Turkey
Lycian Way
A 760-kilometre clifftop trail threading ruins, coves and pine forest above the Mediterranean.
The trail drops from pine ridge to cove in a single switchback, and suddenly you are standing on an empty beach with Lycian tombs carved into the cliff behind you. The Mediterranean stretches flat and blue ahead. Your pack is heavy, your legs are tired, and this is exactly the point: the Lycian Way earns its views one step at a time.
The Lycian Way is Turkey's first long-distance hiking trail, today way-marked over 760 kilometres from Fethiye to Antalya along the Mediterranean coast. Researched and waymarked by Kate Clow in 1999 and listed by The Sunday Times among the world's ten best walks, it follows Roman roads, old footpaths and mule trails through ancient Lycian cities, pine forest and remote coves. Sections range from sea-level coastal walking to mountain passes above 1,800 metres in the Taurus. Most hikers walk chosen sections of three to seven days, and the route passes through or near Xanthos, Patara, Olympos and Yanartaş.
Solo
A solo hiker's ideal: pension-to-pension walking with your pack, arriving at a village gözleme dinner as the sun sinks into the Mediterranean. The trail strips life to its essentials: walk, eat, sleep, repeat.
Friends
Pick a four-to-five-day section, split the weight, and walk through ruins and coves no road reaches. Shared exhaustion, cold swims and evening rakı bond groups through earned discomfort.
- Listed by The Sunday Times among the world's ten best walks.
- The trail passes through ancient Lycian cities including Xanthos, Patara and Olympos.
- Sections range from coastal walking to mountain passes above 1,800 metres in the Taurus range.
- Most hikers walk selected sections of three to seven days rather than the full 760 kilometres.
Finike portakalı, the seedless orange grown on the coast the trail crosses.
Gülüklü çorba, the Alanya soup of rice, chickpeas and tiny meat dumplings.
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