Gazipaşa Airport → Kaleiçi Transfer

Gazipaşa Airport to Kaleiçi transfer

Kaleiçi is a quarter measured in minutes on foot rather than kilometres: restored timber houses, courtyards with orange trees and stepped lanes wrapped around the old harbour inside the city walls. People who land at Gazipaşa for it are rarely beach people. They are city-break travellers who took the seasonal seat that existed, visitors splitting a trip between the Alanya side and Antalya, or guests of a small guesthouse that was booked long before the flight was. Either way the day ends 155 km west of the runway, in the oldest part of a city they flew past a small coastal airport to reach.

There is no inland shortcut on this coast: the 155 km are the coast road from end to end. It unrolls in three parts: cliff and curve as far as Alanya, then a flat, fast run that only Manavgat interrupts, and finally Serik and the way into the city. Allow about 2 hours 5 minutes for the 155 km. In the late afternoon the city end is where the time goes, as the streets narrow towards the walls. Arriving from the east you reach the old town from behind the modern city, so the first sight of Kaleiçi is the last few hundred metres.

• The drive ends at a gate rather than at a door, because the lanes inside are cobbled and partly stepped — better to know that before a two-hour ride than after it.
• An evening landing works in your favour here: the coast road empties after dark, and the streets around the walls are far easier at ten at night than at six.
• Small guesthouses are often run by one person, so tell them when you land and add the two hours from Gazipaşa to that time.
• Water and a comfort stop matter more than the route on this leg, since west of Alanya there are long stretches with nothing but the road and the sea.