The Boat-Trip Day Eating Plan: Before & After You Sail

On a Side boat-trip day, eat a proper breakfast before boarding if your departure is after 10:00 — that's when Hawaii Restaurant's kitchen opens — keep lunch light on the boat, then book a seafood or grill dinner in the old town for the evening, when you come ashore genuinely hungry. Happy Hour runs daily from 19:00 to 20:00.

Why a boat day needs an eating plan

A day on the water does strange things to your appetite. Sun, salt, swimming and sea air combine into a hunger no ordinary beach day produces — ask anyone who has stepped off a gulet at five in the afternoon. The classic mistake is winging it: a rushed or skipped breakfast, a grazed lunch of crisps and cola, then wandering the old town at eight o'clock too tired to choose anywhere properly. One solid meal on each side of the sailing fixes the whole day. Here's how we'd plan it, honestly, from a restaurant that has been feeding boat-trippers in Side old town since 2000.

Before you board: be honest about departure times

First, check your ticket. Many Side boat trips leave in the morning, and our kitchen opens at 10:00 — we won't pretend otherwise. If your boat sails before ten, your breakfast happens on board or at your hotel, and that's fine; save Hawaii for the evening instead.

If your departure is late morning — or today is a harbour-wandering day rather than a sailing day — a proper cooked breakfast is the smartest start. Our English breakfast covers the full fry-up brief: bacon, eggs, sausage, the works, cooked from 10:00. Prefer to eat like a local before a day on the Turkish coast? The Turkish breakfast is the lighter, brighter option — cheeses, olives, tomatoes, eggs, honey and fresh bread — and it sits more comfortably if you'll be swimming within a couple of hours. Either way, eat properly. Boat lunches are pleasant but rarely big, and breakfast is what carries you to mid-afternoon.

On the water: keep lunch light

Most day boats on this coast serve a simple lunch on board — typically something grilled with salad and pasta or rice. Take it, enjoy it, but don't treat it as the day's main event: a heavy lunch plus sun plus swimming is the recipe for sleeping through the best swim stop of the afternoon. Drink far more water than you think you need, go easy on the beer until the last leg home, and let yourself get properly hungry for the evening. If you're still choosing which boat to book in the first place, Side Boat Trips is a sensible place to compare local departures.

Back on land: the dinner you've earned

This is the meal the whole plan protects. You step off the boat salt-skinned and sun-tired, shower at the hotel, and by evening you're carrying the kind of hunger that deserves a proper table, not a snack eaten standing up.

Two directions make sense after a sea day. The first is to stay with the sea: our seafood in Side runs from grilled sea bass and black bream to calamari and prawns — fish cooked over real fire in the old town, close to the harbour you sailed out of. The second is the counter-move: after a light day on deck, go all-in on the charcoal grill — steaks up to a 450g T-bone, mixed grill, kebabs from the wood-fire side of the kitchen. Browse the full range on the live menu before you come down.

Time it well and you land in Happy Hour, daily from 19:00 to 20:00 — the natural first-drink window while you relive the day's swim stops. Afterwards, the old town is at its best for a slow walk: the harbour, the back streets, ice cream if the kids have any capacity left.

Make the evening effortless

Two practical notes. Summer evenings in Side old town get busy, so if your boat docks late afternoon, book your table before you sail — or WhatsApp us on +90 533 930 12 83 from the deck itself; nobody will judge. And if your hotel is outside the centre, ask about our free hotel pickup from selected hotels — a boat day plus a taxi negotiation is one logistics task too many. For the wider lay of the land — which streets, which dishes, what else is worth eating this week — start with our guide to where to eat in Side.

That's the whole plan: a real breakfast if the timetable allows, a light lunch afloat, and the dinner you spent all day earning.