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<\/div>\n<\/p>\n The ship glides smoothly on impossibly clear, deep-blue water. Reclining on a padded seat in the shade, I\u2019m conscious of the tickle of the breeze and the salty smell of the sea air. I watch idly as the craggy, unihabited islands slide by.<\/p>\n Does this image appeal to you? It describes how my daughter and I spent much of our time on a week-long \u00a0Sailnstay gulet<\/em> cruise along the south coast of T\u00fcrkiye (formerly known as Turkey).<\/p>\n Disclosure: Our cruise with Sailnstay was sponsored. However, Sailnstay<\/a> has no influence over what I choose to write about our experience. I have tried to be as unbiased in my evaluation as possible.<\/em><\/p>\n And another disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. Making a purchase through an affiliate link will mean a small commission for this website. This will not affect your price.<\/em><\/p>\n\n A gulet<\/em> is a type of wooden boat built in Turkey. Originally the locals used them as sailboats for fishing and cargo, but nowadays they are pleasure boats for tourists. And while they still look like sailboats, with two or three masts, they\u2019re rarely used that way. They run on diesel fuel.<\/p>\n Despite their traditional look, most gulets you see these days are not particularly old, and the original design has been modified to accommodate things like private cabins, bathrooms, large deck areas and, of course, an engine room.<\/p>\n Outside, on the deck, our Sailnstay ship, the Buket<\/em>, has two areas for passengers. The stern has a roof over it, open on all sides. A long, heavy table stands across the middle of the space, with a wide, padded bench along the back of the boat on one side and chairs on the other. The captain\u2019s helm is also here in the shade, and the counter around his workspace doubles as the ship\u2019s bar.<\/p>\n The rest of the ship, forward of this shaded area, is in the sun. Much of it is covered in single-mattress-sized cushions, perfect for sunbathing during the day or sleeping under the stars at night. There\u2019s also, at the front of the sundeck, another, smaller, padded bench with a shade over it. The anchor mechanism is at the very front, and a metal barbeque extends off the side of the railing.<\/p>\n On one side of the ship, about halfway along its length, a steep metal ladder leads down to the water. We used this ladder to get in and out of the water \u2013 some passengers just jumped from the deck \u2013 and to get in the small rubber motorboat to get to shore at some of our stops.<\/p>\n Inside the ship, down a few steep steps, is an area mostly used by the crew. One side serves as the galley \u2013 the kitchen \u2013 with a counter dividing it from the rest of the space. The chef puts the prepared food there for the crew to deliver to the big table outside. There\u2019s a sitting area here inside too, but I never saw any passengers spend time here. It was too pleasant to be out in the open air.<\/p>\n The cabins are a few more steps down another steep stairway and along a short hallway under the sundeck. A few more cabins are tucked away on a short hallway under the stern. Of course, other gulets may be larger or smaller, but the ones we saw during our week-long sail all looked pretty similar.<\/p>\n My cabin was clean, but very small. It held a double bed with a single bed above it. A cupboard was partly filled with an extra blanket and several life vests, so I ended up just leaving my luggage open on the floor. That pretty much filled up the floor space, except where the door to the cabin opened.<\/p>\n Since I had the cabin to myself, I was able to put my extra things \u2013 the suitcase of clothing I would use on other parts of the trip, my handbag, my computer bag \u2013 on the upper bunk. If you shared the cabin with one or two other people, I think it would be quite crowded. The upper bunk is accessed by a good, solid ladder, and there are two small windows on the wall next to it that can be opened.<\/p>\n The mattress was very comfortable: not too hard and not too soft. Even though it was early May, the thin cotton blanket was more than enough.<\/p>\n The cabin also includes a large air-conditioning unit, which I never needed to use. In the summer, you would surely need it, yet it isn\u2019t always available. To save fuel and to provide some peace and quiet, the electricity gets turned off sometimes.<\/p>\n According to comments I\u2019ve read online, many guests sleep outside at night. They take the cotton blankets off their beds, spread them on the mattresses that cover the upper deck, and sleep in the open. Guests use those mattresses during the day as well, and I can attest to them being very comfortable.<\/p>\n My daughter\u2019s cabin \u2013 the ship wasn\u2019t full and since we\u2019d asked for twin beds, the crew offered us separate rooms \u2013 had only the double bed, not the bunk above. It had a bit less floor space, and the same cupboard that was mostly already full.<\/p>\n Each cabin has its own bathroom, which isn\u2019t as small as I expected. It surprised me \u2013 and the other passengers \u2013 to see that the bathrooms have no shower. The closest example I could compare this bathroom to is the one I had on the De Nassau<\/em> on my first Boat Bike Tour<\/a>. There, the bathroom was smaller, yet it had a shower, a toilet and a small sink. This bathroom is bigger in square footage, with a big sink and a toilet. Instead of a shower, though, it has a pull-out shower hose that doubles as the tap on the sink. That means that to take a shower, you have to hold it over your head. It also means that the whole bathroom will end up wet.