Belek→Antalya Airport

A Belek to Antalya Airport transfer is booked around your flight, not around your hotel. Departure day runs on a different clock to arrival day. Security lines build through the morning. The drive itself can take longer at the hours when everyone else is also heading out.

The distance is 34 km and the drive takes about 35 minutes. That is the figure for a normal run. The airport, not the road, is usually what sets your real deadline, so plan backwards from the terminal and not forwards from breakfast.

Turkey Transfer books the car for your party alone. The fare covers the whole vehicle, not each seat, so a family of five and a couple on their own both pay for one car.

Antalya Airport's own guidance for an international departure is to be at the terminal two to three hours ahead of the scheduled time. That window covers check-in and the security line. It also means you are not sitting at the gate for the rest of the morning.

Count back from that window and not from the flight time alone. Here is an example of the arithmetic:

• Your flight leaves at midday.
• You want to be at the terminal three hours before, so about 09:00.
• The drive takes about 35 minutes, so the car needs to leave your hotel before 08:25.
• Add a margin on top for loading bags, a slow reception desk or a busy road.

The margin matters more on some days than others. A quiet weekday morning needs only a small one. A summer Saturday needs a wide one, as the next section explains.

Tell us your flight number when you book. We suggest a pickup time built on the two-to-three-hour margin. We adjust it for where you are leaving from: Kadriye, Belek or Boğazkent. Those three starting points sit at different distances along the coast, and the pickup time should reflect that.

If you are travelling with young children, a lot of luggage or golf bags, lean towards the three-hour end of the window. An extra half hour at the terminal costs you very little.

The return drive runs the arrival in reverse and does not simply repeat it. A pickup in Kadriye or Belek pulls off the resort strip onto Turizm Caddesi first. It then joins the D400 for the run through Aksu into the airport approach. A pickup in Boğazkent stays on the coast road longer. It meets the same highway further east.

On the way out of Belek you leave behind the belt of pine and eucalyptus forest that hides the hotels from the road. For many guests the rest is a quiet half hour. The holiday is nearly over and the bags are in the boot.

A weekday morning moves freely. A summer Saturday is a different kind of busy. Most resorts change over their week-long guests on that day. The D400 around Aksu and Serik carries that week's checkouts heading to the airport. At the same time it carries the next week's arrivals heading the opposite way.

Treat a Saturday pickup in July or August the same as a peak-hour flight. Build in the wider margin and not the one a quiet weekday would suggest. The only protection against a slow D400 is leaving a little earlier.

Antalya Airport splits departures between two international buildings, T1 and T2. It also has a separate domestic hall. The check-in desk for your specific airline decides which building you need. Check your ticket and do not guess from the flight you arrived on.

Tell your driver the airline and the flight number, and the car stops at the right entrance.

Security here is centralised and is not repeated at each gate. Once you are through, no gate sits far from the next café or shop. There is no reason to head to a specific pier early.

One case is worth checking twice, and that is a connecting itinerary. Istanbul is the single busiest destination out of Antalya. Turkish Airlines routes a large share of its onward connections through there.

Suppose your ticket home is Belek to Istanbul on one booking, with Istanbul onward on another. The first leg is then a domestic flight. It leaves from the domestic hall and not from T1 or T2. This is the opposite of what most guests expect when their final stop is abroad.

Check the ticket itself and not the terminal where you landed when you arrived. If you are not sure, send us the booking details and we will help you read them before departure day.

Both T1 and T2 have a play area and baby-changing facilities beyond security. This is useful to know if the two-to-three-hour margin leaves you with restless children on your hands before boarding. Get through check-in and security first, then let the children use the play area.

If your stay included golf, your clubs travel with you and are not shipped separately. Most airlines treat golf bags as sports equipment, with their own size and fee rules. Check with your airline before departure day. That avoids a surprise at the desk.

A golf bag takes real room in a car. Let us know about golf bags, a pram or anything beyond standard suitcases when you book. Then the right vehicle class is sent.

A child or booster seat is included free on request, the same as on the way in. It is not fitted automatically. Ask for it when you book and do not assume one will be waiting. Tell us the age or rough size of the child so the right seat is in the car.

The fare for this leg follows the same three-neighbourhood system as the arrival. A Belek hotel to airport transfer from a Kadriye address is priced differently from one starting in Belek itself, or further along in Boğazkent. The name on the hotel gate does not decide this. The location does.

