Ölüdeniz to Kabak: The First Taste of the Lycian Way in 2–3 Days

If you only ever walk one piece of the Lycian Way, this is the piece. The trail climbs out of Ölüdeniz and Ovacık onto a high coastal balcony, runs along the rim of Butterfly Valley with paragliders spiralling down from Babadağ, drops into the cliff-edge village of Faralya, and finishes in the pine-backed cove at Kabak. This site's best-sections ranking puts it first, and it is the section most people mean when they say they have "done a bit of the Lycian Way".

It also happens to be the easiest section to organise. The start is a short minibus ride from Fethiye, there are pensions at Ovacık, Faralya and Kabak, and the Fethiye bus station serves all three villages, so you can bail out or finish wherever you like. This guide puts the two- and three-day versions together from the stage pages, the town pages and the transport notes published by the Culture Routes Society.

How the stages are numbered here

The stage pages on this site count the route from Fethiye:

Kabak sits roughly halfway through stage 3 — the trail drops steeply from Faralya to Kabak bay, then climbs through maquis to Alınca. Two waymarked coastal variants belong to the same corner: the Faralya → Karaağaç coastal loop (3.1 km, 362 m, about 1.5 h), a slower seaward line that rejoins the main path above Kabak, and the Kabak → Boğaziçi coastal path (6.6 km, 819 m, about 3 h), which keeps west of the ridge instead of climbing inland with the main route and is rougher underfoot.

The western-route page describes the same ground with a night in Kayaköy between Ovacık and Faralya. Both descriptions are of the same waymarked line; the difference is only where you choose to sleep.

Getting to the start

Fly to Dalaman. The Havaş shuttle runs to Fethiye centre in about an hour; a pre-booked transfer to Ovacık or Ölüdeniz takes about 1 h 10 min. From Fethiye the dolmuş to Ovacık runs every 20 minutes and takes about 30 minutes; the Ölüdeniz dolmuş runs every 15 minutes. Details are in the getting-there guide and the Fethiye and Ölüdeniz town pages.

Ovacık is km 0 of the waymarked trail and the sensible place to sleep the night before: quiet village pensions with breakfast included, a seven-minute drive uphill from Belcekız beach. Fethiye is bigger and has the shops — Decathlon, outdoor shops, a Tuesday market, pharmacies — so many walkers spend an afternoon there, buy what they forgot, and take the dolmuş up to Ovacık for the night.

The two-day version

Day 1 — Ovacık to Faralya (14 km, ~5.5 h). The stage page calls it spectacular and demanding: a relentless 4 km of switchbacks up Babadağ, a high plateau of farmland and beehives, then the descent past the Butterfly Valley viewpoints to Faralya. The warnings are worth taking literally — start early, expect wind on the exposed ridge, and carry 3 litres because water is limited between Ölüdeniz and Faralya. The water-sources guide lists a çeşme at Kirme, a spring above Belcekız that runs only in spring, and the village supply at Faralya.

The famous "look down" over Butterfly Valley is a five-minute detour off the marked path on the cliff edge. The trail itself does not go down into the valley; the Butterfly Valley page explains why the rope-and-cable descent is not recommended and how to reach the beach by boat instead.

Day 2 — Faralya to Kabak (~8 km, ~4 h). The 7-day beginner itinerary describes this as an easy first day to wake the legs: a descent, a small ridge, and Kabak. The day-hikes page is blunter about the gradient — shorter but steeper, through pine and terraces to the cove — and the stage page warns that the descent to Kabak beach is hard on the knees. Poles help. If you want to slow the morning down, take the coastal loop to Karaağaç first. Swim, eat at one of the cliff pensions, and either sleep in Kabak or take the bus out.

The three-day version

Two ways to add a day, for two different kinds of walker.

Add it at the start. Walk stage 1 from Fethiye to Ovacık — 14 km through pine forest, past the Lycian rock tombs above the town, with the first views down to the lagoon. It is a moderate warm-up, but note the stage warning: the first 3 km out of Fethiye are steep, and Fethiye is the last major town for several stages, so shop before you leave. This version suits people who want the trail to begin where the guidebooks say it begins.

Add it at the end. Climb from Kabak to Alınca (about 9 km, 5 hours). The beginner itinerary calls the zigzag out of Kabak the hardest hour of the week and says to do it before 9 am; after that it is a high ridge path with the sea on your left for hours, finishing in a tiny mountain village with a couple of pensions and terrace dinners at sunset. Alınca has no shop and, once you drop below it, no phone signal for hours, so this is an extension for people who already walk in hills. Getting out again means a pension-arranged transfer or walking on; the 7-day itinerary continues from here to Gey and Patara if you find you cannot stop.

If neither appeals, spend the third day in Kabak. Nobody has ever regretted it.

Where to sleep

• Ovacık — simple hiker-friendly pensions; the mainstream hotels are in Hisarönü and Ölüdeniz below.
• Faralya — George House and Melisa Pansiyon are the long-running cliff-edge places named in the accommodation guide; Faralya Misafir Evi is listed on the stage page. Faralya and Kabak are also the trail's eco-lodge corner, where two-night minimums are common in peak months.
• Kabak — Mama's, Reflections and Lapa Bungalows are named on the accommodation page; Kabak Natural Life is the camping option on the stage page. The seasonal beach camp closes in winter.
• Alınca — Bayram's, and the very basic, very atmospheric pensions the beginner itinerary lists (Cengiz's, Doğa Camping, Mehmet's).

Book 5–10 days ahead in late April–May and October, when most pensions have fewer than eight rooms; walk-ups usually work in March and November, but many places are closed from December to February. Pensions are usually priced per person with breakfast and dinner, and most are cash-only — see money and connectivity.

Getting back from Kabak

The Culture Routes Society's transport page lists frequent services from the Fethiye bus station to Ölüdeniz, Faralya and Kabak. This site's own pages describe the same thing from the walker's end: the day-hikes page finishes the Faralya–Kabak walk with "swim, and bus back", and the beginner itinerary notes that dolmuş minibuses run the parallel coast road, so a sprained ankle puts you on a bus within half an hour. Pay in lira. If you finish in Alınca, ask the pension to arrange a transfer taxi — that is how on-trail taxis work along the whole route.

Is the path open?

The Culture Routes Society keeps a route-updates page for the Lycian Way. When we read it on 6 September 2026 it carried entries from 2017 and 2020 and a note about fake waymarks, but nothing for Faralya, Kabak or Tektaş. Treat it as unverified: ask your Faralya pension the evening before, follow any diversion painted on the ground, and check our route-updates guide for anything newer. The Society says the whole route is kept current on OpenStreetMap, which is what the offline app draws from.

When to go, and what to carry

The stage pages give the best months as March–May and October–November. June and early September are workable with an early start; July and August are not walking months on this coast. Carry 3 litres on the Ovacık–Faralya day, 2 litres on the Kabak day, a hat and long sleeves, proper boots rather than trail runners for the Kabak descent, cash for the bus and lunch, and the offline map loaded before you leave Fethiye — even this well-marked section has junctions without paint. The navigation guide explains the three-layer system.