The odds are that at this very moment, I’m sitting in my little home office mentally replaying scenes from our workation to Antalya, Turkey. In my mind’s eye, I see our beach club and the sea, those white cabanas with the canvas flaps blowing in the sea breeze. And people dancing, with mountains as the backdrop.
Sublime.
As unapologetic Turcophiles, we’ve been to a lot of beach clubs around Turkey, including in Bodrum, Çesme, Alaçati, Datça and on Karabaurun peninsula outside Izmir. They were all fine as far as they went … some beach chairs and “sunbrellas” on a small stretch of pebbly beach, though the one on Karaburun had an unforgettable view of a white sand island.
Turkey’s Aegean coast, while beautiful, is kind of beach-deprived, with cities putting down imported sand to get through the summer. Go south to the Turquoise Coast and on farther south to the Turkish Rivera, and the beaches get wide and the sand white and deep. This year, we needed a getaway just to avoid burnout. Our workations to Izmir, which is a party town, are more like marathons because we rush around town, catching up with friends, checking out our old stomping grounds and drinking way too many cocktails.
Lara Beach
So, my wife and co-CEO Cheryl arranged for a quick trip/workation to Antalya, which is the mass-tourism capital of Turkey. The reason it’s the mass-tourism capital is it has actual beaches and resorts with lavish golf courses, all in proximity to a really nice (big!) city and a massive airport.
Most beach clubs have a lot of people crowded into a small space, and a bar offering minimum refreshments.
Antalya is different.
The hotel we stayed at is the Gardenya Lara Suit Hotel (all spellings are correct), a modest place with some of the coolest people we’ve met lately. AND it’s a three-minute drive from Lara Beach. AND Gardenya manager Eren gave us passes to the nearby L’Arena Beach Club (or “Larena,” for short).
Based on past experiences, we didn’t expect much when we drove over to Larena Beach Club the first day of our stay. We were happily proved wrong. Larena had lots of beach chairs. It also had fancy cabanas if you want to pony up about 60 euros per day. We thought about it, thinking we could literally work in the cabanas between swims, snacks and brews. But Lara Beach has a lot of wind, which means blowing sand. Which means laptop death if you hang around.
The sea here is clear but stirred up by the wind. When we were there, temps hovered around 35 degrees Celsius, or almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The sea was cool, but at those temps, you adjust quickly.
Larena Beach Club is just one of at least a dozen beach clubs lining Lara Beach, which runs maybe a mile between the edge of the city, east to where the all-inclusive hotels and their private beaches begin.
Entertainment
Larena Breach Club had a DJ every day. Some were better than others, and on the Sunday we were there, there was an American guy hanging out who seemed to be coaching the locals. (See my vid above.) The music was really accessible that day, with a lot of EDM remixes, including “We are the people who rule the world,” by Empire of the Sun and a bunch of Adele songs as well as tracks from David Guetta and Calvin Harris with Dua Lipa. A pretty light daytime playlist that everyone can enjoy. Other days, there was too much trance and drum and bass for a beach club where you’re supposed to be relaxing, IMHO.
As a bonus extra, you can get married at Larena, which boasts a large garden and a fairly large event space.
The facilities
We didn’t expect much, but the food at Larena Beach Club turned out to be really great. That’s probably because they have a dedicated kitchen for groups and weddings, not a snack bar, as well as a drinks bar and even an ice cream bar. Over several days, I had a shrimp salad, an Adana kebab and a pizza. The pizza was especially delish, oven fired and hot! Nothing was over the equivalent of 10 euros.
We had several Efes beers, which were – as the Turks say – buz gibi (ice cold). All this was served on a dedicated dining terrace, out of the sun. Or, you could order from the staff wandering around, and they would deliver to your chaise lounge. That was Cheryl’s favorite part.
By the way, the beach here is mostly sand, but it’s also pebbly … and really hot. Take water shoes. You’ll need them getting in and out of the water.
Fun stuff
There is a pier that juts out several yards into the Mediterranean, and all the kids were doing back flips and crazy dives. There was a woman practicing her runway moves.
Money
Turkey has struggled with inflation for the past 50 years. Back iin 2007, one dollar bought you about 1.6 million lira. I have a friend who says that as soon has he lands in Turkey, he’s making money. The exchange rate currently is about 47 lira per euro. So, what does that buy you? Well, most of our meals were 500 lira, and beers were 350 lira. Out in the city, prices were about the same, although we scored two amazing meals. We left stuffed, bearing leftovers for the next day, for about 22 euros in total.
