Pamukkale → Side Transfer

Pamukkale to Side private transfer

This is the second half of a trip that was planned as two days rather than one: a night in the village or in Karahayıt, the terraces in the cool of the morning, and then the drive down to the Side hotel where the rest of the holiday is booked. A good share of passengers came up on the excursion bus and book a car only for the way back, now that they know what that return looks like from a coach. Others are ending an Aegean loop here — Ephesus, İzmir, Denizli — and would rather finish the fortnight on a beach than in a bus station.

South and then east, the 305 km take about four hours, and the order of the day is reversed. You cross the plateau while it is still cool — Denizli, the salt pans, the long run of farmland below Burdur — and the descent from Bucak puts you back at sea level after some three hours, in air thicker than the air you slept in. What remains is 45 minutes on the D400 through Aksu and Serik to the Side junctions, and in high season, with the day spent and the car tired, that short final segment is the least pleasant part of the whole journey.

• To reach the Side hotel in daylight, leave the village in the early afternoon: the last stretch is the one you least want to be driving at midnight.
• Plan the break before Bucak — after the descent the road fills up and stopping stops being worth it.
• Heading east, the afternoon sun stays behind the car, which makes the coastal section easier than it was on the way up.
• If your hotel is on the Kumköy or Titreyengöl side, say so: the final turn-offs are different ones and the driver needs the hotel name, not just the district.