Antalya → Marmaris Transfer

Antalya to Marmaris private transfer

Marmaris is the far limit of what an Antalya transfer reaches, so anyone booking it generally has a reason worth half a day. Most often it is a boat: the blue-cruise gulets and the charter yachts load at the marina, and a cabin comes with a date on it. Hotel changes are next, with the second half of the holiday booked round this bay at Marmaris or İçmeler after a fortnight on the Antalya side. Then there is the catamaran to Rhodes, which turns the drive into the first leg of a Greek trip. And some come for the town: the castle, the bazaar lanes under it, the quay where all of that begins.

The first three hours are the Fethiye road and they are the uncomplicated part — the D350 out of the city, the uplands around Korkuteli and Elmalı, the descent through Seydikemer into the Eşen valley. Then the second half starts. The route passes Göcek and its tunnel, crosses the flat farmland at Dalaman and Ortaca, skirts the reed beds of Köyceğiz lake and at last climbs the Sakar pass before winding down into the bay. 325 km, 4 hours 15 minutes; add a break and it is effectively half a day on the road. Two long climbs instead of one is what sets this apart from the Fethiye run.

• Four hours changes what belongs where: medication, chargers and anything a child will want before Köyceğiz should travel in the cabin and not in the boot.
• If a boat is the destination, give the berth or the quay rather than the town — the Marmaris waterfront runs for kilometres and the wrong end of it is a long push with a trolley.
• Leaving after lunch means arriving in the dark and taking the Sakar descent at the very end of the day, so a morning start buys a much better afternoon.
• The Sakar pass is the one place on this route where winter rain genuinely costs time, so in December and January treat 4 hours 15 as the good version.