Fethiye to Dalaman Airport Transfer

02

The road: the gulf, the Göcek tunnel and the Dalaman plain

Leaving Fethiye for the airport, you are on the D400 heading north-west, the reverse of the road most visitors came in on. For the first part it runs around the inside of the gulf, a wide, well-made road with glimpses of the bay on one side and pine-covered slopes on the other, and in normal traffic it holds a steady pace. Just past the Göcek turn-off it passes through the Göcek tunnel, a little under a kilometre long and opened in 2006, which carries through traffic under the ridge rather than over the old pass. On the far side the road works its way down to the Dalaman plain, and the airport turn comes a little further on.

The tunnel is tolled, which matters to anyone driving a hire car rather than to a transfer passenger, and it costs no time in itself: you are inside it for about a minute and then on the way down towards the plain. What is worth knowing is that it is a single link with no quick alternative. Any closure, or roadworks at either portal, sends traffic round a slower way, so if you hear of work on the tunnel approach in the days before you fly, say so when you book and the pickup will be set earlier.

Göcek itself is not on the main road. The village, its harbour front and its marinas lie below the D400, reached by a short spur that drops to the water, so a pickup there is the 25 km to the airport plus a few minutes of village street. Everything else on this page joins the D400 at Fethiye, which is why the town's own traffic is the main variable on the way out.

03

Leave-by times for each part of this coast

Plan the day backwards. Start from the departure time on your ticket, take off the terminal time your airline asks for, then the drive, then a small allowance for getting the cases out of the room and the car onto the main road. The times below assume you want to be at the terminal about three hours before an international departure, a common working figure for a summer flight; if the deadline on your own booking is shorter, the pickup moves later by the difference. The driving figures are the same ones used on the arrival pages, measured from Dalaman Airport along the same road in the opposite direction.

Çalış has no figure of its own on this site. It lies on the bay a short way north of Fethiye harbour, and the Fethiye time serves it well. Ovacık is next door to Hisarönü on the same plateau and shares its line. If your address sits well off the main road, up a lane in the hills or at the far end of a beach strip, add a few minutes and tell us when you book, so the pickup reflects the address rather than the name of the resort.

• Göcek and its marinas — 25 km, about 30 minutes: leave roughly three and three-quarter hours before take-off.
• Fethiye town, the harbour and Çalış — 50 km, about 50 minutes: leave about four hours before take-off.
• Hisarönü and Ovacık — 62 km, about 55 minutes: leave about four and a quarter hours before take-off.
• Ölüdeniz and Belcekız — 65 km, about an hour: leave between four and a quarter and four and a half hours before take-off.
• Domestic flight: the terminal time is shorter, so ask when you book and the pickup will move later.

04

The hill road down from Ölüdeniz and Hisarönü

Ölüdeniz is at sea level, beside the lagoon and the long curve of Belcekız beach. Ovacık and Hisarönü sit above it on a small plateau at the foot of Babadağ, and the road between them climbs steeply for a few kilometres, bend after bend, with few places to pass. From the plateau it then runs down the other side towards Fethiye before meeting the D400. For a departure, all of that comes first: within five minutes of leaving an Ölüdeniz hotel you are on the steepest and slowest part of the whole journey.

In daylight the climb is unremarkable. In the small hours, or behind a minibus or a delivery lorry grinding uphill, it is where the minutes go, and no driver hurries a dark mountain bend with a loaded car. That is the honest reason the Ölüdeniz leave-by time carries more slack than the extra three kilometres over Hisarönü would suggest. The descent towards Fethiye is a long series of curves as well, so anyone who suffers on bends should take the front seat and get some fresh air, ideally before the car has even left the hotel drive rather than halfway down.

Hisarönü has its own quirk. The centre is a strip of bars and restaurants that stays busy late into a summer night, and a pickup at one or two in the morning can meet the tail end of it on the main street. If your hotel or apartment is on or just off that strip, a meeting point on the edge of it is often quicker for everyone than a car edging through the crowd, and the driver will agree one with you in advance.

05

Early charters and departures in the small hours

A large share of what leaves Dalaman in summer is holiday flying, charters and leisure airlines working the routes back to northern Europe, and plenty of it leaves early. Put a six o'clock departure together with the leave-by figures above and the car is outside an Ölüdeniz hotel at around a quarter to two, which is less an early start than a night without sleep. Nothing about the road is harder at that hour; it is usually emptier. What changes is everything around the car: hotels running on a night porter, villas with no one to ask, and a family trying to find passports in the dark.

The road being quiet is not a reason to trim the plan. The quieter drive tends to be balanced by the terminal end, because an early charter wave brings a great many people to the same desks at the same time. Keep the margin, and use the evening before to remove the things that go wrong at night.

• Settle the room account and hand back anything borrowed the evening before, not at the desk on the way out.
• Ask reception whether the gate or front door is staffed at the hour of your pickup, and how to open it if not.
• Keep passports, tickets and the booking reference in hand luggage rather than in a case that goes into the boot.
• Make sure the phone you gave us at booking can take a call or a message that night, wherever it is registered.
• Ask the hotel the day before about a packed breakfast; that is their decision, not something the transfer can arrange.

06

Villas, apartments and pickups away from a hotel

Much of this coast is self-catering. The slopes around Ovacık, Hisarönü and the hills behind Çalış are full of private villas, many of them up narrow lanes with no street number, steep drives and a gate that only the owner knows how to open. A hotel name is enough for any driver; a villa name usually is not. The single most useful thing you can send is a map pin dropped at the gate itself, not at the nearest junction, together with the villa's name and any directions the owner gave you on arrival.

Say also whether a larger vehicle can actually reach the door. A van for a villa party of seven fits most lanes; a 16-seat minibus does not always, and the better plan may be to bring the luggage down to the road. Self-catering departures have their own loose ends as well, keys to hand back, a final check with the owner or the agency, and the pickup should be set after those, not on top of them.

Göcek adds a different kind of address. If you are coming off a yacht or a gulet at the end of a charter, give us the name of the marina and, if you know it, the pontoon or quay. The village has several marinas and a municipal harbour front, and a car waiting at the wrong one is the same as no car at all.

• A map pin at the gate or the door, and the villa or building name.
• Whether the last part of the lane is steep, narrow or unsuitable for a van or minibus.
• Any key handover or check-out with the owner that has to happen before you leave.
• For Göcek, the marina name and the berth or quay rather than just the village.
• The airport code and terminal printed on your ticket.

07

The vehicle, the price and how to book the run

The price is fixed per vehicle for the one-way run from your address to Dalaman, agreed when you book and shown on each route page, so it does not change with the traffic on the night or with how many seats are filled. The vehicle is what changes it. The Economy van takes four passengers with four pieces of luggage, the Standard van seven with seven, First Class six with six, and the 12- and 16-seat minibuses are there for villa groups and families travelling together. Count bags and passengers separately: a party of five with a pushchair and a set of dive bags is a van, not a car.

A return pickup, waiting time or an extra stop on the way are not part of a one-way fare, but each can be arranged when you book, and it is far easier to set them up in advance than on the morning. If you are booking the arrival as well, ask for both legs together, so the departure is already in place before you land.

Dalaman has two terminal buildings a short walk apart, one for international flights and one for domestic. Your terminal is on your booking confirmation; give it to us with the reservation so the car goes to the right doors. Booking is through the form on this site or WhatsApp: send the pickup address or pin, the date, the flight number and its departure time, and the number of passengers and bags, and we will reply with a pickup time and a fixed price.