Turkey: The Lycian coast
When to go
May to June and September to October. In July and August Antalya and Fethiye pass thirty-five degrees, the beaches are full and the coast road is slow with traffic. The sea stays warm enough to swim until late October, and in spring the mountains behind the coast are still capped with snow. From May the loggerhead turtles come ashore to nest at Patara and Dalyan, and the beaches there close at night.
The stops
Interactive map of the route on our site ›
- Antalya2 nights
The old town, Kaleiçi, sits inside Roman and Seljuk walls above a harbour cut into the cliff. Hadrian’s Gate, a triple marble arch, was built for the emperor’s visit in the year 130, and the fluted Yivli Minaret of the thirteenth century became the symbol of the city.
- Olympos and the Chimaerastop on the way
On the hillside above Çıralı, flames burn out of the rock where natural gas seeps from the ground, and they have burned for thousands of years; ancient sailors steered by them. The Greeks set the myth of the Chimaera, the fire-breathing monster killed by Bellerophon, here; the climb is best at dusk.
- Ciralione night
A village of guesthouses and orange groves behind a long beach, with the ruins of Olympos at its southern end. In 78 before the common era the Roman general Servilius Isauricus took Olympos from the pirate chief Zeniketes, who, Strabo writes, burned himself in his house with his whole household.
- Myra and Demrestop on the way
A cliff of Lycian rock tombs, carved to look like wooden houses, stands over a Roman theatre. Saint Nicholas, the saint behind Santa Claus, was bishop of Myra in the fourth century; his church still stands in Demre, though sailors from Bari carried off most of his bones in 1087.
- Kas2 nights
The ancient town of Antiphellos, with a small Hellenistic theatre that faces the sea and a Lycian tomb standing in the middle of a shopping street. The Greek island of Kastellorizo lies just offshore, and a ferry crosses to it from the harbour.
- Kekovastop on the way
An earthquake in the second century sank part of the Lycian town on the shore of Kekova island, and its walls, stairs and foundations lie just under the clear water. Swimming over the ruins is forbidden, so the way to see them is by boat, from Kaş or from Üçağız; across the bay, Kaleköy has a castle and a Lycian sarcophagus standing in the sea.
- Kaputaş Beachstop on the way
A small cove of white pebbles at the mouth of a gorge, right under the coast road between Kaş and Kalkan, reached by a long stairway down from the road. The water is famous for its turquoise; come early, because the lay-bys above fill by late morning.
- Patarastop on the way
By tradition the birthplace of Saint Nicholas, and once the leading city of the Lycian League, whose assembly hall has been restored among the ruins. Behind it runs one of the longest beaches in Turkey, a nesting ground for loggerhead turtles, closed to visitors at night.
- Saklıkent Gorgestop on the way
A canyon cut by the Eşen river into the Ak mountains, with walls so close and high that the sun barely reaches the floor. Visitors wade into it through icy water that comes out of the rock, cold even in August; wear shoes that can get wet.
- Fethiye2 nights
The ancient town of Telmessos, rebuilt after the earthquake of 1957. Above the town, the Tomb of Amyntas, of the fourth century before the common era, is carved into the cliff with the façade of a Greek temple. At the fish market you buy the fish at a stall and one of the restaurants around it cooks it for you.
- Ölüdenizstop on the way
The Blue Lagoon, a sheltered arm of the sea behind a spit of sand, protected as a nature park. Above it rises Babadağ, nearly two thousand metres high, and paragliders take off from its top and land on the beach.
- Kayaköystop on the way
The Greek town of Levissi, emptied in the population exchange of 1923 between Greece and Turkey, when its Orthodox people were sent to Greece. Hundreds of roofless stone houses and two churches still cover the hillside; it was the model for the town of Louis de Bernières’s novel Birds Without Wings.
- Dalyanone night
Above the reedy river, the tombs of the kings of Kaunos, of the fourth century before the common era, are carved into the cliff with temple façades; boats run from the town to the ruins and to İztuzu beach. In the 1980s a campaign to protect the turtles nesting on İztuzu stopped a hotel from being built there.
- Akyakaone night
A village at the head of the Gulf of Gökova, where the clear, cold Azmak river runs into the sea. Its white houses with carved wooden balconies follow the style of the architect Nail Çakırhan, whose own house here won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1983.
- Bodrum2 nights
Ancient Halicarnassus, home of the Mausoleum, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, and birthplace of Herodotus. The Knights of Saint John built the Castle of Saint Peter from 1402, partly with stones taken from the ruined Mausoleum; it now holds the Museum of Underwater Archaeology.
What it costs
Eighty dollars a night is the room. The car and the fuel are yours, and the coast road from Antalya to Fethiye and on toward Bodrum is free, with no motorway tolls on the way. Parking in Kaş and in Kaleiçi is paid and tight; the extras worth budgeting are the boat from Üçağız over the sunken city of Kekova, the entry to Saklıkent gorge, and a boat on the river at Dalyan.
What to know
Three things. One: the HGS. Turkish motorways and bridges have no cash booths; tolls are read electronically from a sticker on the windscreen, and every rental car should carry one, with the tolls charged to you later by the rental company. Check the sticker is there before you leave the lot, because passing a toll without one brings a fine. Two: the driving. Turks overtake fast and close, the horn is a greeting as much as a warning, flashing headlights mean I am coming, not go ahead, and the dolmuş minibuses stop anywhere to pick up a passenger; tractors and slow lorries share the coast road. Three: checkpoints. The police and the jandarma stop cars on the main roads, and speed is checked by radar and cameras; slow down, and keep your passport, licence and the rental papers in the car at all times.
Roads, tolls and rules
Turkey drives on the right. From Antalya to Fethiye the D400 hugs the coast, cut into the cliffs above the sea between Kaş and Kalkan, with bends that make an hour on the map an hour and a half. The track takes it in short days, none longer than about 150 kilometres, with a night on the beach at Çıralı, a night on the river at Dalyan and a night on the Gulf of Gökova at Akyaka before the climb inland through Muğla and Milas to Bodrum. Fill up in the towns, and keep to daylight on the cliff sections.
Travel Turkey: The Lycian coast
The route on our site, with a room up to $80 every night.