<\/p>\n When I first arrived on board and saw that there was no shower \u2013 and no bracket to hang the hand shower on \u2013 I worried that it would be a long and, eventually, smelly week. But it didn\u2019t turn out that way.<\/p>\n One of the joys of a cruise like this is the many opportunities to swim in the clearest water I\u2019ve ever seen. After I took the plunge, I\u2019d climb back up the metal stairway and rinse off using the shower hose provided at the top. It\u2019s outside, in your bathing suit, but you can manage a pretty good rinse that way. And you rinse off your swimsuit at the same time.<\/p>\n After rinsing, I\u2019d dry off and warm up in the sun \u2013 the water in early May is very cold! Then, back in my cabin, I\u2019d do a bit of spot-cleaning using soap and shampoo and that pull-out shower hose. That worked fine.<\/p>\n Given that Sailnstay is an agent and books guests to a number of different boats run by a number of different companies, I can\u2019t generalize about food and drink. What I can say is that the chef on our ship put together three very tasty and hearty meals for us every day \u2013 an achievement, coming out of such a small space. The food was mostly standard Turkish fare, with a range of meat and vegetarian dishes and side dishes. It wasn\u2019t fancy, but it was fresh, tasty and filling. There was plenty of choice at every meal as well.<\/p>\n The food was served family-style. We all sat around the big table and the crew set platters out down the middle. Especially at first, that served to foster connections between the guests as we passed platters around and commented on the food. Since we spent every meal together for the rest of the week, we all got to know each other pretty well.<\/p>\n Besides the three complete meals, there was also afternoon tea every day. That was just tea or coffee and small cookies or cakes.<\/p>\n The cost of the tour does not include drinks except for water and, twice a day, tea and coffee. We could order soft drinks, beer, wine or mixed drinks. The prices aren\u2019t cheap, with soft drinks at \u20ac3 a can and mixed drinks at \u20ac10-\u20ac12 each. While the prices are in euros, you can pay in either euros or Turkish lira. In either case, it has to be cash. That\u2019s not a problem, though: you can pick up cash from an ATM in Fethiye easily enough either at the start or the end of the week.<\/p>\n And speaking of drinks, this is an example of where the situation might differ significantly from ship to ship: the mixed drinks on our ship were either not available or not done correctly. The margarita listed on the drinks menu, for example, bore no resemblance to any margarita I\u2019d ever seen or tasted. Since the crew member serving as bartender didn\u2019t speak much English, we couldn\u2019t explain how to make any drinks. It ended up safer just to order beer, wine or a very simple drink like a gin and tonic or a rum and coke. On another ship you might have better results, of course.<\/p>\n Sailnstay advertises a range of different styles of cruise, mostly based on age range. The youngest group is 18-39, which they call \u201cyoung adults.\u201d Then there are cruises for 20-49-year-old \u201cyoung professionals\u201d and so-called \u201crelaxation cruises\u201d for 30-75-year-olds. They also offer child-friendly family cruises.<\/p>\n We signed up for a \u201crelaxation cruise.\u201d Because our trip was so early in the season, however, they didn\u2019t have enough bookings to fill either our cruise or a younger cruise. Instead, they combined the two tours on one boat.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t make a difference, fortunately. While the younger set \u2013 four New Zealanders and a couple of Australians, all in their mid-to-late 20\u2019s, I\u2019d guess \u2013 were certainly more up for a party, they didn\u2019t disturb our peace. They just swam more often and drank more and spent a lot of time lying in the sun. They were also just pleasant people to be around. We had some really fun conversations around the table at mealtimes.<\/p>\n Besides that younger set and my daughter and me, there were a couple of Germans as well as a Russian who lives in Germany. Two very nice older couples from Australia joined the cruise a few days later.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a small ship, and there\u2019s not much to do. We mostly spent our time, when we weren\u2019t off the ship sightseeing, lazing around either in the sun on the top deck or in the shade at the back of the boat. Or we went swimming.<\/p>\n Speaking of swimming, the water is very cold in early May! (\u201cFresh,\u201d as our shipboard friends from Down Under called it!) We all swam, some more than others, because that beautiful, clear-blue water just seemed to beckon. <\/p>\n I\u2019m sure that in the summer, the guests spend less time lazing in the sun and more time in the water. T\u00fcrkiye gets extremely hot in the summer months. The universal opinion on our tour was that we had chosen the absolute best time of year to take this cruise. It was, to put it succinctly, idyllic.<\/p>\n Our ship carried a single kayak and a paddleboard, as well as snorkel gear. Other than that, we had all brought our own entertainment in the form of books, phones, needlework, and the company of our travel companions.