This would be my dream gulet sailing holidays

I cruised dozens of times in my life. I have experienced gulets in different destinations in different luxury ranges and with different concepts. I tried out several different itineraries and I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of gulet sailing holidays.

In this post, I will describe the perfect gulet charter holidays from my point of view.

This type of cruise would be 100% perfect!

This post is 100% theoretical and made as a combination of the best stuff I experienced on the gulet cruises. It is taken from several different destinations, gulets, and trips…But the main idea of this article is to present to you the “idea” of a gulet cruise and all the possibilities you can have during the cruise.

Read this and ask yourself if this is something that would also be interesting for you.

Here is my dream sailing gulet cruise holidays - day by day!

Day 1 – Transfer to gulet and check-in procedure

We arrive at the airport and check our bags. We leave the building and immediately we see:

a smiling driver
in a nice clean uniform
with a table where “Welcome Mr. Mirtič” is written!

Driver speaks good English is very nice and wishes us great gulet cruise holidays. We put the bags in the van and take a short transfer to our gulet. The weather is nice and everything is going smoothly.

We arrive at the very busy harbor but luckily the van does not stop there.

He takes us to a small little harbor 10 minutes drive away from the madness of the main port. Gulet has parked just next to 3 other ships and the car drops us just in front of the gulet. While we are tipping the driver the crew from our gulet is already in front of the van taking our luggage and carrying it on board.

Kids are calm, the wife is easy going and friends are anxious to see what awaits for them on the board of the gulet (which looks even better live than on pictures, to be honest).

In front of the gulet, there is also an agency representative waiting for us along with another person (that is the ships captain/owner). They are both in a good mood and they greet us and welcome us and invite us on the board of a gulet.

We come on board and we are amazed to see how the table is prepared!?!?! Amazing! Welcome drinks (cold beer, some wine, soft drinks, water and a bottle of champagne) some snacks (prosciutto, bread, cheese, local bites)..and it all looks really amazing.

We are invited to sit in front of the table we are served drinks and agency representative and owner of the gulet give us a very brief presentation about:

how cabins are like on the gulet,
brief info about ship rules and safety on board,
where is what on the gulet and how to use it,
who to talk to in case of any issues we might have,
and they also ask us if we have any questions.

This goes by super fast (while we have some snacks and cold beer) and after that, we are easily accommodated in the cabins.

Crew shows us around the gulet (they also introduce themselves while doing that).

There is already several drinks on board a gulet (beer, wine, water, some soft drinks) and one of the crew members asks us if we have some preferences for some special drinks.

They can either go to the market and make the shopping for us and we just pay the bill or we can go to a nearby supermarket and stock the bar by our self.

As we are not even sure what we would like and how much we decide to go to the supermarket alone. We bought some more bottles of wine, some Bacardi, Coca Cola, and lemons for the lemonade and we are all set!

Before the gulet takes off we also make the rest of the payment arrangements we had to (food, for the drinks that were already on board and for transfers) and we are all set!

Our gulet sailing adventure can now really begin.

We take off from the harbor and go to a nice little bay to take a swim and take the “travel dust from the airplane” off our skin. We swim, enjoy it like crazy, take up some snorkeling and after that, we open a couple of bottles of wine. Happy times.

And then the amazing smell of the first dinner happens (one of the best feelings in the World)!

We go to cabins to take a shower put on easy-going T-shirt and shorts along with flip-flops and sit in front of the table….which LOOKS AMAZING!!! Dinner is crazy good! We talk a bit with the owner of what awaits us the next day and then spend the rest of the night talking, joking and having the best time ever.

And the scenery is breathtaking!

We are alone in a bay and there are just millions of stars around us. The smell of the sea and pine trees close by makes us a bit sleepy and we go to cabins to sleep. Some people stay on deck playing cards. Kids are already sleeping in a different cabin and you just enjoy your private time with your spouse.

And sleeping on a gulet in a cabin beats everything.

The cabin itself is of course very comfortable but this only amazed me when we checked in. After that, I did not really pay any attention to it.

