What is the Lycian Way?
The Lycian Way (Turkish: Likya Yolu) is a roughly 540-kilometer waymarked long-distance hiking trail that traces the coastline of ancient Lycia, on the Teke peninsula in southwest Turkey. It runs from Ovacık, near Fethiye and Ölüdeniz, in the west to Geyikbayırı, near Antalya, in the east, threading between the Mediterranean Sea and the Taurus Mountains.
Waymarked in 1999 by Kate Clow, a British-Turkish walker and guidebook writer, the Lycian Way is widely regarded as one of the world's great long-distance walks — it was named among the top ten by The Sunday Times not long after it opened, and it remains Turkey's most complete and best-documented trekking route. The trail is marked with the familiar red-and-white paint blazes used on European GR-style long-distance paths, so navigation, while still demanding in places, is more manageable than on unmarked routes.
Unlike a single attraction, the Lycian Way is a corridor: it strings together beaches, pine forest, limestone cliffs, and more than a dozen ancient Lycian cities — including Xanthos, Letoon, Patara, Pınara, Myra, and Olympos — with modern coastal villages where hikers resupply, sleep, and swim.
Quick facts
| Length | ~540 km (335 miles) |
| From → To | Ovacık/Fethiye (Ölüdeniz area) → Geyikbayırı, Antalya |
| Waymarked | 1999, by Kate Clow |
| Waymarks | Red-and-white paint blazes |
| Full traverse | ~25–29 walking days |
| Difficulty | Moderate to challenging |
| Best season | Spring (Mar–May) and autumn (Sep–Nov) |
| Cost to hike | Free (some sites/beaches charge separate admission) |
| Nearest airports | Dalaman (DLM) for the west, Antalya (AYT) for the east |
Why hikers choose the Lycian Way
Few trails anywhere combine turquoise swimming coves with two-and-a-half-thousand-year-old ruins in the same afternoon. On a typical day you might climb through fragrant pine and maquis scrub, drop into a rocky bay for a swim, and finish walking among the tombs of a Lycian necropolis before dinner. The route also passes some of Turkey's most photographed landscapes: the Blue Lagoon at Ölüdeniz, the paragliding cliffs above it, the wild Butterfly Valley, the boulder-strewn bay of Kabak, the mountain village trails around Olympos, and the eternal natural flames of the Chimaera (Yanartaş) flickering out of the rock on Mount Olympos (Tahtalı).
Because the trail is way-marked and widely documented, it also works for hikers who don't want to commit to a multi-week expedition. Day walks, weekend loops, and week-long sections are all realistic ways to experience it — see our route and stages guide for how the trail breaks down.
Planning your trip
Most visitors fly into Dalaman for the western half of the trail (Fethiye, Ölüdeniz, Kabak) or Antalya for the eastern half (Kaş, Demre, Olympos, Antalya's Geyikbayırı finish). From either airport, dolmuş minibuses and intercity coaches connect to the trailhead towns. Full details, including which airport suits which itinerary, are in our how to get there guide.
Before you go, it's worth reading up on best time to hike and difficulty — summer heat and limited shade make July and August genuinely risky for long stretches — and on packing and preparation, since water sources are patchy in places and good footwear matters on the trail's rockier sections.
Guided or independent?
The Lycian Way is walkable independently with a good map, GPS track, and guidebook, and thousands of hikers do exactly that every year. Others prefer the structure of a guided itinerary, especially for the full traverse or for sections with tricky logistics (baggage transfer, water caches, or accommodation booking in smaller villages). We compare both approaches in guided vs independent. If you'd rather have the logistics handled, Safaryar Holidays runs guided Lycian Way and wider Turkey trekking tours, and lists coastal hotels near the trail for hikers who want a comfortable base before or after their walk.
Where the trail fits
The Lycian Way sits within Turkey's wider outdoor-travel landscape alongside destinations like the Pamukkale travertines further north, which many hikers combine with a Lycian Way trip as a contrasting side excursion. For everything else on the trail — stage-by-stage detail, accommodation options, and the full FAQ — use the links throughout this guide or jump straight to the map and FAQ.
Whether you're planning a single afternoon around Ölüdeniz or the full month-long traverse, the Lycian Way rewards preparation: a decent pair of boots, a printed or downloaded map, and respect for the Mediterranean sun.
A brief history of the trail
Before Kate Clow waymarked the route in 1999, the paths that make up the Lycian Way already existed as an informal patchwork of shepherd tracks, old Roman and Byzantine roads, and footpaths connecting coastal villages — many of them following routes that Lycian traders and travelers used more than two thousand years ago. Clow's contribution was to survey, connect, and consistently waymark this network into a single coherent long-distance trail, publishing the first guidebook and putting the Lycian Way on the map for international trekkers. That original survey work is still the backbone of the route today, even as sections have been re-routed over the years around erosion, development, and changing land access.
Who hikes the Lycian Way
The trail attracts a genuinely broad range of hikers: dedicated long-distance trekkers attempting the full traverse in one go, weekend visitors from Fethiye or Antalya walking a single day section, and travelers combining a few days of hiking with a wider Turkish coastal holiday. This variety is part of what makes the trail approachable — you don't need to commit to weeks of walking or elite fitness to experience a meaningful, well-documented stretch of it, and the infrastructure of villages and pansiyons along the way supports both extremes equally well.