Antalya, Belek, Side, Kemer and Alanya
One long run of hotel frontage, and a handful of things that break it up
Konyaaltı and the cliff beaches, Kaleiçi and the marina, Lara and Kundu, Kadriye and Belek, Kemer down to Tekirova, Side and Manavgat, then Alanya out to Mahmutlar.
Hotel frontage is what makes this coast difficult. It runs on kilometre after kilometre looking much the same, so a hotel name on its own still leaves far too much sand to walk. What cuts it down is the nearest thing that interrupts the line: a river coming out, a peninsula, a harbour wall.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch or phone in Antalya, Belek, Side, Kemer and Alanya with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the coast, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
All of it sits in Antalya province along one road. Kemer is west of the city, Lara and Kundu just east of it, Belek and Kadriye belong to Serik, Side and Sorgun to Manavgat, and Alanya runs on to Mahmutlar and Kargıcak.
When the hotel name is all you have
Work out which stretch you were on before you try to pin down the moment. The resort first, then the nearest named thing on the shore: a river mouth, a harbour wall, a headland, the steps down from the cliff road. One of those turns a resort into a spot.
A picture of the item itself is worth more than any description, so look for one taken on the holiday rather than a shop photograph of the same model. Say too whether any of the afternoon was spent in the water. Questions will come back at you, and you can write again once the day has settled in your head.
Places we cover in Antalya, Belek, Side, Kemer and Alanya
- Konyaaltı beach at Antalya and its public beach
- The cliff beaches at İnciraltı and Erenkuş
- Erdal İnönü Kent Parkı and Konserve Koyu
- Kaleiçi, its walls and the lanes to the harbour
- The Kaleiçi yacht marina and Mermerli beach
- Hadrian's Gate, Hıdırlık Kulesi and the Clock Tower
- Lara and the lower Düden falls
- Kundu
- Kadriye, Belek and Boğazkent
- Kumköy and Çolaklı
- Side and its peninsula
- Sorgun, Titreyengöl and the Manavgat river mouth
- Manavgat town and its waterfall
- Kızılağaç
- Beldibi and Göynük
- Kemer town and Mustafa Ertuğrul Aker Park
- Ayışığı, the Moonlight beach at Kemer
- Kiriş, Çamyuva and Tekirova
- Kleopatra and Damlataş beaches at Alanya
- Konaklı, Avsallar and İncekum
- Oba, Tosmur, Mahmutlar and Kargıcak
- Ulaş cove west of Alanya
Six stretches, and what sets each one apart
Every one of them has something on it you can put a name to, which is the part a searcher actually needs.
Konyaaltı and the beaches under the city cliffs
Antalya Metropolitan Municipality calls Konyaaltı generally fine pebbly stone with some fine sand through it, with more than thirty beaches run by separate operators alongside the public one. Five more sit where the cliffs meet the water: İnciraltı, Engelsiz Kafe, Erdal İnönü Kent Parkı, Erenkuş and Konserve Koyu.
Kaleiçi, the marina and Mermerli
Kaleiçi is ringed by walls, and within them two and three storey houses stand along narrow streets running down to the harbour. The old harbour is the yacht marina now, with Mermerli beach inside it. Yivli Minare, Hıdırlık Kulesi and Hadrian's Gate are the points to count from.
Lara, Kundu and the run east to Boğazkent
East of the city the Düden stream drops over a travertine sill straight into the sea, and that is the western marker for this stretch. From there the frontage runs one place after another: Lara, Kundu, then Kadriye, Belek and Boğazkent, with Çolaklı and Kumköy carrying it on towards Side.
Beldibi, Göynük and the Kemer beaches
Kemer names its public beaches after its neighbourhoods, so Beldibi, Göynük, Çamyuva and the shore by Mustafa Ertuğrul Aker Park are separate answers rather than one. Beldibi and Göynük lie north of the town, Kiriş, Çamyuva and Tekirova south of it. Ayışığı, the Moonlight beach, is three hundred metres of fine sand among pine and palm trees a hundred years old.
Side, Sorgun and where the Manavgat river meets the sea
Side sits on a peninsula with its ancient theatre at the narrowest part, which makes the town a dividing line for the strip on either side of it. The Manavgat river runs out to sea at the Boğaz by Sorgun, and the waterfall carrying the town name is three kilometres west of Manavgat.
