Konyaaltı Beach

Konyaaltı is the beach that makes first-time visitors double-take: a seven-kilometre arc of smooth white pebbles and genuinely clear water, running west from the cliffs of the city centre with the three-thousand-metre wall of the Beydağları mountains standing straight out of the sea at its far end. Few cities of a million people have a Blue Flag beach with this kind of backdrop inside a tram ride of downtown.

It's pebble, not sand — which is precisely why the water stays that glassy blue-green (no churned sand) and why water shoes are the single best €5 you'll spend on it. The drop-off is quick, the swimming is proper swimming, and the season runs long: locals are in the water from May well into November, and the Mediterranean holds 25°C+ from June to October.

The Beach Park promenade behind the pebbles has been rebuilt into one of Turkey's better waterfronts — a continuous run of lawns, cafés, playgrounds and bike lanes. Entry to the beach is free everywhere; the beach clubs rent lounger-and-umbrella sets for a few euros a day, and the free public stretches between them have showers and changing cabins. The western end, toward the aquarium and Sarısu, is quieter and more local; the eastern end under the cliffs is where the young crowd concentrates.

Sunset works the opposite way from most beaches: the sun sets behind the mountains, not the water, so late afternoon light turns the whole range violet while the sea keeps its colour. Swim at 6 PM, çay on the Beach Park grass at 7:30 — that's the local rhythm. The Antalya Aquarium — with one of the world's longest tunnel tanks — sits directly behind the beach midpoint for the one cloudy day.