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Notes

As mentioned in the previous post it’s hard to know who to recommend this trail to so hopefully by seeing the daily blog posts and Sarah’s vlogs, you get a clear idea of what’s involved. Keep in my mind my opinion is based on hiking in Nov/Dec with full camping gear, limited water along the trail, stinking hot November days, stormy days, cold showers/no showers etc…

Lycian Way statistics from Komoot

Stats

• Number of days: 23 (22 hiking days, 1 storm day)
• Distance: 462km
• Ascent: 13,810m
• Descent: 13,650m
• Total nights camped: 11
• Total nights in accommodation: 12
• Total costs for 23 days, excluding flights, for one person, (based on twin-share accommodation): ₺2773

The above total of ₺2773 is equivalent to £357 / €423 / USD$466, as of 27 January 2020.

market in Akbel

Costs breakdown

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The Lycian Way is waymarked with red and white GR-style blazes but a GPS or app is a must-have if you want to stay on track. If you buy the The Lycian Way guidebook by Kate Clow (I found this interesting for the history/cultural information), you can email the Culture Routes Society to receive GPX tracks.

• Komoot – (Komoot premium was gifted and we also received sponsorship for this hike) – I uploaded the Lycian Way GPX tracks to Komoot and used the multi-day planner to split the trail into 23 days – we then used these tracks to navigate each day, with handy optional voice directions. As well as using the app for navigation, we recorded our own tracks and added recommendations like camp spots, water sources and photos. Recording the tracks also gave us helpful info like distance, speed, elevation etc (which in turn helped us adjust our plan each day). You can see our recorded tracks on the Komoot app here.
• TrekRight – we used this app for info including history, stage details, accommodation and navigation. You can never have too much help with navigation on the Lycian Way!
• Trekking in Turkey – this app by Kate Clow and the Cultural Routes Society has interesting cultural information (which might be nice to read in your tent/bed each night) but it’s lacking on the map/navigational side so I would recommend using this in conjunction to the above apps.

• Are there any toilets? Yes, mosques have bathrooms and water (and there’s a mosque in most villages) but it’s best to filter all of the water along the trail.
• Can you use credit cards along the trail? Definitely carry cash for buying food from small markets and for some pensions but hotels in the larger towns/cities take credit card.
• Do you need to carry a tent? Between Demre and Finike, the trail heads into the mountains for a three day section with no accommodation where typically you would need to carry a tent. We were concerned about this section because of the rumours of no water for the duration so we organised with a pension in Demre for a drop-off and pick-up service. If you were to arrange this, then you wouldn’t need to carry a tent.
• Drinking water? We often stocked up with water from drinking taps in villages and filtered it before use. There are wells along the trail too but whether there’s any water in them will depend on the time of year. In November some were bone dry.
• How to book accommodation? Check http://www.booking.com, google maps and apps like Komoot and TrekRight for accommodation. HOWEVER, when we were on the trail and trying to use booking.com with wifi, no accommodation showed up. When we tried using data (not wifi), accommodation listings did show up… weird, but once we figured it out, it was fine.
• Is it safe to hike alone? I usually do hike alone, but I’m glad I was with Sarah on this trail and I wouldn’t personally recommend hiking the Lycian Way solo in case of injury on the rugged trails.
• Phone service – coming from the UK, Sarah and I were both able to use our own sim cards as Turkey is included in the EU deal with Vodafone (at least prior to Brexit it is!). Phone service was ‘spotty’ along the trail and there were a few sections and days at a time with no service.
• What shoes to wear? Sturdy shoes with good ankle support
• Where can you buy food and drinks? There are markets in even the smallest of villages but some mainly sell sweets like biscuits and chocolate, so stock up on fruit, nuts and muesli bars wherever you can. We didn’t carry a stove but instead carried bread, bagels, peanut butter, nutella, apricots etc.

Thanks for following along!

Kat xx

Sarah & I in Istanbul after hiking the Lycian Way

To see Sarah’s vlogs of our Lycian Way hike, click here. You can also follow her on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and keep up to date with the Tough Girl podcasts here.

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