Maradi Island

Maradi Island — known locally as Gürmenli Adası — lies southwest of the Kaş peninsula and is reached by a boat trip of around 40 minutes from Kaş harbour. Unlike the town's busier beaches, the island has no permanent residents at all; its only inhabitants are a small population of wild goats that graze among the scrub, giving the place a stripped-back, castaway feel that draws boats away from the mainland for a few hours.

Below the surface, Maradi is better known among divers than sunbathers. The seabed slopes to around 40 metres in places, where amphorae and old anchors rest among rocks colonised by algae and soft coral, and divers regularly report moray eels, stingrays and lobsters hiding in the crevices. Because the island offers little natural shelter, anchoring is only advisable in calm weather, and boats generally avoid it once southerly winds pick up.

Maradi is one of several small, uninhabited islands scattered along the coast near Kaş, and it is best reached during a Kas gulet cruise that combines a swim stop here with time spent around the town's harbour and its nearby bays.