Discover Antalya

• Kaleiçi

  As a tourist, at the top of your list of places to visit in the City of Antalya is the historical old town known as Kaleiçi with its award winning yacht harbor.

  Antalya Kaleiçi is located in the heart of the City and was once home to many conquering civilisations. Founded in the second century BC the King of Pergamon ( Attalos II) was searching for paradise on earth. On his travels, he found a unique location on the Mediterranean coast, miles of golden, sandy beaches at Konyaaltı and Lara, bright sparkling waterfalls, pine forests, exotic flowers, the magnificent backdrop of the purple Taurus Mountains and of course, beautiful weather for almost 300 days of the year.

  Antalya has also been conquered by the Greeks, Byzantines, Selçuk and Ottoman Turks. Many notable historical figures such as Alexander the Great and Hadrian have also passed through Antalya at one time or another. For many centuries, four cultures (Turks, Greeks, Jews and Christians) co-existed together side by side in harmony. Today, Kaleiçi is visited by nearly every tourist who comes to Antalya.

• Perge Antalya

  Ancient Perge, one of the chief cities of Pamphylia

  Perge, the long-established city of Pamphylia region, is located 18 km east of Antalya and 2 km north of Aksu Village. The Archaeological site of Perge has been excavated systemically by Istanbul University since 1946. Perge is famous by the fact that when Saint Paul started his journeys, he visited Perge in 46 A.D. and preached his first sermon here. That's why it became an important city for the Christians during Byzantine period. The first excavations began in 1946 by the Istanbul University, and they resulted in many important discoveries. A theatre exists there, consisting of three main sections: the seating, orchestra and stage and held 12,000 spectators.

  The Agora was the commercial and political centre of the city, with shops surrounding the central courtyard, some of which have mosaics on the floor. The agora measured 76 square metres, with a circular structure, in the centre with a diameter of 13.40 metres.

  The colonnaded boulevard lies between the Hellenistic Gate and the nympheum on the slopes of the acropolis. On both sides of the street, 20 metres in width, are porticoes, some up to five meters high, behind which are shops. The street is divided into two, by a 2-metre wide water canal running through the middle.

  Other structures include the necropolis, city walls, gymnasium, Roman Baths, memorial fountain and the Greek and Roman gates.

• Aspendos Antalya

  Situated in close proximity to the traditional, local town of Serik in Antalya province, Aspendos impresses its visitors with its elegant amphitheatre and other ancient remains. Because of its location close to the trade routes and the Köpruçay River, Aspendos has always been a rich town many rulers desired to dominate.

  The amphitheater in Aspendos is the oldest and best preserved Roman amphitheater in Anatolia. The visitors find it very exciting to watch the annual Aspendos concerts, plays and ballet performances on a stage that has witnessed many centuries. The aqueducts in Aspendos are also very impressive signifying the advanced engineering of its time. As a tourist, a must is to walk around the back of Aspendos amphitheater to the Basilica at the top.

  How to get to Aspendos by using the Antalya Municipality public transport system

  We recommend you either rent-a-car from our resident rent-a-car office or take a yellow taxi from the taxi rank directly outside of the Liberty Hotels Lara. If you are a seasoned, independent traveller and you wish to get to Aspendos using local transport, it is possible however very time consuming and tedious.

• Duden Waterfalls

  As a tourist, the Duden Waterfalls in Antalya make a pleasant trip from the Liberty Hotels Lara and its surrounding gardens are a popular picnic spot with locals. The Duden river extends from the Taurus mountains all the way to the Mediterranean and creates two cascades know as the Upper and Lower Duden Waterfalls.

  Upper or inner Duden waterfall(Inland); 15m (49ft) in height and 20m (65ft) wide and once set in a pleasant rural landscape. Today, the rapid expansion of Antalya City has meant the upper or iner Düden waterfalls have almost been engulfed by high rise developments. A natural cave has formed behind the falls and it is possible to sit here and watch the cascades. There are restaurants, boardwalks and picnic tables in the gardens immediately surrounding the falls to help you make the most of this scenic spot.

• Antalya Museum

  The Antalya Museum or Antalya Archaeological Museum
  As a tourist the Antalya museum is one of Turkey's most impressive museums. Located on the westerly tip of the cliffs on Konyaaltı Caddesi, enjoys stunning views of the world famous Antalya Konyaaltı beach. The Antalya museum comprises of 13 exhibition halls and an open air gallery. It covers an area of 7,000 m2 and has 5000 works of artifacts are exhibited. In addition to this a further 25,000–30,000 artifacts which cannot be displayed are in storage. As a museum exhibiting examples of works, which illuminate the history of the Mediterranean and Pamphylia regions in Anatolia, Antalya Museum is one of Turkey’s most important museums. The Museum won the “European Council Special Prize” in 1988.

