Antalya

The city was named after its first documented ruler Attalos II (220-138 BC), king of Pergamon, though it was obviously settled much earlier. Attalos' life and wife resembles soap opera, and his epiphet Philadelphos - "brother-loving" - hints at insecurity over how his relationship with back-from-the-dead brother and co-ruler Eumenes II might be portrayed. He based his fleet here - there were few alternatives along this exposed coast, and Attaleia (Ἀττάλεια) grew up around what's now called the Roman harbour. It never grew large as it lacked a hinterland - it's hemmed in by mountains with difficult routes to get inland, although a fertile coastal plain extends up to the east. Early visitors included St Paul the Apostle (Acts 14: 25-26) and Ibn Battuta, who in 1331 AD recorded how Christians, Greeks, Jews, and royal court each inhabited their own walled enclave, while the Muslims lived in the main body of town all within an enclosing wall.

This relative isolation meant little fighting here, but Antalya was the prize to be handed over after conquests elsewhere: to the Seljuks in 1207 and the Ottomans in 1391. After Turkey's defeat in World War I, the harsh 1920 Treaty of Sèvres handed over tracts of the country to the Allies, and Italy gained Antalya. This was reversed, and Turkey gained its present borders, by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

Access was improved by road building in the 20th century, but the game-changer was in the 1970s when commercial airliners could jet tourists non-stop from northern Europe, and the political environment boosted tourist infrastructure. The city burgeoned, with development either side of Kaleiçi the old town centre, but especially east along the sandy Lara beach. Effectively this strip extends 150 km until the mountains terminate the coastal plain: it's all called "Antalya area" in tourist literature, but in this guide the easterly towns of Belek, Manavgat, Side and Alanya are described separately.

By plane:

1 Antalya Airport (Antalya Havalimanı, AYT IATA). Flights from all over Europe and Russia bring hordes of tourists, mostly on package deals. Other destinations include Erjan, Amman, Beirut, Tel Aviv, Baghdad and the Gulf States. There are daily domestic flights from Istanbul (IST and SAW), Ankara, Izmir, Adana, Samsun, Diyarbakir and Gaziantep. The two terminals are 1.6 km apart with a free shuttle or walkway in between. T1 handles all domestic flights, and T2 international one. The airport has the standard facilities and is usually slick, but when flights are delayed the passengers back up and it gets chaotic. There are no drinking water taps inside the terminals. (updated Apr 2026)

Getting there and away:

Tram and bus can be paid contactless with credit card (about €1 per ride) or the AntalyaKart. The latter allows for certain discounts when used more often, interchange and for some attractions.

By tram – AntRay Tram 1A runs downtown from two T1 stops (domestic and international) every 15 min 06:00-00:00; it doesn't serve T2. Get off at İsmetpaşa (taking 50 min) for the old town or to transfer to Tram 2. Stay aboard another 30 min for Otogar the bus station. Coming out to the airport take Tram 1A badged "Havalimanı". Tram 1B follows the same route until Yonca Kavşak then branches off to Expo.

By bus – Route 600 runs from T1 (domestic) and T2 to Otogar - so this could serve as an inter-terminal shuttle and spare you a taxi. It runs every 30 min 07:00 to 00:00 with night runs (as Route 600G) around 01:00, 03:00 and 05:00. It runs via Mevlana Cd and Adnan Menderes Blv, taking about an hour to Otogar. At T1 the stop is by the blue "D" sign next to a fig tree, usually with a scrummage of other waiting passengers. Ignore the "D" outside T1 (international), which stands for "decoy" or "dupe me". Taxi touts will converge on you, saying truthfully "No bus leaving here!" and steering you towards a taxi.