Discovering Turkeys Ancient Secrets / My Family Week in Antalya
Discovering Turkeys Ancient Secrets / My Family Week In Antalya
Can you believe it was only two days after leaving Italy and Tunisia that I was off again? I was supposed to be on holiday with my sister in Tunisia, but she changed her plans to Turkey, which is why I decided to come along. Although—I did have another reason.
I had recently become quite interested in Turkey’s ancient secrets. Ancient history has always fascinated me, but over the past couple of years, places like Derinkuyu and Göbekli Tepe had really caught my attention.
This got me genuinely excited. My idea was to see my sister and go on the 2-day Cappadocia (Derinkuyu) tour, complete with a hot air balloon ride.
In fact, I booked the tour while still in Tunisia. If I hadn’t found it, I’m not sure I would have been so eager to go to Turkey—but definitely coming to spend time with my family, including my baby niece Amilia, was a no-brainer.
Leaving For Turkey After Only 2 Days Back
SunExpress Flight from Luton, UK to Antalya, Turkey
How this all happened was so mad. I left Tunisia, spent a night in Milan, and after only two days—or less—I was off again. And it wasn’t just that: I had to catch up on 10 days of eBay orders, pack my bags again, and I even had a driving lesson booked for my first full day back.
It turned out to be possibly my worst driving lesson ever. Complete nightmare. I was panicking constantly and couldn’t wait for it to end. Why I booked it, I have no idea—definitely not ready. But regarding Turkey—it was really no trouble at all.
Getting Into Antalya, Airport Turkey
Getting into Turkey was easy—no problems at all. After sending a few parcels following Milan/Tunisia, it was just two short bus trips to the airport. I arrived at Luton with about an hour and a half to spare. Usually, I’m stuck waiting for a gate for 3+ hours, but this time it was very straightforward.
Even on the flight, I had my own row because the plane was nearly empty. The flight was long but fine. The only thing that might have unsettled others was the thunder and lightning as we approached Turkey. I wasn’t sure there was a storm at first, but seeing the flashes while on the road to my hotel made me laugh at myself.
The taxi fare at the airport, however, was a shock. I had hoped for something cheaper; it seems people expect Turkey to be low-cost, but that wasn’t the case for me.
My First Night In Antalya, Turkey
After landing, I had to get to my hotel—about a 45-minute to 1-hour drive. By then, it was around 11:15 PM, so public transport wasn’t really an option. Paying for a taxi felt expensive, but it seemed like my safest choice.
I booked through Uber, hoping for a better price (I’ve had good experiences with InDrive in Morocco), but still ended up paying close to £80 to get to my hotel. A shock, considering I expected a cheaper holiday.
Travel Tip: If you are flying into Antalya airport consider booking a transfer from Booking.com (or other websites). You should save on around 1/3 of what you would pay for a taxi.
Discovering Turkey’s Ancient Secrets
Of course, my main reason for coming was to see my sister and nieces, but I was also very excited about Turkey’s ancient sites.
The tour I had originally planned—a 2-day Cappadocia (Derinkuyu) tour with a hot air balloon ride—ended up being cancelled. Timing didn’t work out, and I also missed out on the Sunken City (Kekova) tour I wanted.
I even forgot about Göbekli Tepe, probably Turkey’s most significant ancient site.
Travel Tip: If you are wanting to see Gobekli Tepe especially then Sanlıurfa city and Adayaman are the 2 best airports to fly to for getting here.
Turkey’s history is incredible. Sites like Derinkuyu and Göbekli Tepe are up there with the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, and Angkor Wat. While public knowledge of these sites is relatively recent (from the 1960s), their ancient origins are mind-blowing.
Especially getting on to the topic of the underground City of ‘Derinkuyu – which I will write a quick section on before I continue with writing about my actual week away.
About Derinkuyu – Built Before The Great Flood?
Derinkuyu, an underground city in Cappadocia, was thought to be built in the 8th century CE by the Phrygians, later used as a refuge by Byzantine Christians, and even earlier by the Anatolian Hittites in the 15th century BC.
Some theories suggest it could be even older, dating to the Younger Dryas Event around 14,500 years ago—potentially contemporary with Göbekli Tepe.
While I didn’t get to visit these sites on this trip, I hope to return for a proper exploration.
Göbekli Tepe – up in Mount Nemrut is in another part of Turkey to Derinkuyu but both sites seem to point towards an advanced civilization in the ancient past.
Getting To Where I Stayed – The Aroma Butik Hotel
The Aroma Butik Hotel was my first stop in Turkey. At £21 per night, it was a real gem. It came with breakfast, a bar, a swimming pool, and was only two minutes from the beach.
