Turkey
Olympos
Lycian ruins tangled in wild fig roots where a forested valley opens onto an empty beach.
The path to Olympos beach passes through the ruins of a Lycian port city: columns wrapped in wild fig roots, sarcophagi tilted at odd angles in the undergrowth, stone walls held together by the grip of climbing plants. The forest canopy closes overhead, then opens suddenly onto a long beach where the Mediterranean runs out flat and glassy to the horizon.
Olympos was a major Lycian port that faded through the Byzantine era and was finally abandoned by the 15th century. Ticket kiosks stand at both entrances, but inside, the ruins are unfenced and largely unexcavated; you walk through them, over them and around them on your way to the sea. Tree-house camps and eco-lodges fill the valley behind, where power stays scarce and lights stay low. The beach at the valley's end runs some four kilometres, and the eternal flames of Yanartaş burn one valley over, a 30-minute uphill walk from neighbouring Çıralı. The Lycian Way threads through it all.
Solo
Sleep in a treehouse camp, walk through ruins no one has tidied up for tourists, and hike to the eternal flames at dusk with nothing but your own footsteps for company. Olympos self-selects for travellers who prefer rawness to polish.
Friends
The camps are communal by nature: shared breakfasts under the pines, evening fires, cold beer on the beach after exploring ruins all day. The kind of place groups remember twenty years later.
- The ruins are unfenced inside the site; one ticket covers the ancient port and the beach beyond it.
- Simple eco-camps and tree-house lodges shelter under the pines along the valley; power stays scarce and lights stay low.
- The beach at the valley's end runs some four kilometres, reached on foot through the ruins.
- The eternal flames of Yanartaş burn one valley over, a 30-minute uphill walk from neighbouring Çıralı.
Yörük kebabı, lamb or kid braised slowly with pearl onions, beans and noodles.
Cillincop, roasted flour and tahini worked into halva with grape molasses.
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