Alanya, from Avsallar round to Mahmutlar
Kleopatra and Damlataş lie side by side west of the historic peninsula, both of them on the shore in front of the Damlataş cave, with the castle above. The municipality calls the sand along here fine and clean and the beach a wide one. The castle is ringed by six kilometres of wall, with the old harbour below it and the Seljuk shipyard of five vaulted bays opening off that. West along the road are Konaklı, Avsallar with the İncekum sands, and Ulaş cove.
What you actually get when you write in
You write once, in English
Nobody expects you to ring round Turkey or explain the same afternoon three times over. Put it down once, in your own words.
Nothing gets retyped or summarised
What you send is what the person searching is handed. No tidying, no shortening, no second hand version of the afternoon written by us.
A poor prospect is said early
Where there is little in it, you read that at the top of the answer and in plain words. Nobody here expects you to work it out from the tone.
Rings are only part of it
Wedding bands, an Oura ring, a watch, a bracelet, earrings, a phone, a pair of glasses. Name yours and describe it, and it is treated no differently from a ring.
A message is not a booking
Asking settles nothing either way. The costs reach you in writing along with the rest of the answer, and there they sit until you decide what to do.
The ground changes more than the view does
The surface underfoot, and the nearest break in a very long shoreline.
Not all of this coast is sand
Konyaaltı is fine pebbly stone for the most part, with sand only in places. İncekum is fine sand over shallow water, the Alanya beaches fine and clean sand, Kaleiçi stone lanes, and Mermerli sits inside the yacht marina itself. One word about what was underfoot changes how a search runs.
The interruptions are the landmarks
Five things break this shore up, and naming the nearest is the most useful thing you can do: the cliffs under the Antalya city beaches, the Düden coming over its travertine sill, the peninsulas at Side and Alanya, the Manavgat river mouth by Sorgun, the old harbour under the Alanya castle.
Trees come down to the sand here
Around Kemer the shade is part of the beach rather than behind it. Ayışığı is fine sand among pine and palm a hundred years old, and at İncekum, west of Alanya, the forest and the sea run into one another. Tell us where you settled as well as where you swam.
Questions about Antalya, Belek, Side, Kemer and Alanya
A bracelet is missing and all we have written down is the hotel at Belek.
That is more than you think, because three names sit close together there and the address will carry one of them. Kadriye lies a little west of Belek and further back from the water, Belek sits nearer the shore, and Boğazkent is the next one along going east. Tell us which of the three, then which way you turned onto the sand.
We were on Konyaaltı. Is that enough to go on?
Seven kilometres of shore is a great deal of ground, and the beaches along it are run by a good many different operators. The quickest way in is the name on your booking or on a receipt, whichever you still have.
It was a small beach under the Antalya cliffs and we never caught the name.
Five sit along that cliff shore and the municipality names them all: İnciraltı, Engelsiz Kafe, Erdal İnönü Kent Parkı, Erenkuş and Konserve Koyu. Any one of those, or a description of the way you came down to the water, puts you on a single beach.
My phone went over the side on a boat trip out of Göynük.
Then start with where you boarded and where you came back ashore. Both are fixed points on land even when the rest of the trip is a blur. If it went in out in open water, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
A watch has gone somewhere along the Side strip and we moved about all week.
Sort the week by which side of the peninsula you were on. Kumköy and then Çolaklı lie west of Side, while Sorgun, Titreyengöl and Kızılağaç run east of it. The ancient theatre stands at the narrowest point of the peninsula, which makes it the marker to sort the days against.
Kleopatra and Damlataş looked like one beach to us.
They do run together. Both lie west of the historic peninsula, on the shore in front of the Damlataş cave, with the castle standing over them. Damlataş is the piece nearest the castle and the cave mouth, Kleopatra the longer run of fine sand alongside.
Our Oura ring could be at Konaklı or at Mahmutlar.
Something that size is well worth going after, but those two sit on opposite sides of Alanya. Konaklı is west of the centre, with Avsallar and the İncekum sands further west again. Mahmutlar is east, past Oba and Tosmur, with Kargıcak beyond it. Work back through the week and see which day was which.
We are already home. Has too much time gone by?
Probably not. Messages turn up here long after the holiday has ended and they still get worked on. Dig out whatever you wrote down, photographed or posted at the time, and ask the others who were there.
Antalya, Belek, Side, Kemer and Alanya
Give us the hotel and let us do the narrowing
Write it the way you would tell a friend about the afternoon, and leave the tidying up to the reply.
Most people do this over WhatsApp. Put down the hotel, the stretch of shore and the day, and add to it whenever something else surfaces. What comes back is a straight answer about what can be made of it, and what searching there would involve.