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Visiting Ölüdeniz in December

BySunMed Guide

Visiting Ölüdeniz in December

Weather in December: Average high 15.8°C, 143.1mm rainfall.

# Ölüdeniz in December: The Honest Version

Look, Ölüdeniz in December is not the postcard version. The famous Blue Lagoon is still impossibly blue, but you’re looking at it wrapped in a fleece rather than a bikini.

Temperatures sit around 15-16°C, which sounds almost reasonable until the wind picks up off the water and drops it a few degrees further. You’ll get genuine sunshine some days, genuinely grey drizzle on others, and December brings serious rainfall – over 140mm across the month, which means some days are simply written off. The mountains surrounding the valley often disappear into cloud, which is dramatic in its own way, but it does mean paragliding from Babadağ gets cancelled frequently. If that’s your main reason for coming, December is a gamble you might lose.

The crowd situation is the real story here. The summer hordes – the beach vendors, the party boats, the queues for everything – are completely gone. The lagoon beach itself is free to access (no summer entrance fee). You can walk the whole shoreline in near silence, which is genuinely special for a place that hosts thousands of people daily in August. The village feels authentically quiet rather than artificially staged.

What’s actually open is the harder question. Many restaurants and hotels close between November and April. You’ll find a handful of year-round establishments, but choice is limited and you should check specific places before counting on them.

So is it worth it? For the right person, absolutely yes. If you’re a walker, the Lycian Way is outstanding in cooler weather and the lighting for photography is beautiful. If you want to experience one of Turkey’s most famous landscapes without the circus around it, December delivers that. If you’re hoping for beach days and reliable sunshine, you’re in the wrong month entirely.

**Practical tip:** Book accommodation directly and call ahead. Don’t rely on websites showing “open” status – several places list themselves as available but are effectively closed or running skeleton service. A quick phone call saves real disappointment.

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