Kalkan Turkey Forum - EnjoyKalkan.com
Totally Turkey => Other Resorts => Topic started by: Carrie on April 05, 2009, 07:31:13 PM
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I hope that I can post this information here ...In today''s Sunday times there is an article about my favorite place where I get a chance to spend 3 months over the summer here in Cirali
From today''s Sunday Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/europe/article6028623.ece?token=null&offset=12&page=2
Five secret holiday spots in the Med..
I quote from from the timesonline..
"OLYMPOS, Turkey
A holiday on Olympos beach comes with a double hit of charismatic mythology, from opposite ends of history. First, there is Cicero’s dazzling city of the ancients, settled by Lycian traders, Roman emperors and Byzantine corsairs, and now decaying romantically in its subtropical valley beside the shore. Then, two millenniums later, a new invasion lent the place fresh magic  as a haven for blissed-out hippies, who set up treehouse sleeping shacks and strung their hammocks along the same golden gorge.
Those backpacker camps remain, but today Olympos also caters for a better class of beach bum, in a clutch of quietly lovely family-run guesthouses at Cirali village, further along the beach. And what a beach  two straight miles of spotless sand and smooth pebbles, lapped by turtle-rich Turquoise Coast sea.
From the end of May until the end of June, the local loggerheads shimmy up onto the strand to lay their eggs  and this has helped to save Olympos from the disco dives and banana boats that blight much of this coast. Instead, the back road that snakes south from Antalya peters out into a seaside dirt track lined with laid-back, low-rise pensions swaddled in orange groves.
Flake out on the beach, by all means, but be sure not to miss the antiquities that are scattered casually all around. There is ancient Olympos, of course  a kind of free-range wilderness of broken bathhouses and shattered sarcophagi, draped in wild grapevines and fluttering with butterflies. But that’s not all: a hike from the beach leads to the Chimaera, the fabled flaming hillside where Bellerophon chucked molten lead into the mouth of a fire-breathing monster. Unsuccessfully, it would seem, for the mountain still flickers with gaseous flames. "
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/europe/article6028623.ece?token=null&offset=24&page=3
If you want to see a place were time has stood still in Turkey and experience what Turkey used to be like about 15 to 20 yrs ago before the influx of all-inclusive and package holidays of the last decade, then Cirali is the place for this..
Cirali is a great little village, nice clean beach and a mix of sand and pebbles, ruins of Olympos and the flames of "Chimaera" the world''s oldest and best-known natural "eternal flame".
No mass tourism or 5 star hotels. Just nice family own hotels and pansiyons. Small shops, quiet bars, restaurants, and no discos. It is more of a place for nature lovers and chilling out. It can be too quiet for some if you are looking for more in the way of and actiive nightlife..
my photos ;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/canmom/sets
Cirali is centrally located between Antalya and Kas and you can travel farily easily to visit nearby historical areas.
In Cirali there are ..boat trips, snorkelling, long walks, day trips to nearby Kemer or Kumluca to visit local markets, biking, and of course relaxation...not to mention the historical ruins to explore..plenty to keep ones self busy for a week or two.
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Carrie, Thanks for the article the area looks great. It is always good to read about other places that aren''t to far away from Kalkan. I know a few of the strollers went to Arykanda recently which also looks fascinating. A flaming mountain has been added to my must see list.
Cheers
Bevjam
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Hi Bevjam...glad that you enjoyed the article..and hope that you visit the flames of the Chimaera one day..and Arykanda is a wonderful historical site to visit..my family and I visited there in 2006..and there was no one else around while we were there..it is one of the less travelled historical sites along the coast but well worth it..they were doing excavations while we were there as well..