The location was less ideal, though. I struggled to get a taxi or Uber to my sister’s hotel, eventually relying on a mini-bus. Local taxis seemed to prey on tourists, which was frustrating.
Meeting My Little Niece Amilia
At first, my sister wasn’t thrilled I was coming to Turkey after Tunisia, but she later booked me on a tour for my first morning. I was hesitant, but I’m so glad she did. Seeing my nieces made it a special day.
The Pirate Ship – The First Leg Of Our Tour
I think the tour is one of the many river boat tours here. It was a quite fun family experience I thought. The crew on the ship was walking round with a Red Macaw Parrot and Bearded Dragon which was pretty cool.
I was excited to see my little niece seeing them. She loves animals so I was waiting for her reaction. Very cute although in the same breath I knew what these people were doing. The photos they were taking obviously to sell back on to people at a premium price.
They seemed to be quite upset when I took a picture of my own with my niece and myself with the parrot and bearded dragon. I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to be fair but I wanted to get a photo to send to my sister who unfortunately didn’t make the boat trip.
A Walk Along The Beach, Seeing a Waterfall and Visiting the Market (Souk) in Manavgat
Our first stop after getting off the Pirate Ship was a beach. It was kind of in the middle of a river and the sea. It was a bit of a dirty beach – another bad thing about Turkey (at least this area) but it was still such a beautiful place.
You could see different colours from each side. I didn’t do much besides walking up and back with my older niece. I think she maybe had an ice cream whilst I just finished off my EFES beer. We stopped here maybe 45 minutes and it was alright here but the next place WOW! – unbelievable!
THIS was very special. It is a tourist stop with restaurants, an ice cream stand, with a few other places but MOSTLY here there was an amazing waterfall.
They have these carved wooden sculptures here too and its like you really can’t believe what your seeing in front of you. Whoever made these carvings is clearly very talented but even without these here it is just generally such a very beautiful, natural place.
It is one place besides Turkeys Ancient sites I hope I come back to again. Most definitely.
The Last Part of The Tour – Manavgat Market
After seeing the waterfall it was back on the bus. We had one final stop at one of the markets. We had a walk around for a bit but in the end we left to go to a restaurant.
My little niece had a nice time playing with the kittens and driving in the little car here.
She was playing football with the locals for a bit after this. They was very good with her. Even though they was trying to play there own game of football they was still passing here the ball. She is too young to play properly but that was very nice of them.
Getting Back and The Next Day
Taxis here were expensive—even for short trips. Despite this, the Aroma Butik Hotel was still charming. The pool wasn’t special, and the shower was broken, but for £21 a night, it was an excellent place to stay I thought.
Going Back To Armas Beach Hotel
I got 2 more taxis on this day which were tricky to arrange and expensive. One to Armas Pemar Beach Hotel and one back to the Aroma Butik Hotel. I managed to get the one back for about £18 and I think the one I got here I paid more a bit more for.
This first taxi drove me on to the Armas Beach Hotel which was a bit of a headache because I wasn’t booked to stay here. Really I was just hoping to walk in and find my sister without any problems but as I had to go past the guards in the taxi they was asking why I was here.
I could not phone through to my sister either, nor her boyfriend or my niece, or my nephew. I had to walk off. No one could understand me and it was just incredibly frustrating.
So, I just walked off and headed to the shop. There was a track heading towards the forest from here. It looked like wild bear territory lol. I turned around after about 20 minutes when my niece finally answered my message on Facebook.
Having Dinner at The Palm Restaurant in Alanya
On my last night I stayed at the Aroma Butik I ended up coming here to the Palm Restaurant up the road in Alanya.
The food here was pretty good. I think it was about 22 euros for my mixed grill. It felt nice to eat something proper because I hadn’t really eaten too well up to this point. I wasn’t overly keen on the hotel food and although I did eat it – it wasn’t something I wanted to stuff my face with.
The Palm Restaurant is located outside the front of the Mall of Alanya. If you want to go Clothes or gift shopping there are plenty of good deals you can find here. Although, if you are looking for authentic designer goods well I would be very careful.
The taxi ride back after this was another headache. I had something like 600 Liras (10.00 GBP) but it was not enough for the driver to carry on for only 10 minutes up the road. It actually made me quite angry – I had to ask my sister for another 500 liras and only then was I able to get back.
Walking To The Pemar Beach From Aroma Butik
The next day it was time for me to leave Aroma Butik. I stayed on this day I think till about 12, had breakfast, took a walk down to the beach, had a paddle in the sea and dropped off my keys.
I decided that I wouldn’t get a taxi to Pemar Beach Hotel after this, and Instead I would walk the whole way.