This is my perfect start of the holidays – day 1!

Day 2 – First full day on a gulet!

I know I probably already sound a bit cheesy but for me, mornings are the best part of the cruise! Let me describe my perfect morning on a gulet.

I wake up (the best is if everybody is still sleeping) around 09.00 in the morning.
I do not even go to the toilet, I do not wash my face I do not brush my teeth.
I just put on my swimming suit and get out of the cabin quietly.
All sleepy you get out on the deck and all you see is some seagulls, sun, the sea is all nice and clean and there is nobody on deck but you.

And then the amazing happens!

You just jump in the sea…this is (for me) really the best feeling in the World. Unfortunately, I do not know how to express this with words – why this is so good, but you will have to try it out by yourself.

After that, you take 15 minutes to swim and when you get back to the gulet people are already starting to come out of the cabins. Table for breakfast is getting ready by the crew.

You go to your cabin, take a shower, brush your teeth and just change your swimming suit and you are all set for breakfast.

While we are eating the owner starts an engine and takes us to the next destination. So take a moment a compare that to hotel holidays?

If you are in the hotel you eat breakfast in crowded restaurants and if you wish to take the trip to some other destination, you have to rent a car or go by bus.

On a gulet, you travel to your next destination while you are eating your breakfast!?!

We cruised for a couple of hours which is great for:

checking out the surroundings
meditating
reading your favorite book
watching cartoons with kids or playing cards or monopoly with them
taking a nap
having a few beers (the heck with it you are on holidays after all :-))
making a great conversation with the captain and listening to his stories
reading a travel guide
joking around with your friends

Before lunch, you make a stop in a new amazing bay! Time for swimming, relaxation, jumping into the sea, water sports….

The time goes by super fast and the lunch is all set up.

I am not sure but I think if you eat “Alfresco” the food really tastes better.

And this is another reminder how happy I am because I booked a more “luxury-type” menu instead of going for that more “luxury gulet” and low type of food menu.

After lunch, we agree with the owner we wish to take it easy again and not spend the evening in some harbor. Anchor looks great so we go to the next destination, which is even better than the last one!

Again time to relax and take it easy. I just won the monopoly and made my kid very angry – but this is life.

I take another swim, listen to some music, take my mind away and we have several debates in our group about the country, the holidays and about the entire status of the World.

After dinner, we go to sleep. But we decide to take it even one step further!

As the weather is so good and the bay is so nice we decided to sleep on deck! Under stars!

We never tried this before and after we do it – I am sorry I did not join scouts when I was younger.

Really cool experience again.

A PLAN FOR TOMORROW: we are ready for some action!

Day 3 – Action time!

We spent 1 full day just relaxing and taking it easy. That is why we decided that this day we will go out of the gulet and check some places.

Morning time was very similar as on day 2 (early morning swim breakfast while cruising to next destination) but we have decided to take a land trip during the day and go visit some nice during the evening.

That is why we wanted for the day trip to be more of a NATURE ORIENTED while evening would be a NICE TOWN/PORT.

So we checked an amazing nature park:

How we did it:

Went out of the gulet!
Took 20 minutes to walk through a pine forest (it was a nice path)
Arrived at this nice little nature park.
Checked out a monastery there and some small shops.
Watched the nature in amazement and took a swim.
Walked back to the gulet and embarked the ship for a lunch.

After that, the gulet took as to the next destination. We wanted to go out of the gulet again and experience a bit more famous travel destination.

So the best thing to do that is that gulet:

Goes to anchor close to the town you wish to visit.
The nice crew takes you on land with a dinghy.
If you will make a normal visit and return till midnight they crew will also pick you up.
If you will party all night long you have water taxis that will transfer you back to the gulet for a small fee.

And we did this exactly. We had an early dinner and we were transferred to the town around 20.00 in the evening. We decided we will go back to gulet around midnight. We took the phone number of a sailor and told him we will give him a call when we are ready to go back on the gulet.