The hotel
The Gardenya Lara Suit Hotel is pretty basic, but it is a suites hotel, and we had quite a bit of space. We always go with suites because we both need a place to work (It’s a “workation,” after all). The hotel has a nice small pool area. My favorite part of the day was breakfast, which came with the room rate of 60 euros per night. All the traditional Turkish breakfast foods such as cheese, black olives, cucumbers and tomatoes, along with eggs and fresh simit (a type of bread.) Eren and his staff speak impeccable English, which meant we rarely got to use our Turkish. I asked one of the staff where she learned perfect English, and she says, “At university. But this is the best job I’ve found.” She had a history degree, so I felt her pain.
If there’s a negative, Gardenya Lara is in the middle of an under-developed residential area with new construction and empty lots. But a year from now, it will be surrounded by apartment towers in this boom town.
Airfare
It cost us 200 euros per roundtrip ticket from Eindhoven to Antalya on Sun Air. Last year, we flew out of Brussels to Izmir for 100 euros each, but it cost us 150 euros for parking. So this was a much better deal.
Close to shopping and restaurants
We got a rental car and drove into Antalya every day to look for restaurants. There’s literally one main street that goes to the residential neighborhoods where we found the best restaurants, so you can’t get lost. It was a 10-minute drive from our hotel.
The best restaurant we found was Sıla Ocakbaşıat at Güzeloba mahallesi Havaalanı caddesi No:22. This is a typical Turkish place with a grill and staples such as pirzola (lamb chops). AND for a total of 10 or 12 euros, you get a spread of mezes, including salad, grilled eggplant dishes and veggies. Unbelievable food.
Our next favorite was Des Vu at Güzeloba, which had affordable food, great cocktails and a lovely garden. The cocktails were pricey at about 11 euros a pop, but you were really paying for the ambiance of the garden. It was worth it. Cheryl said her Aperol Spritz was the best she ever had.
Finally, we found just an ordinary kebabci with fabulous food: Lara Kokoreç at Güzeloba, Lara Cd. No:547 in the Muratpaşa neighborhood, with great food, great prices and no alcohol. The specialty at a kokoreç is liver, which I love. Theirs was sublime. Cheryl calls offal “guts,” so she got kaşarli pide. I say no guts, no glory. She watched from our table as the baker rolled out the dough, added the cheese and placed it in the wood-fired oven. Everything we ordered was on our table in 10 minutes flat.
We had only one terrible meal at the Sütbeyaz Brasserie next to the upscale Terra City Mall, but I don’t even want to think about that. And what were we thinking eating near the mall? Cute brasserie, not great food.
Of course this happened ….
We’re leaving the beach club at the end of the day and when we pull up to the hotel, I discover I don’t have my card holder, which has all my credit cards, IDs and debit card. Noooo! We walk in to ask Eren to call the club, but he has this smile on his face. “Forget something?” Turns out, the people at Larena Beach Club have already called to tell him they found a card holder and texted him a photo of my Dutch residency card. We went back and picked it right up.
Avoid Belek
We lived in Turkey until 2003, and we saw the beginning of the Belek hotel boom – the Disneyzation of Turkey – taking form. Now, there are dozens of hotels in the Belek Tourism Center just east of Antalya, resorts designed specifically for those tourists happy to settle for the luxury all-inclusive experience, who never leave the hotel. The hotels are huge, gaudy eyesores fashioned to look like, among other things, the Kremlin (not making this up), Siamese temples and Greek ruins. Prices go up to more than 1,500 euros per night, crazy considering this is Turkey. Each of these resorts has a golf course, some of which will let non-guests play for a fee. Cheryl calls it “Las Vegas on the Med.”
Visit the Kaleiçi
Antalya has a lovely old town, a walled city with a harbor and panoramic views of the sea. Back in the day, the Kaleiçi used to be a tourist trap full of aggressive vendors offering you a “very special price, my friend.” Today, it’s a lot more upscale and laid back, with fancy hotels, restaurants and boutiques. I ducked into one carpet shop expecting the full Turkish experience of haggling over tiny cups of strong Turkish tea. Instead, the salesman was from Bulgaria, didn’t speak Turkish, didn’t offer tea, didn’t know the first thing about carpets and had trained at the “Whatever School of Sales.”
How I miss the old days.
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Read more about Turkey here in Dispatches’ archives.
See more about workations here.
Co-CEO of Dispatches Europe. A former military reporter, I'm a serial expat who has lived in France, Turkey, Germany and the Netherlands.
