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Datça & Kaş

Datça and Pamukkale

Tours that take the strain out of enjoying Europe’s flora and fauna! Based in just a couple of good quality hotels, with direct flights, and these at kind times of day! And most importantly field trips will be kept to a maximum of six or so hours giving you plenty of time to relax before and after. Direct flights are available from some regional airports.

Loew’s Blue © Karen Nichols

It would be difficult to find a flowerier place in the entire Mediterranean than the Datça Peninsula. What for much of the year is a forbiddingly barren-looking mountainous peninsula erupts into spectacular bloom in April and May. The combination of multi-hued Cistus bushes, bushes of blue Lithodora, neat mounds of flowering Euphorbias, great splashes of pink Convolvulus and the architectural Giant Fennels is mind-boggling. Looking closer there’s so much more. The gorgeous deep pink-lilac Iberis pruitii grows on bare tracks looking someone’s dropped packets of sweets as they’ve walked, and there’s little mounds of the very woolly Convolvulus compactus. Orchids are everywhere, in particular bee orchids, and Datça has many species of them – Ophrys candica, Ophrys minoa, Ophrys episcopalis and Ophrys ferrum-equinum subspecies mandalyana are some of the finest.

Serapias cordigera showers the open pinewoods with deep brick-coloured blooms and here they occur in unusual forms too with flowers often wholly or partly lime-green. These same pinewoods are home to a population of Caracal – we’ll go and look in the evening though chances are very slim, however we’ve a very good chance of seeing Wild Boar, Stone Marten and several owl species – Barn, Tawny, Long-eared and Scop’s Owls are all likely.

The wild and rugged Datça Peninsula is barely 80 kilometres from the modern tourist resorts around Marmaris yet it has managed to remain largely unspoilt and undeveloped into the 21st century. Much of the peninsula is protected as a national park that was set up more than fifty years ago initially to protect the last Western Anatolian population of Leopard. None have been seen for around fifteen years now however there are still Brown Bears and Wolves here and very many Ibex. We’ll surely see the latter – posing on the limestone ramparts of Boz Dagi. This high rugged mountain has impressive cliffs on which breed various raptors including Bonelli’s Eagles, Peregrine and Lanner Falcon and the northern slopes, almost completely uninhabited are clothed is some of the richest lushest maquis in Turkey. Ruppell’s Warblers and Bonelli’s Warblers are everywhere. We’ll be based just outside the lovely little town of Datça close to this mountain and just 35 kilometres from the Knidos, a remarkable archaeological site at the tip of the peninsula. Cory’s Shearwaters and Audouin’s Gulls are offshore along with Bottle-nosed Dolphins.

Pamukkale needs little introduction, images of the fabulous aquamarine travertine terraces that cascade down the mountainside near Denizli are featured everywhere that talks of Turkey. The ancient Greco-Roman city of Hieropolis was built above the remarkable terraces. Nearby rises Honaz Dağı, an impressive mountain at over 8350 feet (2570m) and which has a very different flora and fauna to the Datça Peninsula. Here we can find clumps of yellow Iris suaveolens and the unusual yellow Moltkia aurea whilst birds include Cretzschmarr’s Buntings, Short-toed Eagles and Woodlark.

Dates and Prices

6th April - 13th April 2025 (8 days)

London - London £2,095
Dalaman - Dalaman £1,840
Single Supplement* £160
Deposit £150

* doesn't apply if you're willing to share and a room-mate can be arranged

or ask us a question.

Tour Summary

Day 1
To Dalaman and Datça
Day 2
Boz Dağı
Day 3
Murdala and Mersincik
Day 4
Emecik Mountain and the ‘Caracal’ Forests
Day 5
Knidos
Day 6
Via Çetibeli & Honaz Dağı to Pammukkale
Day 7
Pamukkale
Day 8
Departure from Dalaman

Tour information

Focus

Flowers, Birds and Butterflies. Pammukkale. Also Archaeological Sites, Reptiles, and Rural Turkey.

Leaders

Yasemin Konuralp , Lara Broom

Group Size

One leader for a group of up to 6, two leaders up to the maximum group size of 15. Ozan Balkan will join a group of more than 6.

Included in the Price

All flights. All transport, accommodation and meals in Turkey. Services of your leaders. Please note: drinks, tips, and items of a personal nature, including insurance, are not included.

Accommodation

For most of the holiday (5 nights) we will be at the lovely Eski Datça Hotel situated in quiet Eski (Old) Datça. This small family-run hotel has very comfortable rooms and a well-stocked bar and serves very good traditional Turkish food. The last two nights will be at the Melrose House Hotel in Pamukkale, close by the famed travertine terraces All rooms have en suite facilities.

Walking

Very gentle, just two or three miles a day, and always at a slow pace, ideally suited to photography.

Flights

This tour uses direct return flights to Dalaman and these are available from many UK regional airports*.

*These routes may incur a supplement but most don’t.

Climate

Usually settled, sunny and warm, however even in May the odd day with showers and cooler weather is possible, and the last couple of days up in Pammukkale will be cooler at least at night.

Suggested Variations

Why not extend your trip by starting with a wonderful week in Kas – a veritable playground for the naturalist with a wonderful range of flora and fauna, superb landscapes and fine marine life? Kas and Datca
Or continue on for a week in glorious Dalyan? Dalyan could hardly have more diverse habitats; Within a few kilometres are reedbeds, lakes, beaches, limestone maquis, pine forests, globally important Liquidambar Forests, mountains and cliffs. Datca and Dalyan
Or add both for a three week trip of a lifetime! Southwest Turkey

How to Book

Contact us to check if there is availability for the number of places you require. Click on the ‘Book this Tour’ button on this page to be taken to the online booking form or contact us and we will send one to you which you can complete and send back to us. You will receive confirmation of your place, and then a detailed information pack will be dispatched to you about twelve weeks before departure. This will contain up-to-date health information.

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