One is architecture, one is a boat
Take Perge and Aspendos at €50 if you want serious Roman architecture without losing the whole day, and if you are travelling with children — the child fare is €30 and the day is far shorter. Take Demre, Myra and Kekova at €75 if the boat over the sunken city is the image you have in your head, and you accept a ten-hour day with an early start to get it.
They are not really the same kind of outing. One is an architecture day close to Antalya. The other is a coastal expedition to the Lycian shore that happens to include ruins.
The two days side by side
Demre, Myra and Kekova — €75 adult, €62 child
Ten hours, with an early pickup. Three things in one day: the Church of St. Nicholas at Demre, where the historical figure behind Santa Claus served as bishop in the 4th century; the Lycian rock-cut tombs and Roman theatre of ancient Myra; and a boat cruise gliding over the sunken city of Kekova, with walls and stairways visible through the water from the deck. Guiding, lunch, hotel pickup from Antalya and insurance are included.
Two practical points. Swimming directly above the sunken ruins is forbidden — it is a protected archaeological zone — so the swim break happens in a nearby designated bay, weather permitting. And the entrance fees for the Church of St. Nicholas and ancient Myra are not in the fare; they are paid locally, apply from age eight, and your guide arranges the tickets so you do not queue.
Departures run twice a week, on Sundays and Wednesdays. If your holiday does not contain one of those days, the decision is made for you.
Perge, Aspendos and Kurşunlu — €50 adult, €30 child
Listed at six hours: a morning pickup after breakfast time, back by late afternoon. Perge's colonnaded marble street, Hellenistic gates and Roman baths; the 2nd-century theatre at Aspendos, one of the best-preserved in the ancient world and still used for performances; and Kurşunlu Waterfall, a cascade in pine forest, to finish. Licensed guiding — offered in English, German, Norwegian and Turkish — lunch at a local restaurant and round-trip hotel transfer are included.
Entrance fees are deliberately kept outside the price and listed upfront so you can total the day before booking: Perge €11, Aspendos €15 and 95 TL for the Kurşunlu Waterfall park, per current listings, each paid at the gate. If you hold a Turkish Museum Card it covers Perge and Aspendos, though not the waterfall — which quietly makes this the cheaper day again for anyone already carrying one.
There is no swim break on this programme.
What a family of four actually pays
This is where the two diverge most sharply, and it is not obvious from the headline fares. The child rate on Perge and Aspendos is €30, roughly 60 per cent of the adult fare. On Demre, Myra and Kekova the child rate is €62 — about 83 per cent.
Two adults and two children therefore come to €160 for Perge and Aspendos, plus roughly €104 of entrance tickets and the waterfall fee, and €274 for Demre, Myra and Kekova, plus the local entrance fees at Demre and Myra. Infants travel free on both.
Which one is more interesting?
Honestly: it depends what you have already seen. If you have been to Ephesus, Aphrodisias or Hierapolis, another colonnaded Roman street is a familiar pleasure rather than a revelation, and Kekova's sunken city is the one sight on this coast you will not have an equivalent of. If you have seen no ancient sites at all, Aspendos is the more overwhelming single object — you stand inside a theatre that has been working for eighteen centuries — and it comes without the coach hours.
Who should not book which
- Skip Demre, Myra and Kekova if long coach days wear you out, if your group includes small children who struggle with early starts, or if your dates do not include a Sunday or Wednesday. It is a genuinely long day.
- Skip Perge and Aspendos if you were hoping to swim — there is no swim break at all — or if walking on uneven ancient streets is difficult. Both tours involve real walking on rough ground; this is not a drive-by.
- Skip both in the depths of July and August if heat is a problem for anyone in the group. On the Lycian day, time at the open-air sites may be shortened because of it, and on the ancient-cities day summer temperatures at Perge can top 35°C with almost no shade.
Modest dress is appreciated inside the Church of St. Nicholas, which remains an active pilgrimage site. Both tours are reserved free with payment on the tour day and free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure.
If neither quite fits
The Antalya city tour at €43 pairs the Düden waterfalls with free time in the walled old town of Kaleiçi and an hour-long boat trip — the gentler option, and the one that includes swimming-adjacent time by the sea. From the Side side of the coast, Altınbeşik Cave and Ormana village at €40 trades marble for a boat ride across an underground lake and Seljuk-era houses built without mortar, and Sapadere Canyon at €35 swaps ruins for waterfalls entirely. Alanya's city tour, also €43, covers the Seljuk castle, the cable car and a peninsula cruise.
Everything cultural sits on our Antalya coast excursions page. For the wider picture, read which day trip to choose from Antalya and which excursion to choose from Side. If the Aspendos theatre appeals, it also hosts evening performances — what Aspendos show tickets cost covers those.