Turkey · Gulf of Fethiye
Yacht Charter Göcek
A village of a few thousand with six marinas, at the head of the most sheltered water in Turkey.
Göcek is a small place with an implausible number of berths, and the reason is the water in front of it. The head of the Gulf of Fethiye is a maze of pine-covered islands and inlets called Skopea Limanı, sheltered from almost every direction, where you can move between a dozen anchorages without ever being more than an hour from the last one. The village exists to service that, and it does almost nothing else.
Skopea Limanı, and why it is unusual
The bays here are steep-to and wooded down to the waterline, which means you anchor and take a line ashore to a pine — the standard manoeuvre on this coast and the reason the boats sit so close in. The water is flat almost regardless of what is happening outside, because the islands break it up before it arrives.
Tersane, the largest island, has the ruins of a Greek shipbuilding village abandoned in the population exchange of 1923: stone houses, a chapel and a slipway, all empty. Bedri Rahmi Bay is named after the painter who put a fish on a rock there in 1973, and the fish is still on the rock.
The bays that have something in them
Hamam Bay is called Cleopatra's bath, on no evidence at all, and holds the submerged walls of a Roman or Byzantine bathhouse a metre under the surface — you swim over it rather than visit it.
Wall Bay has a long stretch of ancient masonry running into the water, Boynuz Bükü is the deepest inlet and the quietest, and the Yassıca islands are a cluster of low rocks with a sandspit between two of them that dries at low water. None of it is more than forty minutes from Göcek.
The practical village
Göcek itself is one street of shops behind the marinas, and it is an official port of entry — which matters if you are coming from or going to Greece, because it is where the paperwork gets done.
Dalaman airport is twenty-five minutes away, which makes this one of the easiest starts in the eastern Mediterranean. There is no beach in the village. That is not an oversight; nobody comes here for one.
Practical notes
- Skopea Limanı, the water in front of the village, holds a dozen anchorages all within an hour of each other
- The bays are steep-to and wooded: you anchor and take a line ashore to a pine, which is the local manoeuvre
- Göcek is an official port of entry, which is where the formalities are done coming from or going to Greece
- Dalaman airport is twenty-five minutes away, and Fethiye is an hour and a half by sea down the gulf
- There is no beach in the village itself — the swimming is in the bays, and that is the whole design
Reached from: Fethiye, Marmaris and Dalaman
Where to dine
A table by the water
Mozaik Bahçe
GöcekOne street back from the marinas, in a walled garden, doing meze properly and by the tray rather than the menu.
Tersane 8
Tersane AdasıOn the abandoned island, reached only by tender, with the empty Greek village behind the tables.
West
GöcekOn the front by the boats, and where crews end up when they have come in late and want a table anyway.
What to do
Anchorages & excursions
Skopea Limanı
A dozen pine-backed anchorages among islands and inlets, sheltered from almost every direction and all within an hour.
Tersane
The largest island, holding a Greek shipbuilding village left empty in the population exchange of 1923.
Bedri Rahmi Bay
Named for the painter who put a fish on a rock here in 1973, and the fish is still on the rock.
Hamam Bay
Roman or Byzantine bath walls a metre under the surface, swum over rather than visited.
The fleet
Yachts available for Göcek
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 Göcek
- Why does a village this small have six marinas?
- Because of the water in front of it. Skopea Limanı is the most sheltered cruising ground in Turkey — a dozen anchorages among pine islands, all within an hour of one another — and Göcek is the door to it. The village grew to service the boats and does very little else.
- What is taking a line ashore?
- You drop the anchor, back towards the shore and run a long line from the stern to a tree or a rock. The bays here are steep-to and narrow, so it holds the boat still and lets several yachts share a small cove. The crew do it as a matter of course; it takes about ten minutes.
- Which bays are worth the stop?
- Tersane for the abandoned Greek village, Bedri Rahmi for the fish painted on the rock in 1973, Hamam Bay for the Roman bath walls a metre under the surface, and Boynuz Bükü if you want the quietest night of the week.
- What does a yacht charter from Göcek 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.
Destinations
Nearby destinations
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