Kızılyaka: Nature, Yörük Handicrafts and Cuisine

Kızılyaka: Nature, Culture and Cuisine

Those considering Kızılyaka as a travel destination will find several themes to help them get their bearings: a designated nature reserve, the history of Yörük handicrafts, and a regional food culture with a distinctive dish. Archaeological research and the story of an aircraft that was used as a restaurant also feature. Depending on whether nature, cultural history or cuisine is your main interest, you can look at the town from different perspectives.

Plan with the bus route

One specific connection is MUTTAŞ bus route 12-1. It links Ula and Kızılyaka on a 60-kilometre circular route. Places along the route include Çiçekli, Karaböğürtlen, Akyaka and Kızılağaç. The route therefore offers a tangible point of reference for navigating between these places. Timetables and routes may change; check both before travelling if you want to plan around them.

Protected area and archaeological history

The Kızılyaka Nature Reserve in Ula is designated as a “sensitive area requiring strict protection” and a “qualified conservation area.” These two classifications make the area’s protected status an important feature. Classifications may be updated administratively; if the current status is important to your plans, it is advisable to check the latest information.

Archaeology is also among the topics associated with Kızılyaka: a first-degree archaeological site has been studied and digitised. This offers a different way into the town’s history than its textile tradition. The focus at the site is on research and digitisation, while the textiles passed down through generations represent a craft and its legacy.

Yörük handicrafts and regional cuisine

In Kızılyaka, kıl textiles and kilims were woven as part of an ancient Yörük culture. The tradition is now at risk of disappearing and largely lives on in people’s memories. Its cultural and historical value lies not only in the craft itself, but also in how it tells the story of a tradition that is being carried on by fewer and fewer people. For travellers interested in regional cultural history, this textile heritage complements the archaeological perspective on Kızılyaka with another form of remembrance.

Tavuk ekşilemesi, made with village chicken, is part of the local food culture. The dish is considered important and distinctive in Kızılyaka, and is also described as a speciality of the Ula region. It thus connects a local culinary tradition with the wider region. Alongside Yörük handicrafts, the dish offers another way to experience the town’s culture: here the focus is on a dish, while there it is on a textile tradition whose survival is at risk.

The aircraft restaurant in the town’s history

Another link between Kızılyaka and food is the story of a converted Airbus A300. A report from 2020 described how the retired aircraft, built in 1985, was brought to Kızılyaka in seven sections and reassembled on a 25,000-square-metre site near the Muğla–Fethiye road. It was then converted into a restaurant. The aircraft weighed around 100 tonnes and had a capacity of 380 passengers—a figure referring to its original passenger capacity.

In 2020, the aircraft restaurant offered Aegean and Black Sea cuisine, as well as breakfast. This time-specific detail distinguishes the restaurant’s offering at the time from Tavuk ekşilemesi, which is considered a distinctive Kızılyaka dish and a speciality of the Ula region. Taken together, these two culinary themes show different sides of the area: a regionally rooted dish tradition and a time-specific restaurant concept in a converted passenger aircraft.

Discover more destinations: Göcek, Ortaca, Yalı Belediyesi, Milas, Gökova, Akyarlar, Yeşilüzümlü, Kızılağaç

For the broader travel overview: Mugla.