In my head I was thinking that surely if its only 10 minutes to drive up the road then its not going to take me 2 hours like it says on Google maps.
WELL – it was a nice walk but the same time it was a lot of hassle. I think it took me around 110 minutes altogether to actually get to Armas Pemar Beach. The beaches here aren’t really that great. The sand is very dirty with lots of pebbles but the sea is still quite beautiful.
The funny part was crossing through all the different hotel resorts along the way. Each one I’m pretty sure has their own private areas of beach. I suppose really I was trespassing in everyone that I walked through but I was quite happy to not have to get another rip off taxi.
At points of this journey there were parts of the beach that had streams crossing through them. In these Instances I couldn’t wear my trainers. Then my feet were covered in sand and then I had to walk over the rocks.
It was one of several reasons I should have got some sliders/crocs before I come here. Funny enough I wrote a whole blog post about this on my other website. Why I should have listened to my Intuition because this was just one of several moments that I really could have done with something else other than my trainers.
There was one pretty cool thing I say during this walk as well – a Turtle Sanctuary. The name I don’t even remember but I had a good 10 minutes here. I was hoping to see a Turtle or two here but I unfortunately only see frogs and tadpoles which still was cool but anyway. Not too long after this I finally I arrived on foot at the Pemar Beach Hotel.
My Last 2 Days / Nights At Pemar Beach Hotel
It was nice to finally come here to where my sister and family was and to actually be booked to stay here Instead of having to sneak in.
I was a bit early for check in (I think). They told to leave my bags at reception and go have dinner whilst they got my room ready. The room wasn’t as good as either my room in Tunisia or at the Aroma Butik but they did have a fully working shower and a fridge full of goodies.
It is hard to complain really for £90 a night. You actually have all sorts to do here. A Gym, games room, large pool, spa, kids activities and the list goes on.
I think the restaurant didn’t really satisfy me as much as the Alahambra in Tunisia. It kind of reminded me of a school canteen with some of the slop they was serving but then again it was alright I suppose. You definitely do get your moneys worth.
So, I won’t write the hotel off for that – it was nice taking my little niece swimming here and it was quite funny seeing her dance at the kids disco.
I think she had a great time for the week she was here. I think for anyone with Children actually the Armas Pemar Beach wouldn’t be a bad choice of hotel to come to. I mean I can’t say if there are any others that are better along this strip because I haven’t stayed at any of them.
Only walked through lol.
I paid £90 a night to stay here and booked on the Agoda app. This was much cheaper than what I was quoted on Booking.com. I had never heard of Agoda before this but it is definitely worth downloading if you are a frequent traveller like myself.
Leaving Turkey
The good thing was that I managed to arrange my airport transfer for quite cheap compared to what I paid to get here. It was £48.00 on Booking.com to be picked up at 6AM on the morning.
It was a rough trip back really. My trainers were still soaked and although I had at this point (finally) got a pair of sliders having to wear them getting through the airport was no fun. Worse still I had to wear them all the way back home because otherwise it would have been wet trainers or walking bare foot.
I also wasn’t feeling too well after this all. Felt like I had the flu, had a horrible cough and really not sure what caused it – maybe a whole month almost of non stop travelling.
My Idea For Going Back To Turkey
There are some reasons I wouldn’t go back to Turkey for. Namely to not have to pay for expensive hotels and taxis but I would maybe stay in the Aroma Butik again for £21 a night and definitely there is Discovering The Ancient Past Of Turkey…
Gobekle Tepe, Derrinkuru, and Mount Nemrut, and the Sunken City of Kekova.
I would have to get planning with some tours I think and I would have to be staying (I think) somewhere cheap. I would like to go to Aroma Butik Hotel. Just because it is really nice here but I think maybe central Antalya would be better.
Basically, I think Derrinkuyu I could get to on the Cappadocia tour, and the Sunken City as long as I book in advance I could book around the same time but Mount Nemrut / Gobekle Tepe that would have to be something else and I’d maybe have to get to another location.
>>>Find Out More About – The 12 Main Ancient Sites of Turkey HERE<<
I probably would spend maybe 2-3 weeks in Turkey. If I could get these 3 trips done and maybe go to the waterfall again I’d be pretty happy with this.
Maybe next year I want to try and do this cheap as possible but will see how this turns out. When it happens I will write a new post but for now I hope you liked reading about me gate crashing my sisters holiday.
Leave a comment to let me know what you think below.
Many thanks for reading;
Alex and Teddy
Keen traveller and digital nomad looking to share my stories from my international trips with my faithful companion Mr Bean 2.0 (Alex Chivers).
