Dufour 450 Grand Large with 4 Cabins - Sailing Yacht (2015) - Grace

Poor We rented a sailboat for a week from Fethiye. The boat itself was generally fine, with no major defects, but not particularly well maintained either. Hoisting the sails was difficult, the lines ran stiffly and the runners regularly jammed. The surroundings are beautiful: steep mountains disappearing into the sea, covered with green pine trees. Due to the depth, you almost always have to use lines to the shore to anchor, which is just a bit more hassle than free anchoring in the middle of a bay. What was disappointing is how crowded the water is. Almost every bay is packed. Ports and restaurants with a jetty are remarkably expensive, especially compared to Greece, for instance. There are also few places to land your dinghy near towns or villages. Much of the coast is private land, especially around Göcek. When we finally found a public beach, when we returned we found all the petrol had been stolen from the outboard motor. Besides, it's good to know that in reality you don't have a full week. We could only set sail in the late afternoon on Saturday, and had to return the boat by 16:00 on Friday. In practice, you then have to head for the port around noon. Moreover, the boat has to be refuelled, which is a huge time-consuming task. At the refuelling station it was chaotic, with long queues, pushing locals and big Russian ships taking priority. This whole process took us at least three hours. As a result, you can't really count Friday as a holiday anymore. Finally, be alert when paying. In several cases, people tried to inflate the amount when paying by debit card. So always make clear price agreements and check the pin amount carefully. Conclusion: The nature around Fethiye is beautiful and the boat was reasonably adequate, but the combination of crowds, high prices, limited accessibility from the water, poor organisation when refuelling and minor forms of scams mean we would not choose this sailing destination again anytime soon.