Minibus and group transfers from Antalya Airport

02

What the 12- and 16-seat minibuses actually hold

The two minibuses sit at the top of the fleet: twelve seats with room for twelve bags, and sixteen seats with room for sixteen. Both have a proper luggage bay behind the last row rather than a boot with a bench added in front of it. That bay is a fixed volume, and this is the part groups get wrong most often: empty seats do not convert into extra luggage space. A party of nine with eighteen cases is not a twelve-seater with three seats to spare, it is a vehicle whose back door will not close.

The step up from the standard van is a real one. Above seven passengers there is no in-between size, so for eight or nine travellers the honest answer is either a minibus or two smaller vehicles, and the luggage almost always settles it. One detail worth knowing before you arrive: on a full sixteen-seater the back rows mean a step up and a walk down the aisle, which is nothing for teenagers and quite a lot for a grandparent with a bad hip. If someone needs to sit at the front, ask when you book rather than settling it at the kerb.

• Economy car: 4 passengers, 4 bags.
• Standard van: 7 passengers, 7 bags.
• First class vehicle: 6 passengers, 6 bags.
• Minibus 12: 12 passengers, 12 bags.
• Minibus 16: 16 passengers, 16 bags.

03

Golf bags, buggies, boards and other awkward shapes

Golf travel bags are the classic case. A set of clubs in a hard case is well over a metre long, has to lie flat across the bay and takes roughly the space of two suitcases while stopping the rest from stacking. Four golfers with four club bags and four cases are, in luggage terms, a group of eight. That is why a foursome heading for Belek, 35 km and about 35 minutes from the airport, often ends up in a minibus rather than in the car their headcount suggests.

Buggies vary more than people expect. A folded umbrella stroller travels like a small case; a full travel system with a carrycot and a separate base does not, and it is the one item you want last in and first out because you need it at the terminal door. Boards, bicycles, dive kit and large instruments come down to length: some fit inside a minibus, some fit none of our vehicles. There is no sense in guessing, so measure the longest item in centimetres and send that number when you book. You get a yes or no before you fly, not at the kerb.

• Golf travel bag: count it as two suitcases and tell us how many you have.
• Buggy: say whether it folds flat or is a full travel system, and whether you need it at the terminal.
• Surfboards, windsurf or kite gear: give the length of the longest board in centimetres.
• Bicycles, skis and large instruments: ask when you book, as the answer depends on the vehicle free that day.

04

Families and multi-generation groups: together or split

A family of thirteen across three generations is a different problem from thirteen colleagues. In one vehicle the group stays together: nobody reaches the hotel forty minutes ahead of the person holding the booking, and nobody sits in arrivals waiting for a second car to drive back. On a long leg such as Side at 65 km and about 60 minutes, Manavgat at 72 km and 65 minutes, or Alanya at 125 km and around 105 minutes, that simplicity is usually worth more than the small saving from splitting the party.

There are still good reasons to split. A baby who needs to be at the hotel now rather than in an hour, a grandparent who cannot manage the back of a sixteen-seater, or a group where half the party lands two hours after the other half: each of those is better served by two vehicles leaving at their own times. Child seats can be arranged, but the types and the number we can carry vary by date, so ask when you book and give each child an age and a weight rather than asking for a baby seat in general.

05

How a group of twenty or more is handled

Above sixteen passengers there is no single vehicle, so a party of twenty travels as a sixteen-seater plus a second car or van, and a party of thirty as two minibuses. Pricing stays per vehicle and fixed in euro at booking, so the total is simply the vehicles added together, and the step between one vehicle tier and the next is a set supplement published on our price list rather than something negotiated per group. Do that arithmetic early and on the published list, rather than assuming which combination comes out cheaper.

Running a convoy is mostly a matter of doing the grouping yourself. Send a list of who travels in which vehicle, with families kept together and the people holding the keys and the paperwork spread across both, plus one phone number we can reach on the day. The vehicles meet the same flight at the same point in arrivals and leave together, so they stay close to one another on the road. If your party is split across two flights, give us both numbers and both are tracked.

06

Getting a bigger vehicle to the door

A minibus is taller and longer than a car, which changes the last hundred metres rather than the journey itself. Most hotel forecourts along the Belek, Side and Alanya strips were built for coaches, so a minibus is nothing unusual there. Underground car parks and some gated apartment complexes are another matter: a height bar over the entrance stops a minibus where a car drives straight through, so the drop-off happens at the main entrance instead. With fourteen suitcases on board that is where you wanted to stop anyway.

Side is the exception worth planning around. The old quarter on the peninsula is largely closed to traffic in season, and a sixteen-seater cannot thread or turn in those lanes the way a car can, so the drop-off is at the nearest permitted point and the last stretch is walked. Where exactly that point falls is set out in our guide to old-town drop-offs. What a group has to do is name the hotel when booking and ask which point applies, because knowing in advance that a short walk with the cases is coming is a different experience from discovering it at midnight.

At the airport end the arrangements for waiting vehicles keep changing, and a large vehicle feels that more than a car does, because where a minibus is allowed to stand is not always where a car may stop. Your flight is tracked, so a late landing needs no phone call from the aircraft. Even so, re-check the terminal and the meeting point on your booking in the days before you travel: for a party of fourteen this is the detail most likely to have moved, and the one that costs the most time to put right.

07

The return leg when flight times differ

Groups almost never go home on one flight. Three options exist and all of them are fine, as long as the choice is made in advance rather than discovered on the last morning. One run timed to the earliest departure, with the later travellers waiting at the airport. Two separate runs, which means two vehicles booked and two fares, because the price is per vehicle and per journey. Or a compromise time that is early for nobody and late for nobody, which works when the flights sit within about two hours of each other.

Work the timing backwards, and give a group more room than one traveller would need. Our guide to return pickup times does that arithmetic resort by resort; on top of whatever it gives you, add a realistic margin for fourteen people actually being at the kerb, which is never the five minutes a couple would take. Book the return at the same time as the arrival so the vehicle is held for you.

• One run at the earliest flight time: cheapest, longest wait at the airport.
• Two runs: two vehicles and two fares, but everyone leaves at a civilised hour.
• A compromise time: works when the departures are within roughly two hours of each other.