Mersinli Deresi

From Bodrum we were undecided as to how best to approach the trip along the turquoise coast of Turkey. Similarly to our experience in Sicily and Albania, we expected that the public transport options would be quite limited. Especially between the key places we’d highlighted on the map. Each place was between 50-100 km apart with a handful of locations between that could be hidden gems or nothing at all. We figured the best way would be to hire a car to get from Bodrum to Fethiye and then rent an apartment for a few days. A home base while we explored the coast in different directions each day.

The experience of hiring the car from Bodrum was a saga in itself. Long story short, Bodrum airport is nowhere near Bodrum itself. We needed to catch a bus for an hour before arriving at where we’d hired the car, but on arrival, we couldn’t find the car rental company or even contact them. Turns out their office and car yard aren’t even at the airport. Once we were finally picked up and taken to the office we began to realise the whole company was dodgy. We ended up with a car completely out of fuel and with different details on the contract than what we’d agreed. All issues that exacerbated the fact we’d already wasted so much of our day finding the place.

Once we were finally on the road we decided to head straight to Fethiye. Our apartment was a fantastic top-floor place with a balcony, kitchen and heaps of space. Exactly what we wanted for a few days in the same place. We’d booked it for 3 nights which was perfect for us to settle in and get some routine back into our schedule.

Out of every beach location we’d been to recently, Fethiye had by far the most signs of life. Most bars/restaurants were open and there were quite a lot of people along the waterfront. We found out while we were there that the town has become quite popular with British tourists and expats. With an increasing number of party boats have set up their operations in the area to capitalise on the growing market. We kicked back and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with a shisha along the beautiful waterfront.

It turned out that having a car was a great choice. While the nearby areas are serviced by local buses (or Dolmus as they’re called), having our own car gave us the flexibility to explore further and to our own schedule.

Our plan was for the next 2 days to explore further east down the coastline and capitalise on the last couple of days of sunshine in the forecast. By now deep into Autumn our sunny days and warm weather were definitely becoming scarce.

On our last day in Fethiye before making our way back towards Milas to drop off the car we went up to see the Rock tombs. Like something straight out of an Indiana Jones film these “tombs” are giant temple-looking facades carved into the cliff face. And apparently the grave sites of ancient occupants of the area. It turns out that there are several of these sites all along the coast of Turkey.Read more