Things To Do in Calis Beach

Every half an hour, riverboats leave Calis Beach for Fethiye Harbour. This 30-minute coastal trip lands you at the busy shopping area of the old town, where shops selling jewellery, beachwear, souvenirs and designer clothes are grouped together near the bars and restaurants. And if you’re here on a Tuesday, you can haggle for leather goods, linens and crafts at the riverside market.

Calis Beach sits across the bay from Fethiye town. It’s a busy place that's well-stocked with sunloungers for rent. Meanwhile, out on the water, the windsurfers and kiteboarders stake out their spot. As for eats, the promenade is packed with bars and restaurants serving up cold beers and chicken kebabs.

Along the promenade from Calis to Fethiye town, restaurants and cafés serve Italian, English and traditional Turkish cooking – try the local gozleme, a doughy pocket filled with shredded potato, herbs and minced meat. You can also opt for al fresco dining right down on the beachfront, where menus feature steaks, pasta and pizza. It all goes down great with a cool Efes lager and the early-evening sunset across the bay.

You’ll find this cheery bar inside the family-run Nil Motel – it’s where locals and tourists go for a glass of Efes lager and a view across the bay. It’s a friendly spot where some nights the waiters do Turkish dancing on the tables. There’s a darts board and live sport on the big TV, plus steaks, salads and chicken dishes to accompany your drinks.

A 15-minute drive from Calis Beach gets you to the Lycian Rock Tombs – there are a dozen of these grand buildings, carved into the cliffs above Fethiye. It’s 199 steps to the biggest tomb, Amyntas, and here you can get up close to where ancient Lycian kings were buried. On your way back, stop off at the restaurant at the bottom of the stairs for panoramic views of all the tombs.

Take a seat at Oludeniz Beach for this popular paragliding and base jumping festival. Hundreds of daredevils from 30 different countries come here to show off their airborne skills. They jump from the 700-metre-high Babadag Mountains, and you can watch all the flips and multiple tumbles as they drop down to a soft landing on the beach. The event is free to watch and runs for five days.

The bars lining the beachfront at Calis Beach are decent laid-back options for a quiet drink. Over in Fethiye, things get livelier. Here, the bars morph into nightclubs as the evening progresses, with traditional Turkish music gradually giving way to higher-volume disco and pop. Car Cemetery Bar is a busy choice where house band Burhan Kutbay play lively Turkish rock. Deep Blue Bar is another town-centre favourite.