The whole programme at a glance
If you have never sat on a quad before, it is usually the not-knowing that makes people nervous rather than the machine itself. So here is the entire day in order, exactly as it runs, whether your hotel is in Belek or Kadriye, over towards Lara, Kundu, Antalya and Konyaaltı, or along the Side coast. No surprises are hidden in the sequence, and every stage has a job to do: long before you are asked to ride anywhere on your own, you will have started the quad, moved off, braked and turned a corner with someone watching you do it. That watched ride is the compulsory test ride, and it is what settles who takes the wheel out on the trail.
From your hotel door back to your hotel door, plan on roughly 4 to 4.5 hours. That figure covers the transfer out, everything that happens at the base and the transfer home again, not only the time you spend riding. Exactly how it divides up depends on where your hotel sits and how the day's transfer route runs, which is why your pickup time is confirmed after booking instead of printed on a page.
- Hotel pickup, included in the price from Belek and Kadriye to Lara, Antalya, Konyaaltı and the Side coast
- Transfer inland to the off-road base
- Arrival, registration and kit: helmet
- Safety briefing with your guide
- Compulsory test ride before anyone joins the trail
- Setting off in convoy behind the lead guide
- Forest tracks, dust and open off-road terrain
- Shallow river sections and muddy stretches where conditions allow
- Scenic rest stop for photographs and a cold drink, paid on site
- Return to base, then the transfer back to your hotel
What time the day starts
There are two sessions. The morning run begins in Konyaaltı at around 08:00 and reaches Boğazkent, the last stop before the base, at around 09:35; the afternoon run starts back in Konyaaltı at around 13:00. Both figures are averages — where you sit on the route decides your own time, and we confirm it after you book. We drive you out to the Aspendos area first — the riding is all on the natural land by the Köprüçay.
Stage 1: pickup at your hotel, included in the price
The day starts at your own hotel entrance, so there is nothing to find and nowhere to get to under your own steam. Round-trip hotel pickup and drop-off are included in the price, with no transfer surcharge, from Belek, Kadriye, Boğazkent, Lara, Kundu, Antalya, Muratpaşa, Konyaaltı, Side, Manavgat, Evrenseki, Kumköy, Çolaklı, Gündoğdu and Kızılot. Only a hotel beyond that list needs checking with us first. Message us on WhatsApp at +90 536 603 75 84 before you book, and we will tell you honestly what is possible for your address rather than promise a pickup we cannot keep.
Beyond the area averages above we never publish a departure time, because there is no single time to publish: the transfer collects guests along a route, and your place on that route decides when it reaches you. Your confirmed time is sent to you after your reservation. Be down in the lobby a few minutes early, already dressed for dust, and mention at reception that you are waiting for a tour transfer. Our hotel pickup page walks through the logistics in more detail.
Stage 2: the transfer inland
The drive out is part of the experience rather than dead time, and how long it takes depends on where along the coast your hotel sits. The manicured resort strip gives way to farmland, irrigation channels, village roads and then the first rising ground at the foot of the Taurus Mountains. This is the ordinary Antalya countryside that most resort guests never see, and it is where the tracks begin.
Use the drive to finish anything still outstanding: tie long hair back, tighten a shoelace, move your phone somewhere it cannot fall out of a pocket. If you have brought a change of clothes, leave the bag in the transfer rather than carrying it with you on the trail.
Stage 3: arrival, registration and your kit
At the base you are met, your reservation is checked and the group is sorted out: who wants to drive, who is riding along as a passenger, and which machine goes to whom. Nothing is fixed at this stage, because the compulsory test ride still has to be completed before anyone drives. This is also the moment to speak up if you have doubts. Nobody is pushed onto a quad they would rather not ride, and one passenger rides with each driver. The list the desk works from is also the list that is paid for: everyone who came out on the transfer is on it, driver or passenger, adult or child, and whoever rides along pays half the driver's price. There is no free place, not for a small child and not for someone who only came to watch, and we do not recommend the safari for children under four, because holding on securely for a whole ride is a lot to ask of a child that small.
