Fabulous Side Turkey travel attractions and vacation recommendations: Side Museum may be small but it offers a well curated collection, and it is worth popping in simply to have a look at the building itself. The museum is based in the town’s 2nd-century Roman bathhouse building, which was heavily restored during the 5th century. It sits just across the road from the main entrance into Side’s Roman theater site. Come here to view the exhibits of finely detailed statuary, sculpture, sarcophagi, and engraved stele, all of which was found locally at excavation sites within and around Side. The museum makes for a good rest stop after scrambling through the agora ruins and puffing your way up to the top tier of seating at the theater next door.
Our tour that we have organized bringing the Jeep safari and the rafting tour together takes you to the climax of adrenaline and enjoyment. While watching village life in the Taurus mountains in Jeeps on one side, see the wild nature along the Köprülü canyon river on the other side. Have a meal in a restaurant in the forest with a spectacular view on this tour lasting 8 hours. Don’t miss out on this adrenaline-filled activity organized for those who want to go on the Side Jeep safari and the rafting tour on the same day. The one-of-a-kind naturality of the Taurus mountains which is visited by thousands of people every year and the Köprülü canyon national park is waiting for you on this tour. We will pick you up in the morning from your hotel in the Side and Belek regions in 4×4 Jeeps. You will be able to see wildlife in its unique beauty as we begin our journey into the Taurus mountains.
Lonely Travel is a professional licensed travel agency in Alanya & Side. We organize travel tours services since 1997. We let our customers to save their time and money also providing them a high quality service. In our Travel Agency employees highly trained specialists that are licensed by the Ministry of Tourism of Turkey. We work 7 days a week to provide the best service to our guests. We organize more than 50 tours around Alanya and Side, each and every single excursion of ours is fully insured and maintained by our professional tour guides. Discover more info at Side rafting.
Alanya Castle was built in 1221 by the Seljuk Sultan, Alaaddin Keykubat, who captured the city and had it rebuilt. You can take the cable car to go up to the castle. The cable car station is near Atatürk Park. You will need to walk uphill another 1 km to reach the entrance of the castle after exiting the cable car. İçkale (Inner castle) is the top sight up there. It’s an open air museum at the summit of the peninsula. Byzantine, Seljuk, and Ottoman artifacts can be found in the inner castle. When you go to Alanya Castle by cable car, you will come across the Süleymaniye Mosque, a Seljuk work renovated during the Ottoman period. There is also a covered bazaar (bedesten) behind the mosque.
The Dim River weaves down the east side of Alanya from the Taurus Mountains. As well as nourishing an abundance of vegetation on its banks, the river is wonderfully cool, even during the fierce heat of the summer months. It’s a local family tradition to visit the river below the Dim Dam to paddle in its calmer stretches, come fishing and take a barbecue on the banks. And catering to the many day-trippers are dozens of restaurants, many with shaded terraces on little wooden jetties or even on pontoons floating on the water. Some of these river restaurants have pools, slides and diving boards on the river, and others will give you a fishing rod to catch your own trout. Upstream from Dim Dam you can go rafting on a 5.5-kilometre course, setting off from Akköprü, and with lots of places to stop for a picnic on the banks.
The city’s steep peninsula, protected on three sides by the Mediterranean, is topped by a 13th-century castle with 6.5 kilometres of fortified walls. This rocky mass is a natural defence, and today’s castle was built on earlier Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine enclosures. In all there are 83 towers and 140 towers in the walls, and many of the 1,200 original cisterns continue to fulfil their original role. Alanya Castle is one massive archaeological site that warrants hours of exploration. The starting point has to be the citadel or Kale on the southwest side, where you’ll come to the Byzantine Church of St George, later adapted as a mosque. The north side of the promontory is the scene of the Seljuk Ehmedek Fortress, built on Hellenistic vestiges and holding a military garrison, arsenal and Sultan’s treasury for hundreds of years. Here you’ll discover countless ruins, together with historic 19th-century houses that went up after the castle had lost its defensive purpose.
For the travelers who overnight and have time to explore other sites around Ephesus, we recommend to visit the following sites. They are all nearby Ephesus. Some can be added to private Ephesus tour, some can be visited in a day trip from Kusadasi, Selcuk, Sirince or Izmir. All the below sites, are recommended for travelers who have been to Ephesus already. Ephesus is the main highlight of the area. Some of the sites can be combined with Private Ephesus Tours. For tour enquiries and/or questions please do not hesitate to contact us. For the travelers who will be staying in Kusadasi, Sirince or Selcuk, we offer 3 days tour of western Turkey tours.
Jeep-Safaris are among the most popular tours in Antalya. Alanya is the Jeep Safari city in Turkey. There are more than five different tours available: Oba Çay Jeep, Sapadere Jeep, Dimçay Jeep, Taurus Mountains Jeep, and Jeep with Rafting… In add addition to the adventurous and fun part of safari, you’ll get to know the marvelous nature in the region. Let’s take a break from the hot beach and go somewhere that looks like a beach, but is more refreshing. Here is a place that gives you the opportunity to chill while spending a nice time playing or just enjoying nature and artificial pools. How does that sound? Dim River is one of the most visited natural beauties in Alanya with its refreshing air and water in all seasons. It is located 15 kms from Alanya and accessible by different paths.
Trajan Fountain, M.S. It was built between the years 102-114 in the name of Roman Emperor Trajan and Artemis of Ephesus. The original architecture of the fountain, which has 2 floors, was later restored and rebuilt as a single-staired. Some of the sculptures in the fountain are exhibited today in the Ephesus Museum and some in the British Museum. The fountain used to be Rome’s most famous fountain, we also can see that within its architecture which includes lots of engravings on the columns. Read extra info on https://www.sideexcursion.com/.
Alanya is also within day-tripping distance of some of this Mediterranean region’s most well-known ancient sites and tourist attractions, so if you want to brush off the sand for the day and head out to explore, there is plenty to keep you occupied off the beach. As well as the places mentioned on this list, you can easily also make day trips to Antalya to visit its museum and stroll its old town district, Aspendos (Turkey’s most famous Roman Theater), and other major archaeological sites near Antalya such as Perge.
Waterfall and swimming hole in Sapadere Canyon: Sapadere Canyon, on the outskirts of the small village of Sapadere, is an easy trip from Alanya, sitting just 20 kilometers inland from the city. From May to October, plenty of tour operators in Alanya run daily jeep tours to Sapadere Canyon, which are good for travelers who want to sit back and enjoy the scenery. Although small, only stretching for 800 meters in length, Sapadere Canyon is squeezed between high walls that reach up to 400 meters high. This gives the canyon a cooler climate than along the coast and makes it an extremely popular destination in the height of summer. A walkway leads through the canyon, passing a few shady cafés, where you can relax and enjoy the canyon environment. At the bottom of the canyon is a small lagoon and waterfall. Most people come to swim here in the cold, blue-green water of the lagoon and enjoy the cooler temperatures.
