About 5 months into traveling around the world and Team Rees has essentially stopped planning ahead. Oh, we are pretty sure about when we will arrive and leave a country but beyond this, each place is now an open-minded exploration; a sort of stream of consciousness tourism. This sometimes results in wishing we had a clue what we are doing, but sometimes we happen upon exactly what we wanted but never would have guessed at. A 4-day boat cruise along the Turquoise Coast was not on any itinerary, especially not with our tight daily budget.

We stayed in Olympos for one night before setting sail, after a rather long bus ride to the Southern Coast. Here ancient ruins litter a small beach, surrounded by several hippie, woodsy camps cum hotels.

Included in your price are “treehouse” accommodations (if treehouses are just 2nd floor wood cabins), breakfast, dinner, and all the lazying around you can manage.

We booked our Blue Cruise with V-Go while we were still in Cappadocia — the helpful hostel owner at the Shoestring Hotel did a bit of bargaining on our part and we only put down 110 Euro (each) for the whole shebang.

Gulet Boats lined up in Kekova

Despite some warnings about possible “problems” people have experienced with these Blue Cruises — from surly crews to unclean boats and morbidly bad food — our cruise was flawless. Our host, Ali, took pride in his boat which was immaculately clean. We had our own spacious cabin with private bath, and the food was better than we sometimes ate in town. Friends on another boat with Ocean’s Cruises lost their generator and therefore lights, cold drinks and music, so luck be with you. V-Go seems better than most companies.

The cruise was great, we did nothing all day but swim in the crystal clear waters, snorkel around the coastline and tan on the deck. The cruise provides the options for more excitement in the form of paragliding, scuba or waterskiing, for an extra cost.

You can even hike to see butterflies and a waterfall. There is also plenty of sightseeing aboard with underwater ruins, ancient castles and small coastal cities like Kaş and Kekova.

In this incredible capture by Cameron Gleeson, you can see we found these great thin Turkish Bath towels that pack away easily.

Our boat was filled with Australians, a country teeming with some of the friendliest, easiest travel mates — no pun intended.

Notice how poignantly the good times are captured yet again by professional photographer Cameron Gleeson.

With plenty of beer, good weather and a lively group, we had a hard time writing our blog, even with the slow pace of life in the sun. To make the days even easier, a small boat sailed around the cruise ships selling Gozleme, a crepe-like snack made either savory with spinach, potato and cheese or sweet with chocolate, banana and honey.

Boat-up Gozleme

We wish we had pictures of the Pirate Bar. Trust us, it was awesome. A nautical theme shack with giant speakers suspended in fishing nets blaring 80’s music while overly tanned cruisers and crews let the booze go to their heads. The only way to the secluded bar was by water taxi from our deck. Each bay we docked in offered a different diversion. Simply jumping off the deck into the nighttime waters was excitement enough: phosphorescent sea creatures lit up the water like electric glitter all around us.

A good vacation from our vacation.