ANTALYA · TURKEY
Turquoise water, ancient stone, the long Mediterranean day.
Suluada and the Lycian coast. Aspendos and Pamukkale. Jeep tracks into the Taurus, paragliders off Tahtalı, hammam at sunset.
The Antalya day
Start with the one Antalya is built around.
If you only get one day on the coast, this is the day. The combo most travellers fly in for.
The classics
Antalya's Most Popular Day Tours
Suluada, Pamukkale, the jeep-and-rafting combo, the Old City and the cable car. The trips that fill the season.
Three Antalyas
Sea, mountain, ancient world.
Antalya is three destinations stacked into one. The Mediterranean below, the Taurus mountains above, two thousand years of stone in between. Pick the world you're in the mood for.
The sea
The Mediterranean a day at a time.Speedboats to the Suluada lagoon. Gulets along the Lycian coast. Lunch on the deck, swim stops in the Türkuaz.
The mountain
The Taurus, off the asphalt.Jeep tracks to mountain villages. Whitewater on the Köprülü canyon. Paragliders coming off Mount Tahtalı.
The ancient world
Two thousand years, in walking distance.Roman theatres at Aspendos. The cotton castle at Pamukkale. The Lycian tombs at Myra.
Only on the Turkish Riviera
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Roman ruins are everywhere along this coast. These three are different. The cotton-castle travertines, the theatre with the best acoustics ever built, and the sea-to-summit cable car — each is a once-on-earth experience. Worth planning around.
The cotton castle
Pamukkale & Cleopatra’s Pool
Hot mineral water has been spilling down this hillside for fourteen thousand years, terracing the cliff into a frozen white waterfall the Turks call Pamukkale — the cotton castle. On the plateau above, the Greco-Roman city of Hierapolis is built around the spring, and you can swim through submerged Roman columns in Cleopatra’s Pool. UNESCO World Heritage, two-and-a-half hours north.
- 1 Pamukkale Hierapolis and Cleopatra’s Pool Tour with lunch from Antalya
- 2 From Antalya/Kemer: Pamukkale and Hierapolis Tour with Lunch
- 3 From Antalya/Kemer: Pamukkale & Hierapolis Day Trip w/Meals
Roman acoustics
The Theatre at Aspendos
Built under Marcus Aurelius in the second century, Aspendos is the best-preserved Roman theatre on earth — fifteen thousand seats, every step still in place, the back wall still standing. The acoustics are good enough that the modern opera festival uses it without amplification. Forty minutes east of Antalya, on a hillside above the Eurymedon plain.
- 1 Antalya: Perge, Aspendos, City of Side, and Waterfalls Tour
- 2 Ancient Perge, Aspendos Amphitheater and City of Side Tour
- 3 Perge Aspendos Side and Manavgat Waterfall Tour
Sea to summit
Olympos by Cable Car
Mount Tahtalı is 2,365 metres straight up from a Mediterranean beach. The cable car climbs it in ten minutes — a 4.3-kilometre run, one of the longest aerial tramways in the world. The locals still call it Olympos, the same mountain Bellerophon and Pegasus once took on. Snow on top, the coast laid out below.
- 1 Antalya/Kemer: Old City, Waterfalls, Olympos Cable Car, Boat
- 2 Antalya Luxury Old Town Tour with Cable Car & Boat Trip
- 3 Antalya/Kemer: City Tour w/Olympos Cable Car, Boat & Lunch
By place
Pick a stretch of the Turquoise Coast.
Antalya for the Old Town and the headland waterfalls. Alanya for the castle on the cliff. Side for the Roman temples on the water. Kemer for the pines and Tahtalı behind. Kas for the Lycian harbour. Belek for the dunes and the golf.
By activity
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Boat if you want the sea slow and lunch over the side. Jeep or quad if you want the mountains fast. Pamukkale or Aspendos if you want the past. Turkish bath if you want the heat. Pick your pace.
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