Finike to Antalya Airport Transfer

02

Distances, drive times and leave-by times

Plan from the airline's deadline, not from the take-off time on the departures board. For an international flight out of Antalya in summer, airlines commonly ask you to be at the airport around three hours before departure; read the exact requirement on your own booking, because it varies by airline and by season. Add the drive from the list below, then the allowance for this road, which on this leg we put at roughly forty minutes, more than the closer resorts need. The result is the time the car should be at your door, with you and your luggage already outside.

Every distance here is counted from Antalya Airport and comes from the site's own route figures. The minutes are clear-road figures, and the leave-by times assume a summer international departure. If you are flying domestically, or outside the busy months, the airport part of the sum shrinks; send the flight details with your booking and we can work out the pickup together rather than leave you to guess.

• Kumluca — 110 km, about 95 minutes: leave around five and a quarter hours before take-off.
• Finike — 130 km, about 110 minutes: leave around five and a half hours before take-off.
• Demre and the church of St Nicholas — 155 km, about 125 minutes; the rock tombs of Myra on the northern edge of town, 157 km and about 130 minutes: leave around five and three-quarter hours ahead of the flight.
• Çayağzı (ancient Andriake) — a few kilometres past Demre town, so count it with Demre and allow a little extra.
• Üçağız quay, for Kaleköy and Simena — 175 km, about 140 minutes: leave the quay around six hours before take-off, with the boat across from Kaleköy before that.
• Olimpos, whose turning the car passes on the way up from Kumluca — 95 km and some 80 minutes from the airport, so guests there can use the same arithmetic.

03

The road home, read from west to east

From Demre the D400 heads along the shore towards Finike, and this is the twistiest part of the whole trip. The road clings to the hillside above the sea in a long run of tight bends, with rock on the inland side and a drop to the water on the other, and it comes in the first half hour of the journey, when nobody in the car is properly awake. It is a well-kept road and drivers who know it take it calmly, but it cannot be hurried, and a slow vehicle in front sets the pace for everyone behind. After Finike things ease: the road runs flat between orange groves and then across the Kumluca plain, where greenhouses cover the ground on both sides.

Beyond Kumluca the highway leaves the plain and climbs into pine forest, working over the shoulder of the Beydağları in long, graded curves and passing the turnings for Adrasan, Olimpos and Çıralı before it drops to Tekirova. This is the mountain section people mean when they talk about this road. In dry daylight it is simply a pleasant drive through trees; on a wet night, or stuck behind a loaded truck on the climb, it is where most of the unexpected time goes. From Tekirova the D400 follows the Kemer coast, through short tunnels in the headlands and past Beldibi, until it reaches Konyaaltı and the Antalya end of the trip.

The last part is a city drive. From the western side of Antalya to the terminals the route crosses or skirts the city on urban roads with junctions and lights, and this is the one stretch where the time of day matters as much as the road. At two in the morning it barely registers. At the start of the working day, or on a summer evening, it can add a noticeable chunk to the trip, which is why later flights deserve their own thinking.

04

Early pickups in the dark

Many flights home leave Antalya early in the morning, and from this end of the coast that turns into a pickup while the town is still asleep. Do the sum for a six o'clock departure from Demre and the car is at your door around a quarter past twelve. That means a short night or none at all, which is better discovered before you book the flight than after. Some travellers choose a later departure for exactly this reason; others move to a hotel nearer the airport for the last night, which is a sensible plan and makes for a much shorter transfer.

If you do leave in the dark, the road itself is quiet and the city at the far end is empty, so the drive tends to run close to the published minutes. What changes is the pace on the unlit sections: the cliff road out of Demre and the forest pass beyond Kumluca have long stretches without street lighting, and a careful driver takes those bends more slowly at night than at noon. The leave-by times already allow for this, so there is no reason to shave them because the roads look empty.

