Antalya

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Antalya
<map lat='36.9125' lng='30.6897222' zoom='11' view='0' float='right'/>
Information
Country:
Flag of Turkey
Turkey
State: Antalya (Province)
Population: 775,157
Licence plate: 07
Major roads: D400, D650, D685
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Antalya is a city in the south-west of Turkey. It is the capital city of Antalya (Province). Olympos is a very touristic place nearby.

Hitchhiking out

Hitchhiking out of town is extremely easy, just walk to one of the bigger main roads and hitch a ride. Minibuses in Antalya can sometimes give you trouble, though. When they notice you stopping a car, minibus drivers might ask your driver not to take you, they might even threaten him/her. As Antalya is the Mecca of tourism in Turkey, many people want to take advantage of tourism and make money. So try to get into the car quickly before minibus drivers notice you.


North towards Istanbul and West Toward Izmir

There is a great spot to go direction North (Burdur, Istanbul, Ankara, ...), and West (Fethiye, Denizli, Izmir, Mugla ...) from Antalya. Take the tramway (Antray) to the terminus stop Fatih. From there you can probably find a place to thumb up to get on the main road. But if you walk something like 45 minutes uphill you can get to a great spot, the big crossroad between road to north and road to east. To get there cross the big street using the bridge, and walk a bit in the same direction as the tramway was going, you'll pass on your left the tramway depot, continue the same direction and you will pass in front of the zoo entrance. Continue on the same way alongside the zoo, the path is going up. At the end the path end up at the big road. Turn left and walk on the left side of the big road, it's really tight, take extra care with the barbed wire so you don't scratch your backpack, you will pass in font of the huge Atatürk statue with waterfall, take a picture and go on. You will get to a small parking place with a great view on the city and the surrounding, enjoy the view, and continue until the end of the parking place. At the end of it cross the big road, you will find a gate to get inside a forest with benches and tables. Go straight up, there is a small channel, you can cross it with a small bridge, and then you will get to a road. Turn left, you will get to the big crossroads, one to the North and one to the West. There there is redlights, great place to hitch, and even gas stations.

If you want to go İzmir or Aydın directly, use the road to Korkuteli & Denizli, even if you are in Olympos or near the sea side. The sea side road is rather slow for traveling. It is very long and cars can't go fast and you will change cars often. In winter, there are virtually no cars at all, except for some slow tractors.


East towards Manavgat, North east towards Konya

Option 1 - Take the T1B tram towards Expo from the center (for example from Ismetpasa). You can get of at Aksu or Kursunlu. From there you can walk a little bit on the D400 to just after the ramp at Aksu. There are some spots that are good, for example by the bus stop called Cerik Cd-17 (but this bus doesn’t leave from the center). There is a parking there where people can stop and take you towards Menavgat.

If you want to go to Konya, the route through Menavgat seems the best. Google maps might tell you to leave the D400 before Menavgat at Tasagil, but for hitchhiking this is probably not preferable. Instead go through Manavgat and get on the D695 to Konya. The D695 also goes through Seydisehir. This seems to be the most common and most trafficked way to go to Konya.


Option 2 - Take bus 55 which goes to the airport. Get out at the intersection when it turns right to drive towards the airport, and from here if you walk along the road, you will see traffic lights. After these traffic lights is a good place to stand to get a lift heading east. Any bus going to the airport should work. Just ask around.

South-West towards Olympos, Kaş

In this direction the hotels and resorts stretch for about 10km, to go this direction you can hitchhike from a big roundabout near Migros Shopping Center with a space for people to stop, which you can reach by walking west from the center, following the signs. If that takes too long, the shuttles stop there ever few minutes.

You can also take any bus going to the bus terminal Sarısu Depolama Merkezi 1. Hop off at the terminal. The main road out is just there, and there's plenty of room for cars to stop.

In winter one hitchhiker had no trouble hitchhiking to Olympos and back. If you are have limited time, there is a regular dolmuş service to Kemer, about 30 or 40 kilometres along the coast. It took one hitchhiker about an hour or more to get a ride to the other side of that stretch, but it was also really fast for others to find a ride for 3 to Kemer.

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