Middle East - Anthony Ham [483]
Food and water is usually included in the price, but you have to buy your booze on the boat. All boats are equipped with showers, toilets and smallish but comfortable double cabins (usually six to eight of them). In practice, most people sleep on mattresses on deck.
Depending on the season the price is €100 to €180 per person, which is not at all cheap, so it makes sense to shop around. Here are some of our suggestions to get the best price possible:
Do ask for recommendations from other travellers
Do bargain, but don’t necessarily go for the cheapest option because the crew might skimp on food and alcohol
Do check out your boat (if you are in Fethiye) and ask to see the guest list
Do ask whether your captain and crew speak English
Don’t go for gimmicks such as free watersports, which often prove to be empty promises
Don’t buy your ticket in İstanbul, as pensions and commission agents take a healthy cut selling tickets
Don’t take a boat just because it is leaving that day
We recommend owner-operated outfits, as they run a much tighter ship. During summer some larger companies may farm out unknowing tourists to lazy captains with suspect boats. Boats come and go just about every day of the week between late-April and October. Competition is stiff between the following companies:
Almila Boat Cruise ( 0535-636 0076; www.beforelunch.com)
Big Backpackers ( 0252-614 9312; www.bluecruisefethiye.com)
Interyouth Hostel ( 0252-412 3687; interyouth@turk.net)
Olympos Yachting ( 0242-892 1145; www.olymposyachting.com)
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Hilmi et Balık Restaurant ( 612 6242; Hal ve Pazar Yeri 53; meze TL5, 400g fish TL15-20; 10am-midnight) Set inside the fish market building, this place does meat dishes as well as fish (its specialty) and is a firm favourite locally. You can also bring-your-own fish.
Fethiye’s bars and nightclubs are mostly cheek-by-jowl on one little street, Hamam Sokak, just off İskele Meydanı. Val’s Bar ( 612 2363; Müge Sokak; beer TL4; 9am-1am) is a cute little bar run by Englishwoman Val and located near the new Cultural Centre – it stocks a mean selection of poison and suitably strong coffee. Alternatively, try Club Bananas ( 612 8441; beer TL5; 10pm-5am) because any venue where staff set fire to the bar then dance on it is hard to overlook on a big night out.
Getting There & Away
For northbound buses, you must change at Antalya or Muğla. Buses from the otogar to Antalya (TL20, 7½ hours) head east along the coast via Kalkan (TL7, 1½ hours), Kaş (TL8, three hours) and Olympos (TL15, five hours). The inland road to Antalya (TL16, four hours, 222km) is quicker. Minibuses to more-local destinations, including Ölüdeniz, leave from behind the big white mosque (Yeni Cami) in the town centre.
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ÖLÜDENİZ
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Over the mountains to the south of Fethiye, lovely Ölüdeniz’s sheltered blue-ish lagoon beside lush national park and a long spit of sandy beach have been a curse as much as a blessing. Ölüdeniz (Dead Sea) is now one of the most famous beach spots on the Mediterranean, with far too many package-holiday hotels backed up behind the sands. Still, the lagoon (admission TL2; 8am-8pm) itself remains tranquillity incarnate and is a gorgeous place to sun yourself. Ölüdeniz is also a mecca for tandem paragliding (and parasailing). Companies here offer tandem paragliding flights off 1960m-high Baba Dağ (Mt Baba) for TL150 to TL200.
Sleeping & Eating
Sugar Beach Club ( 617 0048; www.thesugarbeachclub.com; Ölüdeniz Caddesi 20; campsite per person TL10, car & caravan TL10, bungalow per