Antalya
Sometimes things don't go quite as planned
From Konya, we took a 4 hour bus ride through the beautiful landscapes of the Taurus Mountains to arrive in Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast. The landscapes were varied on the journey. From Konya, we climbed into arid mountains; eventually passed Lake Beyşehir, Turkey's largest freshwater lake; saw numerous roadside fruit stands selling strawberries which must have been freshly picked from the fields in the valley; raced through an impressively long tunnel piercing a mountain; then wound our way down a mountain road towards the coast. The Taurus Mountains were beautiful and looked well worth exploring, maybe an idea for another trip. Coaches in Turkey are pretty fancy with two seats on the right hand isle and one on the left. We even go tea and snack service, it was a comfortable ride!
14-16 June 2025: An Aborted Workaway
After the bus journey from Konya to Antalya, an hour and a half wait for a local bus, and half an hour on the local bus, we arrived at our workaway host’s property. We had planned to stay a week with a older couple in a village just outside of Antalya. We had messaged with them a bit and they had accept us as guests without asking many questions.
When we arrived, another Maltese workawayer was there. He had stayed nearly two weeks and would be leaving soon; he mentioned that he hadn't seen the hosts much during his stay and had spent most of his time on his own. This was the first sign that perhaps this workaway wasn't quite what we were hoping for. We started to worry a bit more in the evening when dinner was delivered to us outside. Before our host disappeared back into the main house once again, she told us that breakfast would be in the fridge by the morning, but we probably would not see them until later in the day. One of the best parts of workaway is meeting local hosts, but it seemed like we may not be seeing much of these hosts.
We discussed our concerns in the evening and figured we would give it a day or two to see how it goes. Our initial impressions at some of our other stays had been questionable before turning into great experiences (sometimes you can't judge a book by it's cover, or a Workaway by first impressions). Unfortunately the next day wasn't any better. It wasn't clear what we were supposed to do and we didn't see our hosts until close to midday. When he emerged, he walked around with us for a bit before saying he would have to think about what he wanted us to do (and disappearing again).
At lunch, things got stranger. Our host suggested that maybe we would be happier staying with another family in the village. We said we would think about it and took a look at workaway to see if we could find this family; there was one that matched his description, but listed a one month minimum stay. At this point, we were still thinking the stay was not quite what we were looking for and didn't feel particularly welcome after the suggestion to stay somewhere else. In some ways, we felt we hadn't given it much of a chance, but at the same time we didn't think things would change if we gave it more time. We decided to politely tell our hosts we would leave the next day after only staying two nights.
After having made up our minds that it would be best for us to leave this Workaway, a really friendly girl arrived. Eva is a very outgoing and chatty girl from South Africa, who is currently working as an English teacher in China, near Shanghai. We had lots of fun conversations with her with regards to all cultural differences and her experiences living in China. Having her around made last evening and morning at the Workaway quite fun prior to our departure. Eva also accompanied us into Antalya the day that we left. We explored the old town together and enjoyed a meal before saying goodbye and wishing her all the best on her travels.
16-18 June: Making New Plans in Antalya
After deciding to leave the workaway, we booked a last minute hotel in the old town for two nights. This would give us a day to see Antalya and enough time to figure out what to do next.
The old part of Antalya is pleasant but a bit strange. Everything seems to be set up for tourists - and in some ways the British. Pubs with British, Scottish, and Irish names abound; restaurants and bars with live music are common; and pushy doorman call out to passersby trying to get them to come into their establishment. The streets are clean, pretty viewpoints open over the sea, and English signage and menus are ubiquitous.
Despite the tourist infrastructure, most places had more empty tables than those that were occupied. Perhaps recent high inflation in Turkey has made it less of an appealing destination or perhaps we are just between waves of tourists. In any case, it was a bit strange. We spent the evening at the viking themed Odin Pub for live music and cheap beer - until 10pm, only 100 lira (just over €2) for a pint.
For our full day in Antalya, we took a public bus to Lower Duden Waterfall where a river tumbles over the cliff side into the Mediterranean. Bus schedules seem to be a vague suggestion here; we had intended to go to the upper falls further inland, but the bus didn't materialize so we adjusted our plans. It was blisteringly hot every day during our time in Antalya with highs of 36-38°C and temperatures nearing 30°C as early as 9am. Shade from the intense sun and a sea breeze just about made it tolerable, but not quite. Today, we opted for a midday siesta hoping for the worst of the heat to pass while we napped in our air conditioned room.
