Patara is both an ancient Lycian city and the name of the beach located in southern Turkey next to Gelemish village far from Antalya, Kas, and Fethiye. Patara beach is fully sandy and very long. There are very few such beaches in Turkey, since most of Turkish beaches are pebbly. Patara Beach is covered by basic tours along this coast that include a visit to Kas and Kaputas beach.
Patara Beach stretches for 18 kilometers. In some places, it is 1 kilometer wide! There is almost always wind and waves. At the same time, there are many tourists with children on the beach. In the water, there are safety buoys, but it’s not deep here at all. Near the buoys, the water doesn’t even reach your head. It’s very shallow at the shore. And the shallow area is quite large, which children really like. They enjoy splashing, running, and jumping in the water. About 5-6 years ago, this beach was considered one of the best classic beaches in Turkey. The “classic” means a sandy beach. Visually, this beach with waves greatly reminded me of Kuta Beach in Bali. There, many surfers were in the water all the time. I didn’t find any surfboard rentals here. Probably, the local waves aren’t suitable for surfing.
Patara beach on the map
How to get to Patara beach
Patara beach is located 110 km away from Dalaman airport, 200 km from Antalya, 70 km from Fethiye, and 40 kilometers from Kas town.
There are a few ways to get to Patara beach:
- Dolmush
You can take a dolmush minibus to Patara. Be sure to tell the driver to drop you off at the turn to Patara beach. Usually, dolmush buses don’t reach the beach. From the turn, you can take another dolmush to the beach. A common way is to take a dolmush from Fethiye that run to Kas and Kalkan.
- Rented car
In Turkey, you can rent a car for different time periods, as we did. We rented a car for 2 days and got to all the Turkish sights and places of interest by ourselves. To get to Patara beach, you need to take highway D400. The roads are good. It’s a pleasure to travel around the country on your own! We drove about 1.5 hours from our hotel in Oludeniz.
- Taxi
If you want to travel comfortably and not to worry about where and how to go, or car rental, a good option for you is taxi.
Good hotels in Gelemish next to Patara beach in Turkey on Booking:
There are no hotels on Patara beach at all. Construction is prohibited here, because the beach is located in the National Park zone. The hotels closest to Patara beach are located in Gelemish village.
Entry fee and opening hours of Patara beach
You need to pay to enter Patara beach. At the same time, you can visit the ruins of the ancient Lycian town of Patara and then relax on the beach. A visit to the ancient city is paid separately. If you have time, I recommend wandering between the ancient ruins of Patara. A theater, A central arch, A central street, the Triumphal Arch, temples, and tombs remain in the ancient city. Excavations are still underway. I think it would be very interesting to wander in these places of the ancient Lycian town.
The entrance to Patara beach costs 15 liras; with a visit to the ancient city – 20 liras. For this money, you get a card that allows you to visit the beach 10 times. We were charged 20 liras for the entire car – 4 adults and a small child – and gave us a plastic card. After the ticket office we drove about 10-15 minutes more to Patara beach.
Opening hours from April to October – 8.00-19.00, from November to March – 8.00-16.45
Our visit to Patara beach
We decided to leave one of the days of our wonderful vacation in Oludeniz for a car trip along highway D400 at the Oludeniz coast towards Antalya. We planned to visit the following places – the famous Kaputas beach, small and cozy Kas town, and Patara beach. We reached Patara beach late in the afternoon on the way back from Kas to Oludeniz. I really wanted to see this beach, about which I had heard no less than about Kaputas beach. Patara is a beach with long sandy dunes. Of course, we didn’t manage to walk along the beach for long time. However, we could feel the atmosphere of this cozy beach with waves!
In 10 minutes after we passed the ticket office, we saw a parking lot for cars and scooters. We left the car here and went on foot. We walked along a beautiful wooden path right to the sea. They take care of the beach since it’s located in the National Park zone. The beach is open until 19 p.m. It’s forbidden to be here at night because of the turtles that lay their eggs on the beach at night.
There is a small cafe, sun beds, changing stalls, and a toilet on the beach. The beach is quite well-kept. In high season, there are a lot of people coming here both from nearby hotels and from afar, like we did, for example.
The water in the sea is a bit muddy because of the sand and numerous waves. The waves go nonstop one after another. You feel like swimming not in the sea, but in the ocean.
We arrived at Patara beach at the end of the day and caught a magnificent sunset. The sun was lighting up everything around with orange light and slowly setting into the sea.
The sand is very tender, and small children feel very comfortable here. Indeed, you can’t swim far from the shore because of the waves. You can walk for a long time along the shore of Patara beach in both directions. On the left (facing the sea), some people climb a small mountain and take beautiful photos with Patara beach. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to walk along Patara beach. But we had enough of swimming in the incredibly warm Mediterranean Sea and jumped in the soft waves. The waves are really soft here – they won’t drag you under the water and won’t mix you with sand and water.
Patara beach is surrounded by picturesque mountains. At sunset, the mountains are lit by beautiful sunset beams. There is really a lot of sand on the beach. You can walk on it – not in the hottest time of the day, of course, but in the evening, so as not to get burned.
We enjoyed sunset on Patara beach and hurried to our car. We still had a long way to go to our hotel in Oludeniz. After Patara, we drove all the way in almost pitch darkness.
I really liked Patara beach. I would like to come here for the entire day to get enough of the soft sand, the sea with waves, and the beautiful views from the mountain, of course. I would surely walk along the beach and reach the place with no sunbeds and people at all to feel like on a wild beautiful beach.