Carian Trail (Karia Yolu)

At 800 kilometers, the Carian Trail (Karia Yolu) is Turkey's longest designated hiking route. While the Lycian Way is famous and heavily trafficked, the Carian Trail remains wonderfully undiscovered, offering a deep dive into the authentic, sleepy, agricultural villages of the southwest Aegean. It traces the coastline of ancient Caria, a civilization preceding the Greeks and Romans. The terrain is remarkably diverse, broken into distinct sections: the incredibly rugged Bozburun Peninsula (boat-building towns and cliffs), the Datça Peninsula (olive groves and almond terraces), the Gulf of Gökova, and the mysterious Latmos Mountains (where pine forests give way to bizarre, massive granite boulder fields adorned with prehistoric rock art).

The Lycian Way (Likya Yolu) is Turkey's first and most renowned long-distance trekking route. Stretching for roughly 540 kilometers from Fethiye (Ovacık) to Antalya, it is a spectacular collision of deep azure Mediterranean waters, rugged pine-clad mountains, and ancient history. The trail loosely traces the jagged coastline of the ancient Lycian civilization, a confederation of fierce naval city-states. Hikers walk on ancient Roman roads, narrow goat trails, and steep mountain passes, constantly moving between remote, pristine pebble beaches (like Kabak and Patara) and high alpine lookouts (like Mount Olympos/Tahtalı). Along the way, the path weaves directly through dozens of spectacular, overgrown ruins of ancient Lycian cities with their iconic rock-cut tombs.