Tours in Antalya region

The Antalya region is the Turkish Mediterranean: some six hundred kilometres of coast with the Taurus mountains rising straight off the beach, which is why the resorts are strung in a line and everything interesting is either on the water or twenty minutes up a gorge. Antalya itself has the old walled quarter of Kaleici above the Roman harbour and the Duden waterfalls dropping into the sea at the eastern edge of town. East of it, Side is built around a second-century theatre and a temple of Apollo standing on the point; Belek is the golf and five-star strip; and Alanya sits under a Seljuk castle on a headland, with Cleopatra beach on one side and the Damlatas caves beneath. West, Kemer runs into pine forest and the Olympos valley, where the Chimaera flames still burn out of the hillside, and beyond it Kekova, where an earthquake dropped a Lycian town into the shallows and the walls are still visible from a boat.

The coast sells water first: boat days out of every resort, the sunken city at Kekova by kayak or gulet, and the family water parks in Antalya and Belek. Behind it, the mountains carry the second half of the offer — rafting the Koprulu canyon from April to November, jeep safaris and buggies into the Taurus, ziplines, and the ancient cities of Perge, Aspendos and Termessos, of which Aspendos has the best-preserved Roman theatre in the Mediterranean and still hosts opera in summer. Add the Duden and Kursunlu waterfalls, horse riding, and the evening shows that every resort strip runs.

Practical. Summer here is genuinely hot — July and August sit around 35C with sea temperatures near 28C, which is warm enough to stop being refreshing — and the shoulder months from April to June and September to October are better for anything that involves walking or a canyon. The sea stays swimmable into November. Antalya airport is the second busiest in the country and transfers to the far resorts take up to two hours, so check where you are actually staying before booking a tour with pickup. Rafting water in the Koprulu is cold all summer. Ruins have no shade and open early. A shared boat day costs about what dinner does; a private gulet is several times that. Tipping is ten per cent, and lira in cash is better than cards outside the hotels.