Fethiye is a town of medium size that is on the Mediterranean coast. It has a great natural harbor and is renowned for being laid-back, and as a great place to hire a boat for a one day cruise of the surrounding islands or a 4 day trip down the coast.

We arrived into town and found our way to the backpacker end of the city, which is a few pensions and hostels that over look the fancy marina. I thought it was funny that all the budget travelers have amazing views from their pensions of rich people’s boats. It’s an impressive view regardless, and supposedly our place had the best view of all. For 20 lira ($14 or so) for the two of us, it was perfect.

We put our stuff down and hit the waterside promenade looking for lunch, and were immediately assailed by people hawking 12 Island Tours. If you don’t want to take the 4 day cruise to Olympos, you can take a one day tour of 12 islands near Fethiye. The boats cruise by half the islands and stop at half of them for swimming and snorkeling. For about 20 lira a person they take you out for about 8 hours and serve you lunch.

In about fifteen minutes we had taken tours of two boats and talked to a funny guy who called himself Captain Memo about a third. The boat he was offering had a sail and sounded like our kind of vessel, so we made arrangements to take the tour the next morning.

It only took about five minutes in Fethiye to realize that it catered to British holiday makers. Menus all over town advertised All Day English breakfasts, bangers and mash, fish and chips. Most of the restaurants along the water boasted live English Premier League football, and many of the prices for tours were listed in pounds.
We saw almost as many Western tourists in Fethiye as we did in Istanbul, and 95% of them were British!

Unfortunately we didn’t have perfect Mediterranean weather for our boat cruise, but it was still a really awesome day. The water was an amazing shade of blue, and the landscapes around the islands were incredible. Swimming next to an island in the middle of the turquoise waters of the Mediterranean, with the dramatic mountains in the background is a memory I won’t soon forget.

Midway through the tour the weather started to change and it threatened to rain. The captain headed us back towards Fethiye, but we hit some pretty rough seas on the way. Val and I had positioned ourselves at the front of the boat, where they had some mats out for soaking up some sun. At one point the captain ran over and told everyone up front to lay down and hold on tight, that it was going to get pretty rough. He wasn’t lying, and for about 30 minutes the boat battled the waves, at times pitching from side to side. The tables and chairs on the deck fell over, bottles slid from the bar, and anything not bolted down slid from one side of the boat to the other.

We made it back to the calm waters of the harbor and the sun came back out for our return to Fethiye, so it ended pleasantly. It took a couple of hours for the seasickness and the rocking sensation to stop though. We decided it was for the best that we hadn’t booked a 4 day boat trip to Olympos.