Boat Trips and Yacht Charter in Kalkan

If you are reading this from a roof terrace in Kalkan, you already know the view: white houses stacked above a small harbour, and the sea glittering below all day long. At some point, looking at it stops being enough.

Let us be straight with you first. Kalkan's harbour is small and shallow, so the boats you can charter by the week do not start here; they start from Kaş Setur Marina, about thirty minutes along the coast road. Every yacht listed on this page departs from Kaş. In practice this costs you nothing but the drive, and we arrange that transfer with your booking, door to jetty.

The private day trip, done properly

Day trips are a different story, and they do run from Kalkan harbour. A good day goes something like this: out of the harbour in the morning, first stop below Kaputaş. You will have seen the photographs a hundred times, and probably the queue on the staircase too. From the water there is no queue. The boat anchors off the beach and you swim in it rather than look at it.

From there the boat carries on to the Blue Cave, then across to Fırnaz Bay for lunch and a long, lazy swim stop. The return leg rounds the coast as the light softens. The boat is yours for the day, so the route bends to you: skip the cave, stay longer at anchor, ask the captain what he would do. Nobody shares your deck and nobody hurries you.

A week on the water: Kaş and the Lycian coast

With a week you can do the coast justice. Heading east from Kaş you reach Kekova, where the boat drifts slowly over the walls and staircases of the Sunken City, and Kaleköy, where you climb up to Simena Castle for the best view on this coastline. Heading west instead, the route passes Kalkan and the long sands of Patara on its way towards the gulf of Fethiye. Both directions are good. The wind, and what you feel like that morning, usually decide.

One more thing worth knowing: Meis (Kastellorizo), the little Greek island opposite Kaş, is close enough for a crossing, but it counts as leaving the country, so passports and customs paperwork are involved. Mention it when you book and we will sort the formalities together.

When to come

May and early June are quiet, the bays are empty and the sea is already warm enough. July and August are villa season in Kalkan and the boats fill up accordingly, so book early. If you ask us, September is the pick of the year: the sea has had all summer to warm up, the crowds have thinned, and dinner on the terrace still needs no jacket.

The list below shows current prices for boats departing Kaş. If anything is unclear, write to us; we know Kalkan, and we know these boats, at first hand.