My Side Vacation and Ancient City Visit

Hello my friends. I’m in Turkey. After my trip to Istanbul, I headed down to the southern coasts. And now I’m enjoying both the sun and sea and the historical places I love so much. Most recently I visited a place called Side, which isn't too far from Antalya. I’ve actually been here before. Side is about 70 kilometers away from Antalya.

Before visiting the ancient city, I checked into my hotel and shook off the travel fatigue. I stayed at a hotel called Seashell Quality Resort. Since we just wanted a good rest after a pretty tough year, I researched the hotel for quite a long time, looking at the reviews. Having good food, variety and of course, a great beach was very important to me. The hotel really turned out to be quite clean. The rooms are standard. But to be honest there is almost nothing outside the hotel in this area. So, you probably won’t even need to go out. In my opinion this place is perfect for the kind of vacation where you just stay at the hotel, do absolutely nothing, go nowhere and just enjoy yourself.

They are always grilling meat or vegetables by the pool, which is very pleasant. That’s where the charm is. Food is one of the biggest advantages of the all-inclusive system in Turkey. There is an international cuisine. You can find dishes from every corner of the world. At the same time, traditional Turkish cuisine is heavily featured. They make almost everything over charcoal fire. But to confess, I was a bit of an amateur for the first two days. Because first you need to examine everything and take a look around. But as always, when you see the all-inclusive you get caught up in the charm of those beautiful dishes and immediately start filling up your plates. I was only able to reach the show cooking section on the second day. Here they cook the food right in front of you and put it on your plate. They make lamb skewers right before your eyes, cok fish and freshly prepare different types of meat, beautifully decorating your plate before handing it to you. Like I said every kind of food your heart could desire is available. There is also a fast-food option for kids. Of course, why anyone would get fast food when there’s so much amazing food around is beyond me, but there are burgers and french fries. They serve them in boxes just like at KFC or any American fast-food chain. In short there are plenty of options and that’s what matters.

I should mention that there are almost no beachfront hotels in the Side area. Though Side is not just a town. It’s an entire region. When they send you to Side, the place you stay will most likely be one of the surrounding villages or towns in that area. But surprisingly this was never an issue. Access to the beach is really easy. It takes only 2-3 minutes by small dolmuşes or shared minibuses. Officialy it says they depart every 15 minutes, but to be honest, I went to the beach quite often and never waited more than 5 minutes, so beyond super.

The beach is wonderful. They’ve built a pretty cool, chic and very stylish bar. I really liked it. There are lots of sunbeds under the awnings here, which is very comfortable. There’s also a bar. Sitting across from the sea view and sipping your unlimited cocktail is the absolute peak. And most importantly, they have quality alcohol meaning the normal, international drinks we all know. They don't pour strange local drinks like in some places. This happens a lot in hotels generally. But I think imported drinks are used in most of the good hotels in Turkey. They have J&B, Jack Daniel’s and Smirnoff for vodka. World famous brands like Martini are available. I think this is important because you aren't drinking something sketchy. You are consuming something decent that you’re sure of, poured right from the bottle in front of your eyes. This matters to me. Spending time at the beach is really enjoyable. In this atmosphere, I think you could spend the whole day just being lazy.

The quality of the food at the beach really surprised me. Probably only 20-30 percent of the vacationers were returning to the hotel for lunch. The rest were eating at the beach. There is a very good restaurant there. Again, they cook many dishes live and put them on your plate. Almost everything except the salads is made fresh. They also prepare delicious Turkish gözleme or flatbread on a gasfired griddle. They are amazing. The same Turkish auntie always makes them and I waited in that line a few times every day. I kept wiping myself down with a towel just to avoid burning from the heat, not because I was cold. It is incredibly hot.

I never thought turtles hung out in Turkey. They have eggs here. There are a few cordoned-off areas like this on the beach. Along with the turtles, cats hang out on the beach too. There aren't many, just 2 or 3 in total. They aren't cheeky at all and I think they are full to the absolute maximum. There is so much food here that, of course, the cats get plenty of shares too. They definitely don’t sabotage the vacation.

I highly recommend dedicating one of your evenings to the ancient city of Side. Getting there is quite easy. Special dolmuşes operate. There are plenty of them, many stops and they are quite cheap. I did wait in the heat, though it only lasted 5 minutes in total. Generally, old-fashioned but cute minibuses run. There is air conditioning, which is the most important thing. It takes about 25-30 minutes to get to the old town. On the way back, the dolmuşes stop right in front of the hotels you specify.

In the end they bring you to the small bus station in the center of Side. There are plenty of these buses here and later they distribute the tourists to their hotel zones. Ours, for example was zone number 5. But there are more zones. It's a fun system. These are all private companies. By the way, the journey took about 50 minutes, not 20-30 minutes as they said at the hotel. So keep in mind that it takes longer. But overall, it's perfectly normal. Even though the dolmuş was old, it was cool inside and everything was fine.

After just a 2-3 minute walk from the bus stop, you find yourself in a completely different world. The city was founded by the Greeks in the 6th century BC and existed for a long time until it was conquered by the Romans in the 2nd century AD. That’s why there is a mix of the ancient theater, ancient Greek culture and Roman structures here. It looks really cool and they are restoring it. It’s as if you are walking through living history in an openair museum. Quite enjoyable.

The surroundings are full of ruins. The ancient theater is Side's most important symbol, but it has been closed to visitors for 5 years. The restoration is supposedly going to last until 2030. Entering inside is forbidden. Normally, I had read that admission was free. They wil probably add many things here after the restoration and like other museums, there will be an entry fee.

Set aside 2-3 hours for yourself to tour the city. This time will be more than enough. It’s a small place and is divided into a few sections. One part is the old zone with ancient Greek and Roman structures, theaters, columns and ruins. After this, your path slowly leads to the shopping street, which is very well restored and packed with plenty of shops, trade, restaurants and cafes. But everything is in a non-bothersome dose. Afterwards, you reach the coast. Side has a super tiny beach here.

At the end of the road, the coast will bring you to the Temple of Apollo. The view is magnificent. Surrounded by water on three sides, you suddenly find yourself in ancient Greece.

Seeing this coast, the idea comes alive in one's mind that this place was really a massive harbor in ancient times. Back then, life and trade were buzzing here. Once you enter this atmosphere, you can immediately feel the liveliness of that period. In those times, this was a huge and even strangely, an important city in the Mediterranean where slave trade was conducted. Afterwards the city declined and no one lived here for more than a thousand years. For almost the last 200 years, people have started resettling here and digging these places up to uncover them. Actually there is still a lot of construction and work going on. The town itself is very pleasant. As far as I understand, only authorized vehicles can enter the city entrance because there are barriers. Buses and taxis pass through, no other civilian vehicles are seen. And of course, there are motorcycles.

The town is quite clean and decent. The shopping street resembles a miniature Antalya. In my case, the ticket here cost 2 euros per person, one way. As far as I understand, with the minibuses departing from the hotels, the price will be more or less the same from almost every zone. After all this place is called the Side region, but you book the hotel in the surrounding villages, not in the center of Side. Well, coming to the center from these villages takes between 30 and 50 minutes depending on traffic and stops and the ticket is 2 euros. I think it's a very reasonable price. It's even considered cheap nowadays.

That’s all I have to share from Side, my friends. Thanks for reading. See you in new adventures!