Confirm your hotel's exact name when you book. Then the fare quoted matches the pickup point and not the neighbourhood it happens to share a name with.

The big resorts along the strip are spread out. Rixos Park Belek, Maxx Royal Belek, Gloria Verde Resort, Cornelia De Luxe Resort, Voyage Belek Golf & Spa and Spice Hotel are all examples of hotels that Turkey Transfer drives to and from. Tell us the exact entrance or reception where you will wait, so the driver does not circle the grounds looking for you.

Have luggage and golf equipment ready at reception a few minutes before the booked time. The driver's schedule for that morning often includes other departures from nearby hotels, so a car that waits ten minutes for a missing suitcase puts the next pickup late.

Keep passports and boarding passes in a bag you carry yourself. If your flight is in the evening, ask reception to hold your bags between checkout and the pickup.

If your flight time changes after booking, a message to +90 551 086 83 68 is enough to move the pickup. Send the new flight number with it. A change of an hour or two is routine, and it is much better to send the message the evening before than to ring from the lobby.

Some flights leave in the small hours, and some leave late in the evening after a full day on the beach. Both need a plan.

For an early flight, the drive is the easy part of the day and the wake-up is the hard part. Pack the night before and walk straight out to the car.

For a late-night flight, the day is long and the checkout is usually early. Ask the hotel what you can still use after checkout, and plan a proper meal before you leave.

In both cases, the two-to-three-hour margin still applies. A flight in the middle of the night is not a flight with a lighter check-in.

Belek is close to several of the region's best-known sites. If your flight is late, you can fit one in on the last day. The times below are taxi times from Belek.

• Land of Legends, the theme park, water park and aquarium, is inside Belek itself. It is 10-15 minutes from most hotels. It is a regular pick for families who want one more big day.
• Aspendos Roman Theatre is about 25-30 minutes away. It is one of the best-preserved ancient theatres anywhere and is still used for concerts and festivals.
• Manavgat Waterfall and the river boat trips are around 25-30 minutes away, with a lively local market nearby. They make an easy half-day.
• Side's old town and harbour, with the Temple of Apollo standing right on the water, are roughly 30-35 minutes from Belek.
• Kurşunlu Waterfall Nature Park is 35-40 minutes out. It is a quieter option for a walk among the pines.
• Antalya's old town, Kaleiçi, and the harbour are about 40-45 minutes away, for a city evening with dinner by the marina.
• Perge, an ancient city with a striking stadium and colonnaded street, sits on the road toward Antalya. Of all these sights it is the one that points in the airport's direction.

Be honest about the clock. A sightseeing day that ends at a monument 30 minutes from Belek and then needs another 34 km to the airport leaves less room than it looks. If the flight is in the evening, return to the hotel, collect the bags and start the airport run with time to spare. We can arrange a private transfer for any of these places. We do not only run airport trips.

Belek exists as a resort coast because of a 1980s government masterplan. That plan turned an empty stretch of pine forest into Turkey's first purpose-built golf destination. The planning rules from that era still keep every course and hotel behind a continuous tree line. This is why the hotels do not face the sea directly, and why the drive along the strip feels like a drive through a park.

The golf is the reason many guests come. National Golf Club, Gloria Golf Resort, Sueno Golf, Montgomerie Maxx Royal, Carya Golf Club, PGA Sultan Golf Club and Lykia Links all sit within a few minutes of each other. The courses host professional tour golf each autumn, from the Montgomerie's fairways to Sueno's two courses.

Golfers on a departure morning often ask whether a last round fits before the transfer. It can, if you tee off early and do not play on past the time you gave us. Book the pickup from the clubhouse or the hotel and not from the course car park, and tell us which one when you book. A round that overruns is the most common reason for a late pickup in Belek.

Belek's beach is broad and sandy. Pine forest backs it the whole way, with no concrete promenade behind it. Most hotels open onto it through paths cut into the tree line. If your flight is in the afternoon, a last walk on the sand before checkout is the best use of an early morning.

The same beaches are protected nesting grounds for the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). During nesting season, stretches of sand are closed off at night. Lighting near the shore is restricted. Most hotels brief their guests on the rules. Follow them on your last evening too.

Belek is just as much a family and honeymoon destination as a golf one. The wide sandy beaches, the manicured grounds and the five-star all-inclusive hotels feel like small, self-contained towns. That has a side effect on departure day: guests tend to stay inside the grounds until the last moment, and then the whole hotel checks out at once.

