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Antalya: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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Kaleiçi simply means "inside the castle", and until the twentieth century that was the whole city: stone lanes inside Roman walls, Ottoman wooden houses with an upper floor that juts out, and a harbour cut into the rock. It walks in an hour but deserves three. Go late afternoon — the paving holds the heat until four.

Antalya

A short history of Antalya

In the 2nd century BC Attalus II, king of Pergamon, founded the city of Attalia on the coastal cliffs. In AD 130 the emperor Hadrian visited it, and the triple gate built in his honour still stands at the entrance to the old city. According to the Acts of the Apostles, Paul sailed from here to Antioch. In 1207 the Seljuks captured it, and in the 13th century the fluted minaret, the Yivli Minare, was built and became the symbol of the city. Since the 1980s one of the largest tourist centres in the Mediterranean has developed here, and the small town has become a city of more than a million inhabitants.

The ten best sights in Antalya

  1. Hadrian’s Gate
    1
    Hadrian’s Gate

    Built in 130 AD for an emperor who came once

  2. Yivli Minare
    2
    Yivli Minare

    The symbol of the city, Seljuk, 1230

  3. Kesik Minare
    3
    Kesik Minare

    Temple, then church, then mosque, then burnt

  4. Hıdırlık Tower
    4
    Hıdırlık Tower

    Roman, round, and nobody is sure what it was for

  5. Antalya Museum
    5
    Antalya Museum

    The best Roman sculpture collection in Türkiye

  6. Kaleiçi Museum
    6
    Kaleiçi Museum

    A restored Greek house and a chapel of ceramics

  7. Kaleiçi
    7
    Kaleiçi

    The old town inside the Roman walls

  8. Karaalioğlu Park
    8
    Karaalioğlu Park

    Cliff-top park with the sea 40 metres below

  9. Düden Waterfalls
    9
    Düden Waterfalls

    The lower fall drops straight into the sea

  10. Konyaaltı Beach
    10
    Konyaaltı Beach

    Pebbles, blue flag, and mountains behind it

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What is an audio walk?

Tours in Antalya →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Antalya:

Kaleiçi

Free walking tours in Antalya

Kaleiçi

Kaleiçi simply means "inside the castle", and until the twentieth century that was the whole city: stone lanes inside Roman walls, Ottoman wooden houses with an upper floor that juts out, and a harbour cut into the rock. It walks in an hour but deserves three. Go late afternoon — the paving holds the heat until four.

  1. Hadrian’s Gate · Built in 130 AD for the emperor’s visit. He came once. The original Roman paving is still under the arches, two metres below today’s street — the city simply rose around it.
  2. Yivli Minare · Thirty-eight metres of brick in eight flutes, built in 1230 by the Seljuks on the foundations of a Byzantine church. It is the symbol of Antalya and appears on everything.
  3. Kesik Minare · A Roman temple, then a Byzantine church, then a mosque, then a church again, then a mosque — and in 1896 a fire took the top off the minaret and nobody rebuilt it.
  4. Old Harbour · Cut into the cliff two thousand years ago and the only safe anchorage on this coast. It was the reason the city exists, and it is now a marina you reach down a ramp.
  5. Hıdırlık Tower · Fourteen metres of Roman stone on the cliff edge, round on a square base. A lighthouse, a tomb or a watchtower — archaeologists have argued for a century and still disagree.
  6. Karaalioğlu Park · A long strip of garden on top of the cliff, forty metres above the sea, looking straight at the Taurus mountains. Come at sunset; everybody does.

The water

Antalya sits between mountains and sea, and the water here does strange things: a whole river vanishes into the limestone and comes back kilometres later as a waterfall that drops straight into the sea. Half a day along the coast — two beaches, two waterfalls, and a cable car six hundred metres up.