It is always fun to take a walk around the old city center. To go to some shops. Visit a fort or some other interesting thing that almost every place has. To have ice cream and to just act as a plain old tourist.

We returned back to a gulet and went to sleep. Some other people stayed on deck and finished a couple of bottles of wine while discussing worlds politics and arguing if Batman would beat Spiderman.

Day 4 – A combination of taking it easy and some more action!

This is the day where the captain shows how good he is. We tell him only 2 words:

“Surprise us”!

“Take us to a place that only you know about”!

“And the tips of entire crew depend on this!” (motivational joke)

He goes to action and takes us to the most amazing place ever!

Would it be fun to jump into this kind of sea? And you would never guess what is the depth of the sea here. If you would say around 2 – 3 meters you would be very wrong!

You know the sea is super clean and nice when you can see every single stone and the sea has more than 10 meters in depth!

Amazing.

In the evening we went to another special place. A bit historical.

We had to do some hiking which was very good (after a very good dinner) and the scenery and experience were well worth it!

After the walk back down to gulet (needed 30 minutes to get up and 5 minutes to get down) all we had to do was enjoy the rest of the evening on the board of a gulet.

Day 5 – Super action time!

In the morning the same routine again. Swim breakfast planning for the day ahead of us. Some of the people (male part of the group) in our group were pumped up from hiking last evening and we decided we wish to do some hiking again.

The female part of the group wanted to do some shopping. While older part of the group just wanted to stay on the gulet, relax play with kids and take it easy.

So what did we do? Did we go into a fight? Who won?

There is a good joke connected with this:

HUSBAND: I wanted to go hiking!

WIFE: She wanted to go shopping!

We both sacrificed a little bit had a talk and made a compromise. And we went shopping. Well, the best part of a gulet sailing holiday is that in this case – EVERYBODY WINS!

Gulet anchored in some nice bay close to some very nice port. In port, they offered guided hiking tours to the mountain close by.

So Seniors stayed on a gulet with kids and had some fun on their own!

Wife”s went to the port and had the entire day for themselves just shopping, gossiping, taking the nails done and have the best time ever.

The male part went on a 5 hours hike to a nice mountain, they broke a huge sweat, talked about sports, cars and other easy-going topics and just had an amazing time also.

Everybody won!

During dinner on a gulet, everybody shared their experience and were looking forward to the next day!

Was it already 5 days? Yikes?!

Day 6 – Taking it easy again (this was the plan but, but we did not really follow it).

We arrived at another amazing bay (it really never gets boring) where we learned they have lots of water sports possibilities to rent.

There was a possibility to go diving! Some people did this! They had lots of water skiing possibilities. It was great for the kids!

A couple of brave souls also tried out Jet Ski! It was not cheap but it was well worth the money!

Full of adrenaline we had lunch and the waiter wanted to show his skills in mixing cocktails.

We were eager to try it out and the moral of the group peaked!

We spent the entire day relaxing, drinking, eating, having loads of fun and the day turned into night.

And we just continued and had a great private party on board of a gulet.

Great music. Some dancing. Loud singing and at the end….the past part-night swimming!

So the plan to take it easy did not really work out. But the best parties happen when you do not really plan them.

Day 7 – We can not believe it is the last full day on a cruise.

The most amazing part of a gulet cruise is that you never have a hangover! At least I do not have it.

On the last day, we just wish to make the most out of our day.

This means lots of swimming and snorkeling! This means lots of fun for kids! Last day for the chef to show off! Last day to check an amazing beach! Last day to visit a nice town and have a guided tour around! Last day to check some amazing destination! Last day to go out of the gulet and have a crazy party in a disco!

Last day to do whatever makes you happy, relaxed and calm!

Day 8 – This one can get emotional

If the gulet sailing holidays you just did was truly amazing then you can expect:

some tears (especially from the female part of the group)
a bit of a bad mood from the male part of the group realizing that the cruise is over
strange thoughts that usually did not happen to you before (already planning in your head what will you do next year on a gulet cruise holidays)