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Antalya Private Tours & Day Trips
ABOUT Antalya
Antalya is a Mediterranean city in southern Turkey, built around a Roman harbour and ringed by the Taurus mountains. It has been continuously inhabited for over two thousand years, and its old town, Kaleiçi, still stands inside the original Roman and Byzantine walls.
Antalya Tours & Day Trips
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Kaleiçi and the Old Town
Hadrian’s Gate, raised for the emperor’s visit in 130 CE, is still the main entrance to the old quarter. Three arches, marble columns, and a paved path that has been walked for almost two thousand years.
Inside the walls, Kaleiçi is a maze of Ottoman houses, worn cobbled lanes and bougainvillea. The Yivli Minare — the fluted minaret — is a 13th-century Seljuk landmark and the city’s symbol. The Hıdırlık Tower at the harbour edge is Roman, and the Kesik Minare was converted from a Byzantine church.
The Roman harbour below the cliffs is now a marina, with boats leaving hourly for the coast and the lower Düden waterfall.
Practical: Kaleiçi is compact and easy on foot. Two hours covers it comfortably; half a day with a guide and a museum visit is better.
The Antalya Museum
The Antalya Museum holds one of Turkey’s strongest archaeological collections, and it is directly tied to the ruins you will visit around the city.
The Perge statues are the highlight — monumental marble figures of gods and emperors recovered from the city’s theatre and baths, displayed in a dedicated hall. There is also a strong coin collection, a children’s section, and a gallery of finds from Karain Cave, one of the oldest inhabited sites in Anatolia.
Do this before or after Perge, not instead of it. The two together make sense of each other.
Day Trips: Aspendos, Perge and Termessos
Aspendos (40 minutes east) has the best-preserved Roman theatre in the world. Built in the 2nd century CE, it seats around 15,000 and is still used for performances today. The stage building is almost entirely intact.
Perge (20 minutes from Aspendos) is a full Roman city: a colonnaded street with a water channel down the middle, a 15,000-seat theatre, an agora, a bath complex and one of the best-preserved stadiums in Turkey — 234 metres long and built for around 12,000 spectators. Most of the sculpture in the Antalya Museum came from here.
Termessos (45 minutes north, high in the mountains) is a ruined Pisidian city with almost no other visitors. Alexander the Great failed to take it in 333 BCE. The climb is steep and there is no shade, but the setting — a city built into a mountain saddle with a theatre overlooking a gorge — is unlike anything else in Turkey.
Side (1 hour east) is a resort town on a peninsula with a Roman theatre, a Temple of Apollo standing at the water’s edge, and a museum inside a Roman bathhouse. Good for a half day paired with the Manavgat waterfall.
Phaselis (near Kemer) is a Lycian and Roman port with three harbours, pine trees growing through the ruins, and a small beach you can swim from.
The Coast, Beaches and Boat Trips
Antalya’s coastline runs from Konyaaltı beach in the west to Lara in the east, both blue-flagged and both reachable from the centre by tram or taxi.
The Düden Waterfalls fall in two places: the upper falls in a park, and the lower falls directly into the Mediterranean from the cliffs east of the city. Boats from the old harbour take you under them.
Boat trips run daily from Kaleiçi marina — half day, full day, and sunset cruises. Further east, Köprülü Canyon offers rafting on the Köprüçay river, and the Olympos and Chimaera sites are an easy day trip, best done with an overnight in the treehouses.
How Many Days Do You Need?
One day covers Kaleiçi, Hadrian’s Gate, the Roman harbour and the Antalya Museum.
Two days adds Aspendos and Perge — the standard Roman sites package.
Three to four days lets you add Termessos, Side, a boat trip and a waterfall, without rushing.
Antalya works best as a base, not a stopover. Most visitors stay five to seven nights and make day trips from the city.
Getting to Antalya
Antalya has one of Turkey’s busiest airports, with direct international flights from most of Europe, plus frequent domestic service from Istanbul (about 75 minutes).
The airport is 13 kilometres from the city centre, around 25 minutes by road. Transfers, hotel pickup and drop-off are included in all our Antalya tours.
By road, Antalya is around 7 hours from Istanbul, 3.5 hours from Pamukkale, and 3 hours from Fethiye — which is why many travellers combine it with the Aegean coast.
Şanlıurfa (GNY) has direct flights from Istanbul, usually around 2 hours. Göbeklitepe is a 15-minute drive from the city centre.
- From Istanbul: Fly to Şanlıurfa, or Istanbul to Gaziantep (GZT) and drive around 2 hours.
- From Gaziantep: Around 2 hours by road. Gaziantep has an international airport with flights from Europe.
- From Mardin: Around 2 hours by road.
- From Mount Nemrut (Adıyaman): Around 3 hours by road.
We arrange flights, private transfers and licensed guides, and can build the trip as a single day or as part of a longer eastern Turkey route.
Best Time to Visit
April to June and September to October are the best months — warm sea, mild air, no crowd pressure.
July and August are hot, with temperatures over 35°C and a busy coastline. If you come in summer, do the ruins in the early morning and the beach in the afternoon.
November to March is quiet and mild — usually 10 to 18°C — and the ruins are almost empty. Some boat services and mountain roads reduce in winter, and many coastal hotels close.
Tours run year-round. The Roman sites are at their best in spring and autumn, when the light is softer and the stone is not glaring.
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