Antalya

Currency

Resort hotels quote euros and give a poor rate for them; pay in lira wherever you can. Change money at an exchange office in Kaleiçi or on Işıklar Caddesi rather than at the airport, and in small amounts, because the rate moves.

ATMs & cards

Garanti BBVA, İş Bankası, Akbank and Ziraat all have machines in the old town and along the beaches. Foreign-card fees at Turkish ATMs are high now, so withdraw larger sums less often. Decline conversion; cards are accepted almost everywhere else.

Resorts quote euros at a poor internal rate. Pay in lira wherever the choice is offered.

Wherever you are: if the machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. That is dynamic currency conversion and the rate is set by the ATM's operator, not your bank.

Safety

A comfortable, low-crime city where the risks are the sea and the sun rather than people: the beaches shelve steeply and the undertow at Konyaaltı is real, and July and August routinely pass 35°C. Use metered taxis or an app, and treat the "carpet shop" invitations in Kaleiçi as the sales pitch they are.

Our own assessment, not a sourced index.

Entry & visa

Health & emergencies

Required to enter

No vaccinations are required for entry from Europe or North America.

Worth having

• Routine vaccinations up to date
• Hepatitis A
• Typhoid if you will eat widely outside restaurants

Getting treated

Private hospitals in Istanbul are genuinely excellent and a fraction of Western European prices, with English spoken in the international departments. State hospitals are free for emergencies but slow and rarely English-speaking. Insurance is strongly advised — you will be asked to pay up front at private hospitals.

Tap water is chlorinated but heavily mineralised; almost everyone drinks bottled.

Orientation, not medical advice. Entry rules change and what you need depends on your own history and where you have been — check with a travel clinic or your national health service four to six weeks before you go.

Food tip

Piyaz — a white bean salad with tahini — is the Antalya dish nobody outside the city knows, and it comes with şiş köfte. Eat away from the harbour: the places on the road out to Konyaaltı charge half what the marina does. Fresh figs and pomegranate juice from a street cart in autumn.

Getting around

• Tram — the old line runs through Kaleiçi and the new one out to the beaches and the museum; buy an AntalyaKart
• Walking — Kaleiçi is a walled maze best done on foot, and the clifftop park runs for kilometres
• Dolmuş and bus — cheap and constant along the coast road to Lara and Konyaaltı
• Boat — the harbour trips to the Düden waterfall where it falls straight into the sea
• Airport: 13km east, with the tram, the airport bus and app taxis all doing the run in half an hour

Internet speed

Broadband here runs at 66% of the global median of 128 Mbps. Mobile runs at 1.3× the global median of 110 Mbps.

Source: Ookla Speedtest Global Index · measured May 2026

Must-see

Things to do

• Get lost in Kaleiçi and come out at the old harbour
• Swim at Konyaaltı with the mountains behind you
• See the Roman sculpture at the Antalya Museum, which is better than it sounds
• Take the boat to the lower Düden falls
• Go up to Aspendos for the best-preserved Roman theatre anywhere
• Watch the Chimaera flames at Olympos after dark

Nearby day trips

Say a few words

Turkish

• HelloMerhabaMER-ha-ba
• PleaseLütfenLOOT-fen
• Thank youTeşekkürlerte-shek-koor-LER
• Yes / NoEvet / HayırEH-vet / HA-yuhr
• Excuse meAffedersinizaf-fe-DER-si-niz
• How much is it?Ne kadar?neh ka-DAR
• The bill, pleaseHesap, lütfenheh-SAP
• Cheers!Şerefe!sheh-reh-FEH

Religion

Sunni Muslim, secular state

Around 99% Muslim by heritage, but the state is constitutionally secular and Istanbul is cosmopolitan. Women cover their heads to enter mosques, everyone removes shoes, and mosques close to visitors during the five prayer times.

Do's and don'ts

Do

• Accept the offered tea — refusing it outright dismisses the gesture
• Take shoes off entering a home or mosque
• Cover shoulders and knees at mosques; women cover their hair, and scarves are lent at the door
• Haggle in the bazaars, politely and with humour

Don't

• Do not point the sole of your foot at anyone, or cross your legs so it shows
• Do not blow your nose at the table
• Do not make jokes about Atatürk; insulting him is a criminal offence
• Do not photograph people, especially women, without asking