Marmaris, Dalyan and Sarıgerme to Dalaman Airport Transfer

02

Marmaris and İçmeler: the long run over the hills

Leaving Marmaris, the car climbs north out of the town through pine-covered hills before it meets the main highway. This opening stretch up to the Gökova junction is the curving part of the trip, with gradients and bends that do not reward hurrying. Once the junction is behind you the road turns east onto the main highway, passes Köyceğiz and its lake, then carries on through Ortaca to the airport turn. The distance is what makes the run long; the climb out of town is simply the part that asks for the most care.

İçmeler adds its own small complication. It sits a few kilometres west of Marmaris round the curve of the same bay, so every departure from there first has to come back through Marmaris before it can start climbing. Early in the morning that is a quick run. On a summer afternoon, with the streets busy, buses turning and people crossing towards the beach, those few kilometres can take longer than their length suggests, which is why the İçmeler leave-by time sits about a quarter of an hour earlier than the one for Marmaris town.

If anyone in the party is unsettled by bends, prepare for the hill section rather than the highway. It comes at the very start, often before breakfast and sometimes before dawn, when nobody has quite woken up. A front seat with a view of the road ahead, fresh air from an open window or the vents, and no screens until the climb is over all help. Mention it when you book, and tell the driver at the door; on a private car a short pause in a safe lay-by is easy to make.

03

Leaving a yacht or gulet in Marmaris

Marmaris is a sailing town as much as a beach resort, and some of the people heading to Dalaman from here are coming off a boat rather than out of a hotel. A charter week usually ends with the crew needing the vessel back early on the last morning so it can be cleaned and turned round for the next group, which leaves passengers ashore with their bags hours before a flight that may not leave until the afternoon. Check the disembarkation time in your own charter agreement before you book the transfer, because it, not the flight, may decide when you want to be collected.

The marina is also a harder place to be found than a hotel lobby. Pontoons are long, gates are controlled, and the name of a marina alone covers hundreds of berths. Give us the marina, the pontoon or berth if you know it, the name of the boat and a phone number that works ashore, and agree a single meeting point that a car can actually reach, usually the marina entrance or a car park beside it rather than the end of a jetty. Sailing luggage is awkward too: soft bags, oilskins, a box of leftover provisions, sometimes a guitar or a folding bike. Count it as pieces when you book.

If there is a long gap between leaving the boat and needing to leave for the airport, there are two ways to handle it. Either set the pickup for the flight and arrange your own few hours in town, or tell us when you book that you want collecting straight from the quay and ask whether waiting time or a stop on the way can be added. Neither is assumed in the fare, which covers the one-way run, so it is worth settling which you want before the last evening on board.

• Marina name, pontoon or berth number and the boat's name.
• A meeting point the car can drive to, agreed in advance.
• The disembarkation time from your charter agreement, alongside the flight time.
• Every soft bag, sail bag, bike or instrument listed as a separate piece.

04

Dalyan: getting a car to the riverside streets

Dalyan is built along its river, facing the rock-cut tombs of Kaunos on the cliff across the water, and the town's character comes from that frontage: boat quays, restaurants with tables at the water's edge, and small hotels and pensions tucked into lanes running back from the bank. Those lanes are the one awkward part of the Dalyan departure. Some are narrow, some are busy with people walking in the evening, and some end at a point where a larger vehicle cannot turn. The drive itself is short and simple, out along the side road to Ortaca and then onto the highway east to the airport, so the time that matters is the first few hundred metres.

The fix is to decide the exact pickup point in advance rather than at the door. If your pension is on a lane where a van would struggle, agree to meet on the nearest wider street and say how far that is from your room with the cases. If you are staying somewhere outside the centre, among the orchards and fields on the edge of town or on the far side of the river, describe the access when you book, including whether the last part is reached by road at all. A pin dropped on a map and sent with the booking saves a phone call in the dark.

• Dalyan to Dalaman Airport: 30 km, about 35 minutes.
• Name the street, not just the hotel; small pensions share similar names.
• If the car cannot reach the door, agree a meeting point it can reach.

05

Sarıgerme: a short drive and a long checkout

Sarıgerme is the closest of these departures by a wide margin: 20 km and about 25 minutes. That nearness has a way of misleading people. The resort hotels along the beach here are large, their grounds spread out, and a family with small children rarely gets from the room to the front entrance in the time they planned. The cases have to come down, the room account has to be settled, the pushchair has to be folded and found, and a child has usually gone back for something left by the pool. Plan the morning around that rather than around the drive.

Families should tell us the ages of the children when they book, so the right seats are fitted before the car arrives rather than requested at the kerb. A pushchair, a travel cot or a bag of beach toys is a piece of luggage for this purpose and changes the vehicle a party of five needs. Ask the hotel the evening before whether the account can be settled early and whether there is somewhere at the entrance to wait with bags, because on a busy changeover morning several families are leaving at once.

• Give the hotel name and say which entrance the car should come to if the property has more than one.
• Child seats by age, requested at booking.
• Pushchairs, cots and large beach bags counted as pieces of luggage.

06

Night flights, dawn pickups and the empty road

Plenty of holiday flights leave Dalaman early in the morning or late at night, and the departure transfer follows them. From Sarıgerme or Dalyan that means a pickup that is early but not drastic. From Marmaris and İçmeler it can mean a car at the door in the small hours, which is a different kind of morning: let the night staff know beforehand that the gate and front door will need opening, ask about a packed breakfast when you settle the bill, and have everything in the lobby before the agreed time rather than at it.

The upside of an early start is the road. The hill section out of Marmaris is quiet before sunrise, the streets between İçmeler and Marmaris are calm, and there is less traffic on the highway past Köyceğiz. The drive is not faster on bends in the dark, but it is more predictable, and predictability is what a departure needs. Late-afternoon runs in high summer are the less comfortable version, with more traffic around Marmaris itself and a warmer car for longer, though nothing on this route compares with a big city crossing.

07

Vehicles, the two terminals and what to send us

Match the vehicle to the luggage as carefully as to the seats. Seats and luggage spaces run level across the fleet: Economy carries four people with four pieces, the Standard van seven with seven, First Class six with six, and the two minibuses twelve or sixteen with a matching number of pieces. A family of four leaving Sarıgerme with a pushchair and a cot has six pieces, not four, and a sailing crew of six with soft bags and provisions boxes needs space well beyond the count of suitcases. Moving up a class adds a set amount to the standard fare; the prices page lists each step.

Dalaman has two separate buildings: the larger international terminal, used by flights leaving Turkey, and the older, smaller domestic terminal for flights within the country. They stand close together, but the driver needs to know which one to pull up at. The terminal is on your booking, and it is worth confirming once more in the days before you travel.

The fare covers the one-way run from your address to that terminal. A stop on the way, a second pickup in another town, a return leg later in the holiday, or time spent waiting while a boat is handed back can all be arranged when you book; tell us what you need rather than assuming it is included.

• Pickup address or marina berth, and the town.
• Date, flight number and departure time.
• Number of passengers, children's ages and every piece of luggage.
• International or domestic terminal.
• A phone number that will answer on the morning of the flight.