Alanya Nightlife: From Bar Street to the Harbour

Alanya nightlife has a reputation built almost entirely on one street, which is unfair to the town and misleading for anyone booking a hotel. The evening here comes in at least four distinct versions, and they are geographically separate enough that you can have one of them without ever noticing the others.

Bar street, and what it actually is

The strip usually called Bar Street runs inland from the harbour end of the centre. It is a few hundred metres of open-fronted clubs, competing sound systems and promoters, and it is loud from about 23:00 until 04:00 in season.

If you are in your twenties and this is what you came for, it is genuinely good value: entry is often free, drinks are cheaper than the equivalent in western Europe, and the crowd is a mix of Turkish, German, Russian and Scandinavian visitors. If it is not what you came for, the important thing is not to book a hotel within three streets of it in July.

The harbour, which is the grown-up version

Two minutes' walk away, along the water below the Red Tower, the mood changes completely. The harbour is restaurant tables, fish, meze and beer at a normal volume, with the castle lit up above you and boats coming in.

This is where most people over thirty end up, and where a couple with a small child can still be out at ten without anyone minding. Prices are higher than the back streets, and you are paying for the view rather than the kitchen.

Beach clubs and hotel entertainment

The third version happens on the sand. The beach clubs along Kleopatra run from afternoon into the night with music, foam parties and pool bars, and they are the easiest option if you want atmosphere without committing to a 03:00 finish.

The fourth version is the one nobody plans and most people use: hotel entertainment in Konaklı, Avsallar and Mahmutlar. If you are staying fifteen kilometres out of town, the honest answer is that going into the centre and back is a taxi fare and an hour of your evening. Plenty of holidays are perfectly good without ever making that trip.

Doing Alanya nightlife well

A few things that make the difference between a good evening and an expensive one.

• Nothing starts early. Restaurants fill at 21:00, bars at midnight, clubs after one. Arriving at ten is arriving first.
• Dolmuş minibuses stop running late in the evening, so plan the way back before you go out. Taxis at 03:00 charge what they like.
• Agree the price before you order in a place with no printed list, especially for spirits by the bottle.
• Dress is casual everywhere. Nobody will stop you for shorts, though the harbour restaurants are a shade smarter.
• Ramadan and the two religious holidays change the mood in the local parts of town, though the tourist strip runs as normal.

The evenings that are not bars at all

Two of the better nights out here do not involve a club. A sunset cruise with dinner and live music leaves the harbour in the late afternoon and gets you back around eleven, which is early enough to carry on if you want to.

The other is simpler and free: walk up to the castle in the evening, or take the cable car, and come back down through the old town once the heat has gone. Alanya nightlife at its best is not always the loudest version of it.