Marmaris, Turkey

Our first stop in Turkey on this cruise.
I had booked a highly rated six-hour boat tour, not really knowing what to expect.

We took the first shuttle into the center of town, and from there it was only a five-minute walk to the meeting point. At 9:03 a.m., a minibus arrived, picked us up, and drove about 30 minutes to a place called Datça. We boarded the boat and quickly realized that every other tourist on board was speaking a language we couldn’t identify. Soon the announcements began—entirely in Russian. We spoke to one man and discovered that everyone was from Moldova. That explained everything.

The tour itself was six hours out on the water. We stopped four times to swim and to walk along the shore. The scenery was beautiful, with no other boats around—just our own group of very loud passengers.

We returned to shore at 4:00 p.m., and after a 30-minute ride back, the driver dropped us off at the shuttle stop. We missed the shuttle by about 30 seconds. The final shuttle arrived 30 minutes later, and we ended up being the last two passengers to board the ship.

We took a quick shower and then headed to a wine tasting, followed by dinner with the General Manager of the Marina, Laurence Barasse, and a few other passengers.Read more