One range, five back doors
From a sun lounger the Taurus looks like a single object. It is not: the coast runs for a long way, and the mountains behind Alanya in the east have nothing to do, geographically or practically, with the forest above Kemer in the west. What changes along that line is water — where it collects, where it runs, and what people have done with it.
That is why the five departures are genuinely five different days rather than one day sold five times, and it is why jeep safari on the Antalya coast is described belt by belt rather than as a single itinerary.
Behind Side: lake country
The eastern hinterland is where the water stands rather than runs. Above the Side belt the tracks climb through cotton and sesame fields and past orange, lemon and pomegranate orchards, cross dry riverbeds, and reach viewpoints over Green Lake and over the canyon that shares its colour. There is a dam here, and a village at Oymapınar where the day stops to swim and eat Turkish pancakes.
It is also the most layered piece of country of the five. An old Roman bridge marks the end of the asphalt, Roman aqueducts appear along the route, and a convoy sometimes crosses paths with Yörük families — sometimes, and never to a timetable. The Side page follows the whole of it in order.
Behind Alanya: one river does the work
The Alanya hinterland is narrower and steeper, and it is organised around the Dim River. The climb out of the resorts goes through orange groves and banana plantations, and then the day belongs to the water: crossings in the river itself, a waterfall, and the turquoise sheet of the Dim Dam behind its wall.
Villages up here still farm, and the stop that guests remember involves produce, spring water and a view back down to a coastline that suddenly looks very far away. Lunch happens on a platform built out over the river, which is the most literal way possible of eating with the mountain.
Behind Belek: the strip the golf coast hides
Belek presents itself as flat, green and manicured, and the jeep day does not start on the golf coast at all: our transfer vehicles take Belek guests to the Park Safari base in Gebiz, and from there the convoy follows a lead jeep past the Çığırgan stream and pomegranate orchards to the village of Değirmenburnu. Then the ground tilts and the soil turns red, and the tracks that follow are the reason the day exists.
This is stream country rather than lake or river country. Water keeps cutting across the track on the way through Hacıosmanlar; the forest closes in around the village house at Hasgebe, where guests are offered sage tea gathered by the villagers; and higher up the road runs at approximately 700 m past scattered village houses, with Bozburun Mountain filling the view. When the day wants to swim, it uses what the hills provide: the Haspınar stream at Hastümen and Uçan Waterfall.
Behind the city belt: pine forest above the apartments
From Lara, Kundu, Konyaaltı or the city centre the mountains begin close to the buildings. Guests on the city belt are taken by our transfer vehicles to the same Park Safari base in Gebiz as Belek guests, and the country behind it is the same: pomegranate orchards along the Çığırgan stream, villages and forest, and the views of Bozburun Mountain.
The character up here is dust and forest as well as water — tracks, crossings shallow enough to be fun, two swim stops and lunch at our restaurant. The flagship departure from Antalya is the one that works this ground, and it comes with a map: our programme names every stop, so this page does too.
Behind Kemer: forest that runs down to the sea
West of the city the mountains stop keeping their distance and come down to the water. Above Kemer, Beldibi, Göynük and Çamyuva the climb enters pine forest almost immediately, passing small mountain villages and terraced gardens cut into the slope.
The tracks here are rockier than elsewhere and the streams are cold and clear enough to stand in, which is exactly what the day does with them. From the high points you get both halves of the geography at once: green valleys inland and the Mediterranean below.
Why three of these five have no place names
Side and Alanya come with names attached — a lake, a river, a dam, a village — and so do Belek and the city belt, whose shared programme names every village and stream from Gebiz to Dorumlar. Kemer does not. That is not shyness: our record for the Kemer route names no village, no river, no canyon and no summit, and the names circulating elsewhere belong to other operators' itineraries.
So Kemer is described by what the ground does rather than by what it is called, and the description stops where the record stops. The guide that covers all five sets the whole coast out in one place if you want to compare the belts before you choose a resort.