Transfers across the Side area

The Side region is bigger than the town that gives it its name. Side itself stands on a small peninsula about 65 km east of Antalya Airport, with the Temple of Apollo at its tip and Roman streets behind it. Inland lies Manavgat, the district town: the market, the river, the everyday centre the coast is run from. Either side of the peninsula the resort strip runs for kilometres — Kumköy and Evrenseki west, Çolaklı and Gündoğdu beyond them, Titreyengöl and Sorgun in the pine belt east of the river, then Kızılot, Kızılağaç, Çenger and Denizyaka towards Alanya. Ruins and restaurants draw people into the old town; the strip is where they sleep.

Every transfer into the region leaves Antalya Airport on the D400, the coastal dual carriageway running east. It passes slightly inland of Aksu and Serik and the turnings for Belek before the exits for Side and Manavgat begin. Across the region the distance band is 52 to 100 km, which works out at roughly 50 to 85 minutes: Gündoğdu and Çolaklı at the near end, Side and Titreyengöl around the hour, Kızılağaç and Çenger at the far end. Nothing on the route climbs or twists. Summer afternoons add time near Serik and at the resort junctions, night arrivals run almost empty, and in winter the whole road is quiet.

Choosing within the region matters more than the map suggests. From Side, Kumköy and Evrenseki you reach the old town on foot or in a few minutes by car; Titreyengöl and Sorgun sit behind pine woods on quieter sand; Çolaklı, Gündoğdu, Kızılot and Kızılağaç are hotel-bound strips where the resort is the holiday. Families lean west and into the pines, evening people towards the ruins. For a transfer that means naming the resort as well as the hotel, because the same brands repeat along the coast, and booking the return at the same time: allow three hours at the airport in summer, plus 50 to 85 minutes of driving.