Antalya Airport → Demre Transfer

Two of the best-known sights on this coast stand a few hundred metres apart in Demre: the church where Saint Nicholas was bishop in the fourth century and, at the edge of town, the rock-cut tombs and Roman theatre of ancient Myra. Everything between them is greenhouse — Demre grows tomatoes the way Finike grows oranges, and the plastic runs right up to the ruins. From the old harbour at Andriake, boats cross to the sunken ruins of Kekova and the castle village of Kaleköy. Three sights, one small plain, and a town that has arranged itself around the traffic they bring.

As far as Finike the drive is the familiar coastal run; after that it changes. The D400 leaves the shore, climbs over a headland in a sequence of tight bends with the sea far below, and comes down into the Demre plain between the greenhouses. Budget roughly 125 minutes for the 155 km. It is those bends rather than the distance that passengers remember: twenty minutes of them, rock on one side and open water on the other, at whatever pace the vehicle in front sets. Once the road is down on the plain, the last few kilometres into town are flat and quick.