Sail & Sea / Day Trips
Ölüdeniz Boat Trip, the Seven-Hour Day Under the Cliffs
A day boat leaves Belcekız at ten and runs along the cliffs to a sea cave, a canyon beach and an island of ruined churches. Pick the boat first, because the stops barely change.
At Belcekız the day boats have their engines running and the front smells of diesel and sun cream. Wooden gulets, a few much bigger boats with painted hulls, a handful of small speedboats: all of them face the same way, out past the end of the beach.
Behind them the lagoon lies flat and green inside its spit of pebbles. It is a protected park, and none of the boats goes in. The day starts outside it, and for about seven hours the coast does the work.
From the Blue Cave to the cold spring
The Blue Cave comes first, a short run from the beach. A large gulet stops at the mouth and you swim in from the boat, while a small boat can go right inside. The water turns through several shades of blue as the light drops.
Butterfly Valley is next, about twenty minutes along the coast. There is no pier, so you wade or swim the last few metres to a narrow beach under cliffs more than three hundred metres high (see Butterfly Valley). Lunch usually comes on board, a buffet laid out while the boat sits in a bay.
After lunch the boat crosses to Gemiler Island, also called St Nicholas Island. A rough path climbs past the Byzantine churches to the highest point, with the whole anchorage below (see Gemiler Island). The last swim is Cold Water Bay, where a spring comes out of the rock into the sea. The surface is warm. A metre down it is not.
Some boats add Aquarium Bay for snorkelling and Camel Beach, a small sheltered beach. The run ends back at Ölüdeniz around five.
Music, or no music
Almost every operator visits the same stops, so the choice that changes the day is the boat. The big ones are themed, with music, an open buffet and room for well over a hundred guests. The plain wooden gulets are calmer and carry fewer people. A private boat, usually a speedboat for about a dozen, can be hired for a full day, a half day or by the hour, and you decide the order and how long to stay at each stop.
Ask which kind of boat it is before you pay, since the listing photographs often look alike.
Editor's picks
- Swim into the Blue Cave.Big boats stop at the mouth, so be ready to swim the last stretch.
- Walk to the waterfall at Butterfly Valley.It is a short way up the canyon, and the flow shrinks after a dry spell.
- Climb Gemiler to the highest church.The path is loose stone, so wear shoes with grip.
- Put a mask on at Aquarium Bay.The water is clear and fish gather around the rocks.
- Finish in Cold Water Bay.Swim out a few strokes and feel the water change temperature under you.
- Hire a private boat for a half day.If seven hours on a shared boat is too long, a private one can be booked by the hour.
- Add a day on foot.The Lycian Way climbs to Faralya, above the valley you swam in.
Insider notes
Take water shoes. Butterfly Valley and several other stops have pebble or rock edges, and at the valley the boat stays offshore, so everything you carry gets wet. A dry bag for your phone and cash helps.
Ölüdeniz faces open water, so the sea is flattest in the morning and the wind fills in after midday. On a private boat, ask for the farthest stop, Butterfly Valley, first, and keep the sheltered side, Gemiler and Cold Water Bay, for the afternoon. On a shared boat the route is fixed, and the run home can be bumpy.
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How to get to Ölüdeniz
Dalaman is the closest airport, about an hour by road, through Fethiye. The dolmuş from Fethiye covers the last leg, and the boats leave from Belcekız beach. Flights from Europe and Istanbul are covered in Getting there.
The last boat ties up around five, and the lagoon behind the spit has not moved.