Kaş vs Kalkan: Which Lycian Coast Town Suits Your Trip?

Choose Kaş if you want a town with plenty to do on foot: diving, boat trips to Kekova, the ferry to the Greek island of Meis and a busy harbour in the evening. Choose Kalkan for a quieter holiday in a villa or small hotel, with the best sandy beaches of this coast close by. Kaputaş is 7 km away and Patara 16 km. The weather does not decide it: the two towns are 27 km apart, and the sea off each was never more than half a degree apart in any month we checked.

Kaş and Kalkan sit on the same stretch of the Lycian coast in southwest Turkey, and many people treat them as one place. In one sense they are: since 2013 Kalkan has been a neighbourhood of Kaş municipality. On the ground they feel very different. To compare them, we measured road distances from both towns to the airports, beaches and sights. We looked at ten years of daily records from the Kaş weather station and three years of sea temperatures off both towns, and we checked entry fees and seasonal rules with official sources.

The short answer

Here is how the two towns compare on the points that usually decide a booking. The detail follows below.

Two different towns

Kaş is a real town that also happens to be a resort. About 9,100 people live in the town itself, and around 64,000 in the whole district. The harbour has fishing boats, dive boats and the ferry to Meis. Narrow lanes run up behind it with bars, small shops and restaurants, and they stay busy until late in summer. Kaş also stays open in winter, which is not true of every resort on this coast.

Kalkan is smaller, with about 3,900 residents. It is a former Greek fishing village whose old centre of white houses and bougainvillea has grown into a much larger area of villas and apartments on the slopes above the bay. Evenings are about long dinners on rooftop terraces rather than bars. Many visitors come back year after year, and a good share of them are British.

Beaches: Kalkan is closer to the sand

Neither town has a long sandy beach in the centre. Swimming in town means a pebble cove or a beach club built on the rocks, with ladders straight into deep, clear water. The two famous sandy beaches of this coast, Kaputaş and Patara, are both much closer to Kalkan.

Patara deserves a full day. The beach is one of the longest in Turkey, and loggerhead turtles nest on it. Entry is through the gate of the ancient city of Patara, which costs €15 for foreign adults in 2026. From May to the end of September the beach is closed to the public from 8pm to 8am to protect the nests, so plan to leave before dark.

Things to do: Kaş has more on the doorstep

Kaş is the better base if you want to fill your days without driving. It is the main diving centre of this coast, and its dive sites lie inside the Kaş–Kekova Specially Protected Area. In season, boats leave the harbour every morning for Kekova and the sunken city, where the remains of an ancient town lie in shallow water beside the island. You can book a Kekova boat tour from Kaş in advance or at the harbour. Paragliders take off from Asas, the mountain above the town, at around 650 m. In town, the Hellenistic theatre of ancient Antiphellos sits on the western edge, free to visit, looking out to sea.

From Kaş you can also take the ferry to Meis, the Greek island of Kastellorizo, which lies just offshore. The crossing takes about 20 to 30 minutes and runs all year, daily in summer and less often in winter. Fares are roughly €20 to €30 each way. You need your passport, and because Meis is in the Schengen area, the usual Schengen entry rules apply to your nationality.

Kalkan is better placed for the sights inland and to the west. Patara, the Lycian site of Xanthos and the Saklıkent Gorge are all closer to Kalkan, and a day trip to Saklıkent from Kalkan is easy to arrange. The Lycian Way long-distance trail passes both towns, so you can walk sections from either. The table shows driving times from each town.

Both towns hold a weekly market: Kaş on Friday and Kalkan on Thursday.

Getting there

Most visitors fly into Dalaman, which is 27 km closer to Kalkan than to Kaş. Antalya Airport has far more flights, but it is about three hours from either town. There is no direct airport bus to either town. Havaş buses run from Dalaman to Fethiye, where you change to a local minibus, so most people book a transfer or rent a car.

Between the two towns, minibuses run frequently all day along the coast road, which takes under half an hour by car. If you want to see Patara, Saklıkent and Kekova, a car makes the trip far easier; see our guide to car rentals in Turkey.

Weather and sea: identical

The towns share the same climate, so weather should not decide your choice. The table uses the official Kaş weather station for air temperatures and satellite-based sea temperatures from just offshore of each town.

Two things stand out. July is the hottest month, with highs of 35°C (95°F) or more on 25% of days, and the sea peaks in August at about 30°C. And the sea in October, at about 26°C, is warmer than in June, which makes late September and October one of the best times to come.

Where to stay

In Kaş, most visitors stay in small hotels and guesthouses within walking distance of the harbour, or in villas and larger hotels on the Çukurbağ peninsula west of the centre. In Kalkan, the main choice is between a hotel or apartment near the old centre and harbour, and a villa on the hillside, often with a private pool and a sea view. The town is steep, so check how far the walk back up is from the restaurants before you book. See our Turkey where-to-stay guide for more.

Which to choose

If you can, stay in one and visit the other. A few nights in Kaş for the boats and the evenings, then a few in Kalkan for the beaches, covers the best of this coast. Our guide to Turkey’s beaches covers the rest of the coast.

FAQ

Sources and checks