To skip the turning of the season from Winter to Spring (successfully I might add as it’s 22 degrees in Almaty today and was snowing when we left) we decided to revisit Turkey. Last year we loved the south coast and found it really easy to drive from place to place.

We started our trip in Antalya again on a beautiful, sunny, 21 degrees morning. We spent our first afternoon recovering from yet another night flight with Ayla before leaving Antalya for Tefenni the next day.

We decided to split the journey from Antalya to Pamukkale by stopping in Tefenni. I found Tefenni villas on someone else’s blog and it didn’t disappoint. It’s a beautiful setting that is perfect for families. A lovely playground, pool, farm animals and tractors. The staff were friendly, breakfast was good and the room was spacious. You can find them at https://www.tefennivillas.com/en . For us, with Ayla being the age that she is, we no longer opt for hotels because the space isn’t sufficient and it really isn’t in any way relaxing. Having villa style accommodation like Tefenni villas is perfect.

While we were here we visited Salda lake. Described perhaps optimistically as “The Maldives”, it is a pleasant, white pebble beach and a beautiful lake with clear water. The Maldives it is not, but it is worth a visit.

The next day it was suddenly freezing so we opted to explore yet another ancient city. I’ve just finished Stephen Fry’s “Mythos” and so I’m all absorbed in the world of Ancient Greece at the moment. We went to Kibyra and we had the place entirely to ourselves. Having been to Turkey the previous year I definitely noticed a rise in entry fees for everything we went to. 8 euros to get in is probably quadruple what we paid for similar sites last year.

We’re really lucky because we have a toddler who absolutely loves being outside and will walk for a really long time. We do have to examine and collect all rocks, sticks, flowers and leaves along the way but we can happily wander with her and that’s such a relief for me because I also need to be outside!

The following day we set off for Pamukkale. I had dubious expectations of this place because it is one of those typical Instagram locations that rarely matches expectations when you get there. The entrance fee was astronomical at 30 euros per person and this did leave us wondering if we made a bad call going here from the start. However, I would say it is worth a visit because it is a cool landscape and the ancient city at the top is really beautiful. The space is lovely and you can visit the thermal pools for free. You have to pay extra to go into the “Antique pool” which we didn’t do because we’re too tight!

We had beautiful weather. I would recommend arriving as soon as you can in the morning because by the time we left at about 4pm it was heaving and not very fun any more. You can do hot air balloon rides and paragliding if that’s your jam.

As there isn’t really anything else to do in Pamukkale we left the next day for our firm favourite destination, Kas. We love this place. We stayed at Sunset Butik Apartments and the sunset was definitely a central feature! The owner of this place is lovely because I lost the key to our apartment by leaving it on the roof of the car (oops) and he didn’t bat an eyelid.

We spent two lovely days on the beach. It was warm enough to go in the sea and it was quiet and just a beautiful environment. I love this place.

After leaving Kas things got weird. We went to stay in Çamyuva because it was half way back to Antalya. What a weird place. Asraf described it as “being hit by a typhoon and in the midst of rebuilding”. It was a ghost town. Nothing was open, everything was half built. There were no lights on in any supermarkets. So odd. Needless to say we didn’t do anything there but we went back to Göynük canyon and Çirali. Both places we really enjoyed before and we were happy to see them again.

Another great road trip and a successful travel experience with our 20 month old. We’re in the midst of moving stress as we are relocating back to Malaysia in June and this was our final holiday before we have to deal with all the headaches of moving our lives and our two cats across the world again!

Turkey remains one of our favourite places to travel by car and the people are super friendly. It’s definitely a great option for travelling with young children or for people who love the outdoors and good food and coffee!