Hot Side Turkey travel destinations and vacation tricks and tips: 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).
The Side Rafting Tour offers you a wonderful day reaching the climax of adrenaline and excitement and discovering the Koprulu Canyon. You will be excited to the full on the water while accompanied by an experienced guid during the most difficult sections of the 15 km long trail. Spend a great day on your vacation with the rafting tour done in the Koprulu Canyon National Park. The Side Rafting Tour is an adrenaline-filled tour done in the Koprulu Canyon National Park. It begins with our shuttle picking you up from your hotel in the morning. You will reach the starting point from the Side region after approximately 45 minutes.
Lonely Travel is an expert 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. Read additional details on Side 2 in 1 Buggy & Rafting.
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.
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.
Turkey is one of the largest leather producers of the world. Particularly, in processing sheep/goat leather, Turkey has the 2nd place in Europe after Italy and 4th place in the world after Italy, China and India,. Besides, Turkey is the World leader in fur production with an annual processing capacity of 80 million units. Currently active big scale tanneries are located in Izmir, 50 miles north of Ephesus. In Selcuk town for the travelers who are interested with fashion products there are several leather outlets selling leather jackets and bags…
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.
The bathhouse was built by Skolastika, a wealthy Roman woman living in Ephesus, and therefore the bath complex is mostly known as the Skolastika bath. Another name for this bath complex is Varius Bath. It consists of 4 main sections: Calderium (hot water room), Tepidarium (warm water room), frigidarium (cold water room) and apodyterium (dressing room), which we are used to seeing in all ancient baths.The bath is heated by a central heating system and the bath has a capacity of one thousand people. The use of the baths is free and consists of 3 floors. Baths in antiquity are also known as places where people can socialize and establish good friendships because they were used not only for cleaning but also for socializing and having fun. Among the surviving remains of the bath complex, only the ground floor is suitable for sightseeing. Find more details on www.sideexcursion.com.
Harbor-side, both the Red Tower (Kızılkule) and Seljuk Shipyard (Tersane) are extensions of Alanya castle fortifications, built in the 13th century. The octagonal, 30-meter-high Red Tower served as the harbor’s defense tower in the Seljuk era. Inside, there are exhibits on the Red Tower’s and Alanya’s history, but you’re really here to climb up to the roof for great views across the harbor front. From the tower, a pretty walkway runs along the harbor’s original fortification walls to Turkey’s only remaining example of a Seljuk-era shipyard. The arched halls here, built into the shorefront, are open to the sea, so that waves constantly pummel the stone. The walkway continues from here for a short length along the coastline to a small Seljuk-era watchtower building.
Teleferik heading to Cleopatra Beach: The most scenic way to reach the Alanya Castle area is by hopping on the cable car that connects Cleopatra Beach with the lower castle district of Ehmedek. The cable-car operates between 11am and 9pm daily, and the trip over the cliff is great for capturing sunset coastal views, as well as a means of transport. The 900-meter ride offers excellent views over the forested cliff face leading up to the castle, the yawning strip of Cleopatra Beach’s sand and Mediterranean Sea below, as well as the dusky mountains in the distance. The lower station is just behind the beachfront, while the upper station deposits you just outside Alanya Castle’s main gate from where you can wander farther up the slope to explore the historic buildings and ruins.
