The Best Time of Year for an Alanya Boat Trip

There are two honest answers and they point at different months. Come late in the season — August into September — if warm water is what you are after. Come in June or July if you want the longest evenings on deck. Everything below is detail underneath those two sentences.

The sea off Alanya takes the whole summer to warm up, so it is at its warmest late, well after the air has peaked. School holidays in Germany, Poland and Russia mostly end by early September, while the sea is still at its warmest. If your dates are flexible, September is where those two line up. We hold no visitor numbers, so that is a calendar observation rather than a promise about how full anything will be.

What actually changes from May to October

• May — the harbour is working, but the sea is still catching up from winter. A swim stop feels brisker than the photographs suggest.
• June — the longest evenings of the year, which is exactly when the short evening trips make the most sense.
• July and August — high summer and peak holiday weeks. Warm water, and every coastal trip running daily.
• September — the water is still holding summer heat and the school-holiday weeks are behind you.
• October — still a sailing month, but the light goes earlier week by week. Plan the day around sunset rather than around dinner.

The wind matters more than the month

An afternoon breeze is normal on this coast, and once it fills in, the open stretch west of the caves can carry a real chop. That is a time-of-day pattern, not a seasonal one: a September afternoon can be lumpier than a June morning. If someone in your group is uneasy on a moving deck, plan around that rather than around the calendar. Swim stops are made in sheltered coves under the cliffs, which is where a breezy day is felt least.

If the swell is the whole problem

Then take the inland water. The Green Canyon day and the Manavgat day and bazaar both run on the Oymapınar reservoir — fresh water off mountain springs, with no swell at all. It is also cold in every month of the year, which is the point in August and worth knowing in October before you pack a swimsuit. Green Canyon is nine hours, €33 for adults and €20 for children aged 4-11, buffet lunch included.

Rain does not cancel a trip. Severe weather does.

The boats sail in light rain. Only severe weather stops a departure, and if the day is called off you pay nothing at all, because payment is taken on the day you sail and never in advance. Free cancellation stands up to 24 hours before. An uncertain forecast therefore costs you nothing to sit on for another day.

Some trips only sail on fixed days

On a short week the day can decide more than the month. Suluada sails Monday, Wednesday and Saturday only, and it is a full day with a long road transfer: the uninhabited island lies off Adrasan, roughly 200 km west of Alanya. It is €43 for adults and €30 for children aged 4-11, and no meal is listed in the programme, so ask when you enquire. The Manavgat day and bazaar runs Monday and Thursday only, €43 and €30, buffet lunch included. Everything on the coastal route sails daily.

Which boat, and what is not on it

Every coastal boat leaves Alanya harbour under the Kızıl Kule — the brick tower has stood there since 1226 — then turns west under the castle headland past Pirates' Cave, the Lovers' Grotto and the Phosphorus Cave, with Cleopatra Beach on the same western stretch. The big day boats pass the caves and the beach from the water: they do not sail inside, and they do not land on the beach.

The pirate boat is seven hours at €20 for adults and €14 for children aged 4-11, lunch included, and it is the lowest adult fare we run. The Starcraft is a longer day at nine hours, €35 and €25, lunch included. Infants aged 0-3 travel free on both, and a three-year-old still pays nothing. Of the four-hour evening trips, the sunset boat is €35 and €25 with no meal, no drinks package and no music, while the night disco yacht is €48 and €34, a bar instead of a meal, and takes a maximum of twelve guests. The fishing trip is six hours, €50 and €35, hot lunch, maximum twenty on board. The private yacht is quote only, up to twelve guests for six hours — ask and we will price your date.

What the calendar will not tell you

No boat is step-free. You board from the quay and move between decks by stairs, in any month of the year. Our pickup strip runs from Okurcalar and Avsallar through Turkler, Konaklı, Alanya centre, Oba and Mahmutlar to Kargıcak — over 40 km end to end — so where your hotel sits on it decides when the minibus reaches you. We confirm that with you when you book, and you pay on the day you sail.