Antalya Airport to NovaMall Manavgat transfer
NovaMall Manavgat, formerly Novada Manavgat, is a shopping centre on the D400, the highway between Antalya and Alanya, and it stands on the western side of Manavgat with the town's bus station right beside it. Where it sits matters more than anything inside. The river, its bridges and the town centre lie a kilometre or two further east, so from Side, Kumköy, Sorgun, Titreyengöl and the hotels further west the car never has to cross the river or enter the centre at all. Inside are Turkish and international clothing chains, a supermarket, a cinema and plenty of fast food and coffee, though which shops trade there shifts from one year to the next.
From Antalya Airport it is 66 km and about 60 minutes, almost the whole way on the D400, which runs on beyond the Belek junctions, Serik and the Side exits to the point where Sorgun Bulvarı leaves it for the coast. The centre stands at that very turning, so a transfer to a hotel in Sorgun or Titreyengöl goes right past it, and so does one heading east to Kızılağaç. For a rented apartment with an empty fridge, a stop here on the way in is worth asking for when you book. From the hotels it is close: about ten minutes from Sorgun, Side, Kumköy or Titreyengöl, and fifteen to twenty along the highway from Evrenseki, Çolaklı or Kızılağaç.
Visiting NovaMall Manavgat
Treat it as an errand rather than an outing. It earns a place in a holiday when something needs buying — the groceries for a self-catering week, a swimsuit or sandals to replace ones that gave up, a layer for an evening cooler than anyone packed for — or when the weather turns. On a rainy day, or through the worst of a July afternoon, the cinema and the cafés turn two or three hours under a roof into a plan rather than a way of sitting out the weather.
Most visits take an hour or two: one for the supermarket, two with a look round the shops, three only if a film or a meal joins in. From a hotel ten or twenty minutes away, the easiest arrangement for a short visit is a driver who waits; for an evening that includes a film, a pickup at a set hour suits better. Choose when you book, because the return belongs to the same booking, and give a realistic finishing time rather than a hopeful one.
Manavgat has more than shopping within the same short distance, and a car makes it simple to fold the errand into a longer morning. The town's open-air market is held on Mondays and Thursdays, the waterfall lies north of town about a quarter of an hour away by car, and boats run trips along the river. Do the outdoor part first, while the day is still cool, and the shopping last, so the groceries go straight from the trolley into the boot. From Antalya or Alanya the journey makes no sense for shopping alone, since both have centres of their own much closer to hand.
- Pick up the chilled and frozen things at the very end, just before you walk out to the car.
- Fix one entrance as the meeting point before you go in: there is an open car park as well as a covered one, and 'outside' can mean either.
- Opening hours change around public holidays and the centre posts the current ones on its own website, so check there before planning a late finish.
- If the boot has to carry a week's groceries on top of everyone in the party, say so at booking: the load decides the vehicle more than the distance does.