You are then fitted with a helmet, which is included in the price. Protective goggles are not included; they are sold on site as an optional extra, and on a dry, dusty day they are worth having. Leave anything you do not want coated in dust, such as a camera, a bag or your spare clothes, with your belongings rather than carrying it out onto the trail.
Stage 4: the safety briefing and the compulsory test ride
Before anything moves, your guide gives the safety briefing in a language you understand; our tours run in English, German, Russian and Polish. It covers the controls, how to sit, how to keep your weight over the machine through a turn, how much space to leave in front of you and what to do if you stall or simply want to stop. Ask your questions here. There are no silly ones at this stage, and the briefing is the reason the rest of the ride feels easy.
Then comes the compulsory test ride, which is the part first-timers remember, and it is not a formality: it is the gate that decides who drives. On a marked area away from the trail you start the quad, ride it, brake, turn and get a feel for how quickly it answers you, while the guides watch. No driving licence is needed for any of it, because our route is a private off-road course rather than a public road; what you do need is to be 16 or over and to complete the test ride properly. Whoever does takes their own machine out on the trail. Anyone who does not, or who would simply rather not drive, rides along as a passenger for half the driver's price. If you change your mind out on the test ground, say so before the group sets off.
Stage 5: out on the trail through forest, dust and open terrain
The convoy sets off behind the lead guide, and that is the rhythm for the rest of the ride: follow the line, keep your distance, let the guide set the pace. The first stretch is usually narrow forest track, with pine shade, roots, ruts and enough turns to keep you concentrating. This is where you stop thinking about the controls and start reading the ground ahead of you instead.
Then the trees open out. Dusty tracks, dry riverbed edges and open off-road terrain with room to breathe: this is where the dust mask earns its place and where the tour stops feeling like a lesson. The pace stays inside what the group can manage, nobody is left behind, and if you want the guide to ease off you signal, which is exactly what the hand signals in the briefing are for.
Stage 6: river sections, mud and the rest stop
Where the water level and the ground allow it, the middle of the ride brings the water sections: shallow river crossings where the wheels go through rather than over, spray, wet legs and the noise everybody talks about afterwards. How much water and mud you find depends entirely on conditions. After rain, or where the ground stays soft, there is plenty of it; in a dry spell there is far more dust than mud. We do not promise either, because the countryside is not a film set.
The ride pauses at a scenic stop. Engines off, helmets off, a few minutes to stand still, take in where you have ended up and photograph a group that no longer looks the way it did in the hotel lobby. Cold drinks and snacks are available here and are paid for on the spot; they are not part of the tour price, and no meal is included on either tour. A professional photo and video service is likewise not included in what you pay.
Stage 7: back to base and home to your hotel
The trail loops back to the base, where you hand in your helmet and the group reassembles. There is time to sort yourself out and to swap the story of the crossing you were certain you would not get through, before the transfer takes you back the way you came.
You arrive back at your hotel dusty, pleased with yourself and with the rest of the day still in front of you, which is exactly why the safari sits so comfortably in a day you also want to spend by the pool. Free cancellation applies up to 24 hours before departure, your reservation costs nothing to hold, and you pay in euros on the day of the tour rather than online.
Short Tour or Long Tour, and what a buggy day changes
Both versions of the tour share this entire structure. Nothing about the pickup, the briefing, the test ride or the rest stop changes; what changes is how long you are out on the trail. The Short Tour is 1.5 to 2 hours of riding at €30 per driver and suits anyone testing whether off-road riding is for them, or fitting the safari into a day that already has something else in it. The Long Tour is 2.5 to 3 hours at €38, with more trail between the same landmarks and more time in the terrain that opens up beyond the forest.
A buggy day follows the same running order from hotel door to hotel door. The machine is different, a two-seater you sit in rather than on, and so is the price. If you are still choosing between the two, our complete guide compares them properly, and the what to wear page is worth two minutes before you pack your bag for the day.
- Quad Short Tour: 1.5-2 hours riding, €30 per driver, €15 per passenger
- Quad Long Tour: 2.5-3 hours riding, €38 per driver, €19 per passenger
- Buggy Short Tour: €35 per driver, €17.