Travel
Had it up to here with grey skies? Need an injection of sea air to clear out the cobwebs? Pat Yale heads south for Antalya and checks into the Kaleiçi, an oasis of authenticity amid the concrete jungle.
There’s nothing like a few weeks of overcast skies and gloomy winter weather to make us start itching to escape to warmer pastures. But fear not - that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to fork out for an air ticket to somewhere exotic. Just over an hour’s flying time away from Istanbul, Antalya offers the perfect retreat for shedding the winter blues. What’s more, it’s a place better visited out of season since the muggy heat of high summer can be unbearable.
Poor old Antalya is too often lumped in with the other mega resorts such as Kuşadası, Marmaris and Alanya, and dismissed by those who like a bit of authenticity with their sun. But unlike them Antalya still has a great deal to show for its past, especially if you avoid the beach hotels and instead choose to stay in Kaleiçi (“the inner castle”), a discreet haven of antiquity that wraps around the harbour and feels, with its exuberant date palms and luscious banana plants, like a world apart from the rest of the town.
What makes Kaleiçi so particularly charming is that it retains much of its old Ottoman architecture - think Safranbolu on sea and you’ll get the general picture. Although there are still plenty of buildings that are barely able to support the weight of their own decrepitude, many others have either been restored and converted into bijou hotels, or have been painstakingly reconstructed to look as good as new. No matter how tight your budget, there’s bound to be something here for you, the difference lying mainly in the quality of the décor and service. Bear in mind, though, that the hotels nearest to the harbour tend to be the noisiest and the ones where the other “guests” may be staying for less than an hour.
At the budget end of the market, you could do worse than check into the Sabah Pansiyon, a family-run business with a variety of rooms dotted around a courtyard where mum dishes up dinners to delight a mixed bag of guests from all around the world. Of course if you can afford to splash out a bit more you will gain access to a wider range of amenities and in particular to a swimming pool. The Doğan Hotel, for example, is a huge property right in the center of Kaleiçi with a range of smartly dressed rooms set round a courtyard pool. Nearby is the Atelya Hotel, one of the few remaining properties that retains all its historic features including frescoes in some of the rooms. Also delightful is the petite Hadrianus whose antique-dealer owner has gone to town with the paint and mosaics to create something remarkably original.
At the top end of the market, the luxuries come thick and fast, and your main consideration may well be whether you prefer to stay somewhere small and cute, such as the Minyon, or somewhere rambling and idiosyncratic such as the Tuvana. Overlooking the harbour the Tütav Türk Evi Otelleri is built right into the sea wall, and you can’t get much more historic than that.
So what is there to see and do in Antalya? Well, the main official draw is the museum, one of the finest in Turkey with magnificent collections of statuary from nearby archeological sites such as Perge, Aspendos and Side. For many people, however, it’s the stunning natural beauty of Antalya’s location that will be most memorable. Kaleiçi slopes downhill from what were the old city walls, and at the foot of the slope the pretty harbour gazes out over the azure sea and a range of exquisite, misty mountains. The same view is on offer from the landscaped park that stretches out on the eastern side of the walls and makes the perfect place for an evening stroll before hitting the clubs and restaurants.
The great thing about staying in Kaleiçi is that there are lots of minor historic monuments right on your doorstep. One of the easiest entry points through the walls is via the extraordinary Hadrian’s Gate, a triple-arched monumental gateway standing over a stretch of rutted marble road that has been standing guard over the area since the second century. Alternatively you can walk down from beside the old Ottoman clock tower, passing the graceful Mehmet Paşa Cami, which seems to belong to a different world entirely. Up here, too, look out for the lovely Yıvlı Minare (Grooved Minaret), the backdrop for many a tourist-board photograph.
Deep inside Kaleiçi a popular landmark is the Kesik (Cut) Minare, the shattered remnant of a minaret attached to the Korkut Cami which was built over the ruins of a Byzantine church, itself built on the site of a second-century temple. Visitors are not allowed to walk around the remains although you can glimpse the mish-mash of masonry belonging to its different reincarnations through the gate.
Nearby is the delightful Suna and Inan Kıraç Kaleiçi Museum housed partly inside an Ottoman house and partly inside a beautifully restored 19th-century church. The church contains a thought-provoking collection of Çanakkale pottery, a kitschy style of ceramics that has become very fashionable recently. Come here, too, to see pictures of Antalya as it was in the old days before the modern town spread its tentacles in all directions.
Of course no short break would be worth its salt without the opportunity for some fine dining, and here too Kaleiçi fits the bill perfectly. The restaurants in the harbour come with price tags that reflect the premium views rather than the quality of the food, but there are other offerings just as atmospheric further inland. The garden restaurant at the Villa Perla, for example, boasts a menu on which rabbit features prominently – and there’s not many places in Turkey where that’s the case. Or there’s the Lemlik (Lemon Orchard), hidden behind a high wall and very popular with the cool crowd who hang out here no matter what the time of day
Get packing
Getting there
Daily Turkish Airlines, Onurair and Atlasjet flights to Antalya depart from Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport.
Staying there
Sabah Pansiyon (0242) 247 5345
Doğan Hotel (0242) 241 8842
Atelya Pansiyon (0242) 241 6416
Hadrianus Hotel (0242) 244 0030
Tuvana Hotel (0242) 244 4054
Minyon Town House (0242) 247 1147
Tütav Türk Evi Otelleri (0242) 248 6591
Word to the wise
Road works are all the rage in Antalya at the moment. It can take an eternity to get to the bus station.
