The Turquoise Coast stretches roughly 400 nautical miles from Bodrum down to Antalya, and almost every day on it feels like somebody arranged the scenery specifically to make you feel small and grateful. Pine-covered headlands drop into water so clear you can read the depth off the anchor chain.
Scattered among the bays are Lycian rock tombs, half-submerged at the waterline, and the kind of ruins that take a moment to register before your brain accepts what your eyes are seeing.
The dominant summer wind is the meltem, which typically builds from the north-west through the afternoon and dies overnight. That rhythm almost writes your itinerary for you: leave early, anchor by early afternoon before it pipes up, swim, eat grilled sea bass and drink cold Efes ashore, sleep aboard in flat calm.
Göcek is the charter hub most people start from, with multiple marinas, reliable provisioning, and straightforward gulet hire — both bareboat if you hold the certificates, and skippered if you'd rather have local knowledge sorting the Med mooring. Bodrum has more buzz and better provisioning for longer passages; Marmaris sits at the western end and suits those crossing to Greek waters.
The Twelve Islands around Göcek and the bays behind Bozburun are the passages worth lingering on, with anchorages like Tomb Bay and Cleopatra's Baths living up entirely to their reputations.
Paperwork is generally painless for EU and Australian passport holders — a tourist e-visa sorted online before departure — though you'll pay a transit log fee at first port of entry that some charter companies quietly omit from their quote.
May and June offer the most settled conditions with fewer flotillas; anyone easily frustrated by afternoon chop above 15 knots should avoid August.