Knidos and Datca

It's been about 10 years but liked both of them. I was on a sailing tour organized by a university visiting archaeological sites and Knidos was one of our stops. An interesting site with theatre, agora, house remains, harbour remains. There was nothing in the way of facilities at the site. It is pretty remote but there was a gravel road down to a parking lot. Good swimming in the bay.

Datca is an attractive resort town. We were there in October so it was closing down after the season. Again we arrived by boat and were there overnight. The town was pretty quiet but we found a great carpet shop and also a restaurant where we were introduced to pide, a type of Turkish pizza. I gather the area around the town has now become quite built up with holiday villages.

The area is worth visiting and Datca could be a good place to stay for visiting Knidos.

We went to Datca and Knidos last summer, at the end of our trek up the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

We arrived in Datca via bus from Dalyan, our previous stop. Dalyan is a pretty little town with lots of British tourists; it has lots to do, including riverboat rides to see the Lycian Tombs, and mudbaths, and Itzuzu Beach, where there's an interesting sea turtle rescue hospital. We stayed at the Kilim Hotel, which I can recommend.

Datca is much more low-key than Dalyan. It is a quiet little, beautiful town. We stayed at the Fuda Hotel, which is right in the center of town, on the beach. The hotel is a little tired and in need of refurbishing; however, it is clean and the staff is wonderfully helpful. The location can't be beat ... just a couple of blocks from the bus stop. The main thing to do in Dalyan is visit the ruins at Knidos. This is a huge archeological site. To get there, you need to rent a car, or take a fairly pricey taxi, or take a very cheap day-trip boat from the harbor. It's a long day ... I think the boat was 3 hours in each direction, and they give you lunch, and allow you time to visit the ruins.

Frankly the ruins at Knidos are not nearly as well restored as Ephesus. If you are only planning to see one archeological site in Turkey, it should be Ephesus. But if you want to see two (or if you've already seen Ephesus), Knidos is a worthwhile stop.

We visited in mid September and Turkey was having a heat wave, so it limited my enjoyment of Knidos. There is no shade, and it's a huge site with lots of walking. So time of year might affect your decision as well.

If you are interested in archeological sites, you can continue south down the coast to a third site, at Patara. We loved the little town of Patara; it has a huge stretch of sandy beach (11 miles?). You walk through the archeological site to get to the beach. It's much like Knidos, with little restoration. My favorite part of Patara was our hotel, Akay Pension. Very inexpensive. Very basic rooms (although they were planning to remodel the bathrooms this year). The kindest, most helpful hotel owner we have ever met (Kazim). And the finest food we had in Turkey. They offer one meal each night; at breakfast, Kazim tells you the menu and you choose to eat dinner there if it appeals. If not, there are other restaurants in town. Every meal we had there was better than the one before.