What you actually see at Kekova

• The short answerRead the ruins from the boat, swim at Gokkaya, climb the castle at Simena.

The sunken city is the reason to come and the thing most descriptions get wrong. An earthquake in the second century dropped half a Lycian town below the waterline, and what survives is domestic rather than monumental: staircases running down into the blue, doorways standing open at three metres, foundations and jar bases where they were left. It reads best from a slow boat in low morning light, when the sun is behind you and the surface is not throwing glare.

You are not permitted to swim over the ruins. It is a protected site and the water above the sunken city is closed, which surprises people who arrive expecting to snorkel it. The swim happens next door instead: Gokkaya, ten minutes east, where low islets enclose a chain of lagoons with sand bottoms and visibility past twenty metres.

Simena, now Kalekoy, is the other half of the day. There is no road to it, so everyone arrives by water and climbs fifteen minutes through the houses to a crusader castle with a tiny theatre cut into the rock inside the walls. Below the village, Lycian sarcophagi stand in two metres of water and those you can swim among, because they sit outside the protected zone.

Ucagiz is where lunch happens, a shallow village harbour ringed by tombs with a handful of quayside kitchens. It is flat here even when the channel outside is running, which is why it is the standard midday stop rather than a detour.

Guides

When to take a boat trip from AntalyaMay and October: warm water, empty bays, lower prices.The meltemi, and why the afternoon changes everythingFlat at eight, choppy by two, calm after six. Plan the day around it.What to bring on a day charterHat, reef safe cream, soft shoes, a layer for the evening. The rest is aboard.Avoiding seasickness on a day charterMorning departure, sheltered bays, low and central, eyes on the horizon.Day, sunset or a week: choosing a charterOne free day: day charter. One free evening: sunset. A week: go west.

Ways to charter

Day charterbest for first time charterers and familiesSunset cruisethe short charter that still feels like an occasionPrivate charterfor anyone who wants the day unsharedSwim and snorkel charterplanned around visibility, not mileageWeekly charterreaches the bays a day charter cannot

Common questions

Included in every charter

• Licensed captain and crew
• Fuel, harbour fees and insurance
• Towels, snorkel sets and paddle boards
• Soft drinks, water, tea and Turkish coffee
• Hotel pickup across Antalya on request

From EUR 800 Per boat, not per person, for the whole yacht and your party only. The exact figure depends on the programme, the season and the number of guests, and you get it in one message.