Alanya → Alara Castle Transfer

Alanya to Alara Castle private transfer

Anyone staying in Alanya already lives beneath one Seljuk fortress: most of the walls on the headland went up under Sultan Alaeddin Keykubad, whose name the town carried for centuries as Alaiye. Alara Castle tells the same story in a river valley rather than above the sea. Byzantine in origin and later the western outpost of Armenian Cilicia, the stronghold on its crag passed into Seljuk hands, and Keykubad had Alarahan built at its foot, the last caravanserai on the trade road before it reached the coast. From Alanya it is a natural half-day: away after breakfast, the han by the river, the castle on its crag above, and back in town for lunch.

The leg is 40 km, about 40 minutes each way. The car heads west out of Alanya on the D400 with the sea on the left: through Konaklı, over the pine-covered headland at Avsallar and down past İncekum to Okurcalar. There it leaves the coast and turns north up the Alara valley, the river running beside the road and the Taurus slopes pressing in from both sides. The caravanserai stands right at the roadside, a long, low block of cut stone, and a short walk to the north the castle climbs its rock. The castle has never been laid out for visitors and has no signposting: the way in is a rough path up the slope, then a dark stairway tunnelled through the rock.

• In summer leave Alanya early, because the valley holds the heat, the crag offers little shade and the climb is far kinder before mid-morning.
• If you do go up, wear shoes that grip and carry a torch, since the tunnelled stairway is dark and the ruins at the top are overgrown.
• This is booked as a one-way leg at a fixed price per car, and the driver can wait by the han or come back for you at a set time if you say so when booking.
• Anyone who would rather not climb can stay below with the caravanserai and the river, which together make a short, easy visit in their own right.