PARAGLIDING IN OLUDENIZ: A THRILL SEEKERS DREAM FLIGHT!
As many of you know, last week we shared some of our most memorable travel experiences to date (Four Days of Pure Bliss on the Mediterranean! & The Most Incredible Hot Air Balloon Ride EVER!, both of which occured during our recent trip to Turkey. What we have yet to mention is the day we flew 6,500 feet over one of Europe’s best beaches!
When we first heard that we would have the opportunity to take a paragliding flight during one of our upcoming stops on the blue cruise, we instantly knew that we would have to take full advantage of our situation and knock yet another item off of our adventure-filled bucket lists.
SAILING TO OLUDENIZ
After a great breakfast and a short swim, we made our way towards Oludeniz, a small village and resort town on the coast of Southwestern Turkey.
We had no idea what Oludeniz was like as we hadn’t done any research on it prior to hopping on the cruise and I think this added to our excitement as we approached our stop in Oludeniz and not only noticed how beautiful it was, but it was also overly exciting to see clusters of paragliders swirling around in the air above us.
It turns out Oludeniz is known for having been named one of Europe’s best beaches as well as one of the best places in the world to paraglide. SCORE!
THE RIDE UP IS SCARIER THAN THE FLIGHT…
“Good luck! The ride up to the top is scarier than the actual paragliding flight itself!” – Bec
The ride up to the jump point is scarier than running off the side of a mountain? Yeah, right.
We laughed as we brushed it off as an exaggeration.
Bec wasn’t lying…
The ride up to Mount Babadag, the place where all of the paraglider pilots setup for their next flight was nothing less than horrifying. At one point I remember glancing over at Liz, who at the time was trying her best not to look at the winding road ahead of us, and I said “I’m so glad we’re jumping off this cliff because there’s not a chance in the world that I’m taking this van back down.
The paraglider pilots are sounds asleep, literally snoring away as we make the climb to 6,500 ft. The ride to the top takes approximately thirty minutes and it’s a scary one, especially once your approach the peak.
The driver makes trip seem like a walk in the park. He’s chatting away and glancing towards his friend in the passenger seat as we wind our way up the mountain. The road is barely wide enough for the van but it’s a two-way road. The guard rails are non-existent and you can just about watch the gravel roll down off the sides of the long curvy road ahead. The curves in the road go left and right every 10 seconds or so yet our driver decides he’ll just make slight gestures with the steering wheel so that we cut some of the corners. I swear it was part of the paragliding experience.
Maybe they were trying to scare us before we actually took flight?
PREPARING TO TAKE FLIGHT
When we arrived at the peak there was a big sigh of relief. If anything, these guys just made us want to get hooked up to this kite even sooner.
I whipped out my trusty GoPro HERO3Â thinking I was ready to shoot some awesome footage only to be told by my pilot that I couldn’t bring it along with me. Huh!?
Although it would have been nice if they had told me prior to taking my GoPro for the ride with me, I sort of understand where they’re coming from on this one. Granted, I didn’t have a tether or anything to connect it to my body. I would have loved to have my Quikpod, but I lost that a few months ago while cliff jumping in Thailand. I could have taken my Chesty along with me but I thought it would be stupid to have the camera mounted to my chest when I was ultimately going to be sitting in a La-Z-Boy position.
Fortunately, I had my new Sony NEX-5R on hand which had a lanyard that I could wrap around my neck during the flight. The pilot seemed cool with it, so I was pretty content in the end with not being able to take my GoPro up with me.
RUN!
Liz and I suited up, hooked up to our pilots and received one simple instruction.
“When I say RUN, you RUN, okay? – Pilot
My eyes are focused on the horizon as the pilot yells out 3… 2… 1…
RUN!
I try to sprint on his command but it’s a little awkward to do so when you’ve got a 225lb guy attached to your back. All I know was that my running abilities were enough to get us off the ground and into the air, high above the stunning landscape of Oludeniz below.
FLYING LIKE A BIRD
There’s really nothing like the feeling of taking flight. I could cruise around the skies all day and never get sick of it. There’s something to be said about being a paragliding pilot.
Think about it for a minute.
You wake up, eat breakfast, take five scenic flights per day and call it an evening. Not only can you travel the world and work in all sorts of interesting destinations across the globe, you also get paid to fly!
It was hard to believe all the hype of Oludeniz being one of Europe’s top beaches until I actually witnessed the beauty from above. I mean, just look at this beach!
Excuse my hairy legs…
We spent about 15 minutes cruising around the skies at what seemed to be a very slow and quite relaxing speed. It wasn’t until I asked the pilot to take the flight to the next level that he started to realize that I wasn’t here to just sit back in my La-Z-Boy and take in the views.
I’m an adrenaline junkie and I want to feel some of that g-force!
As soon as I muttered those words we instantly began to spin towards the Earth at a high rate of speed. I screamed out in excitment (not like this death scream), but more of a HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL YEAHHHH! type of scream.
The g-forces were serious and I was loving every second of it as we spun through the air. The second the pilot let up on the cord we were back in cruising mode and approaching our landing.
NICE N’ EASY!
The best part about the landing is that we came flying in over one of the main roads leading to Oludeniz beach and made our smooth landing between tourists and onlookers strolling along the boardwalk below.
THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
1. Wear proper shoes! If you show up in flip flops you’ll either have to wear someone elses shoes or not be allowed to fly. Both options stink (literally) in my opinion.
2. If you decide to bring a camera, be sure to bring a lanyard or neck strap for it or you’ll be shi*t out of luck!
3. If you get car sick, please skip the whole paragliding experience. (Yes, we had a woman in our group who gets car sick and decided to give it a shot) Guess what? She got sick and threw up mid-flight. EWW! I would hate to be both the pilot and a beach-goer that day.
Note: Paragliding flights can last up to 40 minutes. Even if you’re not into paragliding, you can spend some time hanging on the boardwalk watching the brave souls come in for their landings with smiles from ear to ear.
Read More: Don’t miss my friend and fellow travel blogger Sabrina’s recent post: Paragliding in Oludeniz: A Spectacular Place from Every Perspective
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Wow! 6k feet? Definitely a moment I’m sure you wanted to pause.
That’s for sure!
Damn it Ryan! I hate you!! ;) Your post is awesome! I should hire you a my editor!!
Oh, stop it Sabrina! Thanks for the feedback though. Your post was just as good. ;-)
Wow! paragliding must have been an awesome experience.
Totally!
Oh wow – I didn’t realize that you’re up in the air for so long. We thought about hang gliding in Rio, but when we saw pics of people near the peaks of skyscrapers, we quickly scratched our plans. I’ve been parasailing which I felt fine with since we were connected to a boat, but I don’t think I could ever paraglide. Great beach pics from above though!
Yeah, it can be quite a long flight if you just want to cruise around. If you want to do tricks, you’re on the ground before you know it. I’m all for the tricks and the adrenaline rush though! Yeah, we’ve done parasailing before, I wouldn’t even be able to compare it to this. It’s completely different. Get your courage up and hit the skies!
Super cool mate, wish I had of done it when I was there now. It would be a pretty cool job right. I remember in Nepal they were doing paragliding training and it was ridiculously cheap (compared to Western prices). Maybe a future trip!
Aw, you missed out big time! Guess you’ll have to go back. ;-)
This is awesome! Love these pictures too.
Thanks Michelle!
Awesome post Ryan and photos – but may I recommend leg hair trimming, I heard it makes you more aerodynamic LOL
THanks Noe! I truly appreciate you calling me out about my hairy legs. Aerodynamic!? LOL
Those photos look amazing! what a place to do this for the first time. Looks like such an adrenaline rush.
Thanks Josh! It is!
Still have never done this. The views from above are great! Not sure I’d be very happy about vomit raining down from above if I was on the beach though…
Yeah, the views are incredible. It was our first time paragliding as well. You would love it!
Despite not being able to take your GoPro (total bummer) you managed to take some incredible photographs. I recently bought a GoPro (hoping I can eventually learn how to use it properly). Curious, what are your thoughts on it for travel?
Thanks Morgan. I like to think of the GoPro as the ultimate adventure travel camera, not so much an all around travel camera due to its limiting FOV (field of view), no zoom and relatively short battery life. In saying that, I always travel with my GoPro, I wouldn’t have it any other way! You can find my all around travel camera (Sony NEX-5R) over on my packing list here: https://www.pausethemoment.com/packing-list/ Keep in touch!
This thing right here is definitely in our bucket list. Can’t wait to get to Turkey to try this out!
Awesome. You guys will love it!
Oh, c’mon Ken!
Great post ryan! I did this once in Annecy (France) and it is an absolutely amazing experience! I can totally relate to this article. The RUN part is so funny. The guy in France told me to to keep on running until I couldn’t feel the ground anymore. I was so nervous and the first attempt to take off went wrong. There was a big change in the wind direction and we were almost blown of the other side of the mountain. Luckily I survived and could try it a second time ;-)..
Great blog by the way! I will keep following you guys! If you like you can check out my blog that I recently started ;-)
Cheers Bastiaan
OMG! My husband and I found Oludinez on our honeymoon in 1996 and your post brought back so many awesome memories there! We didn’t intend to stay for more than a couple of days, but each morning we’d wake up and ask, “So, today… should we really go?” pause pause pause . . . then we’d both say, “Nahhhh. . .” and take the short walk to the beach to bask in the beauty of the Mediterranean Sea. We didn’t paraglide, but had so much fun watching everyone come down! I thank you for your shots up there, though; it’s awesome to see the little cove and remember just where we’d lay around all day. Aaaahhhh. And your last shot landing is awesome, too because I remember sitting upstairs at that bar/restaurant on the right, overlooking the beach across the little street. Thanks so much for this little trip down memory lane! Awesome post, awesome pics.
You missed out Erin! Maybe you’ll get another shot at it the next time around? Thanks so much for the comment!
I did the same thing when I went paragliding in Colombia, but when the guy started spinning, I almost threw up all over us both! I would have loved the speed alone, but the spinning part didn’t work for me. It was still a great time though!
AMAZING!!!! We will be adding this to the adventure list on our upcoming RTW! 50 days and counting!
I’m so jalouse men I Love to do this to.
Waw, such a beatiful photos from above. I fear of hights, but after reading this I have to try paragliding in the future.