Wondering how many gulets cruise every day? Here is the answer
Lots of our clients ask us this question. How many gulets cruise every day? Or they ask us this when we tell them they have only “5 hours of the cruise a day” included in the price. They are shocked to learn this is the only time they will cruise.
Let us explain what this means!
People get shocked when they learn that gulet cruising is not even so much about “cruising”! When you go on a big time cruise liners where you have 5.000 people on board, the program is something similar to this:
- You cruise from destination A to destination B!
- This cruise is usually from 24 hours or sometimes even 48 hours long!
- In this time while you “cruise” you eat, use the spa, drink, go to the cinema, go to the casino, go to the gym, make some shopping…
- And the ship arrives at the next destination (they stop cruising) and you have some time to check it out.
- And then you go back on the cruise.
The main goal of this BIG TIME CRUISES is this:
- To Cruise and enjoy the activities ON THE SHIP during that time!
- To check different towns and ports every now or then – TO GO OFF THE SHIP!
So the main part about this holidays is “CRUISING”!
On gulets the concept and the goals are 100% different! It is also called “cruise” but it is not even remotely similar to big time cruises.
On a gulet cruise the program is something similar to this:
- You cruise from one bay to another bay!
- In those bays you swim, relax, eat, snorkel, do water sports, sunbathe, play games, have a siesta – you are in very close connection to nature!
- After you have loads of fun, you either go to next bay or to the next town which you can explore.
If the main ingredient on big time cruisers is “CRUISING” this is actually the most boring part on gulets.
You do not have a casino on a gulet. You do not have a spa there (most of the times). You can not go shopping while you are cruising.
It sure is fun to read a book during that time. To observe the islands bays and the sea while you cruise. It is fun to enjoy the sun while the small breeze of wind is blowing while you cruise. But this is only fun a limited time and believe me it gets very boring after a couple of hours. The main part of the gulet cruise is to check places, bays, and towns. To enjoy and swim. To take it easy. Not to drive around.
Compare this to land trips.
If you are in Egypt and you wish to check the pyramids do you enjoy the drive or checking out this amazing thing?
Okay the bus driver is interesting sometimes. But if you are driving for 7 hours it can get boring. So when we tell you, that you will have to cruise for more than 5 hours a day this is not to save on the fuel of gulet owner! It is because you will spend too much time cruising and not enough time really enjoying yourself TO THE MAX!
On the other hand on every 100 groups, we book we have 1 group that has completely unrealistic wishes. They wish to cruise on an itinerary that is almost impossible (it is logistically possible but it does not make any sense). And for this kind of groups, this kind of “rules” have to be made.
Normally gulets have from 3 -5 hours of fuel for cruising included per day but nobody will look at the watch.
It is like this...some days you cruise some more, some days you cruise less!
And it gets even. So nobody will give you hard time about this.
If you have some “special” wishes about the itinerary that might be out of ordinary it would be a very good idea to note this in advance. Most of the times this is easily solved before you make a booking. Maybe some extra fee will apply.
But in either case, it is better to note this in advance so that you avoid any misunderstandings while on the cruise itself.
One of the gulet owners explain this also like this (interesting point of view) :
“Regarding the extra hours of navigation, please note that the captain plans the itinerary to be able to dock on anchor at a safe location. The day usually consists of more than 4 hours of sailing, depending on the point which has to be reached. Let”s say after a day of cruising, (5-6 hrs) you have reached the place where it is safe to dock. It would make no sense to sail an extra hour or two to return to the same spot. I am sure that your clients will be more than happy with the actual time spent cruising. If a few hours of cruising are required additionally, there is no charge.”
Do not concentrate on how much you cruised (this means how much you were driving). Concentrate on the places you have visited, what you did there and how much you enjoyed yourself.
Hope this answered your questions about this.
