Kaş and Kalkan, the chic west

If someone tells you the Turquoise Coast is all giant package hotels and inflatable banana boats, they have not driven far enough west. Keep going past Antalya, past Kemer, and around the three-hour mark the road climbs into pine and limestone and drops you into Kaş and Kalkan — the two prettiest towns on the whole coast. They sit close together, they look similar, and they are not the same place at all.

The first honest thing, because it changes your whole trip: this is a long way from Antalya. Reckon on three to three-and-a-half hours by road, roughly 190 to 240 kilometres. If Kaş or Kalkan is your main base, you are often better off flying into Dalaman instead — far closer, more like an hour and a half to Kalkan and a touch more to Kaş. Do not assume Antalya is the airport just because everyone calls this the Antalya coast.

Kaş: bougainvillea, boats and a theatre over the sea

Kaş (say it "kash") is the one people fall for. The town tips down a steep slope to a small yacht harbour, and the lanes between are whitewashed, cobbled, and so draped in bougainvillea that in June you walk under a ceiling of magenta. A few too many silver-jewellery stalls, sure, but also proper cafés, secondhand bookshops, and little rooftop bars where the waiter is in no hurry and neither, after a day, are you.

Walk fifteen minutes west of the main square and you reach the Antiphellos theatre, a small Hellenistic amphitheatre cut into the hillside facing the water. It is not huge — a few thousand seats — and that is the charm. Climb to the top row near sunset and you are looking straight over the sea towards a Greek island, beer in hand, and nobody minds.

Back in town, watch for the Lycian rock tombs. The most famous, the so-called King's Tomb, sits on a stepped lane in the middle of the old quarter — an enormous carved sarcophagus the town simply grew around. They are roughly 2,400 years old, and there is no fence, no ticket booth, no gift shop. You round a corner buying an ice cream and there one is.

The thing about Kaş is that it never quite decided to become a resort. It stayed a town. That is the whole secret — and why it gets busy in August.

The water is the point: Kekova, kayaking and the diving

You could spend a happy week in Kaş and barely set foot inland. The sea here is the deepest, clearest blue on the coast, and the town is one of Turkey's genuine diving capitals — good visibility, drop-offs, a couple of wrecks, and a string of dive schools round the harbour. You do not need a licence to start; plenty of people do their first try-dive here.

The set-piece day out is Kekova, a long thin island an hour east by boat. Along its northern shore lies a sunken Lycian town — ancient Dolichiste, dropped into the shallows by earthquakes centuries ago — and on a calm day you can sea-kayak right over the top of it, watching staircases and doorways slide past a metre below the hull. A kayak trip is the right way to do it: the boats slow down and you control the pace. There are more swimming spots and ruins nearby in our piece on the coast's best beaches.

And then there is Meis. Floating just offshore, almost close enough to swim to, is the tiny Greek island of Kastellorizo — Meis to the Turks. A small ferry runs across in twenty minutes. You step off in a perfect little Greek harbour, eat lunch under the eye of two countries, and come back. Check the schedule and passport rules first, because both change, but as day trips go it is hard to beat.

Kalkan: smarter, steeper, all about the sunset

Twenty-five minutes west sits Kalkan, and the difference is immediate. Where Kaş sprawls and lounges, Kalkan climbs — a tight grid of white houses tumbling down an absurdly steep hillside to a small marina. It is the more polished, grown-up of the two: infinity-pool villas on the ridge, a handful of beach clubs on the water, and a reputation built almost entirely on its rooftop restaurants.

Dinner is the main event. As the light goes, the terraces along the top of the old town fill up, the harbour turns gold, and you understand why people book Kalkan a year out. It is quieter and pricier than Kaş, with a noticeably British holiday-home crowd, and it suits couples and families who want comfort and a good table over backpacker buzz. Like its neighbour, it is a place you swim off rather than lie on.

One warning: those steep lanes are gorgeous and they are also a workout. The walk down to the harbour for dinner is a delight; the walk back up, full of meze, is a different story. If anyone in your group struggles with steps, choose where you stay with care.

Getting there, and which airport to actually use

This far west, the journey needs planning rather than guesswork. Your realistic options:

• Fly into Dalaman. The closer airport by a long way — an hour and a half to Kalkan, a little more to Kaş. If this corner of the coast is your whole trip, the sensible pick.
• Fly into Antalya. Bigger and better connected, but then a three-hour-plus drive west. Worth it if you are touring the coast and starting in Antalya anyway.
• Pre-booked private transfer. The simplest door-to-door option from either airport. From Antalya it is not cheap, but after a long flight a fixed price and a name-board is worth a lot. Confirm the quote covers the full run.
• Intercity bus. Turkey's long-distance coaches are excellent and cheap, and they do reach the area — but expect changes and a final hop by minibus (dolmuş). Fine if you have time; tiring with luggage.

For the full rundown of buses, transfers and driving here, see getting around the Turquoise Coast. And if you would rather be nearer Antalya with an easier arrival, the pine-backed resorts in our guide to Kemer and the pine coast cut the transfer to under an hour.

So which one — Kaş or Kalkan?

If you can, do both — they are half an hour apart and balance each other perfectly. But if you are picking one base, the choice is not about looks, since both are lovely. It is about temperament.

Choose Kaş for boats, diving and a bohemian, lane-wandering pace in a town that feels lived-in. Choose Kalkan for villas, polish and rooftop dinners. Either way you are in the best-looking stretch of the entire coast — the part that stayed itself while the rest got resorts. Sort the airport before you book, and the long drive west pays you back the moment you walk under that first arch of bougainvillea.

For more background, the Lonely Planet pages on Kaş are a solid start, the Wikipedia entry on Kastellorizo (Meis) covers the Greek-island day trip, and the Kalkan overview fills in the town's history.