Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)
-   Europe (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/)
-   -   What is the most beautiful coastal aerea to spend a week (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/what-is-the-most-beautiful-coastal-aerea-to-spend-a-week-1666984/)

Riadhou May 13th, 2019 01:14 AM

What is the most beautiful coastal aerea to spend a week
 
Last year ,I visited kas , kastelloriso,patara beach ,kalkan dalyan ,selcuk Ephesus and the town of fethye as a stop place for only one night.

I program to return to Turkey in August 2019 to visit safranboulu ,amasra ,Amsaya , Cappadocia ,and a week in a lovely town with beautiful harbor, a vibrant nightlife surrounding a picturesque aerea and a stunning nature .

After reviewing the map of Turkey and reading some opinions in the forum , I found some interesting places :
1)-Alacati, Foca ,Cesme with incursion to Chiosisland.

2)-Fethye, Oludeniz, Karagosler and Gocek Bay.

3) Lake bafa , Akyaka ,karaburun to combine with Aphrodisias,...

4)-Alanya and Side ( I don't prefer Antalya).

Could you please advise about those places or any other sea-border.


neckervd May 13th, 2019 02:30 AM

From Cappadocia, it might be easier to go to Kizkalesy, Ovacik, Narlikuyu, Anamur etc.

otherchelebi May 13th, 2019 01:42 PM

neckervd`s suggestion is good. the region has great natural beauty, reasonably good beaches and lots of ancient ruins, But its is quite laid back and
has almost no night life.

Cesme/Alacati/Ilica has the best night life and very goof beaches. The cool breeze will be welcome in August, the windsurf side of the peninsula has rather cool water, but the other side is nice and warm. Good restaurants also. I recommend rental car because you will be driving between the different beaches and towns. Alacati also has some of the best boutique hotels in Turkey.(I recommend one on the outskirts of the small town-center rather than on the main drag, to escape the noise. We stayed at one called Chigdem and liked it.when we were down there for our older daughter's wedding.
Urla/Karaburun area have the best mussel dolma. The Alacati market is huge, fun and great to shop.

Side area has the best beaches in competition with cesme/Ilica. Ancient ruins right in town. Good nature drives up the mountains and to waterfalls, maybe even further East to Anamur. I do not know the night life because we somehow always visited out of season. However, the fact that most lodging is composed of large all inclusive resort hotels will mean that the town may not proviode great entertainment at night.
If you pick Side, i suggest that you check for concerts, opera, ballet, dance and similar at Aspendos theatre and reserve tickets as early as possible.

Hope this helps.

Bafa, Herakleia are sleepy villages, Akyaka and Mugla karaburun are slow towns with mostly local summer homes.

Fethiye is a large busy city. Its satellites, Ortanca, Kaya Koy, Olu Deniz will be overflowing with British tourists and will have everything a British tourist would
like, including Indian restaurants, pubs, wedding venues for them, risky parachute jumps, single day boozing gulet cruises, jeep safaris, canyon runs, Lykian way treks, boats to Rhodes. But the night life will not be as cosmopolitan and high quality as at Alacati.
Gocek is basically a small residential area and a major marina for yachts.

Riadhou May 14th, 2019 01:41 AM

Thank you Neckerved and Oherchelebi fif your replies and for helping me to finalize my itinerary.

I discovered for the first time with nekerved the province of Mersin and it's surrounding area ,which seems a charming place and offers a diversity of activities as well as it is not very far from Cappadocia.

This destination requires that I do some researchers to better understand the specificities of each of the places listed by Neckervd and it merits to allow not less then one week or perhaps 10 days to visit it in my opinion.

I really appreciated the description made by Otherchelebi of the different places I listed in my message, which allowed me to evaluate each of them to its true reality in relation to my expectations.
I remarked that the region of Cesme alacati,Ilica and maybe Foca are charming places for a few days of vacations. It is possible to add Sirince which I did not visit last year .

From Cappadocia I also thought about the lake of Egirdir which seems to offer a good place to spend a few days in a beautiful natural setting. But I'm not sure that the village of egirdir can privude some entertainment at night .

If I resume the different steps of the itinerary ,I concluded that if i combine the black sea area (Amasra,safranbolu ,amasya) with Cappadocia, I have 2 options:

​ A)--First option : flight to Aksaray ,drive to amasya ,Amasra , safranboulu and leave the car in Ankara.
In this case I have 2 possibilities:

1) * take a bus from Ankara to Egirdir(6 hours) and return to Istanbul from Isparta
( Total 2 domestic flights + car+bus).

2) * Or flight from Ankara to Izmir and drive to cesme ,Alacati....and return to Istanbul from Izmir. (Total 3 domestic flights + 2 rental car ).

B)- Second option: flight to Ankara ,drive to safranboulu,Amasra, Amasya and Aksaray..
In this option,there are 2 possibilities::

1) *take the bus from Aksaray to Egirdir (9hours) and flight to. Istanbul from Isparta
( Total 2 domestic flights+bus -+one way car

2) * Or drive to Mersin province and reach the nearest airport.

What do you think about the two options ?

otherchelebi May 14th, 2019 04:18 AM

Riadhou, work on your Turkey highway map and Anadolu Jet and THy schedules.

1. Sirince is not that close to anywhere you wish to visit and it is a tiny village, dull in comparison to Alacati or kaya Koy.

2. I am not sure you will be able to fit any Aksaray and or isparta flights to your schedule easily.

3. renting car at Ankara airport puts you into easy reach of Amasya and Kastamonu and possibly Safranbolu. You may easily drop Amasra from your list and visit Kastamonu a much bigger town instead of Safranbolu, with large historic wooden mansions and fewer tourists.

4. Driving from Amasya or Kastamonu to Cappadocia you can visit the Hattusas and Alacahoyuk sites easily.

5. You may then continue driving to Mersin, Erdemli, Silifke, lodging at Kizkalesi, Erdemli or Tasucu, dropping car at Adana airport. If you are planning to spend more time in the region, you can visit anamur and try to leave car at Gaziapasa airport near Alanya which has few flights.
My trip report : https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...rtuous-956193/


6. Egirdir has a tiny town center on a peninsula with a few decent B&Bs but no night life. It is on the route to Sagalassos ancient site and then down to Side. Taking that route, you can drop car at Antalya airport.
Check my trip report: https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...rcize-1473761/

7. Usually the only flights to Izmir are from Ankara and Istanbul, although there may be some from Kayseri (Cappadocia) also.

8. After three days in Alacati you can continue driving North for one night at Foca, and then some coastal nights at Ayvalik and/or Assos, ending in Istanbul by ferry from Bandirma. Or driving through Bursa and then Iznik and take ferry from Yalova to Yenikapi.
Trip report : https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...-venue-974854/

LancasterLad May 14th, 2019 09:25 AM

Bodrum Peninsula for me.

Side isn't much more than hotels, and the Old part is mainly same-same souvenir shops.

I prefer Antalya to Alanya.

If you go to Fethiye, which is a lovely place, don't be tempted to visit Calis Beach.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 10:56 AM.