Olympos& Cable Car

How the day unfolds

Phaselis is visited first, in the morning, because the ruins sit at sea level and get hot early, and because the water at the middle harbour is at its calmest before the afternoon breeze. The cable car follows in the middle of the day, when the haze has burned off and the view actually reaches. The valley and the riverside lunch close the day in the shade, which is the right order for a tour that starts on a beach and ends up in snow.

The cable car and Tahtalı

The line climbs from around seven hundred metres to the summit of Tahtalı at 2,365 metres, and takes roughly ten minutes to do it. The number to hold in your head is the temperature: it is commonly fifteen to twenty degrees colder at the top than at the coast, and there is usually snow up there into June even while people are swimming below. The ancients called this mountain Olympos, one of several in the region to carry the name, and from the terrace at the summit you can see the coastline from Antalya round to Finike on a clear day, with Cyprus occasionally visible as a smudge on the horizon.

Phaselis, the city with three harbours

Phaselis was a Lycian port that grew rich because it had three separate harbours facing different directions, so it could always load ships whatever the wind was doing. A paved main street still runs between two of them, with the aqueduct, the baths and the theatre either side, and pine trees growing out of the stonework. Alexander wintered here in 333 BC and was given a golden crown by the city. The middle harbour is now a shingle beach, and swimming off it, among the foundations, is allowed and is the thing most people remember.

Good to know before you book

Take a jacket or a warm layer even in August; people arrive at the summit in shorts and regret it within a minute. Bring swimwear and a towel if you want the swim at Phaselis. The cable car can be closed at short notice in high wind, which is a safety decision made by the operator, not by us — if that happens on your day we adjust the programme and tell you at pick-up. Shoes should cope with uneven ground at the ruins and cold metal walkways at the top.