Awesome Side Alanya attractions and holiday tips and tricks: 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 well known licensed travel agency in Alanya & Side. We organize travel 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. See additional info on Side Rafting Tour.

The Alanya Seljuk Shipyard stands south of the Red Tower. You can easily reach it on foot by following the 300 meter path. The Alanya Seljuk Shipyard was built by the Seljuks in 13th century. If you are into maritime history and medieval buildings, make time to visit the only remaining shipyard in Turkey from the Seljuk Period. The Alanya Seljuk Shipyard (Tersane) has been used for trade and protection purposes throughout history. Today, it stands upright back to back with Red Tower. The Alanya shipyard is the only shipyard that remains from the Seljuk reign, built in the first half of 13th century.

On your visit to the Dim River make time for the largest cave system in the Alanya area, carved out by water over millions of years but only discovered in 1999. The Dim Cave is 360 metres long, and worthwhile for its many concretions. Something to remember is that there are lots of steps and narrow walkways, so the Dim Cave isn’t accessible to all. As with the Damlataş Cave there’s high humidity at 75%, although the cave does offer respite from the summer heat, with a temperature never rising above 19°C. One of the things to love about this park is its location, right by the cable car station, tourist office, Damlataş Cave and archaeological museum, at the east end of Kleopatra Beach. Within a few steps north along Güzelyalı Cd. there are dozens of places to eat. As for the park, it’s somewhere to escape the heat for a few minutes, under a palm tree or one of the enormous ficuses. There’s a mini-golf course, a fishpond, flowerbeds and pieces of public art like a ceremonious statue of Cleopatra. This is also somewhere to witness Alanya’s affinity for its stray cats, which roam the lawns freely and have special wooden shelters and feeding stations.

It’s impossible not to be awed by Taurus Mountains, and if you want to break out and experience this stirring landscape your best bet is the Sapadere Canyon, about 40 kilometres northeast of Alanya. The temperature is a few degrees lower in the mountains, and something that will strike you right away is the lack of humidity. In 1948 when Alanya’s peninsula was being quarried for stone for the harbour, workers stumbled upon a cave brimming with stalagmites and stalactites. At the foot of a stairway, the Damlataş Cave is 50 metres long and up to 15 metres high, and those bizarre concretions are carefully illuminated. Now, something to note about the chamber is its high humidity (96%), elevated carbon dioxide and constant temperature of 22°C. This might put off some visitors, but since it was first discovered the Damlataş Cave has been hailed for its therapeutic effects for people with respiratory complaints.

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.

Alanya was once a famous pirate harbor in antiquity. Pompeius, the enemy of Julius Ceasar, in the Roman Civil war defeated the pirates. Nowadays, pirate themed boats in Alanya’s harbor are a reminder of these times long gone. There is non-stop entertainment on the cruises with music and animations, as well as many swimming breaks in the blue waters of the Turkish Riviera. Alara Han is on the Antalya-Alanya route, in Çakallar village in the town of Okurcalar . Alara Han is a historical caravanserai built in the 13th century by the Seljuks. It’s an exceptional masterpiece awaiting visitors seeking discoveries about the cultural heritage of Alanya. The nearby Alara Castle was once a majestic fortress along the southern silk road in Turkey.

Temple of Artemis, is also known as the Temple of Diana. The temple is dedicated to the goddess Artemis was completed in Ephesus around 550 BC. The temple was built entirely from marble. Even if the temple has been used for more than 800, it was never really completed. The architect of the temple, known as Artemisium in Latin, is known as Chersiphron from Greece. When the temple was first built, it was visited by many people from kings to artists, traders, and travelers, and was used as a religious building where they offered their blessings and beliefs to the goddess. There is no entrance fee for the Temple of Artemis. Visiting hours of the temple have been announced from 9 A.M to 7 P.M but as there are any guards in the neighborhood, the hours might be flexible too. Find extra information on 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.

Cleopatra Beach very rightly gets all the glory, but if you want a change of beach scene, Alanya does have another strip of sand. Running southeast from Alanya harbor is the long shingle and sand shoreline of Portakal Beach, which trails along the city edge for around four kilometers, becoming known as Tosmur Beach at the very southeast end of Alanya, where the Dim River exits out into the sea. Portakal and Tosmur are backed by plenty of hotels and restaurants, and some beach clubs have also staked a patch along the beach length, offering sun loungers with shades, and waiter service for refreshments and food on the beach. Other facilities here include changing cabins and freshwater showers, and lifeguards patrol the sand during the summer season. Because of the beach’s length, even in the height of summer there’s always plenty of space for everyone, but if you’re seeking peace and quiet on this strip, head to the southeast end, which always has fewer beachgoers.