Turkey Frequently Asked Questions

Seven nights is the standard cadence — Saturday-to-Saturday — and it's the right length for any of the three Turkish itineraries (Bodrum round-trip, Göcek round-trip, or the Bodrum-to-Göcek one-way). Ten- to fourteen-night charters work for guests who want to combine Turkey with the Greek Dodecanese (Kos, Symi, Rhodes) — the seven-night Turkey-only itinerary stays cleaner because Greek-Turkey crossings carry two to four hours of customs each direction, and a single seven-night week with one crossing is easier than three crossings in the same week. Five-night Turkey charters are workable but mean cutting either Knidos or Kekova depending on which itinerary you pick.

Turkey runs the Mediterranean plus-expenses model. The base rate covers the yacht and the crew (typically captain, chef, mate, and one or two deckhands depending on yacht size); food, drinks, fuel, marina dockage, harbor fees, and excursion fees (the Dalyan river boats, Caunos site entry, Sultaniye baths) come out of an Advance Provisioning Allowance — APA — pre-funded at signing at twenty-five to thirty-five percent of the base rate, with itemized accounting and any unused balance refunded at trip end. Crew gratuity at ten to fifteen percent of the base rate (ten percent the customary midpoint per MYBA) is paid directly to the captain on disembarkation. Mediterranean dining cadence is breakfast and lunch with your chef on board; dinner ashore at a meyhane, taverna, or one of the Maçakizi / Yalıkavak / Lycian-coast rooms the captains book. Greek-island day-trip customs (TEPAI tax, transit log, mooring fees) flow through APA when the itinerary touches Kos or Symi.

APA is the Advance Provisioning Allowance — the operating fund the captain manages on the guest's behalf for everything that isn't yacht and crew. On a Turkey charter it covers food and drinks (the chef shops at the markets in Bodrum, Göcek, Datça, and at the village stops along the way), fuel (light on the round-trip itineraries; more on the connector), marina dockage (Yalıkavak, Skopea, D-Marin Göcek, Kaş Marina), harbor and port fees, the Dalyan river-boat excursion if the connector itinerary is yours, Greek customs paperwork if the route crosses to Kos or Symi, and the small per-night anchorage fees in protected zones like Kekova. Twenty-five percent of the base rate is the floor; thirty-five percent is the right sizing if the group eats and drinks at the higher end of the European Med register. Itemized accounting at trip end; any unused balance comes back to you.

Yes — and it's worth understanding the structure before booking, because Turkey's regulatory environment differs from Greece, Italy, or Croatia. As of 2024, Turkish regulations restrict foreign-flagged commercial yachts under thirty-nine meters from embarking or disembarking charter clients at Turkish ports without a special license. Most US HNW guests charter foreign-flagged yachts (Cayman, Marshall Islands, Malta), so the standard configuration is a Greek-flagged yacht (or a yacht operating under a Greek charter license) embarking guests in Kos, Rhodes, or Symi, cruising into Turkey for the week, and returning to a Greek port for disembarkation. Day-one customs at the Bodrum, Marmaris, or Fethiye port adds two to four hours; the broker books a port agent to walk it. The math reward: zero percent VAT on the charter fee while the yacht is in Turkish waters — the lowest in the Mediterranean. Yachts above thirty-nine meters can apply for a Turkish charter license that allows direct Turkish embarkation, but the annual fee schedule has hardened steeply since 2024; most yachts at that size still run the Kos-embark structure. We walk through which configuration fits your yacht before you book.

June and September are the strongest weeks of the year — sea temperatures in the mid-twenties Celsius, the meltemi off-peak, anchorages still quiet. Late May and early October work for guests who want the quietest water and the lowest rates. July and August are peak heat and peak meltemi, with the northwesterly running thirty knots most afternoons in the open channel between the Cyclades and Bodrum — the **Lycian coast** (Göcek, Fethiye, Kalkan, Kaş, Kekova) sits in the wind shadow south of the Datça peninsula and stays calm in August in a way the Bodrum side does not, which is why the Turquoise Coast itinerary holds up in mid-summer. November through April the fleet has mostly relocated — yachts cross to the Caribbean for the winter season or position to French Riviera / Antibes / Mallorca for refit yards.

Maybe. The Turkish coast is famous for the gulet tradition — the hand-built wooden hulls with shaded mid-deck lounges that Turkey is most associated with culturally, and the inspiration for the term *mavi yolculuk* ("blue voyage"). The category covers two distinct products. Traditional gulets in the twenty-to-twenty-five-meter range — wooden hulls, shared cabins, simpler crew — are a different product than what we typically book; that side of the market is mass-tourism territory. Modern luxury gulets — forty meters and up, post-2000 builds, six cabins with master suites and full air-conditioning, professional chef and full crew, MYBA contract — are a real HNW product, and the Bodrum-built Carpe Diem class is the canonical reference. The page above focuses on the modern motor yacht inventory we deliver directly through CYA. For the modern luxury gulet question — Carpe Diem V, Meira, De Love, or any of the post-2018 superyacht gulets — we work with the Turkish gulet specialists on request. Tell us what you're after and we'll scope the right options.