Location: Dalyan
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10 Things to Do in Dalyan That You Shouldn't Miss
Ancient ruins, mud baths and loggerhead sea turtle breeding grounds are just some of the magical features of Dalyan. Beach sports, bike rides and river tours will satisfy your inner adventurer. Don’t miss the ornate Lycian tombs, carved into the cliffs along the Dalyan Çayı River circa 400 B.C.
Restaurants in Dalyan
1. The Kaptan June Sea Turtle Conservation Foundation
Overall Ratings
5 based on 99 reviews
Kaptan June’s Hut was returned to the beach in 2010. Since then it has been used as a visitor center where people can learn about the turtles that come to the beach every year to lay their eggs.The center is very informative on the history of June's time living in the hut many years ago and her fight to protect turtles and the beautiful Iztuzu Beach. Discover how you can help now by visiting us !
Reviewed By gulliversmate - Cape Town Central, South Africa
Please take the time to visit this sanctuary - all support for this worthy cause is much needed. You will be horrified at what we do to the creatures of this planet. Furthermore and most importantly - please support Captain June approved boats.
2. Mimi's Beauty Center
Overall Ratings
5 based on 18 reviews
It is always important to customer satisfaction.
Reviewed By julia h - High Wycombe, United Kingdom
I visit Dalyan twice a year and one of the highlights of the trip is my visit to Mimi's. I usually have a Turkish bath, massage, manicure, pedicure and facial. Mimi and her staff are very well trained and the whole experience is lovely. It is also very reasonably priced. I look forward to my next visit!
3. Iztuzu Beach
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 2 reviews
Reviewed By RKH_11 - Redditch, United Kingdom
Iztuzu Beach is a fabulous place to go for those who enjoy the sea. There are no buildings save bar/restaurant on the beach. Beautiful sand stretching for miles. This where Greenback and Loggerhead turtles come ashore to lay their eggs in the season. There is also a turtle sanctuary at the eastern end of the beach. Great place for a relaxing day. Travel there by river taxi or dolmus
4. Eurodive
Overall Ratings
4 based on 7 reviews
Reviewed By 776leventy - Seferihisar
Dear scuba divers,
Me and my wife joined a weekend recreational diving tour by Eurodive/Dalyan Dive Center on June 11th, 2016 along with some of our diving club members. We encountered an unproffessional behavior by mentioned diving center which might be a vital one. I strongly recommend not to plan diving with this diving center, unless they improve their skills and necessary equipment/training. If you have some feedback by this diving center, I will be happy to hear your experiences with them.
The problem whom my wife faced is as follows, if you would like to continue Reading.
First one was a 9 divers planned diving. Even this dive consisted of experienced divers (apart from two 1 * divers), it was crowded. Diving profile was not explained in detail. It was a poor diving plan, at least the implementation was.
There were also lack of instructors too. One of our experienced club members was designated to fill the gap as an assistant instructor who was tasked for following divers from back of group, in order to help instructor which was not fair to enjoy diving. He was also the diving buddy of my wife at the same time.
My wife faced a serious problem in the beginning of the first dive of the day which was a wall dive. She had an equilization problem at the first stage of dive and earlier mentioned some ear problems in the boat during briefing which might cause to cancel diving. This should be a “heads-up” for instructors to be aware. After going in to water, she had two tries (about at most 1.30 minutes) and cancelled diving which was the right decision. But when she reached surface from a couple of meters depth, there were no boat around, no designated diver for wacthing divers, no nothing on harsh sea conditions in the middle of the sea; leaving her all alone. As we realised later, after decending of divers, boat moved to ascent/exit point, a couple of bays back to an unvisible point from where we started diving.
My wife fought for her life, hanging on the razor sharp steep rocks, beaten by waves for approximately 50 minutes. No apology took place by the organisers, instead they blamed my wife for not finding the unvisible boat even though the probable location was not mentioned at pre-diving briefing and hidden a few miles back in a bay. I don’t want to think about what might have happened if she had taken wrong decisions (such as taking wrong direction to swim or go off shore in order to find the location of the boat, or force to continue diving…) Fortunately she is a relatively an experienced diver and remained calm enough to take the right course of action. She holds CMAS 2** license (TSSF registered). She was found hanging on the rocks after the search and was helped to return back to boat by another diving center’s inflated type kayak.