The discreet charm of Kaleiçi
Writer: Pat Yale
Had it up to here with grey skies? Need an injection of sea air to clear out the cobwebs? Pat Yale heads south for Antalya and checks into the Kaleiçi, an oasis of authenticity amid the concrete jungle.
There’s nothing like a few weeks of overcast skies and gloomy winter weather to make us start itching to escape to warmer pastures. But fear not - that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to fork out for an air ticket to somewhere exotic. Just over an hour’s flying time away from Istanbul, Antalya offers the perfect retreat for shedding the winter blues. What’s more, it’s a place better visited out of season since the muggy heat of high summer can be unbearable.
Poor old Antalya is too often lumped in with the other mega resorts such as Kuşadası, Marmaris and Alanya, and dismissed by those who like a bit of authenticity with their sun. But unlike them Antalya still has a great deal to show for its past, especially if you avoid the beach hotels and instead choose to stay in Kaleiçi (“the inner castle”), a discreet haven of antiquity that wraps around the harbour and feels, with its exuberant date palms and luscious banana plants, like a world apart from the rest of the town.
What makes Kaleiçi so particularly charming is that it retains much of its old Ottoman architecture - think Safranbolu on sea and you’ll get the general picture. Although there are still plenty of buildings that are barely able to support the weight of their own decrepitude, many others have either been restored and converted into bijou hotels, or have been painstakingly reconstructed to look as good as new. No matter how tight your budget, there’s bound to be something here for you, the difference lying mainly in the quality of the décor and service. Bear in mind, though, that the hotels nearest to the harbour tend to be the noisiest and the ones where the other “guests” may be staying for less than an hour.
At the budget end of the market, you could do worse than check into the Sabah Pansiyon, a family-run business with a variety of rooms dotted around a courtyard where mum dishes up dinners to delight a mixed bag of guests from all around the world. Of course if you can afford to splash out a bit more you will gain access to a wider range of amenities and in particular to a swimming pool. The Doğan Hotel, for example, is a huge property right in the center of Kaleiçi with a range of smartly dressed rooms set round a courtyard pool. Nearby is the Atelya Hotel, one of the few remaining properties that retains all its historic features including frescoes in some of the rooms. Also delightful is the petite Hadrianus whose antique-dealer owner has gone to town with the paint and mosaics to create something remarkably original.
At the top end of the market, the luxuries come thick and fast, and your main consideration may well be whether you prefer to stay somewhere small and cute, such as the Minyon, or somewhere rambling and idiosyncratic such as the Tuvana. Overlooking the harbour the Tütav Türk Evi Otelleri is built right into the sea wall, and you can’t get much more historic than that.
So what is there to see and do in Antalya? Well, the main official draw is the museum, one of the finest in Turkey with magnificent collections of statuary from nearby archeological sites such as Perge, Aspendos and Side. For many people, however, it’s the stunning natural beauty of Antalya’s location that will be most memorable. Kaleiçi slopes downhill from what were the old city walls, and at the foot of the slope the pretty harbour gazes out over the azure sea and a range of exquisite, misty mountains. The same view is on offer from the landscaped park that stretches out on the eastern side of the walls and makes the perfect place for an evening stroll before hitting the clubs and restaurants.
The great thing about staying in Kaleiçi is that there are lots of minor historic monuments right on your doorstep. One of the easiest entry points through the walls is via the extraordinary Hadrian’s Gate, a triple-arched monumental gateway standing over a stretch of rutted marble road that has been standing guard over the area since the second century. Alternatively you can walk down from beside the old Ottoman clock tower, passing the graceful Mehmet Paşa Cami, which seems to belong to a different world entirely. Up here, too, look out for the lovely Yıvlı Minare (Grooved Minaret), the backdrop for many a tourist-board photograph.
Deep inside Kaleiçi a popular landmark is the Kesik (Cut) Minare, the shattered remnant of a minaret attached to the Korkut Cami which was built over the ruins of a Byzantine church, itself built on the site of a second-century temple. Visitors are not allowed to walk around the remains although you can glimpse the mish-mash of masonry belonging to its different reincarnations through the gate.
Nearby is the delightful Suna and Inan Kıraç Kaleiçi Museum housed partly inside an Ottoman house and partly inside a beautifully restored 19th-century church. The church contains a thought-provoking collection of Çanakkale pottery, a kitschy style of ceramics that has become very fashionable recently. Come here, too, to see pictures of Antalya as it was in the old days before the modern town spread its tentacles in all directions.
Of course no short break would be worth its salt without the opportunity for some fine dining, and here too Kaleiçi fits the bill perfectly. The restaurants in the harbour come with price tags that reflect the premium views rather than the quality of the food, but there are other offerings just as atmospheric further inland. The garden restaurant at the Villa Perla, for example, boasts a menu on which rabbit features prominently – and there’s not many places in Turkey where that’s the case. Or there’s the Lemlik (Lemon Orchard), hidden behind a high wall and very popular with the cool crowd who hang out here no matter what the time of day
Get packing
Getting there
Daily Turkish Airlines, Onurair and Atlasjet flights to Antalya depart from Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport.
Staying there
Sabah Pansiyon (0242) 247 5345
Doğan Hotel (0242) 241 8842
Atelya Pansiyon (0242) 241 6416
Hadrianus Hotel (0242) 244 0030
Tuvana Hotel (0242) 244 4054
Minyon Town House (0242) 247 1147
Tütav Türk Evi Otelleri (0242) 248 6591
Word to the wise
Road works are all the rage in Antalya at the moment. It can take an eternity to get to the bus station.