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City guide

Antalya

A Roman old town on a cliff over the Mediterranean, mountains behind it, and some of the best-preserved ancient theatres anywhere, half an hour from the beach.

Turkey5 min readUpdated August 15, 2026

At a glance

Language
Turkish, with widespread English, German and Russian
Currency
Turkish lira. Cards fine, cash for markets and dolmus
Best months
May, June, September and October
Getting around
Old town on foot; hire car for the ruins and beaches
Dinner starts
8pm, and later in high summer

Antalya has a reputation as an all-inclusive resort strip, and that version certainly exists along the coast east and west of the city. It is also a real city with a walled Roman and Ottoman quarter, and it sits in the middle of the densest concentration of classical ruins in Turkey.

Stay in Kaleici, the old town, rather than a resort. You get the sea, the harbour and dinner on foot, and the ruins are all within an hour by car.

  • Vanilla Lounge
  • 7 Mehmet
  • Antalya balik pazari
  • Piyazci Ahmet
  • Tuvana Hotel
  • Alp Pasa Hotel
  • Rixos Downtown Antalya
  • Kaleici and Hadrian's Gate
  • Antalya Museum
  • Aspendos theatre
  • Duden waterfalls
  • Termessos
  • Olympos and the Chimaera
  • Kas

Where to eat

Coastal Turkish cooking: grilled fish, mezze heavy on olive oil and herbs, and piyaz, the local white bean salad with tahini that Antalya insists is nothing like anyone else's.

Vanilla Lounge

Kaleici

A long-running modern kitchen in the old town, run by a Turkish and British couple, doing precise cooking without the tourist-menu compromises around it.

Ask the concierge to book this

7 Mehmet

Konyaalti

The city's grand old restaurant, in parkland with a terrace over the bay. Classic Turkish cooking done to a standard the beachfront places do not attempt.

Ask the concierge to book this

Antalya balik pazari

Muratpasa

Pick your fish at the counter and the restaurant behind will grill it and bring mezze. The cheapest good seafood meal in the city by a wide margin.

Piyazci Ahmet

Muratpasa

Piyaz and kofte, and nothing else worth ordering. A canteen where the local version of the bean salad is treated as a serious matter, because here it is.

Where to stay

Kaleici for the old town and walkable dinners. Lara and Belek for resorts with beaches. Konyaalti for a pebble beach with the mountains behind it.

Tuvana Hotel

Kaleici

A restored group of townhouses in the middle of the old town, with a good restaurant and a small pool in the garden. Quiet, given where it is.

Ask the concierge to book this
Five Ottoman houses joined together around a courtyard and a pool.

Alp Pasa Hotel

A 200-year-old mansion with Roman foundations visible under a glass floor in the bar. Rooms vary a lot, so ask for one in the original building.

Ask the concierge to book this

Kaleici

Rixos Downtown Antalya

A large resort hotel on the western beach with the Taurus mountains behind it, twenty minutes from the old town. The comfortable option if you want a pool and a lift to the sea.

Ask the concierge to book this

Konyaalti

What to see

One of these is in the city and three are a drive away. The theatre at Aspendos is the one to go out of your way for.

Kaleici and Hadrian's Gate

Kaleici

A marble triple arch built for the emperor's visit in 130 AD, and behind it a walled quarter of Ottoman houses, a Roman harbour and a fluted minaret. Free to wander.

Antalya Museum

Konyaalti

One of Turkey's best archaeological collections, holding the statues taken from Perge. Two hours here makes the ruins outside the city legible instead of decorative.

Aspendos theatre

Serik

A Roman theatre from 155 AD that is essentially intact, seating seven thousand, with acoustics that still work from the back row. The best-preserved in the Mediterranean.

Duden waterfalls

Lara

The lower falls drop straight off a cliff into the sea, which is an unusual thing to watch. The upper falls, inland, have a path that goes behind the water.

Worth leaving the city for

The Lycian coast west of the city is the reason to hire a car for a day or two.

North of the city

  1. Termessos

    35 km

    A mountain city Alexander the Great decided not to besiege, still lying in pine forest at 1,000 metres. A steep hour's climb and almost nobody else there.

    ruins · hiking · half day

West

  1. Olympos and the Chimaera

    80 km

    Ruins in a river valley behind a beach, and above it flames that have burned out of the rock continuously for two thousand years. Go to the flames after dark.

    beach · ruins · full day

    Ask the concierge to book this

  2. Kas

    190 km

    A small harbour town with a sunken Lycian city offshore that you can snorkel over. Three hours each way, so make it an overnight rather than a day.

    diving · overnight · coast

    Ask the concierge to book this

Discover it yourself

Everything above, on one map. Colours mark what kind of place it is; tap a dot and its details open beside the map, and you keep your place. Day trips are left off, they sit well outside the city.

Showing 11 of 11

Pin positions are approximate: neighbourhood level, not street addresses.

Know before you go

  1. July and August are very hot and very full

    Over 35 degrees and the coast is at capacity. May, June, September and October have the same sea and half the crowd.

  2. Beaches here are pebble, not sand

    Konyaalti is stones and Lara is coarse sand. Water shoes are worth the small cost, and the sea is clearer for it.

  3. The old town is a pedestrian maze

    Cars barely fit and navigation apps struggle. Arrange a hotel transfer for the first arrival rather than driving in with luggage.

Ask the concierge about Antalya

The ruins are spread across an hour of coastline and the good old-town hotels have very few rooms each. Tell the Simly concierge your dates and a person will sort the hotel, a driver for the Aspendos and Perge day, and a table with a view for the evening.

Message the concierge

Going to Turkey?

Everything in this guide assumes a working phone: maps between neighbourhoods that follow no grid, ride-hailing instead of flagging taxis, a menu handwritten in Arabic. A Simly eSIM activates before you land, so you step off the plane already connected.

Get a Simly eSIM

Antalya, Turkey

Common questions

How many days do you need in Antalya?
Three or four. One for the old town and museum, one for Aspendos and Perge, one or two for the coast west of the city.
Is an all-inclusive resort a good idea?
Fine for a pure beach week with children. It will keep you away from the old town and the ruins, which are the reasons to choose Antalya over any other coast.
Can I combine it with Cappadocia?
Yes, and many people do. It is a short domestic flight via Istanbul or a long drive. Three nights each is a comfortable week.