Antalya To Fethiye By Car – A D400 Coastal Road Trip

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Antalya: to drive or not to drive; that is the question. Well, we’re big fans of public transport in Turkey and Fethiye to Antalya by bus (and vice versa) is a perfectly simple (and cheap) exercise.

But when we went to Antalya in March we decided to take a hire car with us so we could drive back to Fethiye along the spectacular coastal D400 road.

Antalya To Fethiye By Car On The Coastal D400

Sometimes, it’s just great to be able to have the freedom to make stops wherever you please and take your time as you mosey on home to Fethiye.

And the D400 is packed with places to make stop offs. You could spend weeks exploring this area as you pass coves, beaches and expanses of Mediterranean. There are mountains galore, holding, amongst other ancient treasures, Lycian and Roman ruins such as the ruins of Phaselis in Tekirova.

The D400 road is the 21st century version of the historic Lycian Way; these days, one of the world’s top long distance footpaths.

City Centre Driving

Driving in Turkey is a dream – once you’ve somehow negotiated your way out of the city centres. In city centres, signposts point the way – in every direction except the direction you need to be going in.

And Antalya is no exception. It took us some time to exit the city as we circled the centre, being diverted for roadworks just as we thought we’d cracked it and then finding ourselves back where we started.

At one point, we followed a one-way road with cars parked along both sides for around half a kilometre only to reach a dead end at the bottom. No warnings that this was about to happen and nowhere to make any sort of attempt at a 25-point turn.

Simitçi To The Rescue

As I huffed and puffed and rammed the car into reverse, a simit seller on the path that was creating our boundary between parked cars and the main road we needed, came to our rescue.

The cart was pushed to one side and he guided us over the lowest part of the kerb and onto the walkway. He then took himself off into the middle of the busy road, stopped the traffic and waved us onto our road out of the city.

Thank you Mr Simitçi. See, even amongst the stress and hassle of Turkish city centre driving, there’s usually someone around to put a grin on your face.

Peaceful Mountain Roads

But once you exit the city, it’s happy days, and for us, the D400 coastal road takes some beating in the dramatic beauty stakes.

Our East Turkey road trip was memorable for the high plains and the vast empty roads that stretched beyond the horizon. The Antalya to Fethiye road trip is memorable for sheer drops plunging into the sea and winding roads that repeatedly climb high into the mountains before falling back towards sea level.

On this particular drive, we were hoping to head down to Olympos. Unfortunately, after the harsh winter, we’d heard there might still be flooding down there, so we pressed on. Soon after, way down below us, we saw a bay; an idyllic-looking spec in the distance.

“That must be Adrasan. Let’s go and see.”

There are pros and cons to all modes of transport but one of the advantages of having a car occasionally is the ability to take off down mountain roads.

Lost Again

We’ll tell you about Adrasan in our next post because, for this post, we’re driving. The view you can see above is another happy lost photo. We’re in the Kumluca area of the Antalya region here and I had driven back along what I thought was the same road we had entered Adrasan Bay by. But no.

Not sure how we manage this but, once again, we’d somehow missed the road we needed.

No worries though because we had time on our hands, we had amazing scenery like this. And the beauty of the D400 is, if you’re heading from Antalya to Fethiye and the sea is to your left, you know you’re heading in the right direction.

GPS told us we were around Kumluca and that was good enough for us.

Historic Sites

Along many stretches of the D400, especially between Antalya and Fethiye, it’s just you, the road and the sea.

After a stop off at Adrasan and a minor detour, our mountain side road eventually spat us back out onto the D4oo and we decided to make another stop off at Demre, home to the Lycian and Roman site of Myra and, of course, home of the church and tomb of St.Nicholas.

It was 9 or 10 years since we had last visited the site so it was time to reacquaint ourselves.

After our beach break at Adrasan and a fill of history and culture at Myra, this twisting coastal stretch of tarmac heads high into the mountains; lush greenery on either side of you.

Take A Detour

If you have time on your hands, detour back to the coast to take in the pretty village of Üçağız. From here, you can take a short boat ride to Simena and around Kekova sunken city.

Back up to the D400 and now the road widens for two lane traffic. Eventually, straight ahead of you, is the town of Kaş.

Make A Pitstop

As nature was calling, we also decided to make a quick pit stop in Kaş, too. Well, we love this town so we don’t need too much of an excuse to spend even just a few minutes here.

Kaş is home to its own Lycian tombs, the Antiphellos theatre and achingly pretty Greek architecture framed with tumbledown bougainvillea. It ticks all the picture postcard boxes, shall we say and is always good for an overnight stay.

Turkey is a huge country and Antalya to Fethiye really is just a short jaunt across a small section of the south coast. But the history and the beauty that is bubbling and overflowing from this area makes it worth so much of your time.

More History

Of course, Kaş is not the end of our road; it was just our final stop off before we hit the home straight to Fethiye.

Even in that home straight, the Lycians, Greeks and Romans make their presence felt as we pass mountains and flat lands that house Letoon, Xanthos, Tlos and the Patara ruins.

These are all sites we’ve dipped into numerous times over the years – we’re blessed that they’re so local to us. And there are more besides. But, if you’re driving this route as a one-off, it’s a tough decision as to which stop offs you’re going to make.

And Beaches

Oh yeah, and don’t forget you’re going to need to pull over so you can take photos of the picturesque wonder that is Kaputaş Plajı.

We said this route is famous for hikers who come to trek the Lycian Way. It’s also famous for drivers who enjoy the scenery of the D400.

And we have also done this route, from Kemer to Kekova and back again by gulet. So, if you’re more of a seafaring person, perhaps the gület route will suit you, too.

Antalya To Fethiye On The D400 – Useful Information

• The D400 coastal road is the ‘long route’ between Antalya and Fethiye. If you are not making any stop offs, it is quicker to use the more direct yayla D350 road that goes through the mountains. If you are travelling direct by bus from Antalya to Fethiye (or vice versa), this is the route to take.
• Antalya Fethiye journey time along the D400 by car is around 4 hours 30 minutes.
• The Batı Antalya ‘Sahilden’ bus between Antalya and Fethiye plies this route. Use it for travel to towns and villages along this coast.
• The full D400 route begins in Southeast Turkey at the border with Iran and heads west, along the coast, until it reaches Datça.

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