One coast road, six towns. Pick where your day starts.
Which Green Canyon boat actually stops to swim, what the Köprülü rafting day costs with lunch in, and whether Pamukkale earns a five in the morning pickup.
A gorge, an island, the old town, and the long drive to Pamukkale.
The four days most people book off this coast, what each costs, and what the travellers who took them say.
01The gorge dayZiplining, Rafting, Jeep Tour & Quad Safari w/LunchRafting, zipline, jeep and quad on one ticket up the Köprülü. The water comes off the Taurus and stays cold in August, which is most of the appeal.
02The island daySuluada Boat Tour From Antalya (Maldives of Turkey) with Lunch & Hotel TransferThe boat out to Suluada from the Kemer side. Bare white rock, water the colour of a swimming pool, lunch on deck.
03The city dayAntalya Luxury Old Town Tour with Cable Car & Boat TripKaleiçi on foot, the cable car up Tünektepe and the Düden falls, finished with an hour on the water.
04The long drivePamukkale Hierapolis and Cleopatra’s Pool Tour with lunch from AntalyaThree hours inland to the white terraces at Pamukkale and the ruins of Hierapolis above them. Pickups start before it gets light.
Four kinds of boat day here, and they are nothing like each other.
A galleon with a foam deck and a mountain reservoir with no engine noise on it are both sold as a boat trip on this coast. Pick the one you actually want, then pick the port.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Suluada Boat Tour From Antalya (Maldives of Turkey) with Lunch & Hotel Transfer
The canyon reservoirFlat green water walled in by pine cliffs above Manavgat. No swell, no jet skis.
The island runOut to bare white rock and water you can see the anchor chain through.
The galleon dayRigging, a sound system, swim stops and lunch. Book it knowing exactly what it is.
The Side day boatAlong the coast to Dolphin Island, swim stops on the way out and back.
All 217 days on the water →
The combo day is this coast’s one real invention.
An hour and a half inland the Taurus opens into a gorge with a Roman bridge still standing over it, and somebody worked out you can fit rafting, a zipline, a jeep track and a quad circuit into one day with lunch in the middle. Nowhere else sells the whole lot for the price of two sunbeds.
Antalya keeps its old town behind a Roman gate and its waterfall on a cliff.
Kaleiçi is a walled quarter of Ottoman houses running down to a harbour cut out of the rock, with Hadrian’s Gate still standing at the top of it. Twenty minutes east the lower Düden goes straight off a cliff into the Mediterranean. Most city tours put both on the same afternoon and add the cable car.
- 1Old City, Waterfalls, Olympos Cable Car, Boatfrom $29
- 2Antalya Luxury Old Town Tour with Cable Car & Boat Tripfrom $32
- 3Green Canyon Jeep Tour, Boat Trip & Waterfallfrom $21
The days out this coast books more than any other.
Every tour we have reviewed here →More travellers take these than anything else between Kemer and Alanya, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
Ziplining, Rafting, Jeep Tour & Quad Safari w/Lunch
Antalya rafting, ziplining, quad biking and Jeep safari through Köprülü Canyon, with lunch, guides, hotel pickup options and strong value.
From · $26
Read our review →
2
Jeep Safari & Green Lake Boat Trip with Lunch
from $19
3
Old City, Waterfalls, Olympos Cable Car, Boat
from $29
4
Suluada Boat Tour From Antalya (Maldives of Turkey) with Lunch & Hotel Transfer
from $23
5
Pamukkale Hierapolis and Cleopatra’s Pool Tour with lunch from Antalya
from $84
6
Green Canyon Jeep and Boat Tour with Lunch
from $28
7
Antalya Luxury Old Town Tour with Cable Car & Boat Trip
from $32
8
Suluada Island Boat Trip with Lunch & Hotel Pickup
from $18
July on this coast is not a beach problem, it is a midday problem.
From late June the coast road sits in the mid thirties and the ruins have no shade on them at all. The answer is altitude and stone. The gorges hold cold river water right through the summer, the caves behind Alanya are a different climate from the car park, and a hammam is the one indoor hour nobody regrets booking.
