Olympos

The beach at Olympos

The first place I visited in Turkey (after Ankara of course and Istanbul) was Olympos. Drawn by the idea of sleeping in a tree house by night and lying on a beach by day, Heather and I took the long bus ride to Olympos. Upon our arrival we were horrified at the tree houses because they weren't bug proof (I'm not sure what we were expecting to be honest) so we quickly changed our room choice and got a bungalow instead. But seriously, who wants to awaken in the middle of the night with a big-ass insect on their face, an insect most likely intent on inserting poison or eggs in to their ear? The bungalows in Olympos offer air conditioning (woo hoo) and a toilet and shower. The shower is pretty much unusable since it is positioned directly above the toilet, but it's nice to know that it's there.

Lycian ruins

Olympos is not a town, it is merely a street lined with pansiyons - all offering tree house accommodation, and, for the less adventurous and bug haters like myself, bungalows. Most of the hotels (or all of them) offer a room, breakfast and dinner included in the price so it's actually a pretty good deal. The pansiyons are not located right on the beach because of the Lycian ruins but it is a beautiful walk to the beach. You have to pay to use the beach (but its really cheap) and that ensures the protection of the ancient buildings. As you walk to the beach, you will see ruins: walls, houses, bridges etc and if you venture further back in to the foliage you will find streets, more houses, some mosaic floors, tombs, an ampitheater and a very impressive gate. The ruins have never formally been excavated and it's very interesting to explore the ancient city in the state that it is in now, without any reconstruction.

The Chimera Flame

I love Olympos, not because there are tons of activities to do, but because there aren't. It's a good place to hike, relax and swim. There are boat trips available as well as sea kayaking (great fun but hard work). At night people can walk to the Chimera - a place which has natural, continuously burning fire coming out of the rocks. It's pretty cool. I've heard stories of people coming for a day and ending up spending weeks there - it's just that great.