Antalya airport transfers and travel guide

Things to see in Antalya

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  Kaleiçi and Hadrian’s Gate

  Old town, city centre

  Kaleiçi — “inside the castle” — is the original core of Antalya, enclosed by a horseshoe of old city walls. Around 3,000 traditional houses with red-tiled roofs line narrow lanes that run down to the old harbour, now a marina for yachts and excursion boats. Walk in through Hadrian’s Gate, the three-arched marble gate built around 150 CE in the name of the emperor who visited the city in 130 CE; clear panels in the floor show the grooves worn into the paving by carts. Inside the walls, look for the fluted Yivli Minaret, the Hıdırlık Tower and the Kesik Minare.

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  Konyaaltı Beach

  West side of the city

  The city’s main beach stretches for about 13 km along the western side of Antalya, with the Beydağları mountains rising behind it. The shore is mostly fine pebbles with some sandy stretches, and the Blue Flag beach is backed by a long park with cafés, free changing rooms and showers. Lifeguards patrol the beach, and one section has adapted facilities for visitors with disabilities.

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  Düden Waterfalls

  Lara, east of the centre

  The Düden river reaches the Mediterranean in spectacular fashion: at the Lower Düden Waterfall it drops about 40 metres from the cliffs straight into the sea. Düden Park, on the clifftop, is open around the clock and free to enter. Inland, the Upper Düden Waterfall is a separate fenced park with an entrance fee, where the river pours into a basin surrounded by greenery.

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  Perge

  Aksu, 15 km east of the centre

  Perge flourished under Roman rule between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD and became one of the most beautiful towns in Anatolia. You enter past the towers of its Hellenistic gate and follow a colonnaded main street with a water channel down its centre, which once fed a series of cascading pools. The site also has a Roman theatre, a stadium and baths, and it was the birthplace of Apollonius, the mathematician known for his work on conic sections.

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  Aspendos Theatre

  Near Serik, 40 km east of the centre

  Aspendos has the best-preserved theatre of antiquity. Built in 155 AD by Zenon, an architect from the city itself, it measures 96 metres across and seats around 7,000 people, and its stage wall still stands complete. The theatre is not just a ruin: it hosts the annual Aspendos International Opera and Ballet Festival, staged by the Turkish State Opera and Ballet since 1994.