Fethiye

A sandbar closes the mouth, so the water inside sits without waves. The lagoon side is a nature park and charges admission; the open beach costs nothing. The bottom is shingle, so something on your feet helps going in.

A vehicle takes you up to the launch and the flight is a tandem. If the wind is wrong the whole day is called off, so an early morning slot is the safer bet. Landing is on the sand at Oludeniz.

The Greeks left in the 1923 population exchange and nobody moved in after them, so every roof has fallen. Hundreds of them stand in tiers up the slope, walls and steps and nothing else. Parts of the stone paths have given way, so keep to the marked route.

A timber walkway is bolted to the wall as far as the mouth, and past its end you wade across to go further in. The water is cold and pushy, so you hold the rope line getting through. In spring the level rises and there are days when it is shut.

A Lycian tomb carved into the cliff face with columns and a pediment like a temple front. Over two hundred steps lead up from the town, and around sunset the face turns red.

Boats out of the harbour circle several islands in the bay and stop long enough to swim. Each has its own list of stops and its own timings, so ask which islands and how long before you pay. Some include lunch in the price and some do not.

One hill carries Lycian rock tombs, a Roman theatre and an Ottoman castle stacked on top of one another. The way up is steep and the footing is uneven and slick.

A long-distance path that starts at Fethiye and follows the coast. Walking the whole of it takes over a month, so most people take a day or two of it at a time. The waymark is a red stripe painted beside a white one on the rock.

From where the road ends you walk down the slope to the bay. Thirty minutes down and roughly twice that back up. A minibus runs from the top, though it stops in the evening.

The stalls sit in the middle with the restaurants ringed around them. You buy the fish by weight at a stall and pay the kitchen separately for cooking it, and that second charge covers salad and bread. Tables fill from early evening, so come before that.

A tiny beach valley boxed in by cliffs south of Oludeniz, usually reached by boat. Jersey tiger moths gather on its inner trees each summer, hence the name. The cliff path down from the village above is dangerous enough that walkers have been hurt falling.

Byzantine church ruins of the 4th to 6th centuries dot a small island west of Oludeniz. Scholars link it to pilgrims of St Nicholas, and traces of a roofed walkway between the churches remain. Boat tours pause long enough to climb to the summit.

Lycia's capital Xanthos, on a river southeast of here, is World Heritage together with its Letoon sanctuary. Its tombs perch on tall pillars; the Harpy Tomb's real reliefs sit in the British Museum. Groundwater floods Letoon's temple floor, now home to frogs.

The old market quarter in tight lanes behind the harbour, roofed with vine shade. Tea houses and restaurants slot in among carpet, leather and spice shops. It is busier after dark than by day, once the lane tables fill.

A long strip of mixed shingle and sand along the bay north of town. Facing west, it sees the sunset play out behind the islands. Water taxis from the harbour beat the bus there.

A small museum of sarcophagi and sculpture from the Lycian sites round about. A stele from Letoon carries one text in Lycian, Greek and Aramaic, a key to reading Lycian. An hour is plenty.