Turkey · Carian Coast
Yacht Charter Bodrum
Halicarnassus under a Crusader castle, and the town where the gulet was invented.
Bodrum is built on Halicarnassus, and the tomb that gave the world the word mausoleum stood here until an earthquake took it down and the Knights of St John carted the stone away to build their castle. Both are still in the town, one as a foundation and one as a fortress. It is also where the gulet comes from — the broad wooden ketch that half the eastern Mediterranean charters in — and the yards that build them are a few minutes from the castle wall.
The castle, and what is inside it
The Castle of St Peter went up from 1402 on the promontory that divides the two harbours, and the Knights quarried the fallen Mausoleum for the material — you can still pick out the green volcanic stone of the tomb in the walls. It is an unusually honest piece of recycling and nobody has ever pretended otherwise.
Inside it is the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, which holds the Uluburun wreck: a merchant ship that went down off this coast in about 1300 BC carrying copper, tin, ivory, ebony and Baltic amber. It is the oldest shipwreck ever excavated, and the cargo is the best single picture we have of Bronze Age trade. Give it two hours, not twenty minutes.
The peninsula, which is the real point
The town is one thing and the peninsula around it is another. Yalıkavak on the north-west corner has the deep-water marina the largest yachts use; Türkbükü is the one with the reputation; Gümüşlük on the western tip is built over sunken Myndos, and the restaurants put their tables in the shallows above the drowned harbour wall.
Between them the coast is a run of bays that are only properly reachable from the water, and this is where a week here is actually spent. Orak Island, an hour south-east, has water clear enough that the anchor chain is visible on the bottom in fifteen metres.
Gulets, and where they are still built
The gulet is a Bodrum invention: broad in the beam, wooden, ketch-rigged, built originally for sponge diving and freight and adapted for chartering when the sponge trade failed. The blue cruise — mavi yolculuk — is the local name for a week aboard one, and it is a phrase that predates the tourism.
The yards are still working on the eastern shore of the town, and the boats are still built in wood over frames laid out by eye. It is worth half an hour of anyone's morning to walk past them.
Practical notes
- Yalıkavak on the north-west of the peninsula has the deep-water berths for the largest yachts
- Gümüşlük on the western tip stands over sunken Myndos, with tables set in the shallows above the old harbour wall
- Orak Island is an hour south-east and has the clearest water on this stretch of coast
- Kos lies forty-five minutes west across the strait, and crossing it is a border formality the crew handle
- Bodrum airport is thirty-five minutes from the town, and Dalaman is three hours east by road
Reached from: Göcek, Marmaris and the Dodecanese
Where to dine
A table by the water
Kocadon
BodrumA stone courtyard under fig trees a street back from the harbour, and the room the town books for anything that matters.
Mimoza
GümüşlükTables set in the shallows above the drowned harbour wall of Myndos, with the fish landed alongside.
Orfoz
BodrumA small kitchen east of the castle doing raw and cured fish, and a tasting order rather than a menu.
What to do
Anchorages & excursions
The Castle of St Peter
Built from 1402 with the stone of the fallen Mausoleum, and holding the Uluburun wreck of about 1300 BC.
Gümüşlük
The western tip, standing over sunken Myndos, where the restaurants put their tables in the shallows.
Orak Island
An hour south-east, with water clear enough to see the anchor chain on the bottom in fifteen metres.
The gulet yards
On the eastern shore of the town, still building wooden ketches over frames laid out by eye.
The fleet
Yachts available for Bodrum
Vessels that operate here, from flagship motor yachts to smaller crewed boats. Every rate is quoted on enquiry.
Good to know
Questions we are asked about Bodrum
- What happened to the Mausoleum?
- An earthquake brought it down in the Middle Ages, and the Knights of St John used the stone to build their castle. You can still see the green volcanic blocks of the tomb in the castle walls. The site itself is a foundation and a few fragments, a few streets inland.
- What is a gulet, and should we charter one?
- A broad wooden ketch built in Bodrum, originally for sponge diving and freight. They give you far more deck than a monohull of the same length and they suit this coast, where the days are short hops between bays. For a week of anchorages rather than passages they are the local answer, and they have been for a century.
- Can we cross to the Greek islands from Bodrum?
- Kos is forty-five minutes west. It is a national border, so the paperwork is real, but the crew deal with it and it is done routinely. Rhodes and Symi are further south and make more sense as part of a longer route.
- What does a yacht charter in Bodrum cost?
- It depends on the yacht, the season and the crew, so we quote on enquiry rather than publish a figure that would be wrong for most weeks. Send us your dates and party size.
Destinations
Nearby destinations
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Tell us your dates and how many of you there are, and we will come back with the right yacht and a full quotation.