Ancient Ruins: Perge, Aspendos, Side
10/10/2025
We did a full day trip to see three different ruins within a couple hours of Antalya. The sights were amazing. The tour guide was arguably the worst guide we have ever had (EVER). This guy literally would reprimand guests for standing in the wrong place or being a couple minutes behind the rest of the group. The group was comprised of a British couple, us, and the remaining 13 guests were of Asian decent (not traveling together, so I assume from various countries). At one point the guide let us all know that we need to keep track of him because he can’t be expected to learn all our faces, “especially the Asians – you all look the same to me with your slanted eyes”. The number of cringy racist things he said throughout the day was unbelievable!
Grady complained to the company we booked through and got us a full refund! That’s my boy! 😊 If the tour wasn’t so long, I would almost be tempted to do it again with Colleen and Erin just so she could hear some of the yuck that came out of this guy’s mouth!!! She would have been in hysterics!
Our first stop was the ancient city of Perge, one of the largest ancient settlements to have survived. Perge experienced its most glorious years in the 2nd-3rd century AD, when it was under Roman rule. But actually dates back much further. There are two towers from the 3rd century BC. Apparently St. Paul hung out here among other notable people from 2000 years ago!
Our next stop was the Roman Theatre of Aspendos which was built in the 2nd century. It is considered the best preserved theatre in the world. This place might make the cut for our re-visit to Antalya with Erin and Colleen in March. It really was impressive!
Our final stop was the town of Side (pronounced See-day). It was my favorite stop of the day! This town has Colleen written all over it… unfortunately it is too far to visit when we return in March on our cruise. Side is pretty touristy, and something of a resort town, but so stinking pretty! You walk down the main drag that is filled with overpriced shops in somewhat modern buildings. Ok, not modern by US standards, but only about 100 year old buildings. When you get to the end of the main street you arrive at the most beautiful coastal area and a bit to the left are some stunning ancient ruins – the Temple of Apollo and the Temple of Athena built around 150 AD. There are a crap ton of other ruins as you enter the town, but these two were my favorites due to the proximity to the ocean.
We only had an hour here. We walked around, got photos and stopped for a glass of wine. I could have spent a whole day here… or multiple days (which might be an option at some point in the future when we return to Turkey)
In case you’re wondering, we are making fun of all the “posers” in the last photo!!
Below you can add a comment: type your text in the white box and then Post Comment. If you get a second panel, you just need to enter your name and then hit ‘comment as guest’.
Be nice with your comments, we can always delete them 😊
