Saklikent Gorge

This trip is a must for anyone visiting Kalkan for the first time. The journey (by local dolmus*) takes you through some beautiful villages and countryside, while the gorge itself – some 20km long and hundreds of feet deep – is easily walkable for 4km in the summer. Plastic shoes can be hired to walk the short distance in the ice-cold water before the river dries up completely. Saklikent is also an excellent place for canyoning and rafting, and for retiring afterwards to one of the wooden platforms suspended over the ice-cold Xanthos River, where you can relax on Turkish rugs and comfy cushions over cold drinks or lunch.

Green Lake

Green Lake is 60km from Kalkan and can be reached on the local dolmus. This area, with its pine and cedar trees and apple orchards, is famous for its snow ice cream and snow sherbert made from mountain snow. Within the park is the Green Lake, so named because of its brilliant green colour. At 6,500ft above sea level, the lake is ferociously cold, having been formed by melted snow. It is famous for its sacred healing waters. Nearby is another site of pilgrimage, the ‘Flying Waterfall’.