Antalya: practical tips

The July and August heat is not an exaggeration

At the height of summer Antalya goes well past 35 degrees with heavy humidity, and the slopes of Kaleiçi in that heat are a different proposition. The city organises itself around it: monuments early, beach or museum at midday, and life returns to the street at sundown.

The practical consequence: if you come in July or August, get up properly early. Be at Hadrian’s Gate at nine and by one you’ve earned the museum’s air conditioning.

In April, June, September and October none of this applies, and the sea in October is still warm.

The ruins have no shade. None

Aspendos, Perge and Side spread stone in full sun, without a tree, and you walk them for a couple of hours. Reflecting marble plus zero shade at two in the afternoon in August is the combination that sends people back to the hotel with a headache.

Go first thing or last thing. Carry water, there isn’t always somewhere to buy it inside, a hat, and closed shoes: the ground is uneven.

And Termessos in particular isn’t a visit: it’s a climb up a mountain on foot, so don’t save it for the day your feet hurt.

The province’s real distances

The most expensive planning mistake: hotels in Belek, Kemer, Side or Kundu are advertised as Antalya and sit between 30 and 75 kilometres from the old town. That isn’t a walk or a city bus: it’s a taxi or a car every time. Decide what you came for first. If it’s the city and the ruins, sleep in Kaleiçi or Konyaaltı. If it’s a resort, know that the centre is an excursion and plan it as one: one day, not every evening.

The transport card, and the tram

Antalya runs on a rechargeable transit card, like the rest of Turkey: buy it from machines, use it on tram and bus. Without one, every trip is a hassle. And there are two different trams, which confuses people: the AntRay, modern, serves the airport and crosses the city. And the nostalgic one, an old carriage, runs along the coast and stops at the Antalya Museum. The second is half transport, half attraction, and for the museum it’s perfect.

Data on your phone

The important warning, and the one that costs most: Turkey isn’t in the European Union, so the roaming plan you travel to Italy or Greece on doesn’t apply here. Surprise bills are a classic of this destination, mostly because the flight takes as long as one to any European island and people step off the plane without thinking. And here you genuinely need your phone: the archaeological sites are out of town and you get there with a map, excursions get booked on the fly, and the resort wifi ends where the pool ends. A local eSIM activates on landing and costs a fraction of roaming.