The Blue Lagoon – Not Quite What I Expected.

Alright, if you read my posts a bit (and ginormous thank you if you do!) then you will know that I’m a little bit of a Pinterest lover. I do get a lot of my travel inspiration and ideas from there and it is also the sole reason why I have such high expectations of certain places. The Blue Lagoon in Ölüdeniz is one of these places.

Pictures of sapphire blue water, snow white sand and absolutely no people laying on the beach flooded my Pinterest feed whenever I searched ‘Blue Lagoon Turkey’. So as one would, I gathered up high hopes that I will witness paradise and total tranquility. Unfortunately, the Pinterest curse strikes yet again.

The Blue Lagoon is a small inlet bay connected to the beach of Ölüdeniz. Now don’t get me wrong, the beach and lagoon itself are some of the prettiest I’ve seen. The water truly is a combination of aquamarine and turquoise, and the white pebbles reflect in the sunlight.

Ölüdeniz and the Blue Lagoon.

It’s just the masses and masses of tourists that flood the lagoon which are the biggest turn-off. Of course, I came in the middle of peak season. Hotels are booked out, restaurants are overflowing and prices are double to what they usually are. I expected this. However my experience with the Blue Lagoon left me a little salty.

After reaching Ölüdeniz from Kabak Valley, I walked to the right (facing the ocean) about 200 metres where I reached the entrance gates to the Blue Lagoon. After waiting behind a large group of British folk, I paid 6TL to enter. Like I said before, I was expected it to be busy, I just didn’t expect it to be this busy. The path goes from the entrance gate right around the inlet and its about 300 metres to the point of the inlet. In this stretch, hundreds of people were rushing about, trying to find an empty sun bed, which was no easy feat, even though the sun beds were lined up side by side and about five sun beds deep. The place was a madhouse.

This was the start of the umbrella packed lagoon. It got exponentially worse.

Not wanting to pay the extra Lira for a sun bed, I kept walking hoping to find a spare bit of space to park myself. No such luck. Every inch of the Blue Lagoon’s pebbled beach was covered by human flesh. I made my way down to the water, stepping over a few children and bags and looked for the paradise that Pinterest promised me.

Realising I wouldn’t find it here, I walked back down the path, out of the inlet, past the restaurant and the banana boats, to where there were only a few sun beds and about half the people. Dripping with sweat by this stage, I dropped my bag close to the water and dove in.

They weren’t lying about the water colour.

To be fair, it was beautiful. Despite the hordes of tourists, the view beyond was pretty amazing and the water was still had that crazy clearness that I couldn’t get over. Babadag and the other huge mountains loomed over the bay and the sky was and endless amount of blue.

From where I sat, between the Blue Lagoon and Ölüdeniz.

I stayed for a little while, before the scorching sun got too much and headed back towards the busier Ölüdeniz to take refuge in some shade.

What I Suggest For The Blue Lagoon:

• DON’T GO IN AUGUST! Unless you enjoy enjoy playing tinned sardines with other tourists
• Go early to beat the crowd and the heat.
• Don’t go right into the Lagoon. The water is just as pretty outside on the other side of the inlet, with slightly less people.
• Enjoy it from above. Check out my paragliding experience for a big fat reason why 🙂

J. x