We took a day trip to Oludeniz, which is a beach resort area just 30 minutes from Fethiye. It is very popular and renown for parasailing and its turquoise waters - hence its name translated means 'Blue Lagoon'.
At the advice of our Airbnb host, Arzu, we headed to the Sun City Resort which offers private access to the beach off the lagoon area. There was an entrance fee for it, which was 30 TL for Alex and I to get in and included chairs and an umbrella. However, if we had gone to the public beach we would have gotten free access, however we would have had to pay for chairs/umbrella rental and it is more crowded. The only catch with the resort-route is that you can’t bring your own food or drink. Alex asked the attendants and they ended up letting us bring in some of the food we had packed for the kids, but they said we would need to purchase our food there. However, when lunchtime arrived we went to see what they had for food, but you had to eat it in the café; which it wasn’t worth pulling the kids away from their beach fun. So we bought a couple bags of potato chips as a snack and then ate our sandwiches later on the way home.
The area was nice and quiet so we enjoyed our time there. The beach was shallow for a fair distance so the kids could go out into the water comfortably, and there were no waves. As we were playing on the beach we could watch the parasailers float down from the sky over the blue lagoon. I think technically we were a little off the area that is technical the ‘blue lagoon’ but overall more quiet and enjoyable.
Paddle Boating
The resorts along this section rented paddle boats. Even though it was a bit costly compared to most other things, we rented a paddle boat with a slide on it for 1 hour for 80 TL (about $15 CDN). We paddled out to the middle and took turns going down the slide. They had kids life jackets too, which was perfect! It was actually a ton of fun. After the first 50 minutes of trying to convince Clara to try the slide, I showed her that wearing her floatie around her waist would prevent her from going under water, which was finally enough to convince her. She did it once and then she wanted to do it again and again! Unfortunately at that point time was up! Our son also enjoyed the paddle boat ride and going down the slide - and just swimming out in the water...with mommy and daddy, of course.
Our Airbnb hostess Arzu said she was also going to the beach with her son, so she met us there in the early afternoon. She was very kind and touched base with us about the place because we hadn’t met in person upon checking-in. She even brought the kids a little beach snack. She provided us some good information about things to do and even offered to meet us in Kaykoy in a couple of days to show us it, but unfortunately our schedules didn't align. Her Airbnb is filled with all kinds of pieces of art from different areas of the world, as she used to work on a cruise ship. She shared with us that she had been to over 40 countries so far!
Lycian Rock Tombs - Amyntas Rock Tombs
The kids actually kept in pretty good spirits this beach day and probably could have lasted a little longer, but we thought we probably should try to get our son to take a little nap. We didn’t end up leaving until almost 3 p.m. and before we even got to the end of the road that the resort located, he fell asleep. We knew if we went back to the apartment as soon as we tried to take him out of his car seat he would wake up, so we went for a little drive to the Lycian Rock Tombs just up the hill from the Old Town in Fethiye.
These are the Amyntas Rock Tombs, which they have dated back to the 4th century B.C. It was pretty amazing to think of them creating these tombs in the side of the rock cliff faces that long ago. They even designed the tombs to resemble certain other Lycian temples of that time. We paid the 5 TL entrance fee -just for the adults - and started the stair climb up to the King Amyntas tomb (at that point our son had woken from his cat nap). It was steep but not too terribly long - our daughter was able to climb up all on her own as well. We not only got to see the tomb up close (including inside, which was very basic and plain), but a great view of the city and harbour below.
Old Town Fethiye
We headed to the Old Town after and spent quite a bit of time just looking for a parking spot. Finally a car in front of us pulled out. (There were a couple of vehicles that had just parked in the second lane of traffic behind the row of parked cars against the curb. I guess they had given up on finding a spot - ha ha!) Sometimes we take a chance with traveling to places where we don’t know the language, so we didn’t realize that the parking spot we had taken was paid parking. Luckily as we started to walk Alex saw someone who looked like a parking attendant and asked if he needed to pay - they went back and took care of the transaction.
Fethiye Bazaar
As they were doing that, the kids and I looked over and realized that we had parked right next to where we wanted to go without even knowing it - we found Umbrella street!
This is one of the lane ways of the bazaar in the Old Town of Fethiye. There are several modern shops in the streets outside of it, but in the inner lanes of the Old Bazaar the shops tend to be more touristy - selling authentic items and spice, fruit and Turkish delight vendors - with some clothing and shoe vendors mixed in.
There are also several restaurants; we stopped to have dinner at the one entitled “The Duck Pond.” Connor was quite intrigued and loved looking at the ducks in the little water area below. Several times during the meal he would look for them and saying ‘duckie duckie’ over and over again. It was a hit with the kids.
After dinner we stopped for some ice cream (5 TL) and then went to one of the spice/fruit stands. They have everything there from Turkish delight, gummies, and tea to dried fruit and nuts.
We decided to get some of the dried fruit and nuts as snacks. The kids also tried some of the samples of the Turkish Delight and really seemed to like it.
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