Introduction to Beautiful Fetiye – Turkey

Fetiye is a small coastal city on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean Seashore, in a stunning mountainous region known as the Turquoise Coast. Fetiye is situated about halfway between Antalya, to the east, and Bodrum to the west. This places Fetiye about right in the middle of the Turquoise Coast, also known as the Turkish Riviera.

Like many of Turkey’s coastal towns and cities, Fetiye is ideally located on a spectacular, naturally well-protected bay that makes an excellent harbor for sailing yachts, fishing boats and boat tour operators.

In Fetiye’s case, the huge round bay is almost a completely enclosed circle, with just a small channel open to the sea. Right at that opening there’s a small island that practically closes the waterway, leaving just two considerably smaller channels at either end of the island for boat passages.

A densely-forested mountainous peninsula juts out around the southwestern end of the round bay, further protecting it from the open sea and weather. As a result, the large circular bay is generally so calm and still that it appears more like a lake, especially since it’s encircled by land the whole way around.

Not surprisingly then, Fetiye’s long waterfront has not one, but several, large marinas filled with boats of all kinds. At the far southern end is a private yacht marina. Abutting that is a long marina full of commercial tour boats that take visitors out for various island and bay trips.

Then a few rather small marinas are set up in various spots along the waterfront to accommodate smaller local boats.

Fetiye’s exceptionally long rounded waterfront is actually divided into two curving arches by a marshy wetland that juts into the bay midway around the circle on the inland side.

South of the wetlands, the long curving waterfront runs for 6.5 km / 4 miles to the base of the hilly peninsula that creates the bay’s western shore.

The city government has done a superb job of creating a beautiful waterfront. It’s lined by a series of beautiful landscaped parks, wide open walking/cycling roads, groups of open-air restaurants & cafes and various marinas.

From the southern marinas up to the wetlands it’s more than a one-hour walk. This makes a fantastic and popular place to exercise, enjoy the spectacular ever-changing views and get immersed in nature, right in the city.

Running north from the wetlands is the 4-km / 2.5 miles long curve of Calis Beach, a rather narrow but pretty pebble beach that’s ideal for swimming due to its calm, shallow waters. This public beach is charmingly set with colorful woven reed sun umbrellas in bright blues, reds and yellows. They give the beach a unique, small-town charm.

The beach is backed by a very wide pedestrian / cycling walkway (a former car road) lined by low-key restaurants, cafes, bars and shops. Behind Calis Beach this section of the city is almost entirely residential, with a mix of homes, condos and small hotels.

At the far southern end of the vast bay, up against a steep mountain that plunges to the coast, Fetiye has a small historic district, government buildings, an archaeological museum and some significant ancient ruins up on the mountainside over-looking the city.

The remains of a stone castle occupy a low hilltop, hovering over the bay. The castle can be seen from most points in town.

Nearby, carved into a vertical cliff face, some 300 M up, are several ancient & regal Lycian cliff tombs. At the base of that mountain, back from the marina, is a Lycian outdoor stone amphitheater. The Fetiye Museum appropriately showcases artifacts found at the various Lycian archaeological sites.

Fetiye looks and feels more like a large town than a city. That’s due to several factors.

First of all, a surprisingly large portion of the city is residential. Amazingly, most of the long curving waterfront is backed almost entirely by houses and low 3-4-story apartment blocks.

The commercial and government district is a small area at the southern end of the bay, near the largest marinas and historic district. A few long streets are lined by a collection of shops, restaurants, cafes, banks and government administration buildings. That’s about it.

In addition, Fetiye doesn’t really have any tall buildings, which adds to the town feeling. Most are boxy 3-4 story buildings which are primarily tucked in under big leafy trees.

The city is evenly spread out along the 10 km / 6 miles long waterfront, so that no particular area seems very large or city-like.

There’s also a tremendous amount of nature and greenery, with the ultra-long waterfront, the vast expanse of water, the series of waterfront parks, the densely forested hilly peninsula at the southern & western ends, and a ring of more distant mountains that surrounds the city.

So no matter where you stand in Fetiye, looking around you see primarily nature, not buildings. In fact, if you look at photos of Fetiye or its vast bay, it’s rather hard to believe the photographer was standing in the middle of a city to take the shot.

Things to see and do in Fetiye

In the city

Probably the best thing to do in Fetiye city is to walk, cycle or sit along the waterfront. With its variety of marinas, restaurants, parks and ever-changing views, the long waterfront is worth visiting several times.

Historic and cultural attractions include the Fetiye Museum, Lycian cliff tombs, Lycian amphitheater and the hilltop Castle Ruins.

Finally, there’s long Calis Beach at the northern half of the bay.

Day Trips from Fetiye

Fetiye makes a fantastic base to explore the gorgeous Turquoise Coast to the north and south of the city. Some of Turkey’s most beautiful beaches, coastal roads, plunging deep bays, canyons and Lycian sites are located within one hour of Fetiye.

There’s also an interesting historic abandoned Greek mountain town nearby as well as the amazing, meandering Dalyan River that leads out to a stunning sand beach at the sea.

Fetiye also has dozens of tour boat operators that take visitors out to explore the bay, neighboring Greek islands and the stunning coastline cliffs, bays and beaches.

Visitors could easily spend one to two weeks exploring Fetiye and its surroundings. In fact, it took me two weeks to see everything. Personally, I think Fetiye is one of the best bases for exploring Turkey’s gorgeous Turquoise Coast.

There’s so many gorgeous sites to visit near Fetiye that I’m writing a separate article about day trips from Fetiye. Coming up next week!

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