What a day out of Antalya actually costs.
Every tour on the site sorted by price. A remarkable number of the good ones land under the cost of two sunbeds and a lunch.
Old town walks, the river boats, hammams, and most of the gorge combo days with lunch already in.
The long ones: Pamukkale and Hierapolis, the Lycian coast to Kekova and Demre, tandem paragliding over Alanya.
A car and driver for the day, chartered boats, and the two-day run inland to Cappadocia.
Three things this coast has that the rest of the Mediterranean does not.
Beaches and Roman stones are everywhere. A river that falls off a cliff into the sea, a theatre still good enough to stage opera in, and cold whitewater in a country this hot are not.
The Düden Falls
The Düden river crosses the city and then runs out of ground under it, dropping off a low cliff straight into the Mediterranean east of the marina. Boats idle underneath so you get the drop from the water. The upper falls, further inland, pour into a cave you can walk behind and come out soaked.
- 1Old City, Waterfalls, Olympos Cable Car, Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,896 reviews
- 2Green Canyon Jeep Tour, Boat Trip & Waterfall★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,629 reviews
- 3Guided City Tour with Top 2 Waterfalls incl. Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,134 reviews
Aspendos and Perge
The theatre at Aspendos came through almost whole, stage wall included, which is close to unheard of for a Roman building of that age, and it still gets used for performances in summer. Perge, closer to the city, gives you the other half: a colonnaded main street with the water channel cut down the middle of it.
- 1Old City, Waterfalls, Olympos Cable Car, Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,896 reviews
- 2City Tour w/Olympos Cable Car, Boat & Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,116 reviews
- 3Perge, Aspendos, City of Side, and Waterfalls Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 691 reviews
Köprülü Canyon
The Köprüçay comes off the Taurus and stays cold through August, which is why rafting here runs all summer while the coast bakes. A Roman bridge still spans the gorge above the put-in. Most trips take the gentler lower stretch, so it is closer to a swim in a wetsuit than a fight with a river.
- 1Köprülü Canyon Antalya: Whitewater Rafting Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 974 reviews
- 2Family Rafting at Koprulu Canyon w/Lunch and Hotel Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 313 reviews
- 3Alanya: Koprulu Canyon Rafting Tour with Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 297 reviews
Four bookings on this coast that will not wait for you.
Most of Antalya can be arranged the night before from a table on the harbour. These four run on dawn departures, wind windows and calendars that take no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Pamukkale Hierapolis and Cleopatra’s Pool Tour with lunch from AntalyaThree hours inland each way, so the minibus leaves in the dark and the seats go days ahead through the summer.
- 02Tandem Paragliding with Hotel PickupTandem flights only launch in the right wind. A cancelled morning gets pushed into an afternoon that is already full.
- 032-Day Cappadocia, Cave Hotel, & Balloon TourThis one is two days and an overnight inland, not an excursion. It has to be built into the week, not slotted into it.
- 04Ziplining, Rafting, Jeep Tour & Quad Safari w/LunchThe gorge runs in set departure waves with fixed raft numbers, and the whole coast sends people up on the same mornings.
By town, west to east
Kemer, Antalya, Belek, Side, Manavgat, Alanya: one road, six bases.
The newest reviews from this coast.
The rest of the new ones →
Perge and Aspendos Ancient Marvels Tour: A Leisurely Exploration
Read our review →
Side&Alanya:Rafting,Jeep,Quad/Buggy Safari/Zipline wLunch
Read our review →
Belek Scuba Diving Tour With 2 Time Dive & Lunch
Read our review →
Side Sapadere Canyon Tour With Free Time In Alanya And Lunch
Read our review →
Full Day Pamukkale Guided Tour From Belek w/Meals & Pickup
Read our review →
Old City, Waterfalls with Boat & Olympos Cable Car
Read our review →
Land of Legends Night Show with transfer from Alanya
Read our review →
Antalya Family Combo Tour: Jeep, Rafting & Zipline with Lunch
Read our review →
Half Day Alanya City Tour With Cable Car And Sunset Panorama
Read our review →