Holiday In Beach

Kemer is a made-to-order resort carved from Turkey’s pristine pine-shaded Mediterranean coast 35km (22 miles) southwest of Antalya (map).

Though not as large or elaborate as Mexico’s Cancún, the principle at Kemer (keh-MEHR, pop. 25,000) is the same: pick a favorable seaside location with little habitation and build a modern resort town of white concrete buildings in it.

With virtually nothing to offer in the way of quaint old buildings, photogenic winding streets or archeological ruins, people come to Kemer for sun and sea.

The beaches are mostly of large pebbles and stones, although the ones near the yacht marina and Yörük Parki (an anthropological park with a Turkish nomad theme) are of sand.

Kemer can be a base for exploring nearby sites like Olimpos, Phaselis, Termessos, Perge and Aspendos, but Antalya is more centrally located and, overall, has more to offer.

Alanya was favored as a seaside resort by the Seljuk Turks 800 years ago, just as it is for the thousands of British and European visitors who pack its hundreds of hotels and villas today.

For the Seljuks, the attraction was the mild climate, the good harbor, and its relative closeness to Konya, the Seljuk capital (maps).

For today’s visitors it’s the l-o-n-g stretches of sand beach, the warm waters of Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, and the deep history of the town.

Alanya has grown incredibly during the past decade, and now boasts a population of more than 250,000, which must double during the summer tourist season.

Many visitors fly into Antalya airport on inexpensive package vacations, then bus to Alanya. Lots of new hotels have been built to cater to the package trade.

While you’re here, visit the vast Seljuk fortress which dominates the town from its promontory; the tall, octagonal Seljuk Kizilkule (Red Tower); and the Tersane (shipyard).

The dank atmosphere of Damlatas Cave, said to be beneficial to asthma sufferers, but with hordes of tourists exhaling hot carbon dio into the humid, already-stuffy atmosphere, I have my doubts….

But of course Alanya’s big attraction is its beaches, l-o-n-g swaths of sand to west (several kilometers) and east (many kilometers).