Antalya Airport to Çolaklı private transfer

Drive east from Antalya and the coast changes character after Serik. Belek’s golf courses fall behind, the Aspendos signs go by, and then the hotels begin again: this is Çolaklı. It is one of the long resort strips west of Side, roughly ten kilometres short of the ancient city, and the shortest drive from the airport of all the places sold under the Side name.

The resort is built for beach holidays. Large hotels stand side by side on the seaward side of the road, each with gardens, pools and its own section of a broad sandy beach. Families like it for the space and the soft sand; couples come for a quiet week in the sun. There are shops and cafés along the roads behind the hotels, but most guests find the real centre of gravity in their own resort.

The final kilometres to Çolaklı are the simplest on the coast. The hotels are close to the D400, and the car leaves the main road on one of several short access roads that lead down towards the beach, each serving a handful of hotels. Within a couple of minutes of the main road you are at the barrier, where the driver gives your name, and then at the main entrance.

That proximity is why the drive usually takes about 50 minutes door to door, compared with an hour or more for hotels on the far side of Side. The fare, though, is the same flat €50 for the Economy van as anywhere between Çolaklı and Sorgun: you are paying for the car and the driver, not for the minutes.

Çolaklı’s best neighbour is not on the beach. The Roman theatre of Aspendos, near Belkıs and inland from the D400, is only a short drive west. Built in the 2nd century AD and remarkably complete, it is one of the finest surviving theatres of the ancient world, and on some summer evenings performances are still staged in it. From Çolaklı you can go in the late afternoon, when the stone is warm and the crowds have thinned, and be back for dinner.

• Aspendos — the theatre and the aqueduct ruins nearby, a short ride west
• Side old town — about a quarter of an hour east: the harbour, the Temple of Apollo and the evening crowd
• Manavgat — the Monday market, the river boats and the waterfall north of town
• Köprülü Canyon — rafting in cold, clear water, inland from Serik
• Belek — the golf courses, back towards the airport

Every trip is quoted before you go, and the driver can either wait for you or come back at the time you name.

Çolaklı is a sensible base for golfers who prefer a beach hotel to a golf resort: Belek’s courses are back along the D400 towards the airport, close enough for a morning tee time. Golf bags travel free on the airport run, as do pushchairs, extra suitcases and wheelchairs. Tell us how many bags you are bringing and we send a vehicle with room for them, because four sets of clubs and four suitcases will not go into the same boot as four people.

For groups — a wedding party, a football team, three families travelling together — the sixteen-seat Sprinter at €65 is the simplest answer: one vehicle, one driver, one fare split as you like. And if your flight lands in the middle of the night, nothing changes: we track it, the driver is in the hall when you come through, and the fifty-minute drive is often quicker on an empty road.

As the closest of the Side resorts, Çolaklı gives you the most relaxed return. With about fifty minutes on the road, leaving the hotel around three hours before an international flight is enough on an ordinary day, and three and a quarter hours on a summer Saturday, when changeover traffic slows the D400. You will reach the terminal with time for the security scan at the entrance, check-in and passport control.

1. 1Book the returnOn WhatsApp or through the form, with your flight number. If you booked the arrival with us, a short message is enough; we already have your hotel.
2. 2Check outReturn the room key and, if your hotel uses them, hand in the all-inclusive wristband. Reception can usually keep your bags if the pickup is later in the day.
3. 3Meet the driverThe car is at the main entrance at the agreed time. The child seats you asked for on arrival are fitted again for the trip back.