In the evening, we stopped at the Antalya Necropolis museum. During a construction project, a huge area with hundreds of graves was discovered just outside the Hadrian's gate of ancient Antalya (or Attalia as it was known from around 200BC). The museum has a couple of rooms showing finds from the area and one dedicated to sport from the ancient Olympics to the Ottoman Empire. A series of walkways then allowed us to wander around the excavated necropolis.
After another wander though the old town, we procured a tub of ice cream for dinner. Without a fridge, we had to eat it all before it melted - one of the flavours was strawberry, so that counts as a balanced meal, right?
18-21 June: A Reprieve from Large Cities in Kaş
Domenic, the Maltese workawayer we had met, had raved about a small coastal town called Kaş. We weren't sure where we wanted to go next and figured we may as well see a bit more of the coast while we were in this part of Turkey, so we took his advice. We booked three nights at Can Mocamp Hostel, the first hostel of our trip. Most places we've been so far, hostels weren't much cheaper than more private accomodations when booking for two people (and in many cases, hostels were more expensive!). In Kaş, the hostel was at least 20% less than anything else available, so we gave it a shot.
We caught a bus from Antalya to Kaş; although the distance is only 186km, the journey takes four hours due to the winding nature of the road along the mountainous shores of the Turkish Riviera. From the edge of the road, the mountains plunge into turquoise coves - some of which terminate at small beaches. The bus driver seemed to be aiming for the racing line through many of the corners, lane markers appear to be a suggestion in Turkey and anywhere right of the shoulder on the opposite side of the road seems to be fair game for larger vehicles.
We made a beeline to the hostel to check in and drop off our bags before wandering the town to find some dinner. Eventually, we found what appeared to be a chain restaurant (called Ömer Aybak) selling affordable Turkish food - the main menu item being Çiğ Köfte or “raw vegetarian meatballs”. We verified that these did not include meat and were assured that the main ingredient was bulgur wheat before ordering a plate of “meatballs” and a wrap format. Along with a salad and some non-alcoholic drinks, we had a filling feast for 620 lira (around €14).
19-June-2025
We woke up early in the morning to squeeze in a hike before the temperature rose to an unbearable level. We quietly collected ourselves at 5am and set off to climb a section of the Lycian Way, a long distance hiking route along the Mediterranean, to a viewpoint over Kaş and the surrounding coast and islands. As the sun rose over the mountains, we climbed around 500m revealing increasingly spectacular views as we progressed. The hilltop showed signs of campers staying the night (although none were there this morning) and as is all too common in Turkey the area was littered with garbage and discarded cigarette butts. After taking some pictures, we made our way back down to the hostel. We stopped by some Lycian tombs at the edge of town and completed the 9.78km round trip in a little over three hours - perfect timing for the start of breakfast hours at the hostel.
After a long midday siesta for Mary, and some time in the pool that resulted in a mild sunburn for Scott, we wandered into town around 2:30pm. We visited an old theatre in the still blistering heat and then walked back to our hostel for a swim in the Mediterranean. There was a string of pebbly beaches near our hostel and it was late afternoon by the time we went in - thankfully no more worries about sunburn. We swam around in the mild, clean, salty water and chatted with a Turkish guy who is doing workaway at our hostel; if only the temperature and UV index were this enjoyable earlier in the day!
20-June-2025
Today we had another early wake up call to do a coastal walk in the morning light. We followed another section of the Lycian Way, but reaching the trail required walking through Kaş and along roads for a fair distance. Eventually we reached the trail which was obvious to follow, but sometimes narrow and bordered with prickly underbrush that scraped us a little bit. The walk was pleasant but somewhat uneventful. The most exciting part was a slightly exposed cliffy section near some Lycian tombs and a few sections with views over a cove where a number of boats were moored for the night. The 13km hike took us a little over three hours. After breakfast at the hostel we had a rather lazy day, unable to motivate ourselves to do much in the Turkish heat.
Travel Stats
The bus from Konya to Antalya covered 277km in about 4 hours and the bus from Antalya to Kaş covered 186km in a little over 4 hours. The windy mountain and costal roads made for an interesting ride and the drivers seemed to enjoy using as much of the road as possible (oncoming lanes, their lane, the shoulder) to keep up speed along the way.
With high temperatures and a couple days at the aborted workaway, we didn't walk as much this week. A couple of early morning walks and the distance from the hostel in Kaş to town boosted distances a bit. In the end, we walked 90.3km or about 11.3km/day. That brings our 165 day total to 2285km!
To Be Continued…
After a week where things didn't quite go to plan and we moved around more often than we usually like to, we're aiming for a more typical week soon. We'll still be in Turkey, keep an eye out for our next update to see what we get up to!