Recently I was lucky to find myself once again in Turkey for a works trip with a first stay at the Liberty Fabay, a short distance outside of Fethiye. It has become traditional on these trips for a group of us to go for an early morning run and I was tasked with finding a good route that was ideal for our mixed ability party. Fortunately I was able to find two loops, one of 5km and one of just over 3km which were perfect for our needs. What’s more, as loops they are just as good if you are staying in any of the other local hotels such as the Liberty Signal or TUI BLUE Sensatori Akra Fethiye, as your start/finish line just shifts a few hundred metres along the course.
3.3km Loop – https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2775179?units=km
5km Loop – https://www.plotaroute.com/route/2775181?units=km
The routes both start outside of the hotel receptions on the road that you will have come in on arrival. From here we turned left to head round in a clockwise direction but each to their own if you choose to go anticlockwise instead. This road does have footpaths alongside but early in the morning when we headed out to beat the heat, it was safe to run in the road itself. After about half a KM you hit a junction where you turn right to head away from the Beach. There are two parallel roads, but we stuck to the paved one.
The 3km route is roughly a triangular shape and this leg is the shortest side of that triangle and about 0.5km so before long you swing right again to head along the hypotenuse. As your watch gets to about 1.7km there is a small bridge over the water channel. In Google maps it suggests that you can head straight on and cross further up but that is not the case. Take care on this bridge as it was the only bit we really saw traffic as all the Dolmus buses brought people to work and the dog leg nature of the bridge did make it feel a little busier compared to the empty roads the rest of the run.
At the 2km point you meet the break of the two routes. If doing the shorter loop then you carry straight on, the 5km and you swing a left. Now I had the route mapped on my watch but thankfully the course is made quite simple thanks to the low numbers of roads that you could take in error. By taking the first right and then first left you will find yourself almost on the main highway. Fortunately though there is a parallel road so you can stay away from the traffic headed to Fethiye itself and then take another right to head back towards the coast.
You’ll now have 3km in your legs and a nice straight stretch with another water channel to your left. At the 3.5km mark you may be tempted to take a dog leg to head straight-left but no, at this stage it’s time for a right hand turn with another water channel on your left hand side. At the end of this straight, after a quick left hand turn you hit 4km and also re-meet the 3km loop. Here you will cross a small bridge and then immediately turn right, the hill bank should be on your left hand side. Some of our group did go wrong here and although they could see the hotels, they couldn’t get back immediately. Finally at about 4.4km you swing a right and rejoin the road along the hotel front. When we ran the final hotel on the strip (XO Cape Arnna) was under construction and the front of this was a bit busy and rutted, but with this hotel due to open in 2025, I would imagine the whole road will soon be fine.
The good thing with these loops was that, when my group decided we wanted to do a little more than 5km we just went round again on the 3.3km loop to add the mileage. The entire route is very flat which was a relief as when I ran last year at Club Tuana Fethiye which is only a couple of miles away as the crow flies, I did hit some hills!
If you have done this route yourself, or have any questions, then please do leave a comment below!
Find all my Runs on the Road here!
