Hello all. My 2 week trip to Turkey is coming up in just 2 1/2 short months and I cannot wait. I have my itinerary pretty well set and am happy with most of it. The one area I'm still trying to pin down is my four days on the Turquoise Riviera. I have based myself in Fethiye for this time, and have settled on the following itinerary for 3 of the four days:

Day 1: Explore Fethiye, hit Olu Deniz beach and if I get up the courage, paraglide from Baba Dag.
Day 2: Hook up with a day tour to Tlos and Saklikent Gorge
Day 3: Explore Patara ruins on my own and then bag some rays on Patara Beach

That leaves day 4. Let me point out...I am not renting a car (just don't want the hassle) so any options must be tour or dolmus friendly. I am thinking about taking a bus to Kas and from there, finding a boat tour to Kekova. What's holding me back from deciding on this is that I understand that it's a 2 1/2 hour bus ride, one way, from Fethiye to Kas. So... that's 5 hours out of my precious day just on the bus.

Should I make this my fourth day plan? Should I instead do the 12-island boat tour out of Fethiye? If so, is that typically via a catamaran or some other type of boat?

I welcome all of your input!

MB

You can combine Patara with Kas if you are willing to stay one night at Kas or Ucagiz. the advantages will be :

- Patara is more than half way to Kas from Fethiye.
- You probably will not be able to find a single bus or dolmus from Fethiye to patara. You will need to take three different conveyances, dolmus to the highway, bus to patara junction and dolmus to Patara. Or two, bus to Patara junction and then dolmus to Patara.
- the dolmus to Patara will probably take you to the village where the hotels and B&Bs are located. You would need to walk quite a bit to the beach from there. i forget but it may be a mile or more.
- if the beach is windy, it can be a miserable because of the fine sand swirling around and the waves with a strong undertow, although the ruins are terrific.
- the boat tour at Kekova is possibly more fun than similar day cruises out of Fethiye, although both are well liked. (we have never done the 12 island tour from fethiye but have been on private yachts there. (our Kekova boat tour is in my trip report here on Fodors, which goes like "fumbling family meets..."

Olu Deniz lagoon is nice to see but not to swim, especially in the summer.
You may prefer to go to Kayakoy and then to gemiler beach for the beach rather than olu deniz, or join a tour to Butterfly valley, faralya, etc. which includes a beach time. Possibly there are some day cruises which will let you see these areas from the sea and let you swim in less crowded and more pristine coves.

Tlos and saklikent are lovely.

good travels!!!

OC, thank you as always for your timely and well thought our responses. I'll have to make sure I pick a low wind day for Patara. Everything I've read says it's one of the best beaches in Turkey and uncrowded to boot. How can you beat that?

I'll make sure to read your Kekova boat trip report. I don't mind spending 5 hours of one day on a bus if the Kekova sunken city will give me a memorable life experience. I know that that is a subjective thing, but compared to the 12-island tour out of Fethiye, or going to Butterfly Valley, would you consider 5 hours round trip on a bus "worth it" to take the Kekova boat tour and see the sunken ruins?

MB

I had considered going for a mud bath (sometimes comes with boat tour) when I was in Marmaris, here is some info: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractio...ean_Coast.html

I took two trips to Kekova out of Kas last October--one by car and kayak and one by boat. Both were wonderful, and I really loved the experience of kayaking slowly over the "sunken city," swimming in the beautiful cove, and exploring a nearby island. The sunken city was a bit of a let-down since I had imagined more substantial ruins, but it was definitely worth visiting. I haven't done either of your other possible activities so I can't judge whether one would be more worthwhile than the others. But it might make a lot of sense to avoid the 5 hours on the bus and do the closer 12-island tour.

We spent a morning at Patara beach. It was nice but we lost interest when the wind got really irritating. A beach I really enjoyed was Kaputas, south of Patara. It's a small beach (combination of pebbles and sand) that you reach by walking down a long set of steps at the edge of the cliff. We also liked Kalkan--a pretty coastal town between Kas and Fethiye--we took a hotel launch at the harbor across to Hotel Villa Mahal where we sunned on the terraces, swam in the sea, and had a long lunch. Fun day.

as April and/or Lilacs says above,

kekova is great for the general views and scenery and the remains on Kale Koy/Simena, a village only accessible by boat, rather than the ruins you can see under the water. There are also some remnants on the shores of kekova island and another much smaller island.

