A week from Göcek: Kapı Creek, Dalyan, Gemiler
7 days · 95 nm · starts in Göcek · Turkey
Göcek
Fly into Dalaman — Göcek is twenty minutes away, closer than any other Turkish base. Take over the yacht at one of the village marinas and provision at the Migros on the main street.
Göcek → Kapı Creek
The first evening comes ten miles from the marina. Kapı Koyu is a narrow bay in pine forest with a single restaurant pontoon; there is no road to it, and after sunset there is nobody here but the boats alongside you.
Kapı Creek → Ekincik
Out of the gulf and west past the Köyceğiz headland. Ekincik is a south-facing bay with a few pontoons; it matters not for itself but as the gateway to Dalyan.
Ekincik: Dalyan and Kaunos
A day without a passage. Local boats run from the pontoon through the river mouth and up through the reeds: Lycian tombs cut into the cliff on the way, the ancient city of Kaunos with its theatre, the mud baths and İztuzu beach, where loggerhead turtles nest. Yachts do not go up the river — the depth and the reserve's rules both rule it out.
Ekincik → Gemiler
The longest day of the route: east along the coast past Göcek and on to Gemiler island. On the island are the ruins of a Byzantine town and four churches from the 5th and 6th centuries, a path to the top and the sunset people come here for. Spend the night at anchor in the channel between the island and the shore.
Gemiler → Wall Bay
Back into the Gulf of Göcek. Duvar Koyu, or Wall Bay, is a long inlet under a sheer face with ancient stonework running along it. Boats anchor and take a line ashore, and the water stays clear until evening.
Wall Bay → Göcek
A very short final leg across the gulf: fuel, handover and a last dinner on the Göcek waterfront.
The Gulf of Göcek holds two dozen bays within ten miles of the marina, and you could spend a week here without ever reaching open water. This route adds two trips outside it: west to Ekincik, where boats run up the Dalyan river to the rock-cut tombs of Kaunos, and east to Gemiler island with its Byzantine ruins. About 95 nm, of which one day is genuinely long.
Practicalities
- Wind: 8–15 knots by day inside the Gulf of Göcek and almost no sea — one of the mildest areas in Turkey. Beyond the headland, on the way to Ekincik and Gemiler, it blows noticeably harder, so plan both trips outside for the morning.
- Dalyan: the yacht stays in Ekincik and you go up the river in a local boat — arrange it at the pontoon the day before, leaving around nine in the morning and back by evening. Entry to the reserve and to Kaunos is paid separately.
- Berths: inside the gulf almost every bay means anchoring with a line ashore, and restaurant pontoons are free with dinner. The Göcek marinas themselves are among the most expensive in Turkey — take a night there only for the handover.
- Conservation: the gulf is a protected area, some bays have buoys, and anchoring on seagrass or discharging grey water is not allowed. The base issues the current zone map, and it changes from season to season.
When to go and what it costs
Turkey is cheapest in winter — a median €252 per person per week; spring, by contrast, is the most expensive (€442) because of the May holidays. In summer reckon on about €350 per person, and two years of data show Turkish prices barely rising (+2% year on year).
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