Turkey yacht charter,
arranged personally.

Chris de Kock
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

For most Turkey trips, a gulet. These traditional wooden motor-sailers are the signature Turkish charter: wide, characterful, superb value, and built for the relaxed Blue Cruise rhythm of swimming, long lunches and quiet bays. They shine for families and larger groups, where the space and the per-person value are hard to beat.

A motor yacht makes sense when you want speed to cover more coast, a more contemporary interior, or a faster, more polished feel. You pay more per foot and often more in fuel, but you gain pace and modernity.

Most of our Turkey clients are happiest on a good gulet. Full comparison: gulet vs motor yacht in Turkey, and our top 10 gulets.

Daniel Asmus
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

A Blue Cruise, Mavi Yolculuk in Turkish, is the classic Turkey charter: a relaxed week aboard a gulet, drifting between the sheltered bays and coves of the Turquoise Coast. The rhythm is gentle, morning swim, a long lunch of fresh meze under way, an afternoon anchorage, dinner as the sun drops behind the pines.

It is less about covering distance and more about doing very little beautifully, which is exactly why people love it. The Gulf of Fethije and the coast around Göcek are the heartland, with countless bays reachable only by boat.

We build the route to your pace, busier or quieter, and match the gulet to your group. Sample route: our Fethiye to Bodrum itinerary.

Chris de Kock
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

Most crewed gulets and motor yachts now carry onboard wifi over a 4G router, and Turkish coastal coverage is decent, so messaging, browsing and the occasional call work along most of the route. In the most remote Blue Cruise bays the signal can thin out, which is part of the charm.

Larger and newer yachts increasingly carry Starlink, which holds up even in the quiet coves. If working aboard is a requirement rather than a nice-to-have, tell us and we confirm the specific boat's setup with the captain.

And if you want the opposite, a week genuinely off the grid, the Turkish coast still offers plenty of bays where the phone simply stops mattering.

Chris de Kock
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

It is one of the best parts of a Turkey charter. The gulet cook prepares fresh food all week: mountains of Turkish meze, grilled fish straight from the market, local vegetables, olive oil and fruit, served on deck as you cruise or at anchor. Portions are famously generous.

On most gulets, dining runs through a board package priced per person per day, which covers the cook's meals and usually soft drinks and water; alcohol is commonly extra or brought aboard. You set the tone on the preference sheet, from casual family food to something more refined, and dietary needs are routine.

When you want a night ashore, the coast has wonderful harbour restaurants, and the crew will help you plan it. Tell us how the week should balance eating aboard and going out.

Leonidas Marousos
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

Turkey is the easygoing exception in the Mediterranean. Unlike Greece, France, Spain or Croatia, which all require a recognized license, Turkey generally has no specific jet ski license requirement, so guests can usually ride with far less red tape. A life jacket is required, and there are common-sense limits near swimmers and shore.

In practice the rules that matter are set by the boat and its insurance and by the captain's judgment, so it comes down to which yacht you are on. Not every boat carries jet skis, so tell us early if they matter and we shortlist boats that do.

The captain always sets safe ride zones and keeps an eye on younger drivers, license or not. Tell us what your group wants on the water and we match the boat.

Daniel Asmus
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

It is one of the best first charters in the Mediterranean. A Turkish Blue Cruise is gentle: short hops between sheltered bays, calm nights at anchor, warm water, and a heavy, stable gulet under you. Nothing about it feels intimidating.

The value makes it forgiving too. Turkey delivers more boat and more week per euro than almost anywhere, so a first-time family or group can charter generously without the top-end Med budget, and the famously warm gulet crews look after everything.

Our first-timer formula: a good crewed gulet, seven days, a relaxed Gulf of Fethiye or Göcek route. Start with when to go and tell us your group; the rest is our job.

Daniel Asmus
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

20% of the charter fee. Turkish VAT applies to the charter and is added on top of the base rate, due with the final payment. It is a real line to plan for, so a gulet listed at EUR 40,000 carries EUR 8,000 of VAT.

Turkey's saving grace is how much the base rate already includes. On a typical gulet, crew, fuel and mooring within Turkish waters are often built into the rate, with food and drinks via a board package, so the VAT sits on a fee that already covers most of the trip, unlike a bare Med motor-yacht rate that then stacks APA and fuel on top.

We show the 20% and everything else in the first quote, so the number you approve is the number you pay. See why prices exclude VAT and APA.

William Mc Nally
Yacht charter broker, DMA Yachting

Around 5 to 15% of the charter fee is the usual range in Turkey, at your discretion and reflecting the service. Gulet crews are famously warm and hard-working, and on a good week most guests land toward the upper end. On a EUR 40,000 gulet that is roughly EUR 2,000 to EUR 6,000.

The practical side: the gratuity goes to the captain at the end of the charter, usually in cash, and is shared across the crew, the cook and deckhands included.

If anything falls short mid-trip, tell the captain or your broker then rather than at tip time; almost everything is fixable while you are still aboard.