Morning: hotel pickup and the road to Side Harbour
The day begins in your hotel lobby. The round-trip transfer from Belek and the nearby resorts is part of the €25 adult ticket, so there is nothing to arrange yourself and nothing extra to pay for the drive. Be down at reception a few minutes early with your swimwear already packed, because the driver has a full route to run and there are other hotels waiting behind yours.
The vehicle works its way along the Belek and Kadriye hotel belt, picking up as it goes, and then carries on to Side, where the Alibaba galleon is moored. Belek itself has no boat harbour in our records, so every sea day from this resort strip begins with a road leg to Side Harbour. We would rather you read that here than discover it on the morning of the tour, and the transfer is inside the price rather than charged on top of it.
Guests staying outside the Belek and Kadriye belt, in Boğazkent or Serik for example, are not covered by a published pickup promise. Message us with the hotel name before you book and we will tell you honestly whether the driver can reach you.
Boarding the Alibaba galleon and heading out along the Side coastline
You will spot the boat before anyone points at it. The Alibaba is a pirate-themed galleon with a painted hull, sails and rigging, and it stands out against the working boats in Side Harbour. Boarding is unhurried. The crew are at the gangway, and once everyone is aboard you pick your spot for the day: somewhere in the shade, or a place on the sun deck if you plan to spend most of the day horizontal.
The galleon then leaves the harbour and cruises the Side coastline. The first stretch is the one everybody photographs: the harbour wall dropping away, the coast opening up, the first music on deck. This is also where non-slip footwear earns its place on the packing list, because everyone wants to be moving around the deck at once.
Swimming breaks: straight off the deck into a sheltered cove
The heart of the day is the swimming. The galleon pulls into sheltered coves and stops, and you go into the clear water straight off the deck. There are several swimming breaks spread across the day. We do not publish a fixed number of them and we do not name the coves, because we have no confirmed record of either, and a promise we cannot keep is worse than no promise at all.
Between the breaks the boat is under way, so the swims arrive in blocks with the coastline sliding past in between. Anyone who does not swim loses nothing essential, since most of the day happens on deck anyway. Bring a towel, because you will be wet and dry again several times over.
Foam party, music and pirate animation between the stops
In between the swims the crew do what a pirate boat is supposed to do. There is a foam party, there is music, and there is pirate animation with games aimed at the children on board. It is loud and it is silly, and nobody is dragged into any of it: the sunbathing areas stay where they are for anyone who would rather watch.
This is the part of the day that decides whether this is your kind of boat. If you are travelling with children aged four and up, the animation is exactly what carries them through a full day at sea. If you want quiet and a book, there is still a place for you on the sun deck, but the boat around you will be having a party, and it would be dishonest to suggest otherwise.
Lunch: barbecue straight off the on-board grill
Lunch is a barbecue, grilled fresh on board, and it is included in the ticket. It is served on the boat rather than at a restaurant stop on land, which is part of why the day feels like one continuous stretch of sea instead of a chain of programme items.
Drinks are the exception to the word 'included'. There is a bar on board and everything you order from it is paid for separately on the day. If someone in your party needs a specific diet, message us before you book rather than assuming: we would rather answer honestly than promise something we have not confirmed.
Afternoon: sun deck, the run back to port and the ride home
The last part of the day is the slow part. Once the swimming and the lunch are behind you, the galleon turns for port and the deck settles into sunbathing, drying off and watching the Belek and Antalya coastline drift past. Added up, you are on the water for about 6-7 hours.
The boat docks back at Side Harbour in the afternoon and the same transfer is waiting to take you back to your hotel. Door to door this is a full day, so leave the evening free, especially if you are travelling with small children.
How the Green Canyon day and the Manavgat market day are shaped differently
The pirate galleon is not the only water day we run from Belek, and the other two are built on a completely different rhythm.
The Green Canyon day is longer, about eight hours door to door, and most of the extra time is the drive. Instead of heading along the coast you go inland to the Oymapınar reservoir near Manavgat, and the water you swim in is fresh, not sea: a deep-green, cool lake held behind the dam between pine-clad cliffs. There is no foam party there and no pirate animation. The shape of that day is scenic transfer, calm cruise, quiet swim stops, lunch on board, scenic transfer back.
The Manavgat market day is different again. It runs around seven hours and it is split in two: time on foot in the big open-air market in Manavgat among the spices, textiles and leather, and a calm cruise on the Manavgat River aboard a traditional wooden riverboat, with lunch by the water. It is not a swimming tour and it is not a sea trip. One thing to plan around: the market runs on Mondays and Thursdays, so Monday and Thursday are the only two dates this day is offered on.
Put simply, the galleon is the loud day in salt water, Green Canyon is the cool scenic day in fresh water, and Manavgat is the shopping and river day.
Practical notes before you book
Why there is not a single clock time on this page: the pickup time genuinely is not a fixed number. The driver runs a route through the hotels of Belek and Kadriye, and your place in that route decides your time. It is confirmed to you after booking, the day before the tour, rather than guessed at on a web page months in advance.
The rest of the day's practicalities fit into a short list.
- Adult €25, child aged 4-11 €12.50, infants aged 0-3 travel free
- Nothing is prepaid and no card is taken online: you pay in euros on the day of the tour
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure
- Included: the full-day cruise with crew, the round-trip hotel transfer, the barbecue lunch on board, the foam party and animation, and local travel insurance
- Not included: drinks from the on-board bar, tips for the crew and guide, the photo and video service, and personal spending
- Pack swimwear, a towel, sunscreen and a hat, and wear non-slip footwear for moving around the deck
- Great for families, couples and groups; not ideal for guests with limited mobility
- The galleon sails every day, and a single booking can cover up to 40 people