Green Canyon or a Side sea boat trip?

Side sells two kinds of day on the water, and they get confused because both end up on a deck. One is a sea boat trip that leaves from the harbour at the end of the peninsula and sails the coast. The other leaves from your hotel in a coach and ends 26 km inland, on a catamaran on a lake held behind a dam. We run the second, and we think the honest comparison helps you more than a sales pitch.

The water

The sea at Side is warm, salty and has swell. The canyon reservoir is fresh, spring-fed and cooler — enough cooler that guests notice. It is calm and sheltered, with no waves, which is why it suits families and nervous swimmers, and it is emerald because the water is filtered through limestone before it reaches the lake.

The day

A sea trip is a harbour day: you walk or take a taxi to the boat and the coast is the scenery. The canyon is a road day first: a coach collects you at the hotel, follows the Manavgat river into the Taurus, and the scenery is pine walls and a 185-metre dam. On the water you spend 4.5 or 2.5 hours, depending on the option, with swimming breaks and an open buffet lunch; the return journey begins at around 15:00.

The mood

Some sea boats are built for music and foam. The canyon catamarans are not: no animation team, no party deck, just the walls and the water. If you want the loud day, book the harbour. If you want the quiet one, book the lake.

Do both

In a week they do not compete. Put the sea on a day you want to stay near the peninsula and the canyon on a day you want to leave the coast. Our sister site sells the sea trips from Side harbour; this one sells the lake.