I came to Fethiye by flying to Dalaman from Moscow for a very good price of 4000RUB ($44). The whole trip was planned about 6 hours in advance by buying the cheapest ticket to Turkey. From Dalaman Airport I took a bus to Fethiye, which takes 1hr and costs 80 TL. During my trip the exchange rate for the Turkish lira was 1 USD = 27 TRY.

Morning in Fethiye

View of Fethiye

There is no beach near the city centre, although there is a marina with numerous boats offering tours. The walk along the coast is long and enjoyable.

Fethiye marina

The national motto of Turkey is translated as “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk” and you can see it on monuments related to Ataturk.

Ataturk statue

There is a nice green park with sculptures, swings and playgrounds.

Horse

Windmill

Overall infrastructure in the city is great. The streets aren’t dirty or dusty, there are trees, flowers and bike lanes.

Streets

I saw some geese at the park.

Geese

After walking along the coast through the park, I found myself on the main beach of Fethiye, which is called Çaliş.

Çaliş beach

The overall nature in Fethiye and the beach reminds me of Calabria.

Beach

To get from Çaliş beach to Fethiye city centre, you can take a boat. They depart from the little canal (inlet? bay?) near the beach every 30 mins. The ride takes 25 mins and the fare is 70 TL.

Water taxi

Iinlet near Çaliş beach

Approaching Fethiye

Fethiye surprised me by having great infrastructure including a modern shopping centre.

Chill area outside the shopping centre

Inside the shopping centre

Cat having a nap

There’s also a pedestrian street with shops.

Pedestrian street in city centre

But the best place in Fethiye is the area by the seaside.

Seaside

After sunset

Ölüdeniz

The next day I went to a beach town called Ölüdeniz. To get there I took a dolmuş (minibus) from Fethiye. They depart regularly from a bus stop near the mosque.

In the morning the beach is full of obnoxious tourist ships.

Beach before noon

But thankfully they leave around noon.

Beach after noon

The beach closer to the lagoon is more crowded and filled with umbrellas.

Lagoon beach

The water everywhere in Oludeniz is actually really blue and clear.

Holiday

For some reason many people in Turkey wear socks with flip flops to the beach, what I find sickening.

Sickening

The sky is full of paragliders.

How many can you count?

They seem to be coming from a mountain nearby.

Where's their den? or shall we call it nest?

You have to watch your head on the streets.

Danger

Let’s go check out the mountain where these guys are jumping from.

Babadağ

The mountain is called Babadag with a height of 1,969 m. It has a cable car, which can be reached by the same dolmus (bus) that runs between Oludeniz and Fethiye.

Entrance to Babadag cable car

The ticket for the cable car is 300 TL and the views are fantastic.

Cable car

On the other side you can see Fethiye.

Fethiye view

And here are the paragliders.

Paragliders

A segment of the cable car is open.

Hey there

Hop on

Infrastructure

Gears

To get to the very top of the mountain I walked from the 1800 m mark. The walk was about 30 minutes. It was enjoyable and not exhausting because it’s not as hot on top of the mountain. Later I discovered there is a free bus that runs betweeen the peak and the 1700 m mark, which I took on the way back.

Walking up you can see Fethiye

There is a big Turkish flag on top and no one else around.

Peak

The view is impressive. You can see the lagoon in Oludeniz. From here you can enjoy it’s magical blue colour without seeing people wearing flip flops with socks.

View from Babadag peak

That’s it for Fethiye! I drank more beer in front of a mosque and took a bus to Antalya the next day.

Not sure whether that's disrespectful

Bus station