Unless you are willing to spend a night at Ucagiz or kas, I would not recommend either Kekova or Patara. There is already enough closer to Fethiye like Kayakoy.

I find Kalkan an overly built up British resort. We stayed at Villa Mahal a few years ago which is an atrociously expensive but romantic boutique hotel with very private large rooms, a great many steps above the restaurant and the platforms of its seaside facilities which are nice and could also be expensive.

> I'll have to make sure I pick a low wind day for Patara.

I stopped briefly at the beach in Patara (the end nearest the ruins) and could not believe how windy it was - amazing! I enjoyed a short stroll along the beach and the view of the waves. I hadn't planned on anything else, and I'm not sure how I would have felt about it if I had been planning to spend a day relaxing on the shore. If you do go, consider taking sunglasses that will protect your eyes from the sand and/or whatever works for you for soothing your eyes after exposure to sand and sun.

I think I know the beach that aprillilacs mentioned - Kaputas. If it is the one I'm thinking of (I saw it from the road and stopped briefly to admire it from above), it was lovely, but I suspect it would be difficult to reach by public transportation. And if it easily reachable, I'm not sure it would be worth the time it would take for you to get there. It would depend on how much you want some beach time. At least the part of the ride nearest Kaputas would offer some spectacular views. (The views between Kalkan and Kas are memorable; I didn't make it as far west as Fethiye.)

> would you consider 5 hours round trip on a bus "worth it" to take the Kekova boat tour and see the sunken ruins?

I'm not sure I would. I thoroughly enjoyed my boat ride around Kekova and the sunken ruins, but I didn't go out of my way to do so - I was heading from Antalya to Kas, and it was easy for me to spend the night in Ucagiz. Boats don't currently go over the main ruins, so what I saw was some interesting ruins above the water line, a bit of an ancient stone pier through the incredibly clear water, and - through the bottom windows of my "glass bottomed" boat - a few amphorae. Definitely interesting, but not (IMHO) worth a 5-hr round trip. For me, what I most enjoyed about the boat ride was the chance to be out on the water in a beautiful area, with these bits of the past functioning as a "destination" that was really just a bit of a bonus, if that makes any sense. Given that you do have several other appealing options, you might leave this one for your next trip.

Do try to get out on the water somewhere for a little while, though, if you can.


Hope that helps!

Wow, that's 3 for 3 of you noting how windy Patara Beach is! Funny how none of the travel books mention that! I may have to rethink that, or at least not plan to spend as much time there.

From everyone's comments, I'm starting to think that the Kekova boat tour may not be worth such a large portion of my fourth day and that perhaps the 12-Island tour is the way to go. While I'm not much of a swimmer, one of my favorite parts of my time in Santorini last Sept. was lying on the catamaran and getting sun while we cruised around the caldera. I do want to get out on a boat while on the Turquoise Coast, so perhaps the 12-island tour, or a Butterfly Valley cruise is the way to go?

OC--are you a fan of Kayakoy? It sounds interesting in my guidebooks but I know the Lonely Planet book comments that there's not a whole lot to see there, other than a couple of abandoned churches. What do you think?

Kayakoy is for people with good legs and imagination and those who have read birds without wings. Unless you can stand in the streets and closing your eyes imagine it populated as it was one hundred years ago, it will not mean much. I have not walked through the abandoned village, but enjoyed the relaxed afternoon at Villa Rhapsody and the drive to Gemiler cove and beach.

Thank you everyone for your input. I've pretty much now ruled out Kekova as being too low on the "cost/benefit" scale. I'm leaning towards keeping Patara due to the ruins being terrific, as OC mentioned. If the beach is windy, I'll leave early.

I'm now leaning strongly towards the 12-island boat tour for my fourth day due to it being an opportunity to still get out on a boat. Although I'm also kicking around Kayakoy and Kabak, which sounds lovely and I found out about while researching Kayakoy. The last option I'm considering is a catamaran cruise to Rhodes. It's an hour and a half each way from Fethiye, so not bad at all, plus it satisfies my desire to get out on a boat. Has anyone been to Rhodes and if so, what would you think about spending a 1/2 day or so wandering around the Old Town?