patara beach?????

[kismetbar]

Have heard so many good reviews about Patara here but sorry, I have to disagree. Yes the beach is stunning, the sand is beautiful but if you go to the only beach bar, it is an absolute rip off. The village is fantastic and the people so friendly but they will tell you - the beach is ruining their village. They are struggling to make a living as it is but the beach is putting people off because of their prices. The villagers went to the high court in Ankara in an attempt to get the beach to lower their prices and entrance fee. They won! Maybe as a tourist people will find the prices acceptable but not when you live here. We spoke at length with the barman last year and he admitted that they were ripping people off but he said they had to because of the rent they have to pay. I understand that but in typical Turkish style, they want the tourists money but not the tourists! Patara has so much to offer. The village has even more to offer. When will Turkey realise? The people I feel sorry for are those in the bars and restaurants in the village itself that are losing out because of the greed dur to the beach owners/land-owners! Try the village (you will love it), leave the beach alone unless you go to the far end where you won't get ripped off!! In closing, I am not a cynical person!! Just don not like people being ripped off!!

[Highlander]

Very interesting post Kismetbar. we have only been the once, but looking back, I suppose we were "typical" tourists taking the the sights and not giving a moments thought to the bigger picture.

If we do go back, and time permits, then we will take your excellent advice and go into the village.

Many thanks for pointing this out.

[Crabbit]

quote:Originally posted by Alan Keating

The beach its self is about 17km in lenght; there are two bars etc, one at each end.

Does anybody fancy a pub crawl.  

[sunlover]

Hi Kismetbar,

Thanks for your interesting reply, i agree this happens a lot and yes it does start to ruin the real Turkey.....i have taken in all your advice and if we do manage to get there we will pay a visit to the town as it sounds a very beautifull place to see the real turkey, we would rather our money go to the locals there not the rip of people... we like to see the real turkey...   not just the beaches, you can see them anywhere...maybe some are nicer...

sunlover

[LoubyLou]

Hi

We went to the pay end recently (10YTL per car full)and the beach was great - don't know about the bar because we took a picnic.

We also went to the other end of the beach that no-one has mentioned yet - near a place called Kadarere (I believe you can also get a dolmus there from Fethiye), about 10km from Letoon. We thought this end was fabulous. Not many people there (don't like Olu Deniz throngs of people), mainly just Turkish people. There is a bar, although I found their prices steep. We took a picnic. Anyway - a river also enters the beach at ths point, so you can swim in the sea, and then jump off rocks into the cold river and get all th the salt off.

Has anyone else found this spot? It was our favourite place to go for a seaside day out. Maybe not quite as far as the other end of Patara, although if driving you may get lost if you don't know where you are going!!

[karen]

and you'll find sand in parts of your anatomy you never know you had!

I must say Lou your idea of a swill in the river sounds about right.

akren

[HappyMonday]

Loubylou - I think the spot you mean is where the jeep safaris go in. There is a river by the side. Dont pay but sand is not quite as nice. Avoid weekends especially during holiday periods as it can become overrun by locals. We were there about 4 weeks ago and a little old Turkish lady shouted at my better half for showing off her legs!

[skipking]

We have also been to this end of the beach where the river meets the sea, we went on a canoing trip this summer and i found that end very dirty and full of broken beer bottles etc?
Much prefer the other end even though you have to pay, the canoing trip was good fun though worth doing, spent all day going down the river and as i said you end up on patara beach.

[Fran]

We went to both ends of the beach, first off we drove to the Turkish side and it was filthy, as skipking said it was full of broken bottles and rubbish. So we drove back round to the pay side and not a bit of rubbish in sight. However this year we took our own drinks with us as the beach bar was a bit expensive.

[LoubyLou]

We didn't find the river end of the beach dirty at all - maybe the sand wasn't as yellow and 'sand like', but there was no sign of broken bottles or anything. I actually preferred the sand because it it was 'hard' rather than dusty - we could actually have a picnic and the sand didnt get into everything. Yes - at weekends there were lots of Turks there, but I much prefer their idea to a day on the beach to ours!! Yes - we were there when a jeep safari stopped for an hours cool off. The beach is so vast that even when it was busy, it didnt feel like it. This end of the beach also didnt feel so hot as the other end.