Antalya Airport to Side transfer, door to door

Antalya Airport has three passenger buildings. Most holiday flights from Europe use Terminal 1 or Terminal 2, the two international terminals, while flights from Istanbul, Ankara and other Turkish cities arrive at the domestic terminal. Your booking does not need to say which one: we read the terminal from your flight number, and the driver goes to the right building.

Whichever terminal it is, the sequence after landing is the same. Passport control, then the baggage belts, then the customs channel. The doors beyond customs open into the public arrivals hall, where families wait behind the barrier and tour reps hold up clipboards. Your driver is there, close to the exit, holding a printed sign with the name you gave us. You do not need to look for a desk, a kiosk or a numbered bay outside.

From the hall it is a short walk to the car park, with the driver pushing the trolley. Ten minutes after you meet, you are usually on the airport road heading for the D400.

The airport sits on the eastern edge of Antalya, which is the right side for Side. The car joins the D400, the main coast highway, and heads east. The first stretch passes Aksu and the long greenhouse country around it, then the turn-off for Belek and its golf courses, then Serik. Shortly after Serik comes the junction for Aspendos, whose Roman theatre stands a few kilometres inland. Beyond that the road runs on through farmland and citrus orchards until the signs for Side and Manavgat appear.

Typical times from the terminal: about 50 minutes to Çolaklı or Gündoğdu, 55 minutes to Kumköy or Evrenseki, an hour to Side itself, and 65 minutes to Sorgun, Titreyengöl or Manavgat town. Kızılağaç and Kızılot, further east, are 70–75 minutes away. On summer Saturdays, when many hotels change over their guests, add around twenty minutes for the extra traffic on the D400.

The last part of the journey is where local knowledge counts. Some Side hotels share entrances, some are reached only from a service road behind the beach, and the old town peninsula has its own rules for vehicles. Our drivers live here, so the final kilometre is as straightforward as the first sixty.

A large share of flights to Antalya land late in the evening or in the small hours. That is ordinary work for us: dispatch is open around the clock, and a car meeting a 03:40 arrival is booked, confirmed and priced exactly like one meeting a lunchtime flight. There is no night supplement.

We follow your flight's live status, not the time printed on your ticket. If the departure slips by an hour, the driver's schedule slips by an hour too. Waiting for a delayed flight is free, and you do not need to send updates from the departure lounge. What helps is a correct flight number in the booking; if you change flights, let us know the new number as soon as you have it.

• Flight delayed: the driver arrives for the new landing time, at no extra cost
• Flight early: we see that too, and the driver plans for it
• Long wait at the baggage belt or a lost-luggage desk: send a message if you can; the driver stays
• Flight cancelled or diverted: tell us when you know, and we rebook or cancel without charge

Every price is for the whole vehicle, one way, and is fixed when you book. The fare to Side, Kumköy, Sorgun, Titreyengöl, Manavgat, Çolaklı, Evrenseki and Gündoğdu is €50 in an Economy van; the table below this text shows every destination on the Side coast, with distances and typical drive times. The Standard, VIP and minibus vehicles cost €5, €10 and €15 more respectively on any route.

Inside that one number: the meet and greet with a name sign, flight tracking and waiting, motorway and fuel costs, child seats or boosters if you ask for them, and all your luggage. Payment happens at the hotel, to the driver, in cash or by card. Euros, pounds and Turkish lira are all accepted in cash.

Choosing the vehicle is mostly about bags. The Economy van takes up to four passengers with their suitcases. A party of five, or four people with golf bags, a pushchair and a cot, is better off in the seven-seat Standard van. The VIP van seats six in leather captain's chairs, and the Sprinter minibus carries up to sixteen with a proper luggage hold — useful for wedding parties, sports teams and families travelling together. If you are unsure, tell us what you are bringing and dispatch will suggest the right size.

The return transfer is booked the same way, as a separate one-way fare at the same price as the arrival. The question everyone asks is when to be picked up. For an international departure from the Side area, we suggest leaving the hotel about 3 to 3½ hours before take-off.

1. 1About an hour on the roadSide to the terminal is roughly sixty minutes in normal traffic, a little less from Çolaklı, a little more from Sorgun or Kızılağaç.
2. 2A margin for the D400Saturdays in summer, roadworks or an accident near Serik can add twenty minutes or more. The margin absorbs that without stress.
3. 3Security at the terminal doorTurkish airports screen bags at the entrance to the terminal as well as before the gates, so there is a queue before you even reach check-in.
4. 4Check-in and passport controlOn busy summer days the check-in queues for charter flights are long, and the exit passport check follows. Two hours inside the terminal is a comfortable allowance.

For a domestic flight, leaving around 2½ hours before departure is usually enough. Tell us your flight time and we will propose a pickup time; the driver is at the hotel entrance at that time, with the boot open.

There is more than one way to get from Antalya Airport to Side, and each has its place. Here is a fair picture of the alternatives.

The taxi rank outside the terminal. Licensed taxis wait at the airport and charge by the meter. They need no booking and are a reasonable choice if you arrive without a plan. The final fare depends on the distance, the traffic and the tariff, so you only know it at the end, and on a long run like Side it will usually be higher than a fixed transfer fare.

Shared shuttles and tour-operator coaches. These are priced per seat and can be good value for one or two travellers. The trade-off is time: the coach waits for other flights and stops at a series of hotels along the coast, so the journey can be considerably longer than an hour. For families and groups, the per-seat prices usually add up to more than one private vehicle.

Public transport. Airport coaches link the terminals with Antalya city. From the city's main bus station, intercity buses run east along the D400 to Manavgat, and from Manavgat a local minibus (dolmuş) covers the last few kilometres to Side. It is the cheapest route and perfectly workable for light travellers in daylight; with suitcases, children or a late arrival it means several changes and a much longer day.

“A private transfer is not the only way to Side. It is simply the one where you know the price, the car and the driver before you leave home.