On my constant quest of 'off the beaten path' adventures I stumbled upon Butterfly Valley quite a few times. We are basing ourselves in Fethiye which can get pretty crowded in the tourist season so butterfly valley is an absolute gem. The land is privately owned therefore it will never be developed with mass hotels and shops etc. You can also camp! There are tents already set up (small ones!) and wooden bungalows for rent, you can also just sleep on the beach if thats your thing. The valley caters to a bit of a hippie vibe and has a small bar with food and drinks avaliable. There are two ways into the valley, 1st: you walk.
Look down into the middle of this photo, that is where you want to go. And yes, the walk/climb/hike is almost as crazy as you can imagine. We decided to 'YOLO' and hike down the valley. We are pretty active and fit, how hard can it be. Take a dolmos (outside of Carefour near the ottogar in Fethiye) towards Kabak and Faralya. We were told via another blog to tell the driver we wanted to get out at the top of butterfly valley (Kelebekler Vadisi in Turkish). We told the driver and sat down, the bus ride over is quite beautiful and every valley we passed we were more unsure how we were supposed to climb down without literally repelling or paragliding down. We ended up in Kabak and realized the driver must not have understood a word of englsih and nodded so we sat down. We figured out to take the same dolmos back towards fethiye and get out at the faralya stop. accross from this stop is a motel. face the motel and follow signs towards George House. keep following these signs until you reach george house and awkwardly walk through the hostel's land until you see the warning sign to butterfly valley letting you know you have reached the walk down and to be very careful. What had we gotten ourselves into!!
This is a good representation of the first 'challenging' climb. The rocks are situated like small jagged stairs, its not so bad. There are periods of flat ground too, I promise.
Things take an interesting turn with your first rope assisted decent. If i had seen these photos beforehand I would have considered not going, I dont even like heights, at all. BUT I'm so glad I did, so dont worry!
You will be down at the bottom in about 40-65 minutes and so thankful you are here! the valley is beautiful, the hike is rewarding, and the waters are warm and clean :) We were here in late september and the weather was perfect, unfortunately there were no butterflies but i've heard the spring is the time to see them!
The 2nd way into the valley is: by ferry. We took the ferry back to Olu deniz, it took about 30 minutes and was a bit rough waters but still beautiful. tip: sit on the top deck for great views!