A luxury trip to Antalya with Corendon

“The population of Antalya was 600,000 nine or ten years ago 3 million,” our IHSAN certified tour guide tolerates us on a recent trip south of Türkiye. I blinked, not because the sun blinded me, but for the large scale of that growth. An increase of five times in just a decade.

Upon our return home, I did what all the good travel journalists do and I looked for it in Google, and that was when I also discovered that Antallya currently classifies worldwide for the highest number or international arrivals, ahead of cities such as Dubai and Paris.

I guess should not be a surprise. Antalya has the sea, the sun, the mixture of fascinating of the old and the new, and, as we find, a rhythm of life that adapts both to the tramps and the wildly active.

Antique Casco Antalyas

Our Antalya experience had begun with a time trip. Ihsan was presenting us to the old town of the city Kaleiçi – What literally translates to mean ‘inside the castle’. It is the heart and soul of the old Antalya, where the cobbled lanes spoke the Ottoman houses and the spills of Bougainvillea on the roofs, all within the defensive walls of the historical city.

We begin with the monument to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of modern Türkiye, standing against a Skystine of Minarets and Red Binks before having a view over the old city and its sports port. Below, fishing boats gently balancing as they have done for centuries, and the sea shone in the blue boy with which painters dream but rarely coincide.

From there, we investigate the Yivliminare Mosque that has an interesting story. It is believed that it became the leg of a pre -existing Byzantine church, but destroyed in the fourteenth century, the prayer room was rebuilt in 1373 and is remarkable by its six domes, makes it one of the antolia examples of a multidetolia.

Our tour also used us for the Antalya Ethnographic Museum, located in two restored mansions of the Ottoman era. It shows daily life and offers information about the traditional culture of Antalya, particularly chatting the Ottoman period.

Perhaps the most surprising architecture was the Shehzade Korkut Mosque a little later; It originated as a novel temple and then became a Byzantine church before becoming a mosque. The characteristics of each era can still be seen to the resources that the previous cultures have not been deleted, but only rewritten.

And let’s not forget Hadrian’s door, built to honor the old Antalya of the Roman Emperor in 130 AD. Built mainly of white marble, it is a powerful reminder of the rich Roman adjustments of Antalya, he only thought that only a fleeting visit.

This triumphal door of Triple Arc, once it is part of the walls of the city, now shows the worn stone under the will to the passage of innumerable old cars.

Beyond the clock tower, we stopped in the statue of King Attalus II, who founded Antalya as Attalaia in the second century BC. C. Here, we had free time to wander through the markets and coffees, and enjoyed examining the merchandise of spice vendors, a final sensory note before emerging again to Antalya Modern.

Kemer beach hotel

We stayed at the Korendon Kemer Hotel, a five -star resort with all inclusive about 40 minutes by car to the south along the coast from Antalya.

Our standard sea room was modern, aerated and spacious, with a small balcony overlooking the pool and the beach of the hotel, and the golf of Antalya beyond.

There is a mini bar, rejoicing daily, that can be helped and, to greet our arrival, there was a small bottle of wine, some snacks and fresh fruit.

For food at the hotel, you are spoiled. There is the main dining room, Zephyrantes, which serves a buffet at breakfast, lunch and dinner, in addition to a food court opened outside the regular schedule, ideal for late arrivals like ours, where staff sometimes is help by a robot waiter. The variety in Zephyrantes was so extensive that it could please everyone, from adventurous food lovers to the most demanding dining rooms.

There is also a separate letter restaurant, Bona Fides, beyond the food court, for a more intimate gastronomic experience.

We had dinner here twice, and the second visit was especially memorable, a lovely and themed night of fish with Meze, a precious basic food of Turkish cuisine and social food, ideal for families that seek to enjoy a quality time together.

In addition to the extensive food offer, the facilities include several bars, interior and exterior swimming pools, a spa (see our Turkish bath experience below), a gym and aquatic sports facilities.

Briefly, we use our own cabins overlooking the beach, with a butler service and a well -emerged fridge, in addition to even a small amphitheater hidden at one end of the complex that houses a varied event program.

Althegh, the hotel has its own entertainment, there are a variety of cultural events and music that can also be enjoyed in Antalya. Only next month, for example, the city will organize the Antalya Music Festival, the Antalya Akra Jazz Festival and Antalya fashion week, while later in the year, the Festival of the city of Old de Kaleiçi aims to preserve and develop the cultural and historical reitivía of the city.

