Gazipaşa Airport → Mahmutlar Transfer

Gazipaşa Airport to Mahmutlar transfer

Few places on this coast gain as much from Gazipaşa Airport as Mahmutlar. This is a town of long stays — owners back for the winter, families renting by the month, people for whom it is a second home rather than a fortnight away — and landing 30 km from the door instead of 140 turns a travel day into an arrival. Coming from the east, the town announces itself as a bank of towers on a narrow shelf with the mountains pressed close behind. Below the last row of blocks the shore is rocky, with steps and platforms down to clear water rather than wide sand.

A transfer from Gazipaşa Airport to Mahmutlar covers 30 km in about 35 minutes, and the shape of it is the reverse of the run from Antalya. The road turns west out of the airport and spends its first twenty-five kilometres on the cliff bends as far as Kargıcak; then the shelf widens and you are already at Mahmutlar's eastern edge, having passed nothing resembling a city. The slow part, if any, is the last kilometre: in August the main road through the centre behaves like a street, not a highway.

• Say whether your block stands above or below the D400 — mountain side or sea side — and the car turns off once instead of driving the length of the town twice.
• Thirty-five minutes means even a late landing gets you to the door while the shops along the main road are still open.
• Arriving from the east you reach the far end of town first, so allow a few extra minutes in high season if the address is at the western end towards Kestel.
• Long stays mean more luggage than a fortnight does, so say how many large cases you are bringing — the choice between a car and a van is made at booking, not at the terminal.