Antalya Airport to Side
Antalya Airport to Side is about 65 km and takes roughly 65 minutes by car. A private transfer costs from around €42, or take the bus via the city centre.
Side, AntalyaSaffron Blaze / Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0Side, with its Roman ruins and long beaches, is just over an hour east. A private transfer is the simplest way in; buses involve a change at Manavgat.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Side, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €42). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €7) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €7 | €42 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €14 | €42 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €28 | €42 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €7, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Private transfer
Meet & greet at arrivals, fixed price, flight tracking, child seats on request.
Where to catch it: Your driver meets you in the arrivals hall with a name sign — no queue, no hunting for a stop.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsBus / shuttle
Runs to Antalya city centre / otogar; change there for an onward local bus or dolmuş.
Where to catch it: Bus stands in front of Terminal 1 / the Domestic Terminal. Terminal 2 passengers reach them via the inter-terminal link.
Best for solo & budget travellersTaxi
Metered from the rank; agree an approximate fare before long trips.
Where to catch it: Official taxi rank right outside arrivals, open 24/7. Check the meter is running and reset before you set off.
Best for small groups in a hurryCar rental
Per day; the flexible choice if you plan to explore the coast.
Where to catch it: Car-hire desks are in the Terminal 1 arrivals area.
Best for travellers who want to exploreSide & Antalya in photos
Buying tickets in Antalya
Antalya uses the reloadable AntalyaKart for the T2 (Antray) tram that leaves directly from the airport terminal, plus city buses and dolmuş. Buy and load the card at the machine on the airport tram platform, or from AntalyaKart kiosks and the Android app; the blank card costs about 100 TL and a single ride is roughly 27 TL. You tap the card on boarding rather than paying the driver. There is no contactless bank-card tap on the tram, so load enough credit before you travel.
Taxi scams & safety in Antalya
The tram is fixed-fare and scam-proof, which is the main reason to use it. If you take a taxi, use the official rank outside arrivals and insist the meter (taksimetre) runs; drivers who quote a flat price or claim the meter is broken usually overcharge, especially with luggage. Do not follow touts inside the terminal offering a car. Uber operates in Antalya but mostly dispatches licensed taxis. Agree nothing verbally, and keep small notes so a driver cannot claim to have no change.
Getting from AYT to Side
Side sits on a little peninsula about 65 kilometres east of Antalya Airport, and the first thing to understand is that it is really two places wearing one name. There is Side the ancient port, where colonnaded streets run down to the water and the marble columns of the Temple of Apollo stand against the sea like something a painter arranged on purpose. And there is Side the resort, a long sweep of sand and hotels that spills west and east for miles. You will be aiming for one or the other, and knowing which changes nothing about the drive but everything about where you want the driver to stop.
An hour east, and what the drive is actually like
By car the run takes around 65 minutes on a good day, tracing the coast road east past Belek and its golf greens before the land opens up toward Manavgat. It is an easy, unremarkable drive until it isn't: the moment the old town appears, with fishing boats and the theatre's great curved wall rising behind the rooftops, you forgive the motorway. I have made this approach at dusk more times than I can count, timing it so the Apollo columns catch the last gold off the water, and it never gets old. Just be honest with yourself about the distance. This is not a ten-minute hop; it is a proper transfer, and how you handle it depends mostly on how many of you there are and what time you land.
The pre-booked car, and why groups love it
A private transfer through someone like Kiwitaxi or Welcome Pickups runs roughly €42 to €54, takes you door to door in about that same 65 minutes, and runs around the clock if you have booked ahead. The driver meets you inside, knows which resort strip is which, and does not blink when your hotel turns out to be down an unmarked lane behind the dune line. Crucially, that price is per car, not per head. Split four ways it is one of the better-value ways to move a family and its luggage across the province, and nobody has to decode a bus route with a toddler asleep on their shoulder.
The bus: cheap, honest, and a long haul
You can do it on public transport, and if you are travelling solo and counting every lira it makes sense — but go in with your eyes open. Everything leaves from the stop opposite Terminal 1 and the Domestic Terminal, so if you have flown into T2 you cross over first. The HAVAŞ shuttle runs via Antalya city centre every 30 to 60 minutes on the airport leg, and then you change — usually around Manavgat — onto a local bus or dolmuş for the last stretch into Side. All told you are looking at something like €7 to €12 and close to 98 minutes, and that is before you count the waiting between connections. One thing to set aside now: the AntRay tram is no help here at all. It serves Antalya city only and never comes near the resorts, so ignore any advice that mentions it.
Taxis and the self-drive option
A metered taxi from the official rank outside arrivals will run you somewhere between €57 and €81 for the same hour-long journey, available at any hour. The rules are the old, unglamorous ones that never stop mattering: use only the marked rank, wave off anyone who approaches you in the hall offering a ride, and watch the meter start. Renting is the other route worth weighing — desks from Localrent and DiscoverCars sit right in arrivals, and cars go for roughly €22 to €41 a day. If you plan to poke around the Manavgat waterfalls, the ruins at Aspendos, or the mountain villages behind the coast, your own wheels turn the whole region into an afternoon rather than an expedition.
Arriving in the small hours
Plenty of flights into Antalya land well after midnight, and Side is a long way to travel tired. The pre-booked transfer and the taxi rank both operate 24/7, so you are never stranded — but the bus effectively isn't an option at that hour once the connections thin out. If your flight is a late one, arrange the car before you leave home. Landing at two in the morning is no time to be haggling in a car park.
- Group of three or more, or arriving late: a private transfer almost always wins on both cost-per-person and sanity.
- Solo and unhurried in daylight: the shuttle-and-change route is genuinely cheap if you don't mind the slog.
- Planning day trips: rent, and let Aspendos and the waterfalls come to you.
My own advice, for what it's worth after all those sunsets: sort the transport before you fly and save your attention for what matters. Because there is a walk waiting for you — down the ancient main street, past the agora, out to where Apollo's columns stand with their feet almost in the sea — and you will want to arrive with energy left to take it slowly. The ruins have been patient for two thousand years. Get yourself there without fuss, and let them do the rest.
