Sapadere Canyon or a boat trip: mountain day or sea day?

Two different kinds of tired

Both are sold as a day out and they hand you back in very different states. The canyon is a drive up into the mountains, then about 750 m each way on a timber walkway with handrails, steps and uneven sections, then lunch at tables beside the river. A day on the water is mostly sitting, with a ladder the crew puts over the side at each swimming stop and a deck to lie on when you come out.

If anyone in your group counts stairs before they agree to something, that difference settles the question before any of the others do. The who can join page names the awkward cases plainly: knees, backs, pushchairs, and who should think twice.

Shade against sun

Rock walls of up to about 400 m keep most of the gorge out of the light, and cold air comes off the water underneath the boards. The shade is free, and it holds over much of the walk even where one flank of the gorge is taking hard sun. Out on the sea there is shade when you want it and open sun when you do not, and it is the sun rather than the swimming that people underestimate.

In the hottest weeks that is the honest difference between the two days: one cools you down, the other heats you up. Which weeks those are is set out on the best time to visit page.

Cold fresh water against warm salt water

The pools at the end of our walkway are spring-fed and stay cold in every month, August included. No temperature is printed here because nobody on the tour measures one; what guests talk about afterwards is the cold, not the depth. Going in is optional, it happens in the basins under the falls rather than anywhere along the walkway, and the guide decides where and whether on the day.

The sea in season is warm, salty and there for as long as the vessel stays put. Nobody has to steel themselves for it, and when and where you may go in is the crew's call rather than anything we can describe on their behalf. The detail on our side of it is on the swimming page.

Children

Children who walk on their own feet take to the gorge: moving water under the boards, rock overhead, a waterfall at the far end and a rail where it counts. The cold keeps most young ones at the shallow edge rather than out in a pool, which suits parents who would rather watch than swim.

On the water a child with a ladder, a warm sea and a deck will stay in until an adult insists otherwise — and they are out in open sun far more of the day than they would be in a shaded gorge, which is the part families underestimate. Our pools have no lifeguard and nothing marked out as a shallow end; supervision on a boat day is a question for the crew that runs it. What we know about children on the walkway is on the families page.

What the weather does to each

Rain is the canyon's weather problem. After heavy rain, or in winter conditions, the canyon can be closed to us, and then there is no departure to join: we move you onto another date, or cancel and charge you nothing. Nobody needs to ring the gate in the morning, because a tour is not organised on a day the canyon cannot be reached.

A day on the water has its own conditions, and they are not the same conditions that close a mountain gorge. The crews who run those days set their own rules and answer for them. Ask whoever sells you one what happens to the booking when the wind gets up, and get the answer before you pay.

What each leaves you fit for

The canyon comes back in the afternoon — roughly 7 hours from the hotel door and back to it, from the Alanya belt — with used legs, dry clothes and an appetite. Plenty of guests still go out that evening. A full day of sun and salt water tends to end earlier than people planned it: a long shower, a quiet dinner, an early night.

That is not an argument for either one. It matters only if you already have something booked for the evening, or a flight the next morning.

If you only have one free day

If your hotel has its own beach and you have already been in the sea twice, the canyon is the change of scene: mountains, cold water, a lunch that is not the buffet. If you have spent three days on foot around ruins and old towns, sitting still on open water is the better use of what is left.

Mixed-age groups usually agree on the canyon faster, because there is something to look at for the ones with no intention of getting wet. That is as far as we will push it. We sell one of these two days, so weigh our opinion accordingly.

Where the sea days are sold

Not on this site. We book Sapadere Canyon days and nothing else: from Alanya, the version with the Dim River, and from the Side belt on Wednesdays and Sundays. The same operator's coast days live on their own sites, with their own crews and their own timetables — Alanya Boat Trips along the Alanya coast, Side Boat Trips from Side. Book each day where it belongs. Their prices are theirs to publish; ours are all on the price page.

Settled on the mountain day? Reserve your places on the canyon tour — no card is asked for now, and payment happens in person on the day you travel.