All About Beautiful Antalya – Turkey

When I was researching for my 3-month travels around Turkey, Antalya quickly became one of the places I was most excited to visit. It’s a large city on Turkey’s southern Mediterranean Coast, with stunning coastal scenery of vertical cliffs, long beaches, voluminous waterfalls, a cute historic boat harbor and a small but impressive historic city center.

When I saw photos of a pounding waterfall plunging into the sea from a tall cliff, located right in the city, I was instantly hooked on Antalya. Then I discovered another big waterfall in a vast park in the city’s northern suburbs and photos of old stone walls surrounding the curved & very well protected marina and a miles-long beach that seemed to stretch to the horizon.

Beyond the city, the long mountainous coast between Antalya and Fetiye in the west is barely developed and is filled with small beach coves, little towns & villages, rivers, waterfalls, densely forested mountains and even a couple of Bohemian enclaves with wood & thatched bungalows, camping and stunning au naturale beaches.

I was psyched to get to Antalya and the Mediterranean Coast! I planned to spend one week in Antalya, exploring and finishing up hotel review work, then travel along the coast for 2-3 weeks towards Fetiye, purely on time off, immersing myself in nature.

Introduction to Antalya

As it turns out, Antalya is not just a large city, it’s massive and sprawling, with 2.5 million inhabitants. In fact, Antalya is Turkey’s fifth largest city after Istanbul (20 Million!), Ankara, Izmir and Bursa.

The city is partially situated on top of high vertical cliffs and partly at sea level, lining the 8 km / 5-mile-long Konyaalti Beach. The city also fans inland for about 14 km / 9 miles. The complete metroplitan area is massive.

Most of Antalya city is extremely ugly, filled with miles and miles of 4-10-story boxy, non-descript modern buildings. There are blocks and blocks, seemingly never-ending, of big boxy apartment buildings. In between are all the usual modern city fixtures: huge shopping malls, car dealerships, strip malls, shopping districts, highways and heaps of traffic.

Quite happily, the long section of city directly lining the coast has a lot of beauty. In the center is the quaint historic marina, surrounded by vertical cliffs topped by stone walls. On top of the cliffs is the adorable original historic town, composed of winding & hilly cobblestone roads lined by beautiful historic buildings. Most of them are beautifully renovated, but a few are falling into disrepair.

From Antalya’s historic heart, a series of large, shady parks run for miles along the coast in both directions. Most parks are situated on top of cliffs. Curving southward, the clifftop parks eventually run into long Konyaalti Beach, which is backed by another spacious park at sea level and another up on top of yet more cliffs.

It’s this historic and coastal section of Antalya that visitors come to explore. In fact, Antalya is one of Turkey’s most famous tourist destinations, both for Turks and international travelers.

Brief History of Antalya

Antalya’s adorable little cliff-lined harbor is where the original city got started…more than 2000 years ago! The Hellenic Greek Empire of Pergamon founded Attalia about 150 BC at the well-protected cove, where they based their Mediterranean fleet. They built the city high above on the cliff tops.

The marina and city continued being used by various civilizations over the decades and centuries, all the way up to the present time. That literally makes Antalya a 2000-year-old city.

Soon after Pergamon founded Attalia, the Romans took over, followed by the Byzantines (Eastern Roman Empire), the Seljuk Turks, the Ottoman Turkish Empire and finally the current Republic of Turkey.

Antalya remained an important but low-key agricultural, trade and then manufacturing region until the 1970s, when it was suddenly developed for tourism on a grand scale. Today Antalya is the center of the ‘Turkish Riviera’ international tourist industry. Needless to say, there are now a plethora of hotels, restaurants, bars, tour businesses, souvenir shops and recreational activities.

Things to see and do in Antalya

As a result of Antalya’s ancient & complex history, the historic marina and old town have important historic artifacts from all the different civilizations over the centureis, making it a very intriguing and important cultural, historical and educational place to visit.

I’m writing a separate article about the best things to see and do in Antalya, in which I’ll go into more detail on each attraction. So for now I’ll just mention the best/biggest attractions.

Some highlights & top attractions of Antalya’s historic district include Hadrian’s Gate, one of the main gates into the old walled city; the Byzantine Wall found on top of the marina cliffs and in short sections around the old town; the 13^th Century Yivliminare Mosque and fluted miniaret; the old stone Clock Tower; Hidrilik Tower, a Roman stone tower built in 100s BC and dozens of distinctive Ottoman-era houses, hotels and shops. There are also several small but important museums.

The main natural attractions include the upper and lower Duden Waterfalls, Konyaalti Beach as well as several smaller beaches, and Antalya’s stunning clifftop parks.

Tips for Visitors to Antalya

* Stay at/near Old Town

The biggest tip I’ll give to visitors is to be sure to stay in or near Antalya’s old town. All of the city’s natural beauty, history, great architecture and museums are situated near the coast and old town. There’s really no reason to stay in the modern part of the city, which could also render you dependent on city transport to get to/from everything (unless you’re going to Antalya for shopping malls?)

* Consider buying an AntalyaKart for public transportation

Assuming you stay at/near old town, you can easily walk to almost every attraction in the city, aside from the two Duden Waterfalls. Visiting either falls will require a bus ride. If you’re going to use public transportation more than twice, it’s worth bying the AntalyaKart. It gives passengers nearly 50% discount on rides, including all the city’s buses and trams. It works that same as the IstanbulKart.

* Spent 3-7 days exploring Antalya

If you love nature, history, culture and museums, and thus want to see everything on offer in Antalya, plan for 3-7 days.

You’ll need a half day to visit each of the two Duden Waterfalls. But you could easily spend a full day at each to hike in the parks, enjoy the falls and scenery at a more leisurely pace.

You can see the marina and old town, with all its attractions, in one full day. But if you want to visit all the museums, two days would be more reasonable.

Beach lovers will want at least one day to enjoy Konyaalti Beach. Walking through some of Antalya’s key cliffside & shoreside parks could take several hours in total.

* Budget accommodation: hostels, AirBnB, small private hotels

Antalya’s old town has several hostels, small family-run boutique hotels, private AirBnB rooms & apartments and all range of hotels from modest up to luxury. On the outskirts of old town there are many more.

* Skip Summer Season in Antalya

Antalya’s peak tourist season in July and August features scorching temperatures, massive crowds and very high prices. Temperatures of 40-45C / 104-113F are standard in Antalya in July and August. Since the city is the center of Turkey’s coastal beach & party tourism scene, hoardes of vacationers from Turkey and abroad flock there to enjoy the beaches and party hard.

So unless you revel in scorching heat, crowds and parties, I recommend you visit Antalya any other time of the year. Spring, from March-May, and Autumn in September and October, offer the best climate and natural scenery.

I’ll be writing more about things to see and do in Antalya soon. So stay tuned!

Summary

Antalya is a gorgeous coastal Mediterranean city filled with outstanding natural beauty and fascinating historic culture & architecture. It’s worth spending 3-7 days exploring in-depth and probably best to visit off-season in spring or autumn.

I’ll be writing more about things to see and do in Antalya soon. So stay tuned!

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