Turkey - Best Base Town to Stay in To Explore the Lycian Ruins?
 

We will be in Turkey in May/June and we are very interested is exploring the Lycian ruins. What town would you recommend we base ourselves in for a couple of days?

We like small towns rather than touristy towns but we want to be able to drive to several of the sites.

Cheers!

This may not be the most popular recommendation with many posters.

But we found the Club Med at Kemer a terrific base for Lycia. Admittedly it meant eating less Turkish food than might have been the case (which I really do consider was a loss). But it's central, clean, and the camp "entertainment" was really good fun. And the French almost compensate for the lack of as much Turkish food as I'd have preferred.

Just remember that "Kemer" comes from "Chimaera", which is just what the tiny flame on the headland opposite is.

And don't go an inch without your copy of George Bean.

ttt

Kalkan or Kas is better to base in. You can do both sides of Lycian way since you will be kind of in the middle of all of them.

We visited quite a few sites from Kalkan. It may be a tourist town but it has a lovely atmosphere and good restaurants and would make an excellent base.

see:

http://www.lycianturkey.com/
http://www.kalkanturkey.com/

This isn't Europe, is it ?

Caroline, yes, part of Turkey is in Europe and Fodors has chosen the "Europe" forum rather than the "Middle East" forum for Turkey even though about 95% of Turkey is in the middle East.

Did you have any advice or just your opinion of where this thread should be?

As per encyclopedia.com:

"Asian Turkey (made up largely of Asia Minor), which includes 97% of the country, is separated from European Turkey (made up of E Thrace ) by the Bosporus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles (which together form a water link between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean)."

My understanding is that Turkey is considered an European country.

Since there is strong possibilty that Turkey is joing the European Union, it seems unlikely that we should discount posts about it being on the Europe forum.

Incidentally, are you all aware this older post was simply brought to the top by an advertiser this morning -- along with about 6 other older threads?