Kalkan Local Market

Kalkan sits on the Lycian coast between Fethiye and Kas, a hillside town of white houses stacked above an almost circular bay. Its shopping district, known locally as the Carsi, runs up from the harbour in a grid of narrow streets, and together with the weekly market it is where most of the town's daily life happens.

From Kalamaki to Kalkan

Until the 1920s the town was called Kalamaki and had a substantial Greek Christian community. Those families left in the 1923 population exchange between Greece and Turkey and resettled in Attica, where they founded a new town and gave it the old name. The houses they left behind still stand in the upper streets.

Kalkan was the only safe harbour between Kas and Fethiye, which made it the outlet for produce coming down from the Lycian interior. That role ended in the 1970s when the road to Fethiye was built and cargo moved onto trucks. Tourism replaced it, and the same stone houses that once belonged to fishermen and traders now hold restaurants, guesthouses and shops.

The Town and Its Setting

Administratively Kalkan is no longer a town in its own right: since 2013 it has been a neighbourhood of the Kas district in Antalya Province. It faces the Mediterranean with mountains directly behind, and the streets climb steeply enough that most of them are cobbled and closed to through traffic, with a few busier roads cutting across to link the districts.

The Ottoman-era houses are the town's architectural signature. Most have been restored and converted into businesses, keeping the wooden balconies and shutters while adding roof terraces that look out over the bay. Bougainvillea covers a good many of the facades and garden walls, and street dogs are a fixture of the pedestrian streets.

Kalkan Carsi and the Thursday Market

The Carsi is the main shopping district and the commercial centre of the town. What is sold here leans heavily towards local craft: handmade olive oil soaps, leather goods, jewellery worked in traditional motifs, herbs and spices sold loose, and clothing boutiques carrying both Turkish-made pieces and imported labels. Prices in Kalkan run higher than in neighbouring coastal towns, which is worth knowing before you start bargaining.

Separate from the permanent shops, Kalkan holds a weekly open-air market every Thursday, roughly 8.30 in the morning until early evening, on the road running up from the Kalamar road junction. This is the one to come to for fruit and vegetables, cheese, olives and loose tea, alongside the usual stalls of copied watches and T-shirts.

The harbour sits directly below the shopping streets, close enough that crews tie up and walk into the Carsi within a few minutes, which makes it a popular stop for gulet charter guests exploring the Kas and Kalkan coast when they want an hour ashore before dinner.

Eating and Drinking

Kalkan is known for its restaurants, many of them on roof terraces overlooking the bay. Fish and seafood dominate the menus, grilled whole or served as calamari and prawns. Meze come first and are worth ordering properly: stuffed vine leaves, spiced lentil kofte, yoghurt and aubergine dishes. Kebabs, pilafs and slow-cooked stews follow, and baklava, kadayif and Turkish delight close the meal.

In the evening the Carsi streets fill with stalls and street food, including midye dolma, mussels stuffed with spiced rice and eaten with a squeeze of lemon. Bars range from quiet terraces to places with live music, and raki, the anise spirit served with cold water and ice, is the standard order.

Hamam, Barbers and Tailors

The Turkish bath, or hamam, follows the Ottoman sequence of steam room, exfoliating scrub with a kese mitt and a foam wash. Kalkan's barbers still offer the full service too, with a wet shave, hot towel and a brief head and shoulder massage. Several tailors in the town work to measure and can turn around a shirt or a jacket within a few days, which is why visitors often order one at the start of a stay.

Beaches and Ancient Sites Nearby

Kalkan's own beach is small and central, so most people head out along the coast. Kaputas, a narrow strip of sand at the foot of a gorge on the road towards Kas, and Patara, an 18-kilometre stretch of dune-backed sand to the west, are the two that draw the crowds. Patara is also an ancient Lycian city and a nesting beach for loggerhead turtles, which is why it closes at sunset.

The surrounding country is Lycian territory: Patara, Xanthos and Letoon lie within easy reach to the west, and Kekova and the sunken ruins off Ucagiz to the east. The region averages around 300 days of sunshine a year, which is a large part of why the season runs so long here.