Diving instructor/group leader claimed that she mentioned ascent point but this was not the case. None of our club members who were actualy planned on this dive nor the rest of the divers of our club (who were stand-by for the following dive in the boat) were aware either. Even if we would have been all informed about the following location of boat, it was still out of range/far away for a fully geared diver to swim. Pre-diving briefing was not a complete one and no vital information was included.
What we were briefed is as follows:
• Enter/descent point,
• Approximate depth (mentioned as 30-35 meters/deep diving (out of limits for 1* divers in our group),
• Route (roughly),
• Some air status signals reminder (half, reserve, and decimals),
What was not included in briefing and lack of equipment/personnel:
• Route in detail (dive flowchart, dive profile, map or illustration, descent point, safety stop were not explained),
• Environmental familiarisation,
• Evacuation measures and alternative solutions,
• Emergency measures/planning/call list/ hyperbaric chamber locations,
• Designated diver for watching divers on the surface,
• Marking dive location by flag or floating devices (buoy),
• Inflatable boat for emergency situations.
This is not the first visit to Dalyan and probably it will not be the last one. But I can easily tell that I will choose some other diving club or center.
I will share me and my wife’s bad experience with national and international forums, social medium and rating sites for the benefit of diving community. I am afraid we were seen as cash income in the eyes of Eurodive Dalyan dive center who did not respect divers since they asked and took money for the following dives which were not taken place.
In conclusion; this diving center claims to be proffessional and international diving center, therefore they should take responsibilty and be investigated for their actions by the respected official communities. As an additional information; my wife sent a similar complaint mail to Turkish Underwater Sports Federation (TSSF) too.
I think it is my responsibility to inform diving community about what you might experience by writing you ours with this diving center at Dalyan.
Respectfully,
Levent Yergün
5. Lycian Rock Tombs
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 827 reviews
Reviewed By mallonsLancashire - lancashire
We did not go on an actual vist as they were the view we had from our Hotel. Hard to believe the have been there since the time before Christ, stunning view as sun set.
6. Dalyan Special Environmental Protection Area
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 197 reviews
Reviewed By badger2237 - Norwich
This is a very special area in a very special place and it is to the credit of the local community and national government that it remains carefully protected. A 'must visit' place in an increasingly mad world. Enjoy!
7. Kaunos
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 950 reviews
The remains of ancient Kaunos include a Roman thater, a Byzantine basilica, the Roman bath, and the rock tombs.
Reviewed By Koycegiz - Haworth, United Kingdom
You can get the car ferry & drive or get the old lady to row you across & walk up. Once you arrive & start to explore you get some great views from high up.A little bit of climbing is required but worth it. You can spend a few hours here learning about the history etc. lots of butterfly's lizards, goats etc here too.
If you are close by in Dalyan or Koycegiz it is worth a trip, or even a day trip from further away as you could visit the ruins in the morning & an afternoon at a beach nearby.
8. Dalyan Nehri
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 1 reviews
Reviewed By ESMAIstanbul - Istanbul
Best time to visit Dalyan stream , turtles beach and stone graves is autumn. It was a peaceful boat trip on the stream among the reed beat, observing rock tombs on the hillside and spend time walking carefuly on the beach sand not to harm baby turtles seats. It was an unforgettable trip you can never live in another place.
9. Sulungur Golu
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 118 reviews
Reviewed By Peter L - Darwen
We took a private boat trip up to the lake having done the staple diet of Turtle beach and the mud baths on a previous visit.
We had a superb day, through the rushes, spotting, herons, reed warblers and finally cormorants on our way. We stopped a couple weeks f times to swim in the deserted lake, surrounded by Mountains before landing for lunch.
We stopped at the mud baths for a short break and were visited by a terrapin to make our day complete.
Lovely day thanks to Captain Ramazan and his lovely wife .
10. Dalyan
Overall Ratings
4.5 based on 988 reviews
Reviewed By matt p - Telford, United Kingdom
Drove to Dalyan by car for Marmaris and got a boat to ourselves for just over 200tl.
The boat was tidy and the captain very friendly.
The Lycian rock tombs are idyllic as you float past.
Plenty of wildlife to see (no turtles for us). We did see several kingfishers.
Turtle beach was good however I would strongly advise purchasing any food.
Whilst the food is reasonably priced and tasty you WILL be pestered by a plague of wasps. I binned my Sandwich as it wasn't worth a wasp sting.
It costs 1.5tl to access the beach by the way.
Good day out and glad we went
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