Top Side Alanya attractions and holiday guides

Travel attractions and vacation tips and tricks in Side Alanya right now: If you’re staying in Antalya, the Perge, Aspendos, Side tour offers an excellent way to tick off the highlights of this area’s sights all in one day, including Side’s Temples of Apollo and Athena. This full-day tour includes a guided visit to some of the surrounding region’s major tourist attractions. As well as a stop in Side, it includes visits to Aspendos, to see Turkey’s famous mammoth Roman theater, and the ruins of Perge. It includes lunch, and transport, with pickup and drop-off from your hotel. Side’s huge theater was the largest in ancient Pamphylia and could accommodate an audience of 15,000 in its 49 rows of seating. Although several of the supporting arches have collapsed, bringing down part of the auditorium, this is still a remarkable surviving example of Roman architectural skill. Don’t miss having a closer examination of the stage walls, where there are well-preserved reliefs. Just behind the theater are the rambling ruins of the agora (Roman-era marketplace), which originally would have been surrounded by colonnades filled with shops. Beside the agora are the remnants of the circular Temple of Tyche (dedicated to the Roman goddess of fortune).

Our tour that we have organized bringing the Jeep safari and the rafting tour together takes you to the climax of adrenaline and enjoyment. While watching village life in the Taurus mountains in Jeeps on one side, see the wild nature along the Köprülü canyon river on the other side. Have a meal in a restaurant in the forest with a spectacular view on this tour lasting 8 hours. Don’t miss out on this adrenaline-filled activity organized for those who want to go on the Side Jeep safari and the rafting tour on the same day. The one-of-a-kind naturality of the Taurus mountains which is visited by thousands of people every year and the Köprülü canyon national park is waiting for you on this tour. We will pick you up in the morning from your hotel in the Side and Belek regions in 4×4 Jeeps. You will be able to see wildlife in its unique beauty as we begin our journey into the Taurus mountains.

Lonely Travel is a professional licensed travel agency in Alanya & Side. We organize travel tours services since 1997. We let our customers to save their time and money also providing them a high quality service. In our Travel Agency employees highly trained specialists that are licensed by the Ministry of Tourism of Turkey. We work 7 days a week to provide the best service to our guests. We organize more than 50 tours around Alanya and Side, each and every single excursion of ours is fully insured and maintained by our professional tour guides. Discover more information at Side excursions.

The Damlataş Cave is a 15,000 year old natural formation and is one of the mysterious beauties in Alanya located in the very center of the town just below the Alanya Castle. The cave is fascinatingly beautiful with its very impressive illuminated stalactites and stalagmites. It has a constant temperature around 22-23 degrees. The section, which has wide columns with stalactites and stalagmites, is 13/14 meters wide and 15 meters high. Both Damlataş and Cleopatra Beaches are blue flag beaches, located side by side on the west side of the historical peninsula. Damlataş Beach is on the shore in front of Damlataş Cave. As the name suggests, Cleopatra Beach is famous because of the legend that Egyptian Queen, Cleopatra and Roman Emperor, Antonius are said to have swam here.

In ancient times, the surrounding region known as Pamphylia had a cluster of cities, many of which are compelling archaeological sites today. So while you’re on the Turkish Riviera a visit to an archaeological museum will always be worthwhile. Alanya’s is famed for a bronze statue of Hercules, dating from the 2nd century CE and just over half a metre tall. Also on show are intact amphorae from the 2nd century BCE, coins going back as far as 700 BCE, an inscribed Phoenician tablet from 625 BCE and a 46-line letter by the Roman emperor Septimus Severus. The museum also has an ethnographic section detailing local ways of life down the years, as well as an outdoor space showing ancient agriculture techniques, and funeral customs from ancient times through the Islamic era.