  1. Konyaaltı Beach · Seven kilometres of grey pebbles with the Beydağları mountains standing straight out of the water behind it. Pebbles, not sand — which is exactly why the water is clear.
  2. Antalya Aquarium · One hundred and thirty-one metres of tunnel, which makes it among the longest in the world. Built into the hillside between the beach and the road.
  3. Lower Düden Falls · The river drops forty metres off a cliff directly into the Mediterranean — one of very few waterfalls on earth that fall into the sea. Best seen from a boat.
  4. Upper Düden Falls · Here the same river reappears from underground after vanishing into the limestone kilometres away, and you can walk behind the curtain of water into a cave.
  5. Karaalioğlu Park · A clifftop park laid out in the 1940s on the edge of the old town, sixty metres straight above the sea. From its southern end the whole Beydağları range stands across the bay, and on a clear winter day the snow on it is level with your eye.
  6. Lara Beach · Sand rather than pebbles, which is why the big hotels went up here. Every December a sand sculpture festival fills a field beside it.

Ruins in a day

There are more preserved Roman cities around Antalya than in all of Italy, and they are nearly empty. Aspendos is the best-preserved Roman theatre on earth and still stages performances. Termessos is a city on a mountain that Alexander the Great decided not to take. Olympos is ruins in a forest beside flames that have come out of the rock for two thousand years. You need a car.

  1. Aspendos · Built in 155 AD for seven thousand people and still complete to the roof — because the Seljuks used it as a caravanserai and kept it in repair. A coin dropped on the stage is heard in the top row.
  2. Termessos · A thousand metres up a mountain, and the only city in the region Alexander the Great looked at and walked away from. An earthquake broke its aqueduct in the fifth century and everyone left; nothing has been excavated since.
  3. Chimaera · Two dozen flames come out of bare rock and cannot be put out — natural gas seeping through the stone. Sailors navigated by them, and the Greeks said a monster was buried underneath.
  4. Olympos · A Roman city that a forest grew back over. You walk through ruins under pine and oleander and come out on a beach — the ruins are free and the beach is the exit.
  5. Phaselis · Three harbours on one peninsula and a Roman main street that runs between two of them. You can swim off the ancient quay, which is the point of coming.
  6. Antalya Museum · Everything dug out of those sites is here, including the Hall of Gods from Perge — a row of Roman marble figures that is among the finest anywhere.
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Getting to Antalya and getting around

  • Antalya Airport · The tram runs from the terminal into town
  • Antalya Otogar · Buses along the whole coast, and they are good
  • Old Harbour · Boats to the caves and the waterfall

Museums in Antalya

  • Antalya Museum · The best Roman sculpture in Türkiye
  • Kaleiçi Museum · A restored Greek house, and a chapel full of ceramics
  • Toy Museum · Three thousand toys in an old stone house

Parks and gardens in Antalya

  • Karaalioğlu Park · On the cliff, free, and the sunset is the event
  • Kurşunlu Waterfall · A canyon of seven pools and turtles, 25 min out
  • Düden Falls · Walk behind the water into the cave

Things to do in Antalya with kids

  • Antalya Aquarium · 131 metres of tunnel, and a snow room
  • Sandland · A field of sand sculptures, open all summer
  • Antalya Zoo · In a pine forest, and far less crowded than the beach

Cheap eats in Antalya

Six counters where Antalya eats. A wrap of slow-cooked lamb that sells out before noon, a kebab named after the city with aubergine under it, and a sweet shop that has pulled the same syrup since the Ottoman era. Nothing here is a restaurant.

  • Tahtakale tandır · Overnight pit-roast lamb, sold by weight
  • Serpme kahvaltı, Konyaaltı · Twenty small plates and endless tea, 250₺ for two
  • Piyazcı, Kaleiçi · Antalya’s own bean salad with tahini, 80₺
  • Antalya kebab · Minced lamb over smoked aubergine, 180₺
  • Güllüoğlu · Baklava at the counter, as in Istanbul
  • Işıklar Caddesi · Where the city shops and eats, away from the old town

Nature and day trips near Antalya

  • Termessos · An unexcavated city on a mountain
  • Olympos · Ruins under pines, and the beach is the way out
  • Chimaera · Flames out of bare rock, best after dark
  • Phaselis · Swim off a Roman quay between three harbours
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Frequently asked questions about Antalya

What is there to see in Antalya?

The top sights in Antalya are Hadrian’s Gate, Yivli Minare and Kesik Minare. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Antalya?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Antalya without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Antalya?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Antalya, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Kaleiçi.

How do you get to Antalya and get around?

The main ways are Antalya Airport, Antalya Otogar and Old Harbour. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Antalya, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Antalya that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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