The summer season is officially open, and more and more tourists come to Alanya every day. I like to walk in Mahmutlar and Alanya, imagining that I came here for the first time and see Alanya and Mahmutlar the way tourists see. When you see this beauty every day, you start to take it for granted, and it’s very sad. This small exercise helps me to notice sparkling sea, majestic mountains, flowers and palms again. Along with it all, I see how uncomfortable people can feel in a foreign country, not knowing language and simple things, or thinking, that if it is a foreign country, things must be different in here.
These thoughts made me compile a list of some useful tips, that, actually, may be obvious to people who live here for a while, but still, I hope, you will find something useful in this information.
The main problem is that in many places attended by tourists and foreign residents, all the information is written just in Turkish. For example, in the shops of the most supermarket chains, such as BIM, A101, Genpa and Şok many tourists are confused which price labels to look at – above of below the shelves. Usually, you can easily figure it our just looking at the labels carefully. If not, don’t be shy to ask other customers — gesture language is almost international.
At most of the places you can pay by US-dollars or euro, but be ready to get the change in Turkish lira. I saw many tourists who refused to take it, demanding change in the same currency they paid. Don’t be afraid of Turkish money, because actually paying with Turkish lira can be even an advantage.
For example, if you go from Mahmutlar to Alanya by public bus, you will have to pay 2.5 TL per person. At the same time, you can pay $2 or €1.5, which makes 3 TL. If you are a group of four people, you will have to pay 12 TL instead of 10.
In many boutiques, you can see two different prices on the clothes’ tags. The bigger one is used if you pay by a bank card, and the smaller one — if you pay by cash.
As you might have noticed, there are no off days in tourism business: everything at your service almost 7/24. Except pharmacies, which have their own working hours and don’t work on Sundays. However, there is always a pharmacy on duty in the district and you can learn its address from a screen at all the pharmacies windows. Many of the medicaments are cheaper than in Europe and do not require prescription to be sold.
In emergency case, you can dial 112 and call an ambulance, which will take you to a hospital and deliver a medical help free no matter if you are a foreigner or don’t have insurance.
Talking about the phone calls let me give you some tips, which can be useful:
— The dialing code of Antalya and the entire Antalya region is 0242. That means, if you, for example, call from your home phone in Alanya to some office in Antalya, it is not regarded as a long-distance call.
— Dialing from your mobile phone to somebody’s home phone, don’t forget to add region code (0242 for Antalya region) to the number. For example, if you want to dial 528 12 34 using mobile, you have to dial 0242 528 12 34.
— Turkey’s code is +90. That is, if you want to give your number to you friends and family, it will consist of 12 digits with “+” in the beginning. Something like this: +90 532 123 45 67
Hopefully, this information is more useful than confusing. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me.
Have a good time and see you next week.
Polina Akar
