Beaches in Turkey

Over seven thousand kilometres of coast on four seas, each behaving differently. The Aegean is indented, pine-backed and island-scattered; the Mediterranean south coast is the resort belt with the long sand and the large hotels; the Black Sea north is green, wet and barely visited by outsiders; and the Sea of Marmara is the industrial one. Loggerhead turtles nest along the southern coast and protected beaches there carry lighting and vehicle restrictions from May to September. The season runs April to October, and the country's beach economy is built on very high-capacity hotels concentrated around Antalya. Ölüdeniz, Patara and Kaputaş on the south-west coast are the beaches the country is best known for internationally. Kaputaş, at the mouth of a gorge on the road between Kaş and Kalkan, is reached down a stair of nearly two hundred steps, and Patara nearby is eighteen kilometres of sand with a Lycian city behind it.