• Let the front desk know a day ahead that you will be checking out before dawn, and ask how the gate and the luggage room work at that hour.
• Settle the bill the evening before if the hotel or pension allows it.
• Breakfast at that hour is a question for the hotel; ask about a packed one in good time.
• If anyone in the party suffers on bends, the Demre to Finike stretch comes first: a front seat, fresh air and eyes on the road ahead help more than anything taken once the curves have started.
• Keep the booking reference and the terminal written down somewhere that does not depend on a phone battery.

05

Evening flights and summer weekends around Kemer

A later flight makes for a gentler departure day, but it moves the risk rather than removing it. A pickup in the early afternoon from Finike or Kumluca puts you on the Kemer coast and into Antalya at a busy time of day. In summer, and above all at weekends, that stretch carries holiday traffic between the resorts, local families heading for the beaches and back, and the ordinary commuting of a large city. The road keeps moving, but the junctions near Kemer and the entry into Antalya can slow to a crawl for a while, and on a fixed route there is no way round them.

For an afternoon or evening departure on a summer Saturday or Sunday, consider adding another half hour to the leave-by times above. On a weekday outside the season that extra allowance is usually unnecessary, though the city still has its own rush hours. The pleasant side of a later flight is that the mountain sections are driven in daylight, and if you have the time, the day can include a stop on the way.

06

Myra, Çayağzı and Üçağız: pickups away from a hotel gate

Not everyone on this stretch leaves from a hotel. Some travellers want one last look at Myra, with its Lycian rock tombs above the Roman theatre, or at the church of St Nicholas in the middle of Demre, before heading for the airport. With an evening flight that can work: the luggage stays in the car, the drive starts from the site rather than from your room, and the leave-by time is counted from the moment you get back in. Waiting time like this is not automatic, so arrange it at booking and be realistic about how long you will spend at each place.

Çayağzı, the harbour where ancient Andriake once stood, lies south-west of the town and is where some boat trips to Kekova start and finish. If your last morning is spent on the water, be clear about when the boat is really due back, and set the pickup at the harbour rather than in town. The quay at Üçağız is a different case again. Kaleköy, the village below the castle at Simena, has no road to it, so guests staying there cross by boat to Üçağız to meet the car. The crossing is short, but your pension or the boatmen arrange it and it sits outside the transfer, so be across the water by the pickup time rather than setting off then. On a pre-dawn departure, check the evening before who will take you over.

• Give the exact meeting point at booking: the Myra entrance, the church, the harbour at Çayağzı and the quay at Üçağız are separate places.
• Agree any waiting time in advance; it is something to arrange beforehand, not to negotiate at the roadside.
• Wheeled cases do not roll well over quay stones and village steps, so allow time to carry them to the car.
• If a boat trip runs late, message us as soon as you can rather than waiting until you are ashore.

07

Choosing the vehicle and settling the details

Pick the vehicle at booking rather than finding out at the kerb that it is a size too small. Count passengers and luggage separately and make sure both fit: four people with six cases need more than the smallest car, whatever the seat count says. Economy carries four people with a bag each, First Class six and the Standard van seven, each with matching luggage space, and the minibuses take twelve or sixteen. On a drive of this length a little spare room is worth having, especially with children, sailing kit or the rucksacks that walkers on the Lycian Way tend to bring.

What you pay is one agreed amount for the vehicle from your pickup point to the terminal, settled in advance and untouched by traffic on the day. The gap between vehicle classes is listed on the prices page. Anything beyond the basic run, such as a baby seat, a break somewhere along the coast, two pickups in different villages or waiting time at Myra, is worth raising while you book, so the plan is fixed well before the night itself.

• Your terminal: international and domestic departures at Antalya use separate buildings, so check yours on the ticket or the airport's departures information.
• The flight time, checked again shortly before you travel, because schedules shift and a pickup worked back from the departure moves with them.
• The exact pickup point, with the pension or village name rather than the district alone.
• Bicycles, rucksacks, dive or sailing kit and pushchairs, listed individually rather than counted as suitcases.