What Kind of Boat Are You On? The Types of Boats on Antalya Boat Tours

Everybody books the itinerary. Nobody books the hull.

A boat day on this coast is sold as a list of places: a bay, a river mouth, an island, a bazaar with two hours in it. That list is what you compare when you are deciding, and it is a sensible way to choose. It is also the part of the day you spend the least time inside. What you are inside for six, seven, ten hours is a vessel, and it is the one thing our own booking pages never let you sort by either.

So this page sorts by it. Six kinds of hull carry almost everything we sell, and once you know which one a day uses you can predict most of the day without reading another line of the description. That is not a marketing claim, it is a consequence of shape: a wide wooden deck with an animation team on it produces one kind of afternoon, a catamaran on flat fresh water produces another, and neither can pretend to be the other however the itinerary is written.

The types of boats on Antalya boat tours, hull by hull

Six families, in roughly the order you meet them between Side, Kumköy, Evrenseki and the wider Antalya coast. The right-hand column names one day from our own catalogue that uses that hull, so you can go and look at it. The two fishing mornings sit outside this table on a smaller boat of their own, and they are compared on their own page rather than squeezed in here.

Wooden galleons: loud on purpose

The pirate ships are the boats you photograph from the beach without knowing you are looking at a product. They are themed wooden galleons with a wide open deck, an animation team working it all afternoon, and — on the Side, Alanya and Belek ships — a foam party that is not an optional extra you can sit out but the shape of the afternoon itself.

From Side, the pirate day is written for children: free face painting, a treasure hunt, pirate games, a lunch of spaghetti with chicken and fish fingers, and a swim break at the delta where the river meets the sea. The Little Pirates day trades the foam for costumes: the children are dressed as pirates, the crew stay in character, and the treasure hunt rather than a foam cannon carries the deck. From Belek, the Alibaba galleon adds sun-deck views of the Belek and Antalya coastline and asks guests to wear non-slip footwear for moving around the deck. Alanya's galleons run the same shape past Cleopatra Beach, Pirates Cave and the Phosphorus Cave.

What the hull gives you is deck space and atmosphere. What it takes is quiet. The animation and the music are the programme on these boats rather than an extra you opt into, so a galleon is not the place to hope for a quiet afternoon.

The Starcraft: the full programme without the foam party

The Starcraft is the boat people land on when they want the programme without the chaos. Six hours cruising Side's bays, live music and animation on deck rather than a foam cannon, multiple swimming and snorkelling stops in clear water, and snorkelling equipment handed out for them rather than rented to you. Lunch is prepared fresh on board, non-alcoholic drinks are unlimited all day, and a guide works the boat throughout.

Transfers are by air-conditioned vehicle from selected hotels, which is worth checking against your own address before you plan around it. Two other things belong in the same paragraph because the record states them plainly: the boat is not wheelchair accessible, and advance booking is needed to hold your place. Alanya has its own Starcraft galleon on a longer day, and the name sails after dark as well, on a different hull entirely: a disco yacht with a live DJ, where the Side night lists snacks and unlimited drinks in place of a lunch on deck while the Alanya one runs its bar separately.

Catamarans on the dam lake: flat water, and on one boat, silence

The catamarans do not sail on the sea at all. They cross the Oymapınar reservoir behind the dam, in fresh mountain water with no swell in it, which is why this is the hull we point people towards when the sea itself is the problem.

From Side, the Green Canyon catamaran runs a strict no-music policy — the record is unusually firm about it, and the boat exists so you hear the canyon instead of a playlist. Roughly four and a half hours on the water, into the Grand Canyon and the smaller one, two swim stops in cool, clear mountain water, lunch, fishing gear and unlimited soft drinks while you are on board, though not at the restaurant.

From Evrenseki the same lake is done as a half day of about four and a half to five hours, with an open-buffet lunch at the Green Canyon Restaurant, two swim stops and fishing gear on deck. Drinks there are paid on site. The mountain water is cold enough that the record recommends a dry change of clothes for afterwards, which nobody ever mentions about the sea days.

The wooden riverboat: the hull that never leaves the river

One family in the catalogue never sees open water. The Manavgat market day from Belek cruises the river on a traditional wooden riverboat, with a riverside lunch surrounded by greenery and birdsong, and a long stop at one of the coast's biggest open-air markets for spices, textiles and leather.

It comes with two hard constraints and no way around either: the market runs on Mondays and Thursdays only, so those are the only days the tour departs, and comfortable walking shoes matter more than swimwear because the busy market lanes are most of the day's walking. From Side, the river-and-bazaar day pairs the same calm green river with open sea and two hours in the Grand Bazaar, and the record notes the river is the calm part if you would rather avoid rough water.

Gulet and motor yacht: the hull you rent whole

The last two families are not sold by the seat. A gulet is a broad wooden sailing hull with a deck built for a group, reserved entirely for the people you bring — up to about fifty guests, with a lunch menu prepared on board, a private crew, a music system that plays what you choose, and deck decoration for a celebration if you arrange it in advance.

A motor yacht is the faster answer to the same question: captain and crew, fuel and port fees included, lunch or dinner on board, swim stops in the calmest bays and a sunset return if you ask for one. In poor weather the captain may postpone or cancel free of charge, and boarding is by steps, which the record says makes it unsuitable for wheelchair users.

The one thing to hold on to is how they are quoted. A charter is a starting price for the whole vessel, quoted on the tour page as one figure for the boat, and never a fare multiplied by heads. Two couples chartering together pay for one boat, not four tickets, which is the entire arithmetic of deciding whether a charter is extravagant or sensible.

Choosing in one minute

If you read nothing else, read the hull rather than the headline.

• Children on board, and you want the day to entertain them: wooden galleon.
• You want the full programme on a shared boat without a foam party in the middle of it: the Starcraft.
• Someone in the party does not trust the open sea: catamaran on the dam lake.
• You want the quietest boat we sell: the music-free Green Canyon catamaran from Side.
• You want scenery, a market and no swell at all: the wooden riverboat.
• You are a group, a family reunion or a celebration: gulet or motor yacht, quoted whole.