Okurcalar

What Okurcalar actually is

Okurcalar is a resort pocket on the coast road roughly halfway between Side and Alanya. Administratively it belongs to Alanya; practically it belongs to neither town, which is the whole point of it. A line of large all-inclusive complexes sits on the sea side of the D400, a small village and some agricultural land sit on the inland side, and between them there is a petrol station, a scattering of shops, a market ground and not much else.

That is not a criticism. Okurcalar was developed for a specific product: the fully inclusive hotel holiday where the guest arrives, puts on a wristband and does not leave the property except on an organised excursion. Hotels here are consequently large, with several restaurants, water slides, multiple pools, evening shows and a beach section of their own. Many are genuinely good, and the price per star is lower here than at Side or Belek because the location carries no town premium.

The honest headline, and the single most useful sentence on this page: there is genuinely nothing outside. No promenade, no old town, no restaurant street, no harbour, no walkable centre. If you go through the gate on foot at seven in the evening you will find a shop selling towels, perhaps a bar, and a dark stretch of dual carriageway. In Side you can walk out and rescue a mediocre hotel with a good dinner. In Okurcalar you cannot. The hotel is the holiday, and choosing it well matters more here than almost anywhere else on this coast.

Who it suits, and who it does not

It suits people who want exactly that arrangement: a week or two of pool, beach, buffet and evening entertainment with no logistics, no decisions and no extra spending. It suits families with children who will use the slides and the mini club daily. It suits guests who plan two or three organised excursions and are otherwise content on a lounger. It suits repeat visitors who already know which property they like.

It does not suit anybody who wants to walk into a town, eat somewhere different every evening, browse a harbour, or feel that they are in Turkey rather than in a resort. Those travellers should be in Side, in Alanya itself, or in Avsallar, which has a real town centre behind its hotels.

Where it sits, and what is around it

Okurcalar lies about twenty-five kilometres east of Manavgat and around forty-five kilometres west of central Alanya, on the stretch of the D400 where the coastal plain narrows and the Taurus foothills come closer to the sea.

Kızılağaç and Kızılot lie to the west, towards Side. Kızılot in particular is a protected loggerhead turtle nesting beach, which is why on some stretches of this coast sunbeds are cleared from the sand at night in season.

Türkler and Payallar lie to the east, towards Alanya, and are much the same in character: hotel rows with little behind them.

Avsallar and İncekum, about ten kilometres east, have the shallow, fine-sand bay that Turkish families favour and a proper small town with shops and a market.

Alanya is around forty to fifty minutes east by road, with the castle, the harbour, the caves and a real city. Side is roughly thirty-five to forty minutes west. Both are day trips rather than evening outings.

The beach

Be realistic about the sand. The beach at Okurcalar is a mix: the managed hotel sections are sand or coarse sand, kept clean and raked, while the gaps between properties often carry pebbles and shingle, and in places the shoreline drops away faster than it does at İncekum a few kilometres east. Some hotels compensate with a pier or a platform into deeper water, which is pleasant for adults and less useful for toddlers.

Every beach in Turkey is public, so you can walk the length of the coast here, and staff manage sunbeds within their own frontage rather than the sand itself. The sea is usually calm in the morning and picks up a light chop in the afternoon, the same pattern as the whole Antalya coast.

If shallow, fine sand for a two-year-old is the priority, Okurcalar is not the strongest choice on this coast and İncekum is. If a big pool complex with slides matters more than the exact texture of the beach, this is a good place to look, because the hotels here compete on precisely that.

Hotel stock and what a budget actually buys

The stock skews large and modern: four-star and five-star all-inclusive complexes, several with aquaparks, most built or heavily refurbished in the last two decades, with capacities running into hundreds of rooms. Half board and bed and breakfast barely exist here, and where they do they rarely make sense, because there is nowhere outside to eat.

The anchor on this page starts near 45 EUR per person per night. Read that as a shoulder-season figure for two adults sharing a standard room on all-inclusive board in May or October. In June and September expect a quarter to a half more; in July and August the same room can double, and family rooms sell out first.

Because the property is the entire holiday, spend your comparison effort on the things that actually differ: how many à la carte restaurants are included rather than chargeable, whether the water slides run all day or in short sessions, whether the beach section is sand or pebble, how far the beach is from the room block, and whether the hotel is on the sea side of the road at all. Ask a consultant those questions specifically. They are answerable, and they change the week.

