Bodrum Boat Trips Guide: Orak Island, Black Island and Wooden Gulets

The single best day you can spend in Bodrum between May and October is out on the water. Because the limestone coves east and west of Bodrum Town have no roads and no rivers washing silt into the sea, water visibility regularly exceeds 25 metres. You can join a shared daily excursion boat (departing around in the late morning to in the late morning and returning in the early evening with a freshly grilled fish or chicken lunch included) or charter a private wooden gulet or motor-boat with a captain for your own group.

Route 1: The Eastern Route to Orak Island (Orak Adası, Clearest Turquoise Water)

If your top priority is swimming in glowing, Maldives-like neon-turquoise water over a white sand bottom, choose a boat sailing east from Halikarnas / Kumbahçe Pier or Torba toward the uninhabited Gulf of Gökova:

• Red Bay (Kızılburun) and German Bay (Alman Koyu): sheltered, mirror-calm morning swimming stops backed by red-earth cliffs and pine trees.
• Orak Island (Orak Adası, 1.5 hours east of Bodrum): an uninhabited, sickle-shaped island ringed by olive groves where a shallow underwater white sandbar between two limestone headlands turns the sea an extraordinary electric baby-blue. Spend two hours swimming and snorkelling along the vertical underwater rock wall on the outer side of the bay.
• Tavşan Burnu (Rabbit Nose): a final afternoon tea and biscuit swim stop before sailing back past Kumbahçe with the Castle ahead.

Route 2: The Western Route to Black Island (Karaada), Aquarium Bay and Camel Beach

Departing from the main piers along Neyzen Tevfik Caddesi (by the Castle and Marina), the western route stays in the calmer waters sheltered by the four-mile-long wooded island of Karaada (Black Island) directly opposite Bodrum harbour:

• Black Island Thermal Cave (Kleopatra Sıcak Su Mağarası): the first stop just 25 minutes off the harbour, where 35°C mineral-rich thermal water flows out of a rock grotto at the water's edge.
• Meteor Hole (Meteor Çukuru) and Poyraz Bay: dive off the boat deck into a deep, crystal-clear submarine sinkhole framed by pine cliffs.
• Aquarium Bay (Akvaryum Koyu, between Bitez and Bağla): a shallow, wind-protected channel between the mainland and Gorecik Island where schools of silver bream swim right around your goggles, followed by a sandy stop at Camel Beach (Kargı).

How to Avoid Loud "Party Pirate Boats"

When walking along the harbour pier in the evening or morning to book your boat, inspect the vessel in person: skip giant four-deck faux-pirate ships covered in foam cannons and huge loudspeakers, and choose a classic varnished mahogany two-masted wooden gulet carrying 18 to 35 passengers (often advertising "No Loud Music / Relax Tour") so you hear the wind and waves instead of bass.