The short answer
Kalkan is a small harbour town in Turkey's Mediterranean region, in Antalya province, in the district of Kaş, on the coast itself. It sits between Fethiye to the west and Kaş to the east, on the main coastal road that runs along this shoreline.
That last detail matters more than it might sound. Kalkan is a working coastal town on the coast road rather than a remote outpost: the harbour and the old town are in everyday use, and the beaches, villages and larger towns along this shoreline are reached from the same road. The rest of this page sets out where that puts Kalkan on a map of Turkey, how the town itself is laid out, and how far it is from the places you are most likely to look up next.
Kalkan on the map of Turkey
Kalkan is on Turkey's southern coast, towards the western end of Antalya province, where the province gives way to the stretch of coast that runs on towards Fethiye. Administratively it is a neighbourhood of Kaş, and Kaş is a district of Antalya province, in the Mediterranean region, Akdeniz Bölgesi. Region, province, district, coast: that is the full address, in the order a map reads it.
There are two independent ways of placing the town, and between them they fix it without a map at all:
- Along the coast itself, Kalkan sits between Kaş and Patara.
- At the larger scale, it sits on the stretch of coast between Antalya and Fethiye.
One correction is worth stating plainly, because the mistake is common. Kalkan is in Antalya province, not Muğla. It is filed under Muğla by at least one widely used online mapping service, and that is simply wrong. Kalkan's district is Kaş, and Kaş is an Antalya district. If a map, a listing or a form shows Kalkan with a Muğla address, the address is the part that is wrong.
The town itself: harbour, old town and the bays
Read Kalkan from the water upwards and the layout is easy to hold in your head. At sea level there is the harbour. Directly behind it the old town rises in a tight grid of narrow lanes and stepped streets, which is the historic core of the town and where most of the restaurants and small shops sit. That combination of Kalkan old town and harbour is what most people have in mind when they picture Kalkan.
Above the old town the land climbs sharply. Kalkan is built on a hillside, and the residential districts and villas sit on terraces up that slope, which is why so many of them look down over the harbour and out to sea. Higher again, and set back inland rather than in the town, are the hill villages, İslamlar among them, in the hills above Kalkan.
Then there is the coast on either side. Follow the coast road out of town in either direction and it strings together a series of bays and beaches, some a short run from the centre, others further along towards Kaş in one direction and Patara in the other. Which of these areas suits you is a different question from where they are, and it is answered on which area of Kalkan to stay in. If the geography is already clear and you want to see what is available across the town, browse villas in Kalkan.
How far Kalkan is from the places you will look up
Published distances for this stretch of coast disagree with one another, sometimes by a wide margin, so it is worth saying where these particular figures come from. Four of the rows below are Canvilia's own published distances, taken from our existing guides to this coast, two of them also checked against direct local knowledge. The other three come from a time-stamped cross-check against public route data. Where a source gives a range rather than a single figure, the range is printed as a range rather than tidied into false precision. These are road distances only.
| Place | Direction from Kalkan | Distance by road |
|---|---|---|
| Kaş | East along the coast road | About 25 km |
| Kaputaş | East along the coast road | About 7 km |
| Patara | West along the coast road | About 15 km |
| İslamlar | Inland, in the hills above the town | About 8 km |
| Fethiye | West along the coast road | About 80 km |
| Dalaman airport | West along the coast road | 120 to 130 km |
| Antalya | East along the coast road | 190 to 230 km |
Three of those rows have guides of their own. Kaputaş beach along the coast road is the nearest of the well known beaches to the town, which is why it appears on almost every Kalkan itinerary. Patara beach and its dunes lies the other way along the coast, further out than Kaputaş. And the coast road east to Kaş leads to the next town of any size along this shoreline, which is the other place guests tend to compare Kalkan against when they are choosing where to base themselves. Fethiye, Dalaman airport and Antalya are in the table because they are the reference points people reach for when they are placing Kalkan on a map, not because they are day trips.
Reaching Kalkan: the road and region picture
Two airports serve this part of the coast: Dalaman to the west and Antalya to the east. Kalkan sits on the coast road between them, and that road is how almost everyone arrives, whichever airport they land at. The distances are in the table above, and this page stops there on purpose. For the practical detail of the journey itself, see arriving from Dalaman airport. If you are still deciding, which airport to fly into, Dalaman or Antalya is where that comparison is made properly.
Common questions about where Kalkan is
These are the questions that come up most often once the map makes sense. There is a separate guide to what comes after the geography, namely what there is to see and do in Kalkan.
Muğla or Antalya: which province is Kalkan in?
Antalya. Kalkan is a neighbourhood of Kaş, and Kaş is a district of Antalya province. Muğla comes up often enough in connection with Kalkan that the question is a fair one, and at least one widely used mapping service does file the town under Muğla, but the administrative answer is Antalya province, Kaş district.
Aegean or Mediterranean: which coast is Kalkan on?
The Mediterranean. Kalkan is on Turkey's Mediterranean coast and within the Mediterranean region, Akdeniz Bölgesi. The Aegean coast is a separate stretch of shoreline lying further west and north, and Kalkan is not on it. If you have seen Kalkan described as Aegean, it has been grouped with the wrong coast.
Which airport should I fly into for Kalkan?
Both Dalaman and Antalya serve the region, and the right answer depends on where you are flying from and what the road journey means for your group. That comparison is made in full on which airport to fly into, Dalaman or Antalya, which is the page devoted to that question. This page gives you the distances and leaves the recommendation there.
