Best day trips from Alanya: where a canyon day fits

A week here is mostly beach

Count the days honestly. A week in an Alanya hotel is mostly the pool, the beach and the evening. Two excursions is normal. Three is a lot. Four and you go home tired, having seen the inside of a vehicle more than anything else.

So the question is not which day out wins. It is which two or three do not repeat each other. Five kinds of day are on offer from these resorts, and three of them put you in water in completely different ways.

• A canyon and waterfall day, inland and in shade.
• A day on the water along the coast.
• An off-road day up in the hills.
• A diving day, down the coast.
• A day you spend in Alanya itself, on the castle headland.

The day on the water

The coast day is the easy one to say yes to. You leave from the harbour, the day is built around swimming stops along the coast, and what else it includes is on their own site. Some of these days are quiet and some have music and a crowd, which is worth asking about when you book, because that difference matters more than the route does.

It suits people who want to swim rather than walk, and anyone travelling with teenagers. Physically it asks almost nothing: a ladder in and out of the sea, and shade when you want it. It takes most of a day. The sea in summer is warm, and for most people that is the whole appeal.

Our coast days are sold under their own name at alanyaboattrips.com.

The day in the hills

Off-road splits into two days that get confused with each other. On one you drive: a quad or a buggy, your own machine, single file behind a guide on dirt tracks. On the other you are driven, sitting in an open jeep that takes the mountain roads and the river crossings while somebody else does the work.

Driving suits people who want to be busy and do not mind dust in their teeth. It asks for arms, attention, and a licence question you should settle at the time of booking, because the answer is not the same in every area. Being driven suits a wider group, children included, but it is rough on a bad back. Both days end with you dirty and, at the water crossings, wet. Take clothes you do not mind.

Quad and buggy days from these resorts are at quadsafarialanya.com, and the jeep days at antalyajeepsafari.com.

The canyon and waterfall day

This one is ours, so read the rest of this section knowing that. The canyon day goes inland and east, roughly 40–45 km depending on where your hotel sits on the belt, up a mountain road into the Taurus. What you go for is a wooden walkway about 750 m long, built above the river between rock walls that rise up to about 400 m. At the end of it there are cascades and pools.

It suits people who have had enough sun. The canyon holds its shade most of the day, and the river running through it comes off the mountain rather than out of the bay, so it stays cold right through August. Everyone who packed for the coast learns that at the first pool. You can swim in the pools when conditions allow. Plenty of guests only paddle, and some watch from the platforms and go home perfectly happy. Non-slip shoes decide which of those you are.

Physically the walkway is undemanding, and nobody needs hill-walking in their history to manage it, but it has steps, the boards run uneven in places, and there is no way to get a pushchair along the whole of it. Guests with serious mobility difficulties should take another day off this list. It runs every day from the Alanya belt, takes about 7 hours door to door, and costs €33 for an adult and €23 for a child, with infants free. The Cüceler (Dwarfs') Cave nearby is an optional stop and its ticket is paid at the cave.

The diving day

Diving is the odd one on this list, because it is the only one that is not on your doorstep. The same operator runs it from the Side coast rather than from Alanya, so an Alanya hotel is a long way from where their day starts — ask them what that means for a pickup before you count on one. That is worth it if diving is part of why you came, and a long way to go if you are only curious.

It suits people who already dive, and people who want to try it once and find out. Physically it asks more than a day on deck and less than a day on a quad, and the tiring part is the kit rather than the swimming. What the day includes and what it costs are their questions to answer, not ours. We do not run it and we will not print their terms.

It is sold at sidediving.com.

The day you do not leave Alanya

The day that costs nothing to book is the one where you stay put. The castle headland above the town is a long steep walk or a short ride up, and the old harbour sits below it. You can fill a day with the headland, the harbour and the market without booking anything at all, and turn back when you feel like it.

It suits anyone who wants a day with no pickup time attached to it, and it is the right thing to hold in reserve for a bad forecast. It asks for legs and sun cover if you walk up, and very little if you ride.

If you are fitting two or three of these into one week, the order that works is simple. Put the long drive early, while you still have patience for a vehicle, and keep the town day for last. And do not put the canyon next to a coast day expecting the same thing from both: one is cold, shaded and inland, the other is warm and open, and they are not substitutes for each other.

• Had enough sun, want shade and cold water, can manage steps: the canyon day.
• Want to swim and do very little else: the coast day.
• Want the vehicle to be the point, and do not mind dust: the hills.
• Came to dive, or want to try it once: the Side coast day.
• Want a day with no pickup time on it: stay in Alanya.

We are the canyon people, so that is the day we can speak for: a mountain road, a walkway above cold water, cascades at the end and lunch beside the river, every day from the Alanya belt. Booking here costs nothing up front: no card field, no deposit, and the money changes hands in euros on the day itself, with the operator.