Let’s discover the beauty of Kekova together.
Ask a question — the answer is probably already written.
İbrahim has worked this water for thirty years. It was his father’s trade before it was his, and he runs Queen C with his wife.
Thirty years out of Çayağzı is long enough to know which cove is clean this week, where the wind will have got to by three in the afternoon, and which anchorage is empty while everyone else is somewhere else. That is what decides where the boat stops on the day, rather than a list printed in advance. His wife works alongside him aboard, and in the summer season their son and daughter join them. The galley is theirs and the bar is theirs: there is no outside crew, and no agency between you and the boat.
One boat, three ways to spend a day on it. Queen C leaves Çayağzı harbour in Demre every morning at 10:30 and is back alongside by half past five.
The shared day tour is priced per person and lunch is included — chicken as standard, fish for a little more. Children under 5 travel free and 5- to 7-year-olds pay half. Drinks are not included; there is a bar on board. The two private charters take the whole boat and are quoted rather than listed, because the figure depends on the date, the group and what you want aboard. Message us with your date and how many you are and you will get a straight answer.
Away at 10:30, alongside by 17:30. The Sunken City from the deck, an hour ashore at Kaleköy, four swims and lunch cooked on board.
₺1.500per person
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The whole boat for your group, and a day shaped around what you want from it.
Price on request
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The same boat and the same coast, in half a day — morning or afternoon.
Price on request
View tourThe shared tour is priced per person; the private charters are quoted. Reviewed each season.
Kekova weather and the best time to visit The short answer: June and September are the best all-round months, July and August are the hottest and busiest, and October is the one most people underestimate. Here is why.Kekova is small enough that every boat visits the same places. This is the order Queen C takes them in, with the times off her own programme.
We cast off from Çayağzı yacht harbour in Demre at half past ten, and turn east for Kekova.
About twenty minutes out of the harbour the boat slows in front of the Pirate Cave. You see it from the water — nobody goes inside.
See the toursThe first swim of the day, around forty minutes at anchor in Gökkaya bay.
See the toursThe boat runs the length of the sunken Lycian town on the shore of Kekova Island, slowly and as close in as the rules allow, while the captain tells you what you are looking at. Swimming and landing are both forbidden here, so this is the stop you watch rather than swim.
See the toursForty-five minutes at anchor in the clearest water on the route — the bay is named for how far down you can see. Lunch is served on board around this part of the day.
See the toursAbout an hour ashore. Climb to the castle above the village, look at the Lycian tomb standing in the water, walk the lanes. Afterwards there are two more swims of about forty minutes each, with fruit handed round at the first; which coves those are is decided on the day.
See the toursBack alongside at Çayağzı at 17:30, at the same quay the day started from.
Times are a guide. Which coves the swimming stops are made in changes with how clean and how busy they are, and with the sea — the captain decides on the day.
Kekova is reached from two harbours, and both visit the same bays. The difference is distance — and distance is time spent travelling instead of swimming.
Staying in Kaş? Çayağzı is 48 km away by road, about 45 minutes. Leave at 09:45 and you are aboard at 10:30 — in the water twenty minutes later.
Sea distances measured from each harbour, timed at the speed a loaded day boat holds door to door.
Queen C is a wooden gulet working out of Çayağzı in Demre, run by the family that owns her.
The top deck is laid out with sunbeds under an awning, and the foredeck has a wide cushioned platform with a table in the middle of it — the two places people end up spending the day. Between them is the covered saloon: benches down both sides, wooden tables, and enough shade to sit out the middle of the afternoon. The Queen Bar runs across the after end of it, and lunch is served along the same counter. Below deck are the galley the food is cooked in, a toilet, a cabin and a washbasin. Life jackets are aboard, and there are floats and rings for children.
Lunch is cooked in the galley and served at anchor, laid out along the bar: chicken as standard, or fish for a little more. Fruit comes round in the afternoon.
It is a set menu and it comes out as a spread rather than a plate: a green salad, mücver (courgette fritters), roasted vegetables under yoghurt, spaghetti in sauce, and chicken or fish as the main. On the fish menu the fish are fried whole and served with lemon. The Queen Bar is open all day for beer, spirits, soft drinks and something to pick at, and the bar takes cards. The tour itself is paid in cash on board.
Every stop on our route, and why it is worth the time we give it. Weather →
The Lycian town of Simena, sunk by earthquakes in the 2nd century. Staircases, walls and storerooms lie just under the surface for 1.5 km.
A village with no road in. A Lycian sarcophagus stands in the shallows, a crusader castle sits above the roofs, and the ice cream is homemade.
The old shipyard bay. Underwater stonework from the same era as the Sunken City, and here you are allowed to swim over it.
The clearest water in Kekova, and quiet late in the day once the day boats have started back.
Wide, sheltered and green-blue, reached through a strait watched over by the wild goats of Aşırlı Island.
A sea cave off Aşırlı island, and one of the last places Mediterranean monk seals still pup. Chained shut to boats since 2025 — we hold off the mouth and show it from the water.
Pines running down to the water, and the last swim of the day. Tea, coffee or fruit on deck afterwards, while nobody is in a hurry.
Our home harbour, where a freshwater spring runs into the sea and loggerhead turtles come in to feed.
One family running the boat, thirty years of knowing this coast, and coves chosen on the day rather than off a list.
İbrahim has worked out of Çayağzı for thirty years, and the boat was his father’s trade before it was his.
His wife works beside him all season, and in the summer their son and daughter join them.
Where the four swims are made depends on how clean and how busy the bays are, and on what the sea is doing.
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What guests say after a day aboard, in their own words.
An excellent day out, and I would recommend it without hesitation (10/10). We joined the day tour as a group on 22 August 2026 and everything was wonderful. Value for money is first rate. It is a lovely family business: the captain, his wife and their delightful daughters are courteous, thoughtful and immaculate. The boat was spotless. The food was delicious, filling and clean. What the captain told us about the history of the bays we passed added a great deal to the day. The departure and return times were exact. We had a faultless day with nothing missing.
The day trip we joined on Saturday was a pleasure from start to finish. Being a family business, the drinks and the food menus have clearly been put together with care. Hygiene is taken seriously, and the prices are reasonable — genuinely not inflated, which matters. Our thanks to Captain İbrahim and his family for the way they look after people. Setting the route according to how quiet the bays are that day is an important detail. Thanks to them we saw the place at its best, away from the crowds.
Reviews are shown translated from the language they were written in.
Everything guests usually ask before booking. If yours is not here, send it to us on WhatsApp.
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