Starting at the western foot of that promontory is Alanya’s main beach, a long gentle arc of coarse sand bathed by low-to-moderate surf. Kleopatra Beach is wide, tapering only a little the further north you go, and gives you unbroken views of the castle and the brooding mass of the Taurus Mountains. There are beach clubs with sun loungers at intervals along the beach, and between the sand and Atatürk Boulevard is a wide promenade, blessed with those same panoramas, under swaying palms and buffered from the street by a strip of greenery with playgrounds and flowerbeds. On the east side of the beach is the lower station for a cable car that opened in summer 2017, whisking you up to the castle promontory. The Alanya Teleferik climbs 250 metres on a 900-metre line, and one of its 14 gondolas will depart every 19 seconds. On board you’ll be treated to astonishing 360° views, out over the Gulf of Antalya, across the resort and beyond to the Taurus Mountains.

Pamukkale is 3 hours drive from Kusadasi town. Right by the natural wonders the ancient city of Hierapoolis was founded. Today a unesco heritage site. Its natural beauty and historical background attracts many travellers. Pamukkale means cotton castle. There are two reasons why the area is name as cotton castle. One reason the white cliffs look like a castle made of white cotton, the other reason is that the area houses lots of cotton processing factories. ​Natural thermal springs which has high density of chalk inside formed glacier looking terraces on the areas where flowed for thousands of years. It is a unique site. Ancient Hierapolis was founded by Pergamum Kingdom. Due to the existence of thermal waters which healed people. Thousands of patients came to the area to get cured. The ones who were not able to be cured died and buried in the area. Today the site has the largest ancient necropolis. The number of thumbs like sarcaphaguses excavated is over 1600. The total number is expected to be over 3000. St. Philip the apostle lived in the city and martyred during the persecution time to the christians. This is a must see site for travellers.

Silk Worm Cocoon in the Culture House in Alanya in Turkey: This structure serves as Alanya Municipality Culture and Social Affairs Department and the Alanya Castle Site Management Office. It’s also known as Hamamlı Ev (Bath House) due to the historical bath on the ground floor. This traditional Alanya house was built with quarry stone and a lathing wood system. It used grog and haired plaster, specific to the region in the early 20th century. It was restored according to its original form after it was assigned to the Alanya Municipality by its owners.

Located right next to the Celsus Library, the square is the city’s most important trade and cultural center, Agora, which is the marketplace. Agora has a total of 3 doors, and was built in BC. It was founded in the 3rd century during the reign of Emperor Augustus. Agora was damaged due to a big earthquake in the 4th AC. century and became unusable. In the 6th century AC, a new agora was established in the northern part using the remains here. The section where the newly established agora is located today serves as the Gendarmerie barracks center and entrance to that area is prohibited. Find more details at https://www.sideexcursion.com/.

Alanya is best known for its beaches. The sandy strips in town itself, and strung along the surrounding coast, are all about laid-back resort vacations and are usually packed out by a clientele of northern Europeans from June through August. There’s more to Alanya than its shore though. The high cliff of the peninsula is home to an ancient castle district, all surrounded by well-preserved, sturdy stone walls. Down at the harbor, more historical remnants survive, looming over a bay where yachts sit ready to whisk you out onto the sea.

Waterfall and swimming hole in Sapadere Canyon: Sapadere Canyon, on the outskirts of the small village of Sapadere, is an easy trip from Alanya, sitting just 20 kilometers inland from the city. From May to October, plenty of tour operators in Alanya run daily jeep tours to Sapadere Canyon, which are good for travelers who want to sit back and enjoy the scenery. Although small, only stretching for 800 meters in length, Sapadere Canyon is squeezed between high walls that reach up to 400 meters high. This gives the canyon a cooler climate than along the coast and makes it an extremely popular destination in the height of summer. A walkway leads through the canyon, passing a few shady cafés, where you can relax and enjoy the canyon environment. At the bottom of the canyon is a small lagoon and waterfall. Most people come to swim here in the cold, blue-green water of the lagoon and enjoy the cooler temperatures.