Topdecker Tales - Turkey: Sail & Swim 🇹🇷

7 days of sailing around the beautiful, blue, Turkish waters? 🌊

Exploring a new country through the food and culture? 😋

I was hooked. There was no way I was going to miss out on this. 😍

This Turkey: Sail & Swim trip is going to live rent-free in my head for the rest of time.

Boat life

I’m going to start with my absolute highlight, my favourite, favourite part of this trip: 

Picture this: you’re lying on the beds on the Topdeck of the boat.  

The hot, Turkish air relents to the evening breeze as the sun sets and the colours fade to black.  

You fall asleep watching shooting stars… then when you wake up in the morning, everyone is sleeping, everything is still.  

You watch the sunrise, and it is one of the most beautiful things you’ve ever seen. 🌅 

It was everything. 😍 

Following that, a jump and swim in the sea before you start with what the day has to offer.

Food on the trip

Swimming in saltwater makes you hungry.  

It’s a fact. I think. 

The on-board chef prepared us breakfast, lunch and dinner every day with the freshest, most delicious ingredients.  

Tomatoes, fresh cheeses, cucumber, bread, eggs and more got us started for the day, while a range of different Turkish meals were served for lunches and dinners. 🥒🍅🧀 

Exploring a country through their food is one of my favourite parts of travel, and the chef went above and beyond for every single meal. 

Everything was incredible, and beautifully presented.  

Also, healthy!  

The heat and the salt air meant that the various salads we were served were absolutely devoured every single day. 

Activities on the trip

Despite this being a sailing trip, there were ample opportunities to explore Turkey on land.

Each day, we docked and investigated what the land had to offer us. Guided by our trip leader, we learned more about Turkish culture and the history.

We got to see incredible sights during different hikes, drink coffee in different towns, and we even had a mud bath.

It was a perfect balance.

I finished off the week with a traditional Turkish hammam – which I absolutely recommend, to cleanse a week of salt and sunscreen from your skin.

What was it like as a LGBTQ+ traveller? 🏳️‍🌈 

If you’re part of the community, you’re probably accustomed to googling each country’s ‘view’ on our human rights before you go there.  

We need to know whether we can act as we do at home, or if we need to modify our behaviour for our own safety. 

Additionally, whenever you’re meeting a new group of people, you’re probably acutely aware that people may treat you differently because you are an LGBTQ+ person. 

I became very comfortable, very fast on this trip, both because of the group of travellers and our group leader. 

Our Trip Leader made everyone feel totally at ease. We felt we could ask him anything, including religion and politics within Turkey, and we would get an unbiased answer. 

As half of an LGBTQ+ couple, I felt totally comfortable to act as we do at home. 🥰 

Even though this would ideally be the case everywhere and around everyone, I still feel grateful that this was the case as it meant we could enjoy the trip fully.

For me, it’s incredibly important to travel with a company that I trust will back me up and stands for LGBTQ+ rights. It adds a layer of protection, so I feel safer. 💛

Although Turkey’s attitude to our community needs a lot of improvement, I felt safe over the whole trip, both on shore and at sea. I also felt like I could act like myself without having to change any behaviour. 

Check out the Sail & Swim trip here. You won’t regret it!