Yali Beach Hotel

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I returned last month from Kalkan in Turkey, determined to write something to encourage others to visit this charming town nestling in the mountains between Kas and Fethiye.
We stayed at the Yali hotel (booked through Tapestry), approximately 700m from Kalkan harbour, and the old town, which afforded beautiful views of Kalkan along the bay. The hotel has a beach club with rock platforms leading straight into the turquoise water, which has a great reputation for snorkelling, with a good number of fish, and even octopus close to the shore.
Although the distance from town could be a problem for some, taxis are inexpensive - however, we chose to walk into town each day, just to justify the amount of delicious Turkish food we ate! Apparently there are over 220 restaurants in Kalkan, and my only regret was that I couldn't try them all. Of the ones we did visit, the Aubergine cannot be recommended highly enough. With it's position directly on the harbour front, it is a little more expensive than some of those further up the hillside, but still much better value than a similar meal in the UK: the salmon en-croute was perhaps the best meal I have ever eaten (although my husband contests this in favour of their steak!). In all restaurants the staff were very friendly, and their proficiency in both English and German put me to shame. Maybe it was because it was the end of the season and trade was not quite so busy, but their generosity did not go unnoticed - a bowl of Turkish delight while we paid the bill, teas and coffees on the house, and on our last night we even got presented with a bottle of Turkish wine to take home. Fantastic!
In Kalkan itself we found the atmosphere to be very relaxed, and once I learnt to deal with the over-eager shopkeepers, it was easy to spend hours browsing round the tiny shops hidden within the maze of back streets. However, there we also found plenty to do in the area, when we wanted to explore. We took the local dolmus service to Patara beach: 18km of sand rising into dunes, backing on to yet more mountains. The scenery was beautiful, made all the more special by the fact that most people set up their sun loungers by the cafe at the entrance to the beach, leaving the remaining 17.5km of sand virtually untouched.
On an organised excursion, we visited the Lycian ruins and tombs at Tlos (the Tapestry Guide was very knowledgeable and provided a great historical perspective), and then on to Sakklikent Gorge, the longest in Europe. It was very cold to wade through the thigh-high water to gain entrance to the gorge, but worth it.
By the time we left Kalkan on 30 October, the season was over: it was taking that bit longer for the sun to burn away the early-morning cloud, and the hotels were shutting for the winter. There should have been no reason to stay - other than the fact I wasn't ready to leave! Kalkan had worked its charms on me, and as we got on the plane, I could already feel the pull to come back.