Sun drenched beaches. Glistening ocean, warm as a bath. Blue skies and a daily average temperature of 30 degrees. Sound like paradise? Welcome to Lara Beach, our home for the next few days.
We arrived from the Antalya bus station in a taxi, exhausted from the journey but still willing to engage in an argument over the fare – why should we pay significantly extra because the driver got horribly lost?! After all our moving around we were keen for some ultimate down time, so our plan for the next few days revolved around the beach, the pool, sleeping and food. Shouldn’t be too hard!
Lara Beach stretches the coastline for approximately 4km and is said to be one of the better beaches in the area. A self confessed beach snob, it was hard for me not to be impressed by the glorious temperature of the water, but I still think New Zealand does sand better. It was a new experience for me, swimming in my bikini alongside Turkish women wearing burkini – and it was hard not to be self conscious at times!
We’d already come to love the stray dogs in Turkey and our fondness only increased while we were here. The dogs are all big (labrador and or german shepherd mixes mostly) and often well fed, they mostly look healthy and all seem calm. In Lara Beach the dogs were also obedient: they’d try their luck with tidbits and loose crumbs but if we asked them to leave they’d always oblige. Don’t worry mum, I refrained from cuddles… mostly!
However, we were both a bit disappointed with the charm of the township: it was essentially one long street with extremely touristy restaurants (the kinds that don’t need to try because they don’t expect repeat clientele) and a few souvenir shops. We did however manage to scope out some exceptional cocktails from Canape and also a romantic sunset dinner at Lemon Beach restaurant.
Although we were both appreciative of the downtime that Lara Beach provided, our enthusiasm for active exploring soon got the better of us and we were ready for some more adventuring. Coming right up: our first adventure was to be an overnight bus to Cappadocia.
