Alacasu Bay

Alacasu, known locally as Cennet Koyu, is a pebble cove on the coast south of Kemer with pine slopes behind it, no buildings on it and no facilities of any kind. Boats use it as a swim stop; people who drive down come for the water rather than the beach.

Where it is

The cove lies between the ruins of Phaselis and the resort village of Camyuva, roughly 10 km south of Kemer and a little under an hour's drive from Antalya along the coast road. It sits inside the Olympos Beydaglari Coastal National Park, declared in 1972, which follows the shore below the western Taurus range as far as Phaselis. The bay is a first-degree protected site, which is why nothing has ever been built on it. You can reach it by a track down from the main road or from the water.

The beach and the water

The shore is about 175 metres of pebble and rock, not sand. The water is clear and deepens quickly, which makes for good snorkelling along the rocky sides of the bay and makes sea shoes worth packing. The swimming season on this coast runs from around May to October, and the sea is at its warmest in August, close to 28°C.

Yachts and day boats working the Kemer coast anchor off the cove for an hour or two, and it is one of the anchorages you'll visit on a private gulet cruise in Turkey when the route runs up from Kemer towards Phaselis and Antalya. One corner of the bay shelters a few small fishing boats, and it is sometimes possible to buy fish directly from them.

The setting

What people remember about Alacasu is the scale of the backdrop rather than the beach itself. The Beydaglari rise almost straight out of the sea here, with Tahtali, the ancient Mount Olympos, reaching 2,365 metres a short way inland, and the slopes down to the cove are covered in pine. Because the whole strip is protected there is nothing between the forest and the water, which is unusual on a coast this heavily built up.

Mornings are the quiet part of the day. Day boats out of Kemer tend to arrive around midday and the small beach fills quickly when two or three of them anchor at once; by late afternoon it empties again.

Getting there

By car the turning is off the Kemer-Tekirova coast road, past Camyuva, and the last stretch down to the sea is unsurfaced, so it is a slow descent in an ordinary car. Parking is limited to the space beside the track. Arriving by sea is simpler, and it is how most people see the cove.

Practical notes

• There are no shops, toilets or sunbeds. Bring water, food and your own shade.
• Pebbles and rock underfoot, both on the beach and at the waterline.
• Camping is possible and people do it, but you carry everything in and everything out.
• Phaselis, with its three ancient harbours, theatre and aqueduct, is a few minutes further along the road and pairs well with a morning here.