I’m not sure about the absolute best way to buy bus tickets in Turkey as it seems that I haven’t quite got it right but I can certainly give you some tips and make you aware of a few things I wish I knew before fronting up to Antalya Otogar.
Dolmus minibuses are straight forward
At Antalya bus station there are two sections – a big hall for long distance buses and a smaller one for buses and dolmus for the local area (a dolmus is a public minibus plying a set route, picking up and dropping off passengers at will). When Barry and I were travelling from Antalya to Kemer, it was really straight forward. You go to the smaller terminal, tell folk your destination, go outside, double check the destination on the boards next to the buses and get on. You pay the driver when you get off the bus later. It’s something like 8 Lira per person for the journey from Antalya to Kemer. It takes anywhere between one hour and two hours (faster to get the boat from town which I never got a chance to do)
Larger coaches going to Alanya also leave from this terminal but you buy your tickets from one of the guys at the counters. There seemed to be two companies selling tickets for Alanya and they were pretty good about sending you to the other seller if their bus was the next one leaving. Tickets from Antalya to Alanya cost 20 Lira per person. It takes about 2.5 hours.
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