Knowing where to go in Alanya is the easy part; getting there is the question. We wrote a short story for each place and put the tour that visits it right underneath.
The octagonal tower over the harbour went up in 1226, when Sultan Alâeddin Keykubad wanted his shipyard protected. The Aleppo architect Ebu Ali stacked five floors, and the red brick of the upper storeys deepens as the sun drops, which is where the name comes from. Inside it is now the Ethnography Museum. From the top terrace the harbour, the shipyard and the whole bay sit in one frame.
The road up the peninsula leaves you in a ten-hectare open-air museum. The walls run for six and a half kilometres with close to a hundred and forty bastions along them. Inside stand nearly four hundred cisterns, the cut-stone Bedesten and the Süleymaniye Mosque. The inner castle sits two hundred and fifty metres above the sea, Cleopatra Beach on one side and the eastern shore on the other.
A year after Kızılkule, in 1227, the same sultan had a five-arched shipyard cut into the shore. With a sea frontage of fifty-six and a half metres and a depth of forty-four, it was the first Seljuk shipyard on the Mediterranean and it is the only one still standing intact eight centuries later. Passing by on a boat, the arches stay cool and dark inside, and loggerhead turtles show up in the bay around it.
The easiest way up to the castle opened in 2017. You board at the lower station in Damlataş and climb three hundred metres along a nine-hundred-metre line; as the cabin rises, Cleopatra Beach opens up below you along its full length. It carries more than a thousand people an hour, so the queue usually moves. Most visitors ride up and walk back down.
Kızılkule watched the sea; Ehmedek watched the land. A year later the same sultan added this section on the northern side of the castle: two separate parts of three towers each, six in all. It is the least crowded corner of the castle, and from between the stone walls you get the town and the mountain line together. Most people touring the castle do not walk this far, so it stays quiet.
It opened by accident in 1948, while stone was being quarried for the harbour, and became the first cave in Türkiye opened to tourism. Inside it stays at twenty-two degrees all year with ninety-five per cent humidity. That air is considered good for asthma, and a twenty-one-day course is run under medical supervision. When it is thirty-four degrees outside, standing under the stalactites for a few minutes is the cheapest cooling in town.
Forty-five kilometres inland from Alanya, a narrow cleft runs into the mountains. The canyon is about six hundred metres long with side walls rising to four hundred, and a six-hundred-metre wooden platform is pinned to the rock with iron rods. The water stays between five and ten degrees even in summer, which you understand the second you put a foot in. A 3,358-metre ecotourism trail opened in 2022.
Eleven kilometres from the centre and two hundred and thirty-two metres above the sea. It has four galleries and the walkable route runs three hundred and sixty metres, with the ceiling reaching fifteen metres in places. At the far end lies an underground lake of about two hundred square metres, its surface completely still. The cave is estimated to be around a million years old, and the cool inside surprises people on a summer afternoon.
It rises in the Taurus mountains, runs down the Dim valley and empties into the Mediterranean. At its coldest the water is around four degrees, and the valley air sits ten to fifteen degrees below the town. In midsummer, when Alanya is heavy with heat, driving up here feels like changing climate. Platforms are built out over the water along the bank, and you sit with your feet hanging in.
On the road to Sapadere, this cave is a stop most canyon visitors drive past without knowing. Inside, a lit path threads between stalactites and stalagmites, and footsteps come back off the stone ceiling. After the wet chill of the canyon, the dry cool in here feels different. Anyone on the Sapadere tour can take in both on the same day.
On the south-west side of the peninsula, its mouth sits thirty-four metres above sea level. The cave runs deep enough to cross from one side of the peninsula to the other, and in places the ceiling drops low, so it is not recommended if tight spaces bother you. There is no way in from land. Boat trips stop in front of it, and only small boats can get inside.
It begins on the west side of the peninsula, right in front of Damlataş Cave. It held a Blue Flag without a break from 2004 to 2025, twenty-two years running. The water is clear enough to see the bottom and the fish with a snorkel. The name comes from the story that Cleopatra and Antony swam here. Boat trips also stop for a swim fifty metres offshore.
The name describes the sand: a fine-grained cove west of Alanya where the pines come down almost to the water. The sea stays shallow a long way out, which is why families with small children pick it. The pines give the shade, so renting an umbrella is optional. Boat trips leaving from Avsallar and Türkler pass along this stretch of shore.
On the eastern side of town between Oba and Tosmur, two or three kilometres from the centre. It runs about a kilometre and carries a Blue Flag. The wind picks up steadily in the afternoon, which is why windsurfers favour it. When Cleopatra fills up, this is the shore locals move to, and it is walkable after the city tour.
The small cove right beside the historic shipyard. Getting down from land is awkward, so the beach usually stays empty and the people who arrive by boat treat it as their own. Swimming at the foot of eight-hundred-year-old arches is a different day out from a crowded beach. The pirate boat trips include this cove on their route.
A Roman-period city on a slope facing the sea, east of Alanya. A colonnaded street, cisterns and fragments of mosaic lie scattered among the trees, with no ticket booth, no crowd and no loudspeaker. Wandering on your own, you can sit on a stone and just look at the sea. The people who come here are usually on their second visit to Alanya.
The streets of the ancient city are still in use: you walk between temple columns and sit down at a cafe. The columns of the Temple of Apollo stand right at the water, and in the late afternoon the sun sets directly behind them. It is a drive from Alanya. We do not currently run a tour dedicated to Side, so the culture category is the place to look.
A Roman city set on a steep headland towards Gazipaşa. Bath ruins, church foundations and rocks dropping to the shoreline sit together on the same site. The mosaic floor uncovered in excavations is known as one of the largest in the region. It is far from Alanya and lightly visited, which suits anyone looking for a day away from the crowd.
A stone lodging on the Seljuk caravan road, where merchants stopped for the night. Step into the courtyard and the sound changes: the thick walls cut out the heat and the noise from outside. Alara Castle stands next to it, reached by stairs cut into the rock. The jeep route heading towards Green Canyon runs through this valley.
On Monday morning the streets of Oba fill with stalls. Alanya bananas, avocados, carob and loquat are sold here in season, and the cheese sellers will not let you leave without tasting. Haggling is normal, and prices soften in the afternoon. Spending a spare morning here is the easiest way to see Alanya outside the hotel.
Alongside the show pool the marine park runs swim sessions, and children always want to sit close to the water rather than up in the stands. The show is short and scheduled before the midday heat, with shaded areas to sit in afterwards. It is one of the stops families pick most often when they have half a day to fill.
Along the Dim river, wooden platforms are built out over the water, with tables directly above the current. Your feet go in the cold water, your tea sits in front of you, and the trees do the shading. Trout is caught here and cooked here. Locals come at the weekend, so an early hour is more comfortable.
As you climb from the coast the pine smell thickens and the temperature drops; the plateau is where Alanya escapes the summer. Traditional oil wrestling is held here at the end of July every year, and in 2026 it runs from 30 July to 2 August. Outside wrestling week the plateau stays quiet: breakfast, shade and cool air.
An old mosque in a mountain village, resting on wooden posts. Inside there is woodwork and plainness; no tour coaches arrive, and a villager opens the door. The road up is winding, which is why it usually gets added to jeep routes. An hour from the crowded coast, it is a place where ordinary life is still going on.
How many days do you have, who is travelling, what are you curious about? Message us and we will map out a route. No prepayment; you pay on the day of the tour.