Boncuklu Bay

Boncuklu Bay sits on the Fethiye peninsula, roughly four kilometres west of the town centre in the Keciler neighbourhood, and it comes in two parts: Buyuk Boncuklu, the larger bay, and Kucuk Boncuklu next door. The big one is what people mean when they say Boncuklu. It has been cleaned up, resurfaced and renamed twice in the past decade, so the name on the map is not always the name on the sign.

From Rubbish Tip to Beach Club

For years the bay was a free picnic and barbecue spot with nobody responsible for clearing up afterwards. Litter collected under the pines and blew across the shore, and the place had a poor reputation locally because of it.

Clean-up campaigns and a change of management reversed that. Sand was brought in and spread along the waterfront, so the beach you walk on today is imported rather than natural, and a small beach bar was built behind it. In 2018 the site opened as JJ Beach Park; it now trades as Sea Me Beach. In the neighbouring Kucuk Boncuklu bay, Help Beach & Yacht Club runs a separate operation of its own.

The Water and the Shore

Rocky points close the bay at either end and pine forest runs down almost to the waterline behind it. The water is clear and shallow close in, which makes it usable for snorkelling straight off the beach; the fish are the ordinary Mediterranean inshore mix rather than anything exotic. Because the bay faces into the gulf and is boxed in by its headlands, the surface stays calm on most summer days, which is the main reason swimmers and small boats end up here rather than on the open coast.

Behind the beach the forest tracks are walkable, and the contrast between the pines and the water is what most people photograph.

Getting There

• By road: take the Tasyaka-Karagozler dolmus from Fethiye to the end of its route, or drive out along the peninsula past the marina; it is about ten minutes from the town centre by car.
• By boat: tour boats leave Fethiye harbour through the season and call in here as part of a bay circuit. Private boats anchor off, outside the marked swimming zone.

The run from Fethiye harbour takes minutes rather than hours, which is why Boncuklu turns up as one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet charter from Fethiye on the first afternoon, before the boat carries on down the peninsula towards Gemiler and the outer coast.

Of the two bays, Buyuk Boncuklu has the wider range of facilities, while Kucuk Boncuklu is the quieter and more basic of the pair.