RUNTAYA

The moment of our trip coincide with Rualeya: the flagship event of the city. Now in its twentieth year, it has developed a large number of followers, both in Türkiye and International.

The event usually houses around 10,000 runners annually, from more than 50 countries around the world. A wall of names close to the starting line showed this year’s participants who participated in all events from the 5K fun that extends to the full marathon.

Our little son Tom and I played in the half marathon, while my wife Becky and our oldest son James, and our true hope of a podium place, had registered for the 10K. Unfortunately, James had to retire due to one eye, but his younger brother knocked more than 10 minutes of his half -marathon, to finish in 1h28m and land more than 900 runners. Happy, ending in just under two hours (16 of 57 finalists in my age category), while Becky completed its 10 km mark in the time of the hour.

It was a very choreographed event, with many aid stations along the route, not to mention a lot of support, a community atmosphere, with entertainment on the road to distract the pains and the pains we feel and the route.

Yes, like me, he likes to combine sporting events with his trips, he may be interested in knowing that the open waters of X-Waters Antalya and Korendon Tahtalı Run to Sky take place in the region next month.

Korendon Tennis Club Kemer

The morning after Runtalaya, we headed to Korendon Tennis Club Kemer, a few minutes by car from the Korendon Beach Kemer hotel. None of us is what you would call tennis players, but we don’t let that, nor our painful legs, stop us.

Caling for all skills, the club houses 14 clay courts, surrounded by hills and green forests of the Taurus mountains.

Here we warm up with rackets, balls and the patient optimism or two friendly coaches. We started with coordination drills, we learned to hit the ball by sending it wildly outside the court, and we ended up with a fun game that saw the Korendon team face the Asics team.

It is possible that they would have gone better than us at the career event of the previous day, one of them won a very impressive second place in the half male marathon, but I am pleased that we win them in the tennis!

The club also sacrifices the spacious and comfortable spectators, the avant -garde reflectors for night tennis, an irrigation system to maintain wet clay and the Korendon Club Café in the place for food and soft drinks.

Turkish bath experience

Back at the Spa at the Korendon Beach Kemer hotel, we finished our trip with a local ritual: a Turkish bath, the perfect antidote for our physical efforts recently.

First came a soft poaching in the sauna, before they call us Hammam. With us lying in the heated stone slabs, our therapists resolved bubble clouds that were apparently the size of small sheep. We were prosecuted from the head to add soft foam before being taken to a treatment room for the main massage.

From there, we headed to the relaxation of the hall, where a cooling mask was delicately applied, and the experience culminated with us if we took a turco glass or tea.

The treatment felt indulgent and cleaning. It was also great to loosen my legs after the half marathon, I usually feel quite rigid after longer races today, but strangely was wrong this time, and I am sure that is thanks, at least, in the cart, ours.

Korendon Airlines

We fly Premium with Korendon Airlines, a Turkish registered operation that might not cause instant recognition for the United Kingdom or US travelers. But, like Rualeya, Korendon is celebrating its twenty -anniversary and is rapidly winning altitude.

We fly from Manchester to Antalya aboard a Boeing 737-800, with front row seats that allow us a little more leg space than the already reasonable tone of 30-32 inches offered by most seats in the planth Hop Things.

The shipment was soft and I managed to reduce a young man’s request to see the cabin before takeoff, to take a quick photo.

Altheghe we travel light – hand luggage hand (an 8 kg cabin and a 3 kg underestimation bag each), our premium ticket with the right to two additional retention bags of 20 kg per person. So, although we could have brought the sink of the kitchen, we settle for the essential elements, and our team to run, of course, to facilitate a faster step through airports.

Korendon transports approximately 6 million passengers annually with a fleet that is mainly composed of Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-800 Model Aircraft model, which provides direct flights and an extensive network or 165 airports in 65 countries. In the United Kingdom, Flights to Antalya are notable by London Gatwick, Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne and Glasgow. United Kingdom travelers can fly directly to Crete already Antalya, and by connecting flights to other Turkish destinations such as Istanbul, Dalaman and Izmir.

Disclosure: Our trip was sponsored by Korendon Airlines.

Paul Johnson

Paul Johnson is editor of a luxury travel blog and has worked in the travel industry for more than 30 years. He is the winner of the Innovations in Travel ‘Better Travel influencer’ award from Wired magazine. In addition to other awards, the blog has also been voted “one of the best travel blogs in the world” and “better for luxury” by The Telegraph.