Beach Hopping along the Turquoise Coast

By this time we were already in love with Turkey.
Aaaand then we rolled into Kaş and this cemented the love affair. 
I mean, come on!

Kaş is a small beach town with fantastic restaurants, great shopping (Turkish towels!) and charming side streets. Almost every hotel looked a little like this...

Give me flowers or give me death!

If you're into seafood, Kaş has got you covered. Our favorite meal was the lamb. Jacob (love him) asks so many questions when we go out to eat. Ordering the lamb was no exception. He asked a few questions and confused the waitress. It came out and was honestly the best lamb I have ever tasted. I complimented the waitress on it and she replied, "So good your husband has no more questions!" Yeah, it was that good. :)

In between all of the eating and shopping, we hopped on a boat tour for the day. We ended up being some of the only foreigners on the trip so we high-fived ourselves for hanging with the locals. (I'm fully aware that by using the phrase "hanging with the locals" completely negates my high five privileges.)

While it's common to do a multi-day Gulet tour, I tend to get a little sea sick (I know, I'm the coolest), so we opted for a day tour that we booked through our hotel.

The water was fantastic and clear, we saw dolphins and swam with sea turtles all while docking at different locations throughout the coast. Most people were brave enough to jump from the boat, I was proud to graduate from a life jacket to a pool noodle. Winning.

Kaputaş Beach

Thus began our beach hopping down the coast. First up was my personal favorite, Kaputas Beach. While it is a bit rocky, the water is impossibly clear and the secluded (yet busy) cove lessens the intense waves. 

 Patara Beach

Patara Beach, while less picturesque as Kaputas, has great waves, better sand and much more space to spread out (11 miles worth). Umbrellas were cheap to rent for the afternoon with plenty of other facilities nearby.

Fethiye and Ölüdeniz 

It was really cool to see the hangliders fly in the sky above Ölüdeniz. I'm still kicking myself for not doing it! By the time we decided to do it the winds had picked up too much. 

This part of the trip was a little disappointing to me. All of the pictures you see of this area are breathtaking, but they are aerial shots. If you don't plan on getting up in the air somehow, I would skip it. 

And with that, we hopped on a bus to Pammukkale!

Driving along the Turquoise Coast

After exploring Cappadoccia, we took a hellish overnight bus (tip: pay the extra money and just fly) to Antalya for a road trip along the coast.

So... we rented a car and didn't have a working GPS, running on low sleep after said overnight bus, so without our wits we got extremely lost and bailed on seeing anything in the congested Antalya city center.

Once we got out of the city, the road trip (which consisted of really only one highway) was a bit smoother. Below is some of our stops along the way.

Mount Chimaera

In Lycia is the highly flammable and constantly spouting fire Mount Chimaera.  When methane and other natural gases in the mountain reach the air through cracks in the mountain, the gases turn immediately into flames. One mountainside is covered in spontaneous flame bursts. The flames typically from the same place so you don't have to worry about playing Fire Whack a Mole with your life.

The man, the myth, the legend. The mountain draws fans of the mythical Chimaera, a monster with fire breathing skills. So, welcome to the legend.

Myra

Along the famed Lycian Way is the ruins in Myra. The Turkish are fond of carving things into mountains it seems.

Myra also houses an ancient Greek-Roman amphitheater that was built before 141. Things here are so old.

Also in Myra is St. Nicholas Church (or the artist most commonly known as Santa Claus).


With that, we ended in the beautiful Kaş!