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Current status of flights into and out of major Turkish cities click here UK Airport information click here Add your Turkish hotel or pansiyon to the premium listings click here If you operate a website related to Turkish Tourism click here to submit your website to the directory. Enjoyable Holiday Destinations on the South Coast of Turkey
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The south coast of Turkey is a rugged but extremely beautiful coastline separating the pine tree covered Taurus Mountains and the waters of the clear turquoise blue Mediterranean Sea. Having been spared from pollution thanks to the lack of heavy industry it lies under one of the sunniest skies in Europe in addition to having a unique culture and history. The mediterranean climate and an inviting friendly native population makes the south coast of Turkey a top holiday tourism destination for Europeans and an increasing number of American travelers as well.
The south coast of Turkey was home to a number of ancient civilizations, namely Lycia, Pamphylia, and Cilicia west to east, Mediterranean Turkey was captured by the Romans about a century before the birth of Christ. After a brief occupation by the Crusaders on their way to Jerusalem, as evidenced by a number of Crusader-built or expanded citadels mainly on the eastern sections of the region, and a number of Crusader-backed Armenian kingdoms, Turkic Seljuqs eventually seized the region. But the historic evidence of their presence can be witnessed everywhere along the south coast of Turkey.
It was during this era that the ancestors of most of the region's current population poured in from Central Asia as nomadic tribes. Some still keep these nomadic traditions alive to this day by wintering on the warm coast and heading for heights of Taurus Mountains or plateaus of Central Anatolia more inland to the north when summer approaches with their goat and camel caravans. Seljuqs were later replaced by Ottomans somewhere around the 1400s and remained so until the foundation of the modern day Turkish Republic by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923.
As expected, the south coast of Turkey enjoys the typical Mediterranean climate: the temperature can go above 40C in rainless and even cloudless summers, while the rest of the year is quite rainy, although winter lows rarely go below +5C and snowfall is virtually unknown in the region. The season with the highest amount of rainfall is winter - more or less limited to late October through early April in this region and can be accompanied by strong winds, to the point of storms, in the localities close to the shore, especially around Antalya. Water temperature of the Mediterranean Sea is around 28C during summer, i.e. May through October. Inland Lakes District has an altogether different continental climate than the rest of the region, and the winters can be severe and quite snowy there. So, anywhere along the south coast or on the Aegean coast in the west are perfect holiday destinations.
The south coast of Turkey is home to a plethora of Turkish dialects, some of which are totally incomprehensible for non-local Turks spoken in Lycia to the dialect of Cilician Mountains, which is essentially a mainland "extension" of Cypriot Turkish. Syrian dialect of Arabic is also prevalent around Antakya. However, thanks to heavy tourism, English will likely be enough to communicate during your trip, especially in the western parts of the region and especially if you don't intend to go off the beaten path. German, Russian, and Scandinavian languages may also be helpful, especially when you visit one of the resort towns mainly frequented by those nations.
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