Dalaman Airport → Ölüdeniz Transfer

Dalaman Airport to Ölüdeniz private transfer

Ölüdeniz is booked for what comes into view from the top bend of the road: the lagoon, sheltered from the open sea by a curving spit of shingle and sand that leaves only a narrow channel, and the long beach at Belcekız where paragliders launched from Babadağ come in to land one after another. Most people who fly into Dalaman for this resort are here for the water, the sky or both. What matters for the transfer is a plainer question: where exactly is the room? Some hotels sit on the flat ground behind the beach road, a short walk from the sand. Others are stepped up the slope behind, or stand along the ridge in Ovacık and Hisarönü, and those answers change the last stretch of the drive.

The whole transfer is 65 km and takes about 60 minutes. From the terminal the car joins the D400 heading east, runs through the Göcek tunnel and carries on over the wooded hills to Fethiye. There it leaves the main road, turns south and climbs out of town through pine woods to Ovacık, with the bars and shops of Hisarönü just off to one side. After the crest comes the part everyone remembers: a chain of tight bends cut into the hillside, the lagoon showing between the trees far below. By day it is a view. After a late flight it is a slow, careful descent in a low gear towards the lights of the beach front.

• Give the hotel's full name and say whether it is down on the beach road or up the hill, because 'Ölüdeniz' on a booking covers both and the final turn is different.
• The bends below the ridge are tight enough to unsettle a queasy stomach, so seat whoever suffers on mountain roads in the front and ask the driver to take it gently.
• A few hotels face the Belcekız promenade rather than a street, so ask yours before you fly which entrance a car should stop at.
• On the day you leave, the climb back over the ridge comes first, and a pickup from the hotel for the flight home can be arranged when you book.