Two crewed boats — one gulet and one motor yacht, averaging 22 metres with 5.5 cabins — on Turkey's Lycian and Pamphylian coast. One is at Demre, near Kekova, and the other at Antalya, about 150 kilometres east. Both are large group boats rather than week-long bareboats, which is what 5.5 cabins and a crew tell you.
This is the eastern end of the Turkish charter coast and far less visited than Göcek or Bodrum. The reason to come is archaeology at the waterline. The coast between Kaş and Demre is lined with Lycian sites that are partly submerged: at Kekova the remains of a settlement destroyed by earthquake in the second century run down into the water and continue along the shore, with rock-cut tombs standing in the shallows at Kaleköy and sarcophagi half in the sea.
There is an important restriction attached to that, and it is not optional: Kekova is a protected area and swimming and diving are prohibited over the sunken ruins. Boats pass along them slowly; you look, you do not get in. Your crew will know exactly where the line is, and the fines for ignoring it are real.
The rest of the coast is cliffs and pine coming down to the water, with Kaş as the main town west of Demre, Kalkan beyond it, and the Greek island of Kastellorizo a couple of miles off Kaş — a border, and usually outside a charter's permitted area. East of Demre the coast runs toward Finike and Antalya, with the Taurus mountains rising behind it; Antalya itself has a Roman harbour inside the old town and the Düden waterfall dropping off the cliff into the sea.
Rates are €9,650 and €26,600 — whole-boat crewed charter — and both boats change over on a Saturday.
