Dalaman

Dalaman is not really a town: it is the way into Turkey's turquoise coast, an airport set between pine mountains and a sea of improbable blue. The lagoon at Ölüdeniz Nature Park is the picture everyone knows, with paragliders drifting down from the ridge above it. İztuzu Beach runs for almost five kilometres of pale sand and closes at night so loggerhead turtles can come ashore to nest. Offshore, boats move from one cove to the next through the Göcek Islands, with a swim between anchorages. Inland, a mountain torrent threads Saklıkent Gorge between walls hundreds of metres high, shallow enough to wade up on foot. The coast is an open-air museum as well: Lycian tombs cut high into the cliff at the Amyntas Rock Tombs, the ruins of the Ancient City of Kaunos above the reed beds. The villages behind live off pine honey, dark and resinous, sold by the jar at the markets.