The Butterfly Valley in Turkey is one of the most picturesque Turkish beaches in about 5 km from Oludeniz. This beach is hidden between high cliffs. They’ve spread apart forming a small valley with a sandy and pebble beach. The Butterfly Valley can be seen from different angles – from one of the high cliffs and from the sea. The views from these angles are different, but both are magnificent. The Butterfly Valley beach is often compared to Maya Bay in Thailand. Since we’ve visited Maya Bay, we decided to find out whether they are really as similar as people write about it.
General information about the Butterfly Valley beach
Since February 8, 1995, the Butterfly Valley has been declared a protected area. Since that time, building has been completely prohibited there. There are no hotels and almost no infrastructure. But it is still possible to stay overnight on the Butterfly Valley beach. Official camping is allowed here – we could see a few colorful tents. There are also wooden bungalows, as the locals call them. But to tell the truth, they look more of barns, where there is nothing but 2 bed-resembling structures.
How did the valley get its name? Because about 30 years ago, biologists discovered many butterfly species here. But unfortunately, since then there have been no more butterflies here than in any other region. However, the valley’s beautiful name remained. So, if you want to see a variety of butterflies here, I must disappoint you – there are no butterflies here. We didn’t see a single butterfly.
But the inner part of the valley is magnificent – gross vegetation, as well as a small waterfall at the end of the valley. In takes just 40 minutes to walk to it in both directions. But although it is called a waterfall, in fact, it’s a small 3-meter-long stream. Since we were pressed for time, we didn’t go to look at it. If you arrived at the beach by sea taxi, you won’t need to pay extra to visit the waterfall; for all the rest – the admission costs 5 liras.
How to get to the Butterfly Valley in Turkey
You can reach the Butterfly Valley by 2 different ways, mainly – by sea.
Fantastic viewpoint from Faralya village
If you want to see the Butterfly Valley beach from above, from a bird’s perspective, you should take a road from Oludeniz along the mountainous part towards Faralya village. From Fethiye and Oludeniz, you can take a dolmush – a minibus that runs to Faralya village. Ask to stop at the Faralya village welcome sign. You don’t need to reach the village itself. If you travel by yourself on a scooter, a car, or an ATV, you should get to the highest point of the cliff, where you’ll see a sign welcoming you to Faralya. Next to it, there’s a small parking lot where there are always a lot of cars coming and going.
About 350-meter-high cliffs are unhedged at the seaside! You should be very carefully here. One careless step, and you may fall down. The cliffs are covered with large sharp stones, and of course, you can crawl down on them. But you should also be very careful. You can see the beach from any angle – so high the cliffs are. We went down the stones a little, leaving the sign behind. It was very scary. I think, I’ve never crawled on the cliffs at such a height and without fences and harness.
But the views from the cliffs are fantastic! You can see the entire bay with the blue-blue sea. It’s absolutely breathtaking!
Also, on this side there’s a passage to the beach that goes down the cliffs! We saw a couple who were just starting to descend. But it’s recommended using special climbing equipment for crawling on cliffs to descend. There’re steeps in some places, where your feet can slip easily! I don’t recommend using this way to get to the Butterfly Valley beach, unless you are an experienced mountain-climber.
I also want to add that I found the road from Oludeniz to Faraya by car, which we rented, quite scary. The mountain serpentine that goes upwards all the time. To the right, there are real high steeps into the sea. It takes just 10-15 minutes to drive, but the road is quite dangerous and beautiful at the same time. Adrenaline is what you’ll surely feel.
Sea way to the Butterfly Valley
The second – the main – option is travel by sea. From Belcekiz – the city beach in Oludeniz – you can get to the Butterfly Valley by a large ship as if from the movies about Jack Sparrow. There is also a sea taxi – a small boat for 15-20 people. On a large ship, tourists can travel around 6 islands. In fact, it’s just beaches and bays, with the Butterfly Valley being one of them. The ship stops in the bay for 1 hour only. By the sea taxi you can spend the whole day and even night on the Butterfly Valley beach.
