Jeep Tour Side or a Boat Trip: Hills and a Lake, or the Open Sea
A holiday in Side already has plenty of sea in it. The jeep tour goes the other way, inland and uphill, though it still finds water along the route.
Short answer
Pick the jeep tour for the land: tracks beyond the Roman bridge, riverbeds and aqueducts, Green Lake seen from above, the Oymapınar village swim, a lakeside lunch, about 8 hours for €20, with an optional hour on Green Lake by boat at €5. Pick a boat trip for a day on a deck at sea. For the sea, our sister site sideboattrips.com publishes its own boat days.
Two days that face opposite ways
| Jeep tour (this site) | Boat trip at sea | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you are | Inland: the Taurus foothills, villages, a lake and a dam | On a deck, out on the sea |
| How it feels | Bumpy tracks, dust, stream crossings, open-top in summer | See the sister site |
| Water | A village swim, splashes, an optional lake boat hour | The sea is the day |
| Price and length | €20 per adult, about 8 hours, lunch included | Published by the sister site |
The water you still get on the jeep tour
Green Lake turns up more than once. First you see it from a panoramic viewpoint high above; later the convoy stops for lunch at a lakeside restaurant by Green Canyon. After lunch there is an optional boat trip on the lake: about an hour, €5 per person, paid on the spot, and not a separate product with its own price. Take it or leave it; the rest of the day is unchanged either way. The boat hour and the waterfall covers it in detail.
So a jeep day is not a dry day. Add the swim stop in the village, the stream crossings and, in summer, the water thrown between jeeps, and you should expect to come back damp.
The night safari: a jeep that ends on a catamaran
If you cannot decide between land and water, the night safari mixes the two in one evening. The jeeps collect you in the late afternoon and run out to the water, with Manavgat Waterfall in the evening light and a swim at Green Lake. Then dinner is served on a catamaran and the cruise becomes a party with music. €35 per person, about 5 hours, guests from 12 up, between early June and mid-November.
When a boat day at sea is the better fit
If what you want is a slow day on deck, sea air and as little dust as possible, the jeep tour is not it: it is a day of tracks and stops, and the open jeeps take in sun and dust. We do not describe sea trips here, their routes, prices or timings; sideboattrips.com publishes those for its own boat days from Side. If dolphins are the whole reason for a day at sea, sidedolphinboat.com is given over to that one trip, with honest odds of seeing them. Many holidays have room for both, a jeep day early on and a day at sea later. To compare the jeep tour with the river instead, read jeep tour or rafting.
