Antalya

Last update September 24, 2026

Antalya functions as both a seaside resort and as a real city, a combination which is rarer than it may appear along Turkey’s coast. The old part of the city, Kaleiçi, is located behind walls built during the Ottoman period and consists of narrow streets paved with cobblestones, refurbished wooden houses that have been turned into boutique hotels, and a small harbour where fishing boats and tour boats use the same water. If you stroll around the area in the early morning before the day-trippers come, you’ll experience a version of the old town that seems genuinely inhabited rather than having been put on display.

Past the ancient walls, Antalya expands to form a big modern city which has its own pace different from that of the resorts further along the coast. Konyaaltı and Lara beaches are situated on either side and can both be easily accessed by tram, although neither of them equals the smaller coves you will come across if you rent a car and drive towards Kaş or Kalkan. The Antalya Museum, which is one of the better archaeological collections in Turkey, is worth spending an afternoon in if you want some background on the Roman and Lycian ruins spread throughout the area.

That is precisely why you should base yourself here rather than just coming in for the beach—the ruins themselves make this a better choice. Perge, Aspendos, and Termessos are all within a hour or two of the city and each provides a different kind of ancient site: a Roman theatre which is still used for concerts, a fortified hilltop city that Alexander the Great is said to have gone around rather than fight for, and colonnaded streets that once belonged to a prosperous Roman port. If you rent a car for a day or two you will be able to see a great deal of history that most people who only come for the beach never get to see.

The city becomes busy in summer and the prices rise as a result, so if you want the coastal weather without the large number of tourists it is better to go in late spring or early autumn. It is suitable as a starting point for a week-long stay, combining days at the beach with day trips to the ruins, not just as a short overnight visit. There are few cities in Turkey which allow you to swim in the Mediterranean and at the same time walk through a two-thousand-year-old amphitheatre in the afternoon.