FETHIYE 27-30 May 2023

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FETHIYE
27-30 May 2023

The day came to check out and we bid our lovely Kas hosts farewell and made our way to the station for the 10.45am bus to Fethiye which was 100TL. It was time to explore something else new.
I calculated 3 days in Fethiye would hopefully be enough. One for Fethiye, one for Oludeniz and one for Calis Beach. There was the risk that I might regret that we didn't stay longer but this didn't end up happening.



I had booked a room at a hostel called HZD. It was clean, central and a 15 minute walk from the bus station. We had a big private double room to ourselves with a share bathroom and kitchen on each floor, which we weren't sharing with more than 4 other people so it never felt crowded.
There weren't many people that spoke good English but we got by. Our room was clean, simple but comfortable and we had a balcony but no view. I had to ask for duvets for our bed again, as I also had to in Kas. Again, only a thin blanket was provided. It was much more cosy once I got the duvet.


Having arrived around 3:00 p.m we didn't leave our room to go out again until dinner time. It was a pleasant surprise to find that the beach Promenade with all the lovely restaurants was only one street away.


It actually felt good to be somewhere new. The Fethiye promenade was totally focused on catering for tourists.
When we arrived with the bus into town the main street had been very congested and ugly but the promenade was clean, wide, green and lined with open air restaurants and ice cream outlets.


We wandered along the Promenade past the marina to the Old town. Our walk took us towards some of the other places that I had been considering as options for accommodation when booking. After checking them out we decided that we were satisfied with what we had chosen. Even though it was a little below the standard I would have liked to have stayed in it was considerably better in location, comfort and noise than the others. Fethiye was, strangely, much more pricey than Kas had been. I had expected it to be less so because it had more options available and was less sophisticated, in my opinion but the conclusion must be that it's proximity to Dalaman airport made it more popular. Unless the hotel had a pool there were no swimming options in town. These were either at Oludeniz or Calis Beach which were a bus ride away.


As it got dark we continued along the Promenade in the direction towards Calis Beach. All the beach side restaurants were starting business. The lighting was lovely, music was playing and people were starting to settle for dinner. It was a very romantic atmosphere.


Dogs walked alongside us carefree and happy. It felt nice to be somewhere new again, a different atmosphere and vibe.
We considered that we had been quite lucky with the weather as it hadn't been too hot and most of our days were more on the cloudy side than sunny, which made it perfect for exploring and walking.


OLUDENIZ
Our second day was a Saturday and we jumped into our first dolmus bus to Oludeniz which cost 58 TL each way for the two of us. A dolmus is a minibus that travels every 10-15 mins to different places and stops to pickup or drop off on request along the way.
I noticed that people could pay with either cash or card. I was at the stage now of trying to get rid of our cash. The Turkish lira was rapidly de-valuating and I didn't want to hang on to any.


The dolmus passed a heavily touristy area at the top of the Oludeniz hill. I guess that it was from here that the popular parapenting flights launched, or maybe even higher but this wasn't happening today as the weather wasn't supportive. I ticked all those adrenaline activities off my bucket list years ago, when I lived in Queenstown, so it wasn't something I was hanging out to do anyway.


We got dropped off by the sea at the end of the dolmus route and walked along a path following others. This lead us to the Blue Lagoon. This had been on Tomas' bucket list when we had first started researching the area and had been trying to decide where to spend our holiday time. It was lightly raining when we arrived so we had Blue Lagoon practically to ourselves, which I'm sure was a rare occasion. Rows of sunbeds and pergolas were completely vacant.


When researching this area it always appeared to have masses of tourists so we felt lucky. We spent most of the morning there. It was sheltered, the water was dead calm and no tourists around, which is how we liked it.


For lunch we then went back to the main street near where we had been dropped off. It was heavily populated with British tourists, everything was priced in British pounds and focussed on selling all sorts of tourist trash. Venues were advertising British Football games to draw in the alcohol sales.


I was so very glad that we only came here for the day and not longer. It obviously suits some people but absolutely not us!


There were a few lovely beachfront cafes which compensated for main street but these faced a beach lined with enormous party sailing boats decorated as pirate ships set up for day tours. I'd guess that the weather was not good enough for them to go out.


After lunch we returned towards Blue Lagoon to the main beach for some swims in the ocean. This beach was lovely and the water was clear and warm with gentle waves. Along with having Blue Lagoon almost completely to ourselves and the very lovely beach it made the day visit worthwhile.


On our dolmus return to Fethiye we jumped off at the main shopping center that was beside the bus station to buy some dinner and were happy to find our favorite restaurant, Ramiz, that we had first discovered in Istanbul.


CALIS BEACH
On the Sunday we did a big walk towards Calis beach. There was the option of catching a dolmus or water taxi but had we have done so we would have missed the best part which was an unexpectedly lovely leisure park covering a large area halfway along the waterfront Promenade. It made a great stopping point on the way there and back. Plenty of trees, shade, lakes, streams, water wheels, picnic spots, hammocks and options for seating with a lovely atmosphere.


In Callis beach we walked as far as our legs would take us and rested for a coffee along the way.
The sun came out in the afternoon when we spent a couple of hours lying on hammocks at the park on our way back to Fethiye.



Despite having walked so much during the day we walked another 20 minutes after returning home back to Ramiz for dinner again.


30-31 May SAW Airport Istanbul
An early checkout at 7.30 to catch the 8.15 bus to Dalaman Airport. We got to use our umbrellas, that we had been travelling with for the first time, on our walk to the bus station.


We arrived at the airport in a relaxed amount of time before boarding. Dalaman airport was bright, modern and covered in glass. It had stopped raining shortly after we caught our bus and was sunny in Dalaman.


When we arrived at Istanbul SAW Airport Istanbul we walked the 2km to our hotel, My Palace Rooms, which I had booked on Agoda.
We arrived to a surprisingly luxurious 2 room apartment which cost only A$60. We went out for food and a short explore but opted to enjoy our apartment and relax for the rest of our time there in the evening.


A free taxi provided by the hotel took us the short ride back to the airport at 6.30 in the morning. before boarding the Pegasus flight to Stockholm which boarded at 9am.

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