• Atatürk's House Museum

  Atatürk's House Museum is a national museum in Antalya, dedicated to the visits of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk to Antalya. During Atatürk’s era, Antalya was a small town yet Atatürk described Antalya as one of the most beautiful places in the world.

  The museum is located in a two-storey Ottoman house, which was restored back to it’s original features and character. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk stayed at the house during his official visits to Antalya in 1930 and 1935 which belonged to the governorship of the province. In 1984, the building was handed over to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism to be transformed into a museum. With the financial support of a local electricity distribution company, the house was rebuilt on the same location. In 1986, the museum opened to the public.

  At the first floor, newspapers, photos and documents relating to Atatürk's visits to Antalya between March 6–10, 1930 and February 18–19, 1935 are on display. At the second floor, there are two working rooms and a bedroom. At another section on that floor, a collection of banknotes, coins, commemorative coins and postage stamps issued since the proclamation of the Republic is on the show.

  The most important part of the museum is the room with personal belongings of Atatürk, which were brought from Anıtkabir mausoleum in Ankara

• Suna & Inan Kiraç Museum

  Housed in two historical Ottoman mansion buildings within Antalya’s historical old town, Kaleiçi in near proximity to Hadrians’s gate. These once heavily deteriorated buildings, along with a number of others, were purchased by Suna & Inan Kiraç (Turkey’s leading entrepreneurs and Industrialists) and restored back to their original features and character in 1995.

  The first building is a typical two-storey Turkish Ottoman House with an impressive protruding balcony, arched windows, a traditional courtyard with black & white Stone mosaics. The second building is equally as impressive however there is a beautifully restored Greek Orthadox church in the garden. Above the arch door of the church is a plaque depicting St George, patron Saint of England slaying the dragon.

• Antalya Mini City

  As a tourist, Mini City minuture model park is a tourist attraction situated in a modern, developing residential area along Konyaalti beach coastal road. Situated next to Antalya Aquarium and opposite Su Hotel, the worlds largest boutique hotel. The Mini City consists of attractively, landscaped gardens which exhibits quarter-scale models of some of Turkey’s most famous historic buildings and geological phenomanons such as Pamukkale and Cappadocia. A pavilion with an open bar sits at the northern edge of the park, and an entrance building at the southern edge houses services, shops, a café, a restaurant and an exhibition hall. The entrance building is the most striking element of the park’s design.

  Address: Arapsuyu Mah., Dumlupınar Bulv./600. Sok., Arapsuyu/Antalya
  Telephone: (0242) 229 4545

• Antalya Aquarium

  As a tourist the Antalya Aquarium opened in the summer of 2013 and is considered to be one of the largest aquariums in the world.

  The Antalya Aquarium inspires, entertains and educates. It’s home to thousands of species, and tens of thousands of underwater creatures!

  The decoration of the aquarium’s main tank was created by the famous Italian sculptor Benedetti. It incorporates life-sized plane, ship, and submarine wrecks, and is the biggest coral reef decoration in the world. Travel along a path of over 40 exhibits, followed by the world’s largest underwater tunnel aquarium that’s 131 meters long and a width of 3 meters.

  A visit to the aquarium is a terrific way to spend a day out with numerous activities such as, making snow balls from real snow in Snow World. Step into a journey among the most poisonous, colorful and interesting species of the world in tropical reptile house; Fear Trophy. You can sail the world seas with multi-dimensional movie technology in Oceanride XD Cinema.

• Antalya Sandland

  Antalya Sandland International sand sculpture festival and exhibition;

  As a tourist the International Antalya Sand Sculpture Festival (SANDLAND) is a mega exhibition of sand sculptures organized by Global Design Art Works. The Antalya Sandland International Sand Sculpture festival is considered the one of the largest sand event in the world, by the size of its sculptures and the area they occupy.

  The festivals theme changes each year and the exhibition is visited by locals and tourists. These include many famous Political figures, celebrities and dignitaries. Every year, a group of sand sculptors, from all over the the world join to give shape to 10.000 tons of sand, in an area of 7.000 square meters along the Lara beach coastline.

  This year the theme of the, 8th International Antalya sand Sculpture Festival is the EMPIRES II. The visitors have opportunity to see most important Empires at the exhibition area of the festival. Previous exhibitions have included, Superheroes, 1001 Arabian nights. Sandland also incorporates a playful dimension with a space for sand sculpture activities, where each day, adults, teens and children may experience and show their creative abilities in this form of artistic expression. In the nights Led lightning system offers colourfull and magnificiant athmosphere to the exhibition area. Beside this visitors can watch the festival documentary dvd by the sinevision system during the night.

Transportation in Antalya