Book the Hidden Paradise day if you want to swim, and Sapadere Canyon if you want to walk. Hidden Paradise is €40 and gives you roughly three hours in the water; Sapadere is €35 for adults and €23 for children, and gives you a wooden boardwalk suspended above a river between rock walls up to 400 metres high.
Both are full days, both include lunch and hotel pickup, and both are genuinely good. They are also nothing like each other, which makes this an easier choice than most.
Hidden Paradise: a swimming day with scenery
The Hidden Paradise tour from Side is €40 per adult, about seven hours, and the shape of the day is water. You visit the Manavgat Waterfall, board a catamaran across Green Lake with a swimming break of about an hour, stop at an old village mosque and the ancient aqueducts, take in a panoramic lookout over Green Canyon and Oymapınar Lake, and then spend around two hours at the Hidden Paradise itself — clear pools beneath small waterfalls, with lunch served at a family-run restaurant right below them.
Included: return hotel transfer from the Side area, professional guiding, the catamaran ride and lunch. Not included: alcoholic drinks, towels and personal items, and the optional photo and video service.
The walking is light. There is no hiking on this day at all, which is exactly why it works for families with young children and for grandparents in the same group.
Sapadere Canyon: a walking day with cold water
The Sapadere Canyon tour is €35 per adult and €23 per child, about eight hours, with pickup available from both Side-area resorts and Alanya. The centrepiece is the canyon's wooden boardwalk, built directly above the river, which you follow deeper into the gorge until it ends at a chain of waterfalls and natural pools. The water there is famously, gaspingly cold — swimming is optional and plenty of guests just watch from the platforms.
A short walk through the trees brings you to the Cüceler Cave, the "Dwarves Cave", with stalactites and a viewing terrace. Lunch — grilled fish or chicken, vegetarian available on request — is included at a restaurant in the Alanya region, as are passenger insurance, hotel pickup and drop-off and a professional local guide.
The price comparison is not as simple as €35 versus €40
Sapadere carries a child rate of €23, which changes the arithmetic sharply for families. Our price list for the Hidden Paradise day carries a single adult rate with infants free, so we cannot honestly print a family total for it here — confirm the child fare with us when you reserve, and do that before comparing the two on cost.
One more item to settle at booking. Our Sapadere listing shows the canyon entrance ticket in two places at once: included with a canyon-ticket package, and payable at the gate on the base package. Ask us which applies to your date rather than assuming, and budget the small cash amount either way. The Cüceler Cave admission is separate and always paid on site.
Where you are staying matters
Sapadere sits in the Taurus Mountains inland of Alanya's Demirtaş district. From an Alanya hotel it is a comfortable inland run. From Side it is a materially longer drive in both directions, and that time comes out of your day — the itinerary builds in a comfort stop on the way for exactly that reason.
Hidden Paradise runs from Side-area hotels and stays in the Manavgat highlands, so the driving is shorter and there is more time on the ground.
Put simply: if you are in Alanya, Sapadere is your local canyon day. If you are in Side, the Hidden Paradise is your local water day, and Sapadere is an excursion you take because you specifically want that gorge.
Who each tour is not for
Sapadere Canyon is not for you if:
- You have serious walking or mobility difficulties. The tour listing says so plainly. The boardwalk is easy and well maintained, but it is a walk, and it is the whole point of the day.
- You want a warm swim. The pools are meltwater cold. Many people get in once and never again.
- You are travelling after heavy rain or in winter. Access to the canyon can be restricted in those conditions.
- You like to bring your own picnic. Outside food and drink are not permitted on the bus or in the canyon.
Hidden Paradise is not for you if:
- You want dramatic geology. It is a beautiful set of pools in a green valley, not a 400-metre gorge.
- You are coming in high summer for the waterfall. Manavgat Waterfall's flow can be limited in the hottest months; the Green Lake catamaran always runs.
- Nobody in your group will swim. Three of the seven hours are swimming time. Without that, you are paying €40 to look at water.
What they have in common
Both include lunch, hotel pickup and drop-off, guiding and insurance. Both are easy on fitness — no hiking experience needed on either. On both, reservation is free, you pay on the tour day, and cancellation is free up to 24 hours before departure. Bring swimwear, a towel, sun protection, comfortable shoes and some cash for the small extras.
Read next
For the Hidden Paradise day in detail, see every question answered and what €40 covers. What to bring applies almost unchanged to Sapadere.