How to spend 4 nights on the Turquoise Coast
January 18, 2014 11:41 AM Subscribe
I'll be traveling to Turkey in late April this year, and I plan to spend 4 nights (maybe 5?) on the Turquoise coast. I have the rest of the trip figured planned well enough, but the coast is a big question mark.
Do I go from town to town, or try to spend most nights in one place and take day trips? If I go town-to-town, do I book hotels in advance or just show up? I often like booking in advance so I don't have to do that work on the day, but maybe that's how things are done there. I generally don't like the whole check in/check out rigamarole each day, so my inclination is to split up the time between two places. There are so many places, though! How do I choose?
Relevant information:
I'll probably be flying in from Cappadocia to Antalya, and flying out from Dalaman to Istanbul. The plan is to make my way between those cities in those 4 days. Unfortunately, this seems to be happening right around anzac day, but that can't be avoided.
Do I go from town to town, or try to spend most nights in one place and take day trips? If I go town-to-town, do I book hotels in advance or just show up? I often like booking in advance so I don't have to do that work on the day, but maybe that's how things are done there. I generally don't like the whole check in/check out rigamarole each day, so my inclination is to split up the time between two places. There are so many places, though! How do I choose?
Relevant information:
I'll probably be flying in from Cappadocia to Antalya, and flying out from Dalaman to Istanbul. The plan is to make my way between those cities in those 4 days. Unfortunately, this seems to be happening right around anzac day, but that can't be avoided.
I meandered from Fethiye to Kaş over about a week, about 15 years ago. Since I like to spend my time reading, I simply spent 15-30 minutes before each travel day narrowing down a few options from a travel book for the next town I was heading to. Two more time-approved methods: ask the proprietor of the first place you stay for recommendations at your next destination; or head to a local cafe for coffee and ask there. Anyway, with such a short amount of time, I'd be inclined to travel progressively instead of doing day trip loops (even though the distances are not great to this American traveler).
posted by cocoagirl at 12:29 PM on January 18, 2014
posted by cocoagirl at 12:29 PM on January 18, 2014
We spent about a week on the Turquoise Coast in October of 2013. We did a similar trip, starting with Cappadocia then moving down to Antalya. From there, we took a minibus to Olympos.
We spent about 4 days there at a place called Bayram's Treehouses, which was quite nice. It's an easy walk to the beach, there's awesome ancient ruins to explore, and Bayrams itself is quite nice for relaxing. We booked online in advance, but there are over a dozen hotels/hostels in the same mold down there, I'm sure if you're in the shoulder season or off-season it shouldn't be too hard to show up and find a place to stay.
From there, we took minibuses to Oludeniz. Oludeniz is pretty much overrun with English tourists, and the entire place is very very touristic... More expensive than most other places in the region, and the food is quite awful (with most places advertising english fare). The "Ghost City" of Kaya Koy nearby was well worth a visit and we did the 3-4 hour hike back along the coast to the beach which was a gorgeous hike, though I'd say moderately challenging if you're not a big hiker.
Overall, getting around is pretty easy but it's all done by the minibusses (dolmus bus) which can be a real exercise in frustration. Try and ask as many questions as you can before you get on one or buy tickets for them to make sure you know where you're going or where you'll have to get off if you need to change to another.
We then moved onto Pamukkule then Ephesus, which are a bit out of the way from the Turquoise Coast but both very interesting to see! We have written up a bunch of blog posts about Turkey here:
http://www.skyscraperheart.com/tag/turkey/
Feel free to PM me with any questions.
posted by smitt at 11:22 PM on January 18, 2014
We spent about 4 days there at a place called Bayram's Treehouses, which was quite nice. It's an easy walk to the beach, there's awesome ancient ruins to explore, and Bayrams itself is quite nice for relaxing. We booked online in advance, but there are over a dozen hotels/hostels in the same mold down there, I'm sure if you're in the shoulder season or off-season it shouldn't be too hard to show up and find a place to stay.
From there, we took minibuses to Oludeniz. Oludeniz is pretty much overrun with English tourists, and the entire place is very very touristic... More expensive than most other places in the region, and the food is quite awful (with most places advertising english fare). The "Ghost City" of Kaya Koy nearby was well worth a visit and we did the 3-4 hour hike back along the coast to the beach which was a gorgeous hike, though I'd say moderately challenging if you're not a big hiker.
Overall, getting around is pretty easy but it's all done by the minibusses (dolmus bus) which can be a real exercise in frustration. Try and ask as many questions as you can before you get on one or buy tickets for them to make sure you know where you're going or where you'll have to get off if you need to change to another.
We then moved onto Pamukkule then Ephesus, which are a bit out of the way from the Turquoise Coast but both very interesting to see! We have written up a bunch of blog posts about Turkey here:
http://www.skyscraperheart.com/tag/turkey/
Feel free to PM me with any questions.
posted by smitt at 11:22 PM on January 18, 2014
Oh yeah, I should mention we did all of our bookings ahead of time and online, using a combination of TripAdvisor and HostelWorld, with TripAdvisor tending to be a bit more useful in Turkey.
posted by smitt at 11:25 PM on January 18, 2014
posted by smitt at 11:25 PM on January 18, 2014
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Olympos was beautiful; it had mountains, beaches (although the water was cold) and great ancient ruins. I stayed in one of the "treehouse" hostels, which had a very "American summer camp" feel to it. Meals were served group style in what looked like a log cabin. I either stayed in Bayram's or Kadir's (can't remember which) but if you call in, they are all pretty similar.
I was also there near Anzac day, and the main side effect of this was that there were a ton of Australians/New Zealanders that were constantly ready to have fun and explore. I don't know if partying is your thing, but if it is at all you can definitely find a group to join in. If partying isn't your thing, there are still plenty of quiet places to wander around and enjoy natural beauty. Olympos was also very affordable.
posted by permiechickie at 12:01 PM on January 18, 2014