Turkey

Antalya, one of Turkeys largest cities with a population of almost 2 million, is a vast, sprawling conglomeration of habitation and hotels; the strip of coast our hotel is on reminds me of Las Vegas (not that I've ever been there!). Everything is flashing lights, flashy architecture, and music; every hotel trying to outdo it's neighbours for the that "look at me" factor.

Speaking of hotels, it's not often I'll write about accommodation, but Grand Park Lara is worth a mention; for one of the cheapest options we could find on Jet2, and rated at 3*, it's punching well above its weight in quality - friendly staff, a heated pool for its winter guests, comfortable accomodation, and an AWESOME buffet, full of local flavours, fresh, very very tasty... They also put on a great New Years eve show, with entertainment on hand from early for the kids too.

Antalya is bordered to the West and North by the Taurus Mountains, and waking up every morning with these as your view is quite something - while only 1300m high or so close to Antalya, they come up from the ocean and tower above the city: in winter the white dusting of snow and crisp clean air means you can see them clearly from miles away.

Our visit to Antalya over Christmas was with the idea of doing as little as possible - 2025 was a rough year, and we needed to recover - but we did manage to experience a couple of the local attractions, including:

Hammam Spa - we visited the hotel spa twice, once for a full session including a body scrub and soap massage, followed by a full body massage, and a second time for a follow up full body massage targeting specific areas. While this was by far the most expensive activity we did, it was so worth it - I've had lower back/hip pain for months, and these guys have relieved so much of my pain right now it's crazy! They've done in 2 sessions what the NHS have failed at for 5 months now...

Perge, Kursunlu & Aspendos - Our one excursion away from the hotel was a day trip to the archaeological site of Perge, dating back to 1200BC and in amazing condition, the Nature Reserve and waterfalls at Kursunlu, which was a fun hour exploring hidden forest paths and finding multiple waterfalls, and Aspendos, a pristine example of a Roman Amphitheatre, which is still being used to this day!

Lower Duden Waterfall - This happened to be quite close to our hotel, so me and Asia spontaneously jumped on a local bus and spent a couple of hours exploring the Duden park and enjoying the falls - while not at full flow, they're still a lovely site, running over the cliffs into the sea. There's couple of restaurants and bars around the falls too, so it's a great spot to sit and relax in nice weather.

Apart from the above, the week was spent walking on the beach, swimming in the heated pool, and exploring the local shopping scene. And breathe... 😊

We spent a week in Marmaris back when Sofia was just learning to walk, and in honesty I remember very little about our week other than Marmaris is much smaller then either Antalya or Alanya, but it is located at the head of a very protected bay so the views are very pretty as a result, and the boat trip we went on (with the dirtiest glass bottom) showed up absolutely zero aquatic life... It also was very hot that week.

We travelled to Alanya on a (very!) last minute Honeymoon and, while the Sunshine Hotel (36.50756, 32.07428) itself wasn't great (they were still building parts of it, and we had a room without any windows!) the week we spent was awesome. I don't recall everything, but some of the highlights were:

Scuba Diving and Paragliding -

Jeep Hire and Dimcayi Gorge exploration -

A second Honeymoon couple -

Pamukkale -