Getting there

Okurcalar is served by Antalya Airport (AYT), roughly ninety-five minutes away along the D400. That is about twenty-five minutes beyond Side and around twenty short of Alanya. The road is good and mostly dual carriageway, though the section past Manavgat carries heavy summer traffic and Saturday changeover days add time.

Airport transfers inside Turkey we operate ourselves, with our own vehicles and our own drivers, and have done since 2016. The driver meets you inside the arrivals hall holding a name board, the price is per vehicle rather than per person, and we track the flight so a late arrival still has a car waiting. Ninety-five minutes is a long stretch with small children, so plan a stop and take water.

Accommodation is a different arrangement and we are open about it: we quote, a partner agency issues the booking and the voucher, and no payment is taken on this website.

Getting around without a car

Dolmuş minibuses run along the D400 in both directions and will take you to Avsallar, Alanya or Manavgat cheaply, but frequency drops in the evening and the last service back is earlier than most people expect. Confirm it with the driver before you set out for dinner somewhere else.

Crossing the D400 on foot is the other practical point. If your hotel is on the inland side of the road, check how the crossing works before you commit — some have an underpass or a footbridge, others rely on a shuttle. With a pushchair and beach bags it matters.

The one logistical advantage of the location is genuine: because Okurcalar sits between the two resort clusters, excursion operators collect here for trips in both directions. Alanya castle, Sapadere canyon, the Dim river valley, Side and its ruins, Manavgat and its market, the Green Canyon boats and the Köprülü rafting rivers are all sold with pickup from the hotel door.

When to go

April. Around 21 to 23 degrees, sea near 18. Many hotels are only opening, the aquaparks are often not running yet, and swimming is for the hardy.

May. Pleasant upper twenties, sea warming through 21 and swimmable by the end of the month, hotels quiet and cheap. A very good time here.

June. Low thirties, sea around 25. Everything is fully open and the crowds have not yet peaked.

July and August. Mid to high thirties with humidity, sea at 28 or more. Hotels run at capacity, the buffet and the slides both have queues, and sun loungers are claimed early. If school dictates the dates, prioritise a hotel with generous shade and more than one pool.

September. The best month overall: hot but no longer punishing, the sea at its warmest, and noticeably quieter after the third week.

October. High twenties, sea near 24, prices down sharply. Some hotels begin to reduce their entertainment programmes late in the month.

November to March. Nearly everything closes. Okurcalar in winter is a shut gate and an empty road; there is no town life to fall back on. Choose Alanya or Antalya instead.

Food, drink and evenings

You will eat in the hotel, and that is the design. The better properties run several à la carte restaurants alongside the main buffet, and the difference between a hotel where those are included and one where they are chargeable is a real difference in the holiday, not a detail.

Outside, there are a few restaurants and bars near the main road serving the standard resort menu, and a supermarket or two for water, sun cream and snacks, which are cheaper there than at hotel reception. The weekly market is the local event: it is a tourist market rather than a farmers' market, heavy on textiles, leather, counterfeit brands and souvenirs, and coaches come to it from resorts in both directions. Ask reception which day it falls on, take lira in cash, and haggle.

Evenings mean the hotel show, the bar and the pool deck. Guests who want nightlife take a taxi to Alanya, which is a substantial fare each way and a long night out rather than a casual one.

Who should skip Okurcalar

Anyone who wants to walk somewhere. Anyone travelling without children who would find a large animation-driven resort tiring. Couples looking for quiet dinners and a change of scene each evening. Independent travellers who dislike the wristband model. Anyone whose toddler needs the shallowest possible water, who should look at İncekum. And anyone travelling outside the season, because the place effectively shuts.

Come here if you want a big all-inclusive property, a good price for the standard, and no interest in leaving it.

Getting a price

Send your dates, the number of adults and children with ages, and — because it matters more here than elsewhere — what your must-haves are: a sandy beach section, slides, included à la carte dining, a quiet hotel, or a sea-side rather than road-side position. A consultant prices it with our partner agencies, who issue the booking and the voucher, and comes back with a short list of properties that actually meet those conditions. The quote is free and non-binding, nothing is paid on this website, and we normally reply within one working day.