CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Fethiye it runs 292 km to Antalya; allow about 4 h 19 of riding. It goes by way of Kalkan, Kas, Demre and Kemer. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 900 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 28 km this is Turkey Lycian Coast D400, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Above the harbour at Fethiye the cliff has been carved into a Greek temple front. The tomb that Lycian craftsmen cut for a man called Amyntas in the fourth century BC stares out over the bay from about halfway up the rock, and once you have seen it you start spotting smaller tombs in the hillside all around the town. Fethiye sits on the site of ancient Telmessos, at the western end of the Lycian coast, where the pine-covered Taurus mountains drop into a wide bay full of islets. An earthquake in 1957 flattened much of the town, so the centre is modern, but the setting is lovely: a long waterfront with boats going out to the islands, and restaurants where you can pick your fish from the ice.
Read the complete Fethiye write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fethiye is where the day begins. Next is Kalkan.
Kalkan used to be Kalamaki, a Greek village, and the whitewashed houses that tumble down its hillside to a small harbour are the legacy of that older life. In 1923, when Greece and Turkey exchanged their populations, the Greek families left and Turkish families from the islands and mainland arrived to take their place, and the town's name was changed to a Turkish one that means shield, perhaps for the rock face behind it. Today Kalkan is a smart, small resort of about three thousand people, with narrow lanes, bougainvillea over the doorways and roof terraces that look out over the Mediterranean toward the sunset.
Read the complete Kalkan write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kalkan comes up about 80 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kas.
Kaş is a harbour town with a past that sits in plain sight. In the middle of the old town, carved into the rock above the road, is a Lycian tomb, a stone tomb cut like a house with columns and a pediment, some two thousand four hundred years old, and above the town on the hill there are more. The Lycians, a people of southwest Anatolia who spoke their own language and built their own cities, chose to bury their kings in high places so that eagles could carry their spirits away, or so the story goes. The Greek name of the town was Antiphellos, and there is a small Hellenistic theatre by the sea, which still looks over the water as it did in antiquity.
Read the complete Kas write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 108 km into the recorded legs you reach Kas. Next is Demre.
Demre is the modern town on the site of Myra, one of the great cities of ancient Lycia, and it sits in a flat, fertile plain between the Taurus mountains and the Mediterranean on the south coast of Turkey. A great cluster of tomb houses, cut into the cliff face above the old city around the fourth century BC, looks down on the town, their stone fronts carved to imitate wooden buildings, and a large Roman theatre stands at their foot. It is one of the most impressive ancient sites on the coast, and visitors are often surprised at how few people are there.
Read the complete Demre write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Demre, about halfway. Next is Kemer.
Kemer is a modern resort built on an old pine coast, and what makes it worth knowing is the mountain behind it. A few decades ago it was little more than a fishing village at the foot of the Beydağları range, but tourism has turned it into a lively town of seventeen thousand people with a long pebble beach, a busy marina and hotels from one end of the bay to the other. The setting is spectacular, though, with the dark, steep slopes of the Taurus coming down almost to the water and clouds sitting on the summit of Tahtalı, which at 2,365 metres towers above the town. A cable car climbs to the top of it, and in clear weather you can see across the gulf of Antalya.
Read the complete Kemer write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kemer sits at 312 km, late in the day. Next is Antalya.
Antalya makes a better end to a long coast ride than most cities deserve. The old harbour at Kaleiçi sits in a small cove below limestone cliffs, with Ottoman wooden houses, Roman walls and a fluted minaret, Yivli Minaret, standing as the symbol of the town. Hadrian's Gate, a triple arch of white marble built to honour the emperor's visit around AD 130, still serves as one of the entrances to the old quarter. King Attalus II of Pergamon founded the city in the second century BC, and its name comes from him, which shows how long people have wanted to live in this sheltered spot between the sea and the snowy Taurus mountains.
Read the complete Antalya write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 292 km.
Fethiye → Kalkan is 80 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kalkan → Kas is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kas → Demre is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Demre → Kemer is 95 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Kemer → Antalya is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.