We took the sea taxi. Departure time from Oludeniz is 11am, 12.30 pm, and 5pm. Back from the Butterfly Valley – at 1am and in the evening. Be sure to check the time as it sometimes changes. The travel time in one direction is about 30 minutes. It costs 30 liras per person roundtrip.
The rush hour in the Butterfly Valley, when it’s the most crowded, is from 11.30 am to 12.30 pm. It’s the time when all the tourist ships arrive here. After they leave, you can enjoy the more or less deserted beach. It depends on your luck.
We took on a small boat at 11 a.m. and saw both crowds and almost the empty beach, but for a short time. Indeed, the beach looks completely different when there are few people on it.
Our visit to the Butterfly Valley beach in Turkey
I’ll start by saying that we travelled in a small boat with 2 large dogs! And with a few people with large suitcases, who looked like they were going their overnight. The first impression was the beautiful high cliffs and the most common beach. Indeed, the impression was spoiled by a million people and a few ships. Later, when they left, my impression of the beach completely changed.
To begin with, we took a short walk around the beach area. I really liked it – lush vegetation, with decent paths for walking inside the valley. As I’ve already written, we didn’t go inside the valley since we were pressed for time.
We entered the beach closer to the right cliff when viewed from the sea. Since there were a lot of ships when we arrived, it was unreal and uncomfortable to swim in that part.
In the photo, you can see stones at the descent to the water. Besides, there are large stone slabs under the water. They are long and very slippery. I read about it on the Internet in advance. So, we took special aquashoes, which allow to safely step on underwater stones. Other people, who had no aquashoes, could barely enter the water, swinging every which way. This is a significant disadvantage of this beach. The water is much muddier than even on the city beach of Oludeniz – Belcekiz.
That was my first impression – I thought that one and a half hours we had here would be quite enough and absolutely couldn’t understand why people should spend a night here. But! As soon as all the ships left, taking the tourist crowds, we went to another part of the beach. And it was this part that I liked much more. Even more than that – I was absolutely delighted!
Here, you can lie in such a hammock with a beautiful sea view.
And the view is astonishing, isn’t it? You can still see a couple of ships on the left. But most of them have already left and there were almost no people. How beautiful! This is a kind of beaches I like.
Just look at the color of the sea here! I really enjoyed swimming in it. The beach looks similar, but how different the sea at its opposite ends is. Descending into the water on pebbles is quite uncomfortable. I would even say that it hurt me to walk on these pebbles. But, as I’ve already wrote, be sure to take aquashoes, and you’ll be golden!
It’s for this beach with turquoise water that you must come here! And even stay overnight. On the beach, there are a few cafes with delicious food. So don’t worry – you’ll always have something to eat.
In the photo above, there’s a cafe on a small cliff hill with an uncommon rise. It’s the right part of the beach, facing the sea. The valley behind is very photogenic. By the way, in another part of the beach, there are even sun beds with umbrellas and a shower.
We took plenty of photos while waiting for our sea taxi. It arrived at 13.00 sharp to take us back to Belcekiz beach in Oludeniz.
The sea taxi is a small motorboat. Since the travel time is half an hour only, it’s quite comfortable for this purpose. On the first trip, we were accompanied by a couple with a two-month-old child, as far as I could tell. It went well. The view from the boat while you are going to or from the Butterfly Valley is also very picturesque and beautiful.
When going from Belcekiz beach to the Butterfly Valley, the boat passes Kidrak beach, as well as a 5-star hotel with its own private beach — Lyberty Hotels Lykia.
I ended up being very pleased with our trip to the Butterfly Valley beach. It was very interesting to see this beach from above first, and then to visit its grounds, so to say. Does it resemble Maya Bay in Thailand? Yes, there’s a similarity for sure. But at the same time, it is 2 different beaches and 2 different bays in different countries. I think both are worth visiting. Fantastic views from above are breathtaking. And the turquoise water and magnificent cliffs make you enjoy this place on earth.