Alanya

What Alanya actually is

Alanya is a working Turkish city that happens to have resorts in it, which is the opposite of how Belek was built. A limestone headland pushes out into the sea, crowned by a Seljuk fortress raised in the 1220s under Alaeddin Keykubad, with kilometres of wall running down the slopes. West of the rock lies Cleopatra Beach, roughly two kilometres of pale, fine sand with the city directly behind it. East of the rock, Keykubat Beach runs for kilometres more along the coast road. At the foot of the headland stand the Red Tower of 1226 and the Tersane, a Seljuk shipyard cut into the rock face, the only one of its kind still standing.

The practical result is that you are living in a town, not in a compound. You can walk from your hotel to a bakery, a barber, a pharmacy and a hardware shop. The bazaar operates all week and the big street market takes over several blocks once a week. There is a genuine bar street. There is also traffic, construction noise and a coast road that never sleeps in August.

Alanya also has one of the largest permanent foreign populations in Turkey, with long-settled Scandinavian, German, Russian and Iranian communities. That shapes the town in useful ways: English is widely spoken, dentists and clinics are geared to foreign patients, and supermarkets stock things you recognise. It also means a large apartment and long-stay market that sits alongside the hotels.

The two hours in the van

This is the honest centre of the page. Alanya is about two hours from Antalya Airport. The motorway ends well before you get there and the last stretch of the D400 is a coastal road with the Taurus foothills pressing down towards the water. It is a good-looking drive and a long one.

Those two hours are the single biggest reason Alanya undercuts Belek by around thirty euros a person a night. Land transfer time keeps the big European tour operators from filling Alanya at Belek prices, and everything downstream follows. If you are travelling as a couple, or with older children, the trade is excellent value. If you have a toddler who has already endured a four-hour flight, think carefully.

The alternative is Gazipaşa-Alanya Airport (GZP), about 45 minutes east of the city. It is small, and the route network is a fraction of Antalya's, so it usually only works out if a direct flight happens to exist from your airport at a sensible price.

Transfers inside Turkey we operate ourselves, with our own vehicles and our own drivers, and have done since 2016. On a two-hour run that matters more than on a short one: the price is agreed per vehicle rather than per person, the driver meets you inside arrivals with a name board, and there is a comfort stop roughly halfway if you want one.

Where to stay

Cleopatra Beach and the city centre

The best position if you want to walk out of your hotel into a real town. Hotels here are mostly three and four-star, on the smaller side, and separated from the sand by a promenade rather than by their own gardens. Excellent value, endless food options, and the beach itself is the best in the city.

Keykubat Beach, east of the rock

The long strip running east towards Oba and Tosmur, backed by the coast road. Larger four-star all-inclusive properties, more space, slightly quieter, and a dolmuş or ten-minute taxi into the centre.

Konaklı, Türkler and Avsallar towards the west

The proper resort belt, fifteen to thirty minutes west of the city. This is where the large all-inclusive hotels with their own beach sections sit, including the shallow, fine-sand bay at İncekum that Turkish families choose for toddlers. Quieter, greener, and you will need transport to reach the castle and the bazaar.

Mahmutlar, Kargıcak and the east

Long-stay country: apartment-style hotels, big weekly markets, the lowest rates anywhere on this coast, and a large resident foreign community. Fine for a month, less exciting for a week.

Hotel stock and what a budget really buys

Alanya has the widest spread of accommodation on the Turkish Mediterranean, and that is precisely why the entry price is low. Three-star hotels and apart-hotels genuinely exist here and are genuinely used by holidaymakers, which is not true in Belek. Four-star all-inclusive is the volume category. Five-star does exist, mostly in the western belt and out east at Kargıcak, and is priced well below the equivalent in Belek.

Our anchor starts at around 45 EUR per person per night. That is a shoulder-season figure for two sharing a standard room in a decent four-star on all-inclusive board. The same money in Belek buys you a room in a hotel you would probably not choose. In July and August expect the four-star number to roughly double, and note that the city-centre hotels hold their prices better than the resort belt because they sell to independent travellers rather than charter contracts.

What you give up compared with Belek is landscaping and space. City hotels sit on small plots, so the pool is small, the garden is a terrace, and your balcony may face a road. Read the position of the room carefully, and if quiet matters, tell us before we shortlist.

When to go

April. Around 23 degrees, sea near 19. Warmer than the western resorts, and pleasant for the castle and the river valleys. Marginal for swimming.

May. Upper twenties, sea swimmable from mid-month, hotels open and inexpensive.

June. Low thirties, warm sea, the town filling up.

July and August. Mid to high thirties with humidity, the bar street loud until dawn, the beaches packed and the coast road slow. Cheap by Turkish coastal standards even in peak weeks, which is much of the appeal.

September. The best month. Thirty degrees, the sea at its warmest of the year, and the crowds falling away.

October. High twenties, sea still comfortably swimmable, prices dropping hard, the castle finally walkable in the middle of the day.

November to March. Alanya does not close in the way Belek does. Winter daytime temperatures sit in the mid to high teens, a fair number of hotels stay open, and there is a long-stay season of people escaping northern European winters. Expect rain, cool evenings and a very quiet beach.

Beyond the beach

The castle is the obvious half-day: a cable car runs up from the Cleopatra Beach side, and the walled area at the top is large enough that you should allow two hours and take water. Damlataş cave sits at the foot of the rock beside the beach. Boat trips leave the harbour all day, most of them circling the peninsula and its sea caves.

Inland, the Dim Çayı valley is where locals go on a hot afternoon: restaurants on platforms over water cold enough to hurt, twenty minutes from town. Dim Cave and the Sapadere Canyon are further up the same road. The hillsides behind Alanya grow bananas and avocados, and roadside stalls sell both.

Food in Alanya is a real advantage. Because the city has a resident population, there are restaurants that survive on locals rather than on one-week tourists, and prices in the back streets are a fraction of the seafront.

Who should skip Alanya

If a two-hour transfer with a baby sounds unbearable, choose Belek, Lara or Kundu. If you want golf, Belek is the only serious answer. If you want a manicured resort estate with a big garden and a private beach, Alanya can do it but you will pay a premium and would probably be happier in Belek. And if you want quiet, be specific with us: half of Alanya is loud, and the difference between a hotel in the centre and one at Avsallar is the difference between two different holidays.

Getting a price

Send us your dates, the number of adults and children, the board basis you want and roughly what you want to spend. A consultant prices it with our partner agencies, who issue the booking and voucher, then comes back with two or three options that genuinely fit. The quote is free, no payment is taken on this website, and we normally reply within one working day.