Travel Guide to Turkish Coast

The calm waters of the Turkish Mediterranean are ideal for a sailing or beach holiday

The cool, calm waters of the Turkish Mediterranean are ideal for a relaxing sailing holiday - with nothing on the agenda but swimming, sunbathing, eating and hopping ashore for a spot of sight-seeing. Although much of the coast has been invaded by package tourists, there are still a number of unspoilt areas where you will find ruins from ancient civilisations and a more peaceful way of life.

Charter options in Turkey:

Luxury Gulet

Fully crewed and perfect for your ultimate luxury holiday

Sailing Charters

Monohull or catamaran
Bareboat or skippered

What to see on the Turkish coast:

Explore Turkey's Mediterranean coast, avoiding the sprawling resorts of Hisarönü and Ovacžk above the beach at Ölü Deniz, where the tourist industry has landed some ferocious blows, and head instead to some of the quieter spots of Lycia in the south. The region is dotted with unspoiled and little visited ruins, which are without so much as a signpost or ticket kiosk, let alone the tatty shops and cafés that usually attach themselves to south-western Turkey's major archaeological sites.

Places to visit include the crag-top Byzantine castle at Dereagzi. From there, head along the inland route through the mountains to the mountainside ruins of Arykanda in the Kasaba plain.

On the coast at Olympos, the ruins of ancient baths, theatres, temples and mausolea are all choked in atmospheric foliage. NearbyYanartas is a flaming hillside where natural gas emissions have been burning since antiquity. The flames, visible from the sea, inspired the legend that the place was home to a fiery monster called the Chimera.

Further west along the coast, the little-visited port ruins of Andriake is where Hadrian's great granary, storehouse of the ancients, stands between a swamp and olive groves.

Roadless Kale is stranded enchantingly among the islands and indented bays of the Kekov peninsula and is reached by means of a fishing boat from nearby Üçagiz. Kale is a shorefront of rickety jetties and restaurants, backed by stone cottages draped in clematis and bougainvillea, and topped by a ruined castle. A profusion of carved tombs survive in the region and from Kale you can take boat trips to the Aperlae ruins.

Kalkan is a former fishing village that has developed into a resort of genuine antique charm and nearby Patara is a 15km pristine and deserted beach. The ruins of the ancient port, its theatre swathed in sand drifts, and the presence of nesting loggerhead turtles, have combined to see off every attempt at construction on the shoreline, barring a single teahouse.

Photo by Mehmet Belet

Photo by Dylan Alcock on Unsplash

Travel Guide by CNTRAVELLER