Turkiye 2023: Surprising Antalya, part 1
The most surprising of all places we visited was Antalya. One city that did not appear on my radar, but one that I would love to revisit some day. Antalya is considered the Turkish Riviera, the gateway to Turkey's southern Mediterranean region. The city boasts of incredible beaches, inviting blue waters, imposing Taurus Mountains, world-class hotels, impressive museums, among other things. It's a resort town, I learned, and is very popular with Eastern Europeans as a vacation spot.
This was a day of leisure for us, some have chosen to sign up for an Optional Tour of a ruins outside of the city. We thought that we had way too much exposure to ruins, to Roman Theatres, etc that we opted to check out this beautiful city on our own.
And so we signed up for 2 separate Guru Walk tours, one in the morning dubbed Nature and Landscape Tour and the one in the afternoon is more on the cultural and historical aspects.
The guide picked us up from our hotel and took us to different viewpoints to fully enjoy the beauty of Antalya. The guide was a youngster in his 20s and also works part-time as a wedding coordinator. He intimated to us that he intends to add food tasting to this tour; however, he's still in the process of coordinating with local restaurants for this tour.
This is beautiful Antalya in photos:
Everywhere in the city, there is the golden lady statue, which I believe signified the upcoming film festival in the city.
The Taurus Mountains in the background. It does have a Cancun feel, isn't it?
Not surprising that we encountered a lot of cats in the spots we visited. The guide told us that harming a cat is punishable by 3 years of imprisonment and cat colonies are adopted by different people/companies. Many of them are well taken care of and looked very healthy.
He took us to his neighborhood park, where he also feeds the cats there.
The view from this park.
He took us to Duden Falls. I really thought there was time to do a cruise here, but there wasn't.
Back in the hotel, we found out that the hotel has a rooftop restaurant. We were curious about the views from up there. Since we arrived here in time for dinner last night (from Pamukkale, a 3-hr drive) we didn't really have time to check out what's in this beautiful and huge hotel/resort. Thankfully, we were able to check out the views from up there, even though we didn't purchase anything in the restaurant.
Huge pools, we had spent some time there later on.
Antalya is a modern city.
They also have this same sculpture at the front of the hotel. Do you know what this art is called?
Before going to the pool, we decided that we needed to check out the grocery store for some necessities. A short walk away is the grocery store, much to our delight, since it was hot that day.
Across from the grocery store are familiar storefronts.
The first thing that greets you at the grocery store are sacks of cat food/treats. Visitors feel the need to feed these wonderful creatures.
Back at the hotel, we cooled off at the pool and found many of our tourmates already sipping something cold and enjoying the day.
Everywhere in the city, there is the golden lady statue, which I believe signified the upcoming film festival in the city.
The Taurus Mountains in the background. It does have a Cancun feel, isn't it?
Not surprising that we encountered a lot of cats in the spots we visited. The guide told us that harming a cat is punishable by 3 years of imprisonment and cat colonies are adopted by different people/companies. Many of them are well taken care of and looked very healthy.
He took us to his neighborhood park, where he also feeds the cats there.
The view from this park.
He took us to Duden Falls. I really thought there was time to do a cruise here, but there wasn't.
Back in the hotel, we found out that the hotel has a rooftop restaurant. We were curious about the views from up there. Since we arrived here in time for dinner last night (from Pamukkale, a 3-hr drive) we didn't really have time to check out what's in this beautiful and huge hotel/resort. Thankfully, we were able to check out the views from up there, even though we didn't purchase anything in the restaurant.
Huge pools, we had spent some time there later on.
Antalya is a modern city.
They also have this same sculpture at the front of the hotel. Do you know what this art is called?
Before going to the pool, we decided that we needed to check out the grocery store for some necessities. A short walk away is the grocery store, much to our delight, since it was hot that day.
Across from the grocery store are familiar storefronts.
The first thing that greets you at the grocery store are sacks of cat food/treats. Visitors feel the need to feed these wonderful creatures.
Back at the hotel, we cooled off at the pool and found many of our tourmates already sipping something cold and enjoying the day.
Antalya captured beautifully for us. Thank you!
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