Blue cruise is one of the most famous and unique attraction of a holiday in Turkey. It is also the least understood until you experience it. If you google “blue cruise” or “what is blue cruise?” the standard idea is renting a private yacht with captain and crew then cruising along the soutwestern coast of Turkey known as Turqoise Coast or Turkish Riviera. But this simple blue cruise advertisement type of definition miss the real meaning of the blue cruise.
What is blue cruise then? Blue cruise is simply a meditation. You basically cut your physical as well as the mental ties with the land. As your yacht sails away from the marina, your daily routine ceases to exist and a new, almost spiritual daily routine consumes you. This new parallel reality is a spiritual one: you are now in different existance and nothing outside this small boat matters or exists for you. This is an experience you cannot get from your ordinary cruise holiday on a large cruise ship.
In this sense, blue voyage, other translation of Turkish “mavi yolculuk”, is a better term than blue cruise to describe the experience.
The complete disconnection from your requirements and responsibilities and the freedom of absolutely doing nothing combines with beautiful and unhabited coves and clear blue waters as well as the mystical nights in the middle of the sea will bring you the most relaxing and refreshing holiday of your entire life.
This does not mean “action seekers” will be bored on a blue cruise. A typical blue cruise boat offers many activities today: from classical kayak tour, swimming and snorkeling to speed boats, jetskis and even bananas! You may also have an opportunity to hike on the land among ancient ruins littering the southwest coast of Turkey.
But the most mystical part of the blue cruise is the night. If you have not experienced it before, nights in the middle of the sea on a small yacht is a very unique experience.
So, as you may have understand from the above definition, blue cruise is probably the best that Turkey has to offer as a holiday destination. It is highly recommended if you are seeking a holiday experience where you can truely get lost.
Gulet
Gulet is “The Zen Temple” of the meditation called Blue Cruise. You can have a blue cruise experience on any type of private yacht but gulet, “The” sailing boat of blue cruise, is the type of boat which will truely give you blue cruise experience. This is the “boat” where all blue cruise experience has started.
Here we should also stop a little and give some background about the history of blue cruise: Yes, how did all this blue cruise experience has started?
What is blue cruise then? Blue cruise is simply a meditation. You basically cut your physical as well as the mental ties with the land. As your yacht sails away from the marina, your daily routine ceases to exist and a new, almost spiritual daily routine consumes you. This new parallel reality is a spiritual one: you are now in different existance and nothing outside this small boat matters or exists for you. This is an experience you cannot get from your ordinary cruise holiday on a large cruise ship.
In this sense, blue voyage, other translation of Turkish “mavi yolculuk”, is a better term than blue cruise to describe the experience.
The complete disconnection from your requirements and responsibilities and the freedom of absolutely doing nothing combines with beautiful and unhabited coves and clear blue waters as well as the mystical nights in the middle of the sea will bring you the most relaxing and refreshing holiday of your entire life.
This does not mean “action seekers” will be bored on a blue cruise. A typical blue cruise boat offers many activities today: from classical kayak tour, swimming and snorkeling to speed boats, jetskis and even bananas! You may also have an opportunity to hike on the land among ancient ruins littering the southwest coast of Turkey.
But the most mystical part of the blue cruise is the night. If you have not experienced it before, nights in the middle of the sea on a small yacht is a very unique experience.
So, as you may have understand from the above definition, blue cruise is probably the best that Turkey has to offer as a holiday destination. It is highly recommended if you are seeking a holiday experience where you can truely get lost.
Gulet
Gulet is “The Zen Temple” of the meditation called Blue Cruise. You can have a blue cruise experience on any type of private yacht but gulet, “The” sailing boat of blue cruise, is the type of boat which will truely give you blue cruise experience. This is the “boat” where all blue cruise experience has started.
Here we should also stop a little and give some background about the history of blue cruise: Yes, how did all this blue cruise experience has started?
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| A gulet on blue cruise along Southwestern coast of Turkey |
The infamous beach resorts of Turkey were once far far away villages and sleepy fishing towns where nobody went. And then a court in Istanbul has sentenced a writer named Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı to three-years’ exile in Bodrum. He loved the place so much so that after serving the last part of his sentence in Istanbul, he returned and settled down in Bodrum where he lived for 25 years. He took the pen name of Halikarnas Balıkçısı (The Fisherman of Halicarnassus), name of the city in antiquity.
The Fisherman of Halicarnassus is the person who has brought the formerly sleepy fishing and sponge-diving town of Bodrum to the attention of the Turkish intelligentsia and their readers. This has led the formation of international tourist attraction the Turqoise Coast became today.
One of the activities Cevat Şakir enjoyed was taking his visiting friends to tripon the sponge divers’ sailing boats, called gulets. These excursions became known as Blue Cruise (Mavi Yolculuk). He and his friends writers Azra Erhat ve Sabahattin Eyüboğlu has created the term. The first time blue cruise entered the Turkish literature was in 1957 with Azra Erat’s book with the same name.
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| Mavi Yolculuk by Azra Erhat |
The original blue cruises were and many modern blue cruises are performed using gulets (Turkish word gulet comes from Italian word guletta which comes from French gouëlette or goélette meaning schooner). If you will do one, try to have it on a gulet.
Modern gulets are of course not fishing boats. They are equipped with all the amenities a modern yacht can offer. Most gulets can carry eight to twelve passangers which makes a gulet cruise a very private experience. You can join tours with strangers or like many Turks do, you can rent an entire gulet with captain and crew for your group.
In practice, gulet is a full-service all inclusive hotel or a miniature cruise ship where every room offers fantastic sea view. This “hotel” moves from coves to coves, small harbours to small harbours and provides an intimate view of Turkey’s coast line which cannot be experienced with a cruise ship.
Blue Cruise Route in Turkey
Blue Voyage is offered along the Aegean and Mediterranean coastline. There are different routes including Bodrum, Gocek, Gokova, Knidos and Marmaris ports. A full Blue Cruise generally starts in Didim or Kuşadası, although tours may also depart from Bodrum or Marmaris. They usually terminate at the port of Antalya.
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| Blue Cruise Map – Source : www.chevvytours.com |
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