Things to do in Side

Side is an ancient city with a resort living inside it. The ruins are not fenced off on a hill; they stand in the streets where the restaurants are. You walk through a Hellenistic gate to reach dinner.

What stands on the peninsula

The old town fills a low peninsula, and the whole Roman plan is still legible on it.

• Temple of Apollo. Late second century, on the point; five of its six front columns were re-erected with part of the architrave.
• The theatre. Second century, seating fifteen to twenty thousand, the largest in Pamphylia and built on Hellenistic foundations.
• The agora. Where the pirates of Cilicia are recorded selling slaves, with a round temple of Tyche in the middle.
• Baths and street. The Roman baths hold the museum, and the colonnaded street runs from the city gate towards the sea.

The resort outside the neck

Past the neck of the peninsula the modern strip spreads along sand in both directions, and it is a different place entirely.

Kumkoy lies west, Sorgun and its pine belt east, both large-hotel country. Manavgat, seven kilometres inland, is the working town: the bus station, the hospital and the market are there. Dolmus minibuses run the gap every few minutes.

Practical

• The old town. Pedestrian, flat and crossed in a quarter of an hour, but the car parks outside it fill by mid-morning in summer.
• Shade. There is none among the ruins, so the first hour after opening beats any other slot.
• Sunset. Everyone photographs the Apollo columns at dusk; the theatre at the same hour is emptier and larger.
• Markets. Manavgat bazaar runs Mondays and Thursdays, Side's own market on Saturdays.
• The airport. Antalya is about an hour and a quarter west, so an early pickup is normal here.
• Long days. Trips west along the Lycian coast are eight to twelve hours door to door, most of it in a minibus.
• Money. Prices in the peninsula shops start high and are meant to be argued down, and cash in lira helps.