for our first night of our voyage) Delivery was free too!  (any order over 99TL is FREE within Turkey!)  

Our itinerary took us from Marmaris due East to Fethiye and Gocek and lots of pristine, private and untouched coved in between.  I truly felt like we were the only inhabitants of this peaceful and unspoiled coastline.  We would spend our days swimming, eating, sunbathing, swimming and eating some more and exploring the various coves that we would sail to.  Each one was more glorious than the next.  We would explore the caves and coves, towns and markets and ruins that were scattered about the coast.  The evening was spent reflecting the days adventures and relishing the Turkish cuisine as we dined and drank under the canopy of golden stars above us.  We would fall asleep to the sound of the cicadas whose sound never ceases in these parts.

You absolutely should try a Mavi Yolculuk for yourself. Gulet Cruises in Turkey are extremely popular among foreigners and Turks alike, who call them mavi tur (blue voyage) or tekne turu. I would recommend www.Bodtur.com - they are one of the best gulet charter operators in Turkey. If you have a story to share about your own Blue Voyage, I would love to hear about it.