<\/p>\n At some of the stops, other activities were available for an extra charge, but none of the guests did them, so I can\u2019t report whether they were good or not. There was parasailing, jet skiing, wakeboarding and the like. I might have liked to try some kayaking or a jet ski, but once I\u2019d settled into the lazy onboard life, I couldn\u2019t be bothered!<\/p>\n For me, of course, the highlights involved sightseeing, either from the ship \u2013 beautiful views and the ruins of the Sunken City of Kekova \u2013 or off the ship, such as visiting Simena Castle or St. Nicholas Island.<\/p>\n Book a Sailnstay cruise here.<\/a> Use coupon code rachelsruminations for a 5% discount<\/strong>!<\/p>\n Our cruise started in Fethiye and went as far as Kekova and back to Fethiye, but we didn\u2019t do the cruise in the published order. At the Fethiye end of the cruise the wind was strong and it was a bit chilly, while we could expect better weather closer to Kekova. The crew made the decision that we would go the whole distance in the first two days to get to a place with better conditions, then work our way back slowly.<\/p>\n Here are the places we visited that stood out for me:<\/p>\n St. Nicholas Island<\/a> is where the tomb of St. Nicholas \u2013 a.k.a. Santa Claus or Sinterklaas \u2013 is believed to be located. It\u2019s a tall, craggy island where you can climb to a beautiful lookout point on its top. On the way, you\u2019ll pass ruins of several churches dating to the Byzantine era (4th-7th centuries AD), along with tombs and a graveyard.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also the remains of a long, roofed pathway that connects a rock-hewn church high up on the hill all the way down to the port. That church is purported to be where St. Nicholas was entombed. Given that there are four churches and other religious structures clustered here, the island was probably a religious community.<\/p>\n I, however, never reached the top of the hill. The trail is not at all well-marked and I ended up walking to and around many of the ruins. By the time I found my way back to the trail I was too tired to attempt more uphill climbing. Then I lost the trail again when I tried to follow it back down. I kept coming to rockfalls I didn\u2019t dare climb over and having to retrace my steps.<\/p>\n It costs a few euros to enter the island and to go to the lookout. Signs declare that you should stay on the marked trail, but I never saw any markings at all. Nevertheless, the ruins are in a magnificent spot. When I was there, I had the place mostly to myself as I poked around trying to figure out what each structure might have been.<\/p>\n One of the more popular stops on the route is Butterfly Valley<\/a>. I\u2019m calling it popular because it was the place we saw the most other gulets, all at anchor off the pretty curved beach along with us.<\/p>\n Butterfly Valley is beyond the beach, the beach bar and the campground that backs the beach. It\u2019s a deep cleft in a mountain with a tall, narrow waterfall tumbling down it. Apparently, there are lots of butterflies in the valley during the summer. We did see a few near the beach, but it was early in the season. And we didn\u2019t get to walk into Butterfly Valley at all. The path had been closed because of recent earthquakes that had loosened rocks on either side. Goats climbing those rocks were making them fall, and it was not considered safe to venture into the cleft.<\/p>\n Given the sheer number of tents and small cabins behind the beach, and the five or six gulets off the beach in early May, I\u2019m guessing that this place must get crazy busy in the summer months.<\/p>\n This uninhabited island once held a Lycian town called Dolchiste, but an earthquake destroyed the town in the 2nd century AD. It was rebuilt in the Byzantine period but later abandoned again with the Ottoman conquest.<\/p>\n Today, the town\u2019s ruins, listed on the UNESCO tentative list<\/a>, are partly underwater and partly on the shore. No one lives there and no one is allowed to swim among the ruins. We cruised quietly along the shoreline though, close enough to see quite well, including the parts that are underwater, since the water is so clear here. It must have been a big place, at its height, considering how long this stretch of coastline ruins is.<\/p>\n![\"Text:](\"https:\/\/rachelsruminations.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Sailnstay-4-683x1024.jpg\")
First of all, what is a gulet?<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\nWhat is the ship like?<\/h2>\n
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What are the cabins like on a Sailnstay ship?<\/h2>\n
The cabin<\/h3>\n
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<\/figure>\nThe bathroom<\/h3>\n
How are the food and drinks on a Sailnstay cruise?<\/h2>\n
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<\/figure>\nHow were the other guests?<\/h2>\n
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What is there to do on the ship?<\/h2>\n
What was the itinerary for this Sailnstay cruise?<\/h2>\n
St. Nicholas Island<\/h3>\n
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Butterfly Valley<\/h3>\n
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Kekova Island<\/h3>\n
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Simena Castle<\/h3>\n
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