Alanya Travel Guide
From Wikitravel
Alanya is in Turkey, situated on the south coast. It is a popular tourist destination.
Contents |
Get in
Alanya is about 2 hours drive from Antalya. Most holiday makers land in Antalya and are then taken to their hotel in Alanya by bus.
If your hotel is a bit far from Alanya, you can stand outside the hotel on the road and wait for a Dolmuş to come by and pick you up. You can stop at dolmuş stops anywhere on the road, mostly there are bus stops, rarely at someplaces there are not bus stops, they come in each 10 and 15 minutes and are sometimes quite crowded. Expect to pay around 2 Lira per person for the ride.
Get around
Walking around the town is the best option. You can take taxis or a Dolmuş to the castle if you don't want to walk all the way up the hill.
See
- The Castle
- Caves
Do
There is a lot to do in Alanya and there are plenty of tour companies whole heartedly willing to help you.
- Boat trip (try to haggle down to €5 for one hour), should include visits to caves and lunch
- Scuba Diving (more fish during the high season)
- Jeep safari tours
- Quad bike tours
- Donkey riding
- Trip to historic Amphitheatre in Aspendos
Buy
Catering for all the European tourists, almost everyone in Alanya accepts Euros. You may not even have to exchange your Euros at all. When taking money out of the automatic teller machines, make sure they can give you Euros as well as Lira.
Alanya is full to the brim of shops, which become very repetitive since they all sell pretty much exactly the same wares. The shops shamelessly sell fake brands. A list of the most common items:
- Clothing: Shoes and t-shirts from Puma, etc (fake of course!)
- Watches: Everything from Seiko to DKNY (fake of course!)
- Sunglasses
- Bags and Wallets
- Turkish Tea sets
- Water Pipes
Be prepared to haggle, the shop owners expect it. It's not possible to haggle for groceries or alcohol.
Eat
Turkish food in general is really tasty. Try:
- Kebab: These will cost you around 2 Lira and are more like a snack than a meal
- Baclava: Turkish sweet. The cost depends on the weight (e.g. 12 Lira for a kilogram)
If you are in an "All Inclusive" hotel (which is usually the case), all your meals are provided by the hotel.
Drink
- Turkish coffee
Be warned that the prices of drinks in the night clubs is insanely high, in some cases higher than what you'd find in Europe. Expect a beer to cost as high as €4.50
Sleep
A great deal of cheap holiday packages, usually originating in Germany or Scandinavia, include "All Inclusive" hotels situated on the beach as part of the deal. For example, an "All Inclusive" 4 Star hotel in Alanya including a flight to Antalya from Germany costs around €400.
Get out
- During the high season (May to September), you can go to Kyrenia in Northern Cyprus by boat through the company Fergün Shipping. It takes about 3 and a half hours. Outside the high season, the international port is closed.
- Fergün Shipping [1] - Connects Alanya to Northern Cyprus during the high season
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