The pretty riverbank town of Dalyan, 27 km (17 miles) west of Dalaman Airport (map), is quite different from other resort towns on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
People come for its setting on the placid Dalyan River, for the dramatic Lycian tombs hewn into the rockfaces that dominate the town on the west bank of the river, for the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Caunos, and for broad İztuzu Beach, a natural nesting-ground for Carretta Carretta (loggerhead turtles).
Upstream, on the shore of placid Köyceğiz Lake, is the Sultaniye hot springs, with their therapeutic (or at least fun) mud baths.
Many of the fields surrounding this farming town now grow new hotels, and the smooth-flowing creek is often thronged with excursion boats both local and from as far away as Fethiye and Marmaris.