Oludeniz Beach
Fethiye, Turkey 🇹🇷
Turkey's most iconic beach — the legendary Blue Lagoon with impossibly turquoise water framed by pine forest, and paragliders soaring from Babadag Mountain above.
Fethiye, Turkey 🇹🇷
Turkey's most iconic beach — the legendary Blue Lagoon with impossibly turquoise water framed by pine forest, and paragliders soaring from Babadag Mountain above.
Location
Oludeniz Village, Fethiye District
Best For
Families, Snorkeling & Paragliding
Water Temp
24–27°C (Jun–Sep)
Surface
Fine White Sand
Parking
Large car parks at village entrance
Nearest Airport
Dalaman Airport (DLM)
Ölüdeniz is Turkey's most photographed coastline — a setting of such extraordinary beauty that it has become almost synonymous with the Turkish Riviera in international travel imagery. The beach consists of two distinct areas: the main public beach (a wide sandy strand with beach bars and sun loungers) and the Blue Lagoon — a protected national park bay enclosed by a pine-forested sand spit where the water achieves an almost surreal turquoise colour in shallow gradients from pale jade to deep cobalt.
Above the beach, Babadağ Mountain rises 1,960 metres from the coast in one of the most dramatic mountain-to-sea transitions in the Mediterranean. This extraordinary geography makes Ölüdeniz one of the world's premier tandem paragliding destinations — dozens of gliders launch daily from the summit and spiral down over the lagoon for a 30-45 minute flight that offers an incomparable bird's-eye view of the setting.
The snorkeling in the Blue Lagoon area is excellent — calm, shallow, crystal-clear water over a sandy bottom with good visibility and diverse Mediterranean fish life. The main beach outside the lagoon has deeper water and small waves. Both areas have lifeguards in peak season. The lagoon has a small entrance fee (it's a protected national park) but is worth every lira.
Oludeniz is 14 km south of Fethiye town. Frequent dolmuş minibuses from Fethiye run throughout the day in summer. By car, 25 minutes from Fethiye or Hisaronu. Dalaman Airport (DLM) is 60 km northeast; transfer time approx. 1 hour.
May–October. June and September offer warm water with significantly smaller crowds than the July–August peak. The beach village gets extremely busy in high season. For paragliding, clearer atmospheric conditions in June and early July give the best mountain views.
Arrive early (before 9am) to secure a good spot in summer. The Blue Lagoon entrance fee is worth paying — bring a snorkeling mask. Paragliding must be booked with one of the licensed operators in the village. The sunsets viewed from the paragliding school at Babadağ base are spectacular without doing the full glide.