The Turkish Riviera with little ones

Weather, April to November

The figures below are the Turkish met service's long-series averages for Antalya, and recent summers run hotter still. Read July and August as seriously demanding months for a small child, and the shoulder months as the easier ones: warm sea, strong sun and bearable air.

June and September are the easiest months: 31-degree days, a 24-to-28-degree sea and the resorts in full swing without the deep heat. May trades a brisker sea for space and prices, and October stays warm enough for half term. UV runs very high to extreme through the summer, so the drill applies at full strength: hats, suits, factor 50, shade through the middle of the day, even for the walk to lunch.

Things to do with little ones

The Land of Legends at Belek is the headline; around it, Antalya city holds the dependable toddler days. The aquarium claims the world's longest tunnel, 131 metres with a sunken plane inside, air-conditioned, buggy-friendly and dearer than its European equivalents, with a snow room at minus five as the surreal add-on; under-threes go free. The Düden waterfalls book-end the city: the lower falls drop forty metres off the cliff into the sea beside a free, flat park made for picnics, and the upper falls hide a walk-behind cave passage that wants the carrier. For a heat-escape near the airport, the Kurşunlu waterfall sits in shaded pine woodland with boardwalk trails, a gentler outing than Sandland's sculpture park on Lara Beach, which is a short, shadeless visit best left to late afternoon, with the Aktur funfair opening at three for token-fed carousels and a 90-metre wheel.

The ancient stones are better with small children than their reputation. Side is the easy one, a pedestrianised old town where the colonnaded street runs on glass walkways, with ice cream all the way to the Apollo temple, free and open at all hours for the sunset photograph. Aspendos, one of the best-preserved Roman theatres anywhere, charges a modest entry, free for under-eights at Turkish state sites, and makes a 45-minute stop with a toddler: steep, railing-free stone stairs and no shade, so go at opening before the heat, and keep the visit short. Real arrests have happened over pocketed souvenirs: it's illegal to take stones, coins or any "treasure" from Turkish sites, so check small pockets before you leave any site. In Kaleiçi, Antalya's old town, the lanes are steep cobbles and the harbour is best seen from a boat; take the carrier, use the free glass lift between cliff-top and harbour, and Karaalioğlu Park next door is the easy buggy stretch. The Tünektepe cable car above the city remains closed despite the ticket sites still selling it; the working mountain ride is Tahtalı near Kemer, ten minutes to 2,365 metres, ten to twenty degrees colder at the top, fine for most toddlers and worth skipping with young or congested babies.

There are two kinds of boat trip, calm and loud. The Manavgat river boat from Side is the calm one: flat green water, shade on deck and the Monday and Thursday bazaar at the far end. The pirate ships from every harbour are the loud one, foam parties included, a hit with noise-proof three-to-fives and not for children who still nap in the afternoon. One to avoid: the dolphin shows that still run along this coast, including inside the Land of Legends, since the case against keeping dolphins in show pools is long-settled and we'd skip them. Rafting in the Köprülü canyon starts at age six or seven, so it waits; the family-sized version of that valley is lunch by the Roman bridge. On the hottest afternoons the malls have soft-play centres, baby rooms and air conditioning until ten at night.

Eating out with children

People here make a fuss of small children even by Mediterranean standards: the waiter who entertains your toddler while you eat is standard rather than a one-off. The all-inclusive buffet is the fussy eater's best friend, with enough choice that something always lands and high chairs everywhere. Dinner runs earlier than Spain, buffets open about 6.30, and the 8.30 mini disco is the evening wind-down for small children.

Outside the gates, the standard menu is already toddler food: köfte meatballs, fresh bread and pide, lentil soup, rice, yoghurt and cacık, watermelon and rice pudding, with the soft açma pastry beating the hard simit for small mouths. Tip 5 to 10 per cent where no service charge appears, and small notes, lira or euro, for the hotel staff.

Supplies and the first-day shop

Supermarkets open seven days, no Sunday planning required: Migros is the full-range chain, the discounters A101, BİM and Şok are on every high street, and resort minimarkets charge resort prices, so walk the extra street. Pampers is sold as Prima, the same product from the same factory, with the Turkish brands Molfix and Sleepy cheaper and stocked everywhere, and nappies overall cost a fraction of UK prices. Formula sits on supermarket shelves as well as in pharmacies, Aptamil included, though the Turkish stage numbers don't match the UK's, so match by the age band on the tin; bottled low-mineral and dedicated baby water handle the feeds. Baby-equipment hire is thinner than in Spain but exists: services such as Babonbo deliver cots, car seats and strollers to the hotel.

Pharmacies are signed with a red E rather than a green cross, and the eczane is proper front-line care with good resort English. Calpol exists here under its own name, alongside the Turkish household equivalent Parol, and the pharmacist will advise on children's ibuprofen, which is routinely dispensed; medicines live only in pharmacies, and every district posts its 24-hour duty pharmacy in the window. Bring anything your child depends on, as UK prescriptions aren't accepted.