Introduction to Alanya – Turkey

Introduction to Alanya – Turkey

Alanya is a small coastal resort city on Turkey’s gorgeous Mediterranean coast. The 20-km-long city has a stunning location, wedged tightly between low coastal mountains and a brilliantly-turquoise-colored sea that’s lined by beige-sand beaches. Alanya is located about 2 hours / km drive east of Antalya city.

Alanya’s three most noteworthy attractions include its extremely long beige sand beaches; a huge, mountainous, pine-forest-covered promontory that juts into the sea, essentially splitting the city into two halves; and a massive historic fortress complex set on the promontory. It features two castle ruins, miles of original stone walls and other historic structures within the complex.

Alanya’s Beautiful Sand Beaches

Most visitors go to Alanya primarily for its gorgeous beaches, especially since sand beaches are rather rare in Turkey. Most Turkish beaches are composed of pebbles of one size or other. An actual sand beach is a wonderful, rare treat in Turkey.

Alanya’s primary tourist beach, Kleopatra Beach, stretches for 3 km / 2 miles in a gentle curve along the vibrant turquoise-colored sea on Alanya’s western side. The sandy beach is backed by a wide, landscaped walkway that’s lined by palm trees and accented by landscaped gardens and a series of large stone sculptures made by various Turkish sculptors.

In high season, Kleopatra Beach is quite unfortunately completely filled with closely-set beach chairs and umbrellas. But the rest of the year the beach is gloriously empty, just a long swath of pretty beige sand stretching for miles between headlands at either end.

On the other side of the centrally-situated promontory, there’s Alanya’s boat harbor, main city streets and the considerably longer beach that stretches out along the coast. This beach continues a whopping 20 km / 12 miles until it’s finally halted by a low headland southeast of the main city.

The Promontory

While Alanya’s beautiful sandy beaches are the city’s primary draw, what really makes Alanya special, in my opinion, is that massive promontory. Without that Alanya would be ‘just ok’ in my book. While the sandy beaches are beautiful, they are lining a fairly large city. And that means lots of people, noise and some degree of hassle from locals trying to either sell things or hit on all the European and Russian tourists.

The promontory allows one to escape the city and all its noise & crowds into a near wilderness. In off-season it’s almost entirely devoid of people! The entire promontory is clothed in a beautiful pine forest. Near the base of the promontory, high cliffs and rugged rocks plunge into the sea. Scattered all over the slopes are sudden cliffs, rock outcroppings and giant boulders.

Dozens of hiking trails wind & climb through the pine forests all around the mountainous promontory. There are trails near the coast atop the cliffs and jagged rocks; trails climbing nearly vertically up & down the hillsides; and trails running along the exterior base of the miles & miles of ancient stone fortress walls.

Perhaps the crowning highlight of the promontory are the spectacular panoramic views looking out over the vast city, the interior mountain ranges, the coastline stretching to the horizon in both directions, the bright turquiose Mediterranean Sea and the ancient stone fortress, castles & walls that wind around the rugged slopes and top of the promontory.

The Fortress Complex

No doubt the biggest draw to the peninsula for most visitors is the massive stone fortress, dual castles and miles of stone walls. People can access the huge complex either by road, cable car or hiking trails.

Rather surprisingly, exploring most of the fortress area is free and, as I noted above, a complex of hiking trails -as well as constructed walkways – wind all over, both inside and outside the stone walls. Several historic gates allow for pedestrian and vehicular traffic.

Only the two relatively small walled castle areas charge entry fees. No doubt the interior structures within the castles are interesting and the views superb, but exploring the vast fortress area without entering the castle ruins also provides plenty of interest and viewpoints.

The Red Tower is another part of the huge fortress complex, connected to the upper fortress by walls. It’s situated at sea level, right beside Alanya’s harbor.

This octagonal red brick tower was constructed by the Seljuk Turks in the early 1200s as a look-out tower and city defence point. The uge five-story tower features a stunning architecture with many symmetrical features, a massive central water cystern, and tall stone staircases leading between levels. At the top, panoramic views of the adjacent promontory, fortress and walls, boat harbor, city, coast and snow-capped interior mountains are utterly spectacular.

Visiting Red Tower was one of the best things I did in Alanya, aside from hiking all over the promontory day after day, where I constantly discovered new trails and better & better viewpoints.

I stayed in Alanya for two full weeks, happily hiking solo on the promontory, taking photos, walking the further beaches, strolling the Kleopatra Beach garden walkway and occassionally suntanning on the beach.

Notes on Visiting Alanya

Travelers with less time on their hands could explore the promontory, fortress complex and Red Tower in one or two full days. Avid hikers might want a few days longer to really explore the beautiful forested hiking trails & magnificent viewpoints. And then, of course, save as many days as you like for enjoying the sand beaches & turquoise sea.

Alanya is jam-packed with hotels in all budget categories. I managed to pay 70 Turkish lira / less than $10 US per night for a great, centrally-located hotel room in March. That’s way off-season and in a Covid-19 year. Probably the normal lowest budget price in Alanya is more like 80-100 lira per night, perhaps more in high season (July-August).

However, I don’t actually recommend visiting Turkey’s Mediterranean coast during high season. Daily temperatures reach over 100 F / 37-42C. It becomes extremely crowded & noisy. And prices rise dramatically. Much better to visit Nov-May, when temperatures are moderate, prices are low, and most places are practically devoid of people.

But I do highly recommend Alanya. It’s gorgeous, offers great hiking, amazing panoramic views, very interesting historic fortress complex and lovely sand beaches.

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Introduction to Antalya

Introduction to Beautiful Fetiye

My 10 Best Experiences on Turkey’s Stunning Turquoise Coast

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