Essential Turkish phrases

Humidity. Antalya's July averages a 34.2°C high, but the complaint you will hear is never 'sıcak' (hot) — it is 'nem'. The sea makes the same temperature feel entirely different from Konya's.

The limestone sea cliff the city centre stands on, 30-40 m above the Mediterranean. 'Falezlerde yürüyelim' — let's walk the cliffs — is the standard evening plan, and no other Turkish city has this geography.

Literally 'inside the castle' — the Roman-walled old town wrapped around the old harbour, which is a lived-in quarter and not a museum. Every address in it is given as 'Kaleiçi'nde'.

'To go up to the highland.' In August, Antalya empties upward into the Taurus plateaus — Saklıkent, Elmalı, the Beydağları villages — because a thousand metres of altitude is the local air conditioning.

The shared minibus that leaves when it fills. Antalya still runs a dense dolmuş network alongside the tram, and for the beaches, the villages and half the suburbs it is the only service there is.

White-bean salad — but Antalya's has TAHINI in it, which no other city's does. Ordering piyaz here gets you something a visitor from Ankara would not recognise, and it comes with şiş köfte.

The season. 'Sezon açıldı' / 'sezon kapandı' organises the entire city's employment, rents and opening hours. Ask any question about Antalya and the honest answer usually starts with which season you mean.

Greenhouse. The coastal plain west and east of the city is Türkiye's winter vegetable garden — Kumluca and Demre under plastic as far as you can see — and 'serada çalışmak' is a huge share of provincial employment.

'Golden Orange' — the film festival Antalya has run since 1963, the oldest in Türkiye. When locals say 'Altın Portakal zamanı' they mean autumn, the season turning, and the city briefly belonging to itself again.

Orange blossom. For about three weeks in March and April the whole city smells of it — the citrus groves that gave the festival its name are still inside the metropolitan area.

'Do you speak Russian?' A genuinely useful question here. Since 2022 Antalya's Russian- and Ukrainian-speaking population has grown enormously, and in many shops and offices Russian works where English does not.

Help! — for emergencies. Dial 112 for police, fire, ambulance and coast guard alike; 177 is the forest-fire line, which in this province is not a formality.