If you are a family, ask for the pickup a little earlier than the bare minimum. A last trip to the toilet or a lost toy is normal on the way out of a resort, and a small buffer in the plan costs nothing.

If you are a couple, the quiet strip between the Taurus Mountains and the sea suits a slow last morning. Arrange the pickup to match the airport margin and enjoy the rest.

The best time to be at the airport is any time that is not a summer Saturday. The resort coast is full of golfers in the autumn, when the professional events come to the courses. Families fill the coast in the summer. The Saturday changeover in July and August is the one pattern that affects the drive back to the airport directly.

Winter is much quieter. Once the last groups of the season have played through, the courses run on a fraction of their summer staff. The airport margin does not change, though: two to three hours ahead of an international departure.

Book the return when you book the arrival if you can, since the dates and the hotel are already in front of you. Give us the hotel name, the flight number, the number of people and any extras: a child seat, golf bags or a pram. We confirm the pickup time against your flight and send you the details.

Then, on the morning, walk out to the car. The 35 minutes to the airport are the last quiet part of the holiday.

Most meals in Belek happen inside the hotel. Departure day is the moment to taste what the region eats outside it.

• Piyaz is the local bean salad. It comes dressed in a tahini sauce with onion and parsley, and it is served as a starter across Antalya.
• Fresh river and sea fish suits a lunch near Manavgat, where restaurants sit beside the river. A boat trip and a fish lunch fit one half-day.
• Grilled köfte and flatbread is the simple option in Antalya city, for a quick lunch before you head to the terminal.
• Turkish tea and a sweet make a good last stop in Kaleiçi, at a café where you can sit and watch the harbour.

If you want something to take home, the usual choices travel well. Olive oil, dried herbs and spices, Turkish delight and hand-painted ceramics are all common market buys around Antalya. Wrap fragile pieces in clothing and pack them in the middle of the suitcase. Airlines set limits on liquids in hand luggage, so olive oil and similar items belong in the hold. Check your airline's rules for the size of container.

Shopping works best when it is done early in the day. A market visit that runs long is the easiest way to lose your airport margin. Decide on a finish time before you leave the hotel, and tell your driver where you will be waiting.

Belek hosts many groups. Golf parties, wedding guests, extended families and friends who book rooms together are all common here. A group of this kind has a different departure morning from a couple with two suitcases.

The first question is the vehicle. A car is booked for your party alone, and the size depends on how many people travel and how much luggage they bring. Give us the number of passengers and the number of suitcases when you book. A group that arrives with golf bags, pushchairs and large cases needs more room than the passenger count suggests. If the party is large, we may send more than one vehicle. Tell us if you want everyone to travel in the same convoy.

The second question is timing. Large parties are slow to leave a resort. Agree one meeting time for the whole group, and set it a little earlier than the time you need. Name one person who holds the booking details and the flight numbers.

The third question is flights. Members of one group often fly on different airlines or on different days. The airline's check-in desk decides the terminal, so two people in the same car may need different buildings. Send us each flight number and we will plan the drop-offs.

If a group splits across several hotels in Kadriye, Belek and Boğazkent, say so at the start. Each hotel is a separate pickup point. Give us the exact hotel name for each one, and we can plan a time for each pickup.

Belek feels very different between July and the shoulder months of spring and autumn, and the difference shows on departure day.

In high summer the heat builds by late morning. A car left in the sun gets hot, so ask for the air conditioning before you load the bags. Carry water for the journey, and keep children out of the sun while the luggage goes in. A long wait at the roadside is tiring in that heat, so start the run with time in hand.

In spring and autumn the air is milder and the resorts are less crowded. Reception queues are shorter, and the strip is calmer. The airport still asks for the same two to three hours at the terminal, but the morning feels slower and easier.

Whatever the month, a few small jobs belong in the last hour before the car arrives.

• Settle the hotel bill and any minibar or spa charges the evening before.
• Charge your phone, because boarding passes and flight details live on it.
• Check the room, the safe and the bathroom for chargers and passports.
• Keep a little local cash for small purchases on the way. Spend it before you fly, since it is hard to use abroad.
• Put medicine, documents and a change of clothes in the bag you carry yourself.

Then step outside, check the hotel name on your booking, and let the driver do the rest.