What is the Lycian Way? A captain’s view

The Lycian Way is a coastal walking route running between Fethiye and Antalya. It was Türkiye’s first waymarked long-distance path and it is still the best-known one. Sources give figures between 500 and 540 kilometres for its total length, and there is no full agreement on the number of stages either. The reason is simple — fire and landslides move the path from time to time and the route gets remarked. So if you are looking for a “definitive” number you will not find one, and that is not a shortcoming.

I am not someone who has walked the whole route. My boat leaves from Çayağzı, and one section of the Lycian Way passes through exactly the water I work in. This piece is about that section.

The part of the route that crosses our coast

Aperlai, Üçağız, Kaleköy, Gökkaya, Çayağzı and Myra — all of them are on this route. For walkers this section has a place of its own within the whole path: the density of ancient cities and the sea being permanently in sight are things you do not get elsewhere.

But in practice it has a problem.

There is no road between Üçağız and Çayağzı

This is a fact that touches a walker directly. The road option for reaching Üçağız from Demre is 35 kilometres of mountain road, and the single bus leaves at eight in the morning and comes back in the evening. In other words the bus times fall on either side of a walking day, not inside it.

The result: anyone who wants to walk this section either has to build the day around the bus, or solve it by sea. The second is not a luxury here — it is the only arrangement that works.

How it is done

The established method is this: you leave Üçağız by boat, pass over the Sunken City, stop at Kaleköy and go ashore at Gökkaya. From there you walk along the coast to Çayağzı. Guides put this day at around 14 kilometres in total, with no climb worth mentioning.

The real value of it is this: you end up seeing the same coast both from the sea and from the path. The bay you looked down on from the boat as you approached Gökkaya is the one you look down on from above two hours later.

It works the other way round too. We pick people up at the end of their walk from Kaleköy or Üçağız and bring them to Çayağzı.

Practical notes

• The waymarks are there. On this section the red-and-white paint is legible.
• Water. Do not expect a reliable source along the coast. Carry the day’s water with you.
• Shade. This path is largely open. Walking it in the middle of the day in July or August is not a good idea; setting off early is the only sensible plan.
• Season. Spring and autumn. Midsummer is hot, and winter is rainy and slippery.

What we do

We do these drop-offs and pick-ups as private charters, which means you choose the landing point and the time. Sending us the date and the number of people is enough.

Let me also say this plainly: I do not know enough to write about the whole of the Lycian Way, I can only describe the coast I work on. For the rest of the route, look at what people who have walked the path end to end have written — for this section, though, ask us, because we are out on this water every day.