As RyanAir flights start revving, bus tours start booming and pub crawls start heaving, tourists are now flocking back to most of their usual haunts.
Speaking of this – and though it might sound weird to say – the Mediterranean has an image problem. From Malaga to Magdaluf, when you think about the Mediterranean, many people think of parties, sunburnt brits, Airbnb wars, long-suffering locals… and Barcelona.
But there’s a whole lot more than that to the Med. You don’t have to go to some far-flung place like The Maldives or a Monastry in Tibet to escape the masses. The Mediterranean has, to mention just a few cool hideaways, the Aeolian islands, Camogli, Punta Ala; the list goes on…
As for that ‘quietly amazing’ list, we’d like to make another suggestion: Kaş, Turkey. Kaş is so cool (and so far so little known) we reckon it could be one of Europe’s last refuges from over-tourism.
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Kaş is Turkey’s number one Scuba diving destination. But it’s a whole lot more than that. It’s a refuge from overtourism. Why? Mostly thanks to its geography.
Kaş is the beneficiary of rough charm and the absence of a nearby airport.
As CNN Travel wrote yesterday: it’s a seaside town that stayed relatively unknown to outsiders until the early 1980s. It was in this time period that sailors cottoned onto it, mooring their yachts at the harbour to restock.
According to CNN Travel, “Backpackers from Europe and the Antipodes soon followed.”
In a lucky twist of fate for foodies and music lovers, “In between, exiled sons from wealthy Istanbul families made Kaş (a word meaning eyebrow in Turkish) their home, bringing with them a love of music, good coffee and nature,” CNN Travel reports.
Kaş gives you the chance to do as much or as little as you want. You can snorkel, swim or sunbathe at its beaches, take a boat trip to its Blue Grotto, go diving on Assi island, see the Hellenic architecture of the Antiphellos Ancient City, go shopping at the Kas Bazaar, kayak over a sunken city at Kekova and see the Lycian Rock Tombs.
You can also paraglide. Or go bar hopping in the old town (or visit the nearby beach, Kaputaş Plajı). The town is also famous for its bougainvillea-covered houses and Ottoman-style balconies.
A beautiful, unspoilt paradise indeed. Let’s just hope it doesn’t turn into Bulgaria’s Sunny Beach any time soon.
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