Coban Bay

Southeast of Kaş, on a rocky cape between Uluburun and the small inlet of Ufakdere (Fakdere) Bay, lies Çoban Bay — Turkish for "Shepherd's Bay" — an undeveloped stretch of coastline that has stayed largely as it was before tourism reshaped the rest of the Turquoise Coast. The bay sits directly on the Lycian Way, the long-distance coastal trail that threads along this section of the Teke Peninsula, and hikers following its ninth stage from Çukurbağ pass through here on their way toward Üzümlü.

There are no facilities at Çoban Bay — no cafés, no sunbeds, nothing beyond the bay itself — which is part of why it draws the boats that pass this way each summer. The shoreline is a mix of pebbles and rock rather than sand, so those wading in from a tender are generally better off in sea shoes, though the water is clear and sheltered, framed by scrubby pine and maquis rather than any development.

Uluburun, just around the headland, is known separately as the site of a Late Bronze Age shipwreck found by a sponge diver in 1982 and excavated over eleven seasons through 1994, adding a quiet layer of maritime history to a stretch of coast otherwise defined by its silence. With no jetty or village to anchor off, Çoban Bay is best reached during a Kas gulet cruise, as one stop among several along this undeveloped stretch.