Gazipaşa Airport → Belek Transfer

Gazipaşa Airport to Belek transfer

A Belek guest arriving at Gazipaşa has usually been sent there by a tour operator rather than by geography. GZP is a small charter airport 135 km east of the golf belt, busy in season and quiet outside it, and the seat that was available happened to be this one. Coming from the east you meet Belek in a way Antalya arrivals never do: the coastal towns thin out, the pine forest closes in, and the resorts appear as gateways in the trees rather than as a skyline. The beach behind them is the widest on this coast.

The driving starts the moment the airport gate is behind you, and it does not let up for 135 km. The road lifts off the coastal shelf, winds above the cliffs through Mahmutlar and Kestel, and threads through Alanya, where the D400 doubles as the town's main street. West of Alanya it finally runs: Avsallar, Okurcalar, the faster section towards Manavgat, the Side turnings, then the flat pine country of Serik. Reckon on about 1 hour 50 minutes for the 135 km. That number follows the season more than the hour: the same road in May and in August is not the same road.

• The late-afternoon crawl through Alanya is the one variable worth planning around, and summer Saturdays are the heaviest of all.
• Golf bags need their own space: a car that seats four will not also carry four sets of clubs for 135 km, so say what is travelling with you.
• If your return flight leaves from Antalya rather than Gazipaşa, the road back is far shorter — say which airport you are departing from when you book the return leg.
• Belek's entrances are spread along several kilometres of pine belt, so the driver needs the resort's full name to take the right turning at the end of a long drive.