In March of this year, I was definitely tired of freezing in the still winter Kyiv. I wanted warmth, sun and new experiences, so the plan of a trip to Turkey, one of the few countries open to tourists, that could provide all this, loomed by itself. My husband and a couple of friends and I decided to take a road trip along the southwestern coast of Turkey and discover new unexplored places. April 30, 2021 AUTHOR: Elizaveta Kriventseva 0 7 min

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No sooner said than done! We bought tickets from Kyiv to Antalya with a transfer in Istanbul, flew back from Izmir to Kyiv with Pegasus Airlines. We decided to go along the route Antalya – Kas – Marmaris – Oludeniz – Alacati – Izmir. We spent 2-3 days at each point, and as a result, our trip took 11 days, each of which will be discussed in more detail later.

Rent a car in Turkey

We rented a car in advance through booking.com. We chose Dacia Duster and it turned out to be a super-profitable decision, since renting a car for 10 days cost us $250 for four people + $100 for gasoline for a huge distance from Antalya to Izmir. It turned out that traveling around Turkey by car is very profitable and economical, as the rent is inexpensive and the roads are excellent. We rented a car in Antalya and returned it in Izmir – we had to pay another $50 for this, but even taking this into account, the trip turned out to be super-profitable. As a result, it turned out to be $400 for four people for more than 1000 km of travel.

Mobile Internet

Immediately upon arrival, we activated the mobile Internet. Using roaming turned out to be a completely unprofitable undertaking, so we decided to use the Airalo service, an online eSIM card store that gives access to eSIM cards around the world.

We have been using this service since 2019, when we first used roaming and were stunned by its high cost. Then we googled this application on our own and have been using it actively since then.

eSIM is such a virtual SIM card with which you can connect to several operators at once and not bother with buying a physical SIM card from a local operator. In parallel, you can use your regular SIM card and receive bank notifications. It turned out to be very profitable and convenient! We paid only $18 for 10 GB of internet. For comparison, when buying a local card at Antalya airport, it would cost $40. And we bought an eSIM and connected to the Internet in just 2 minutes. In general, we saved money, time, and nerves. I will leave instructions for using an eSIM card at the end of the article.

Photo by Elizaveta Kriventseva

Photo by Elizaveta Kriventseva

Accommodation

< p>Housing prices in Turkey are more than adequate. We booked apartments for 2-3 nights and on average it cost us $ 250 for four.

Demre

In Antalya, we decided not to stay long and headed to Kas. Along the way, we also decided to stop by the ancient city of Demre – this is a very beautiful ancient city, in which the ruins of Myra, the capital of the ancient state of Lycia, are located. Its most interesting parts are the rock tombs and the amphitheater.

We were lucky to find the city practically without tourists, so we were able to calmly see everything without crowds and queues. This is a huge plus for off-season travel!

Kash

Then Kas followed – this is one of those cities where you want to stay longer. Very cozy, small and atmospheric, with beautiful marinas and just bombing views. The city itself has plenty of restaurants and cafes to suit all budgets. In addition to this, Kas is very conveniently located – from it it is easy to get to other interesting places and beaches.

We booked apartments on the mountain overlooking the sea and the whole city and it was a great decision. I advise you to book accommodation in Kas not in the city, but on the mountain, as this view of the islands and sunsets is definitely worth it! The apartments turned out to be a better solution than the hotel, as they had a barbecue, a swimming pool and all the necessary amenities.

Photo by Elizaveta Kriventseva

Photo by Elizaveta Kriventseva

In the city itself, there are simply the coolest beaches – Kaputash and Patara Beach. Kaputas is surrounded by majestic rocks, but its main highlight is the water of an incredible turquoise color, like somewhere else in Thailand. Patara is an 18-kilometer beach, which in some places reaches a kilometer in width. Turtles breed here and some places are specially fenced off so that people do not walk or step on places where turtle eggs can be buried. By the way, you can only be on the beach until 19:00, since it is at night that turtles get out to lay their eggs. Patara is also considered a museum beach and on its territory you can meet ancient ruins and an amphitheater. I definitely recommend Kash to everyone!