Tahtali by Cable Car: Sea Level to 2,365 Metres

There are few places where you can be swimming in the morning and standing in cold wind on a bare summit an hour later. Tahtali Dagi rises to 2,365 metres almost directly out of the sea behind Kemer, and the cable car turns what would be a serious mountain day into a ride.

Ancient geographers called it Olympos, one of several peaks in the Greek world to carry the name, and it anchors the Beydaglari range that walls off the coast west of Antalya. From below it looks like a wall. From the coastal road it changes shape every few kilometres, and in spring it still carries snow above a shoreline where oranges are ripening.

The span is around 4.5 kilometres, which puts the Olympos Teleferik among the longest cable car routes anywhere. The cabin lifts you over pine forest, then over the tree line, then over bare rock, and the coastline unrolls behind you the whole way — Kemer directly below, Antalya's bay curving away east, and open Mediterranean to the south. The same ticket covers the return trip, so nobody has to walk down.

A viewing terrace, a great deal of wind, and on a clear day a horizon that reaches far along the coast in both directions. There is a restaurant at the summit if you want to sit with the view rather than stand in it. The Lycian Way long-distance path crosses this massif, so you may well see walkers arriving on foot looking considerably more tired than you.

WeCare books it as a full-day outing with hotel pickup and drop-off in an air-conditioned Mercedes, a guide, entrance fees, lunch at a local restaurant, bottled water and insurance.

The temperature at the top is dramatically lower than at the base station, and wind makes it feel colder still. Take a jacket even in August — plenty of visitors arrive in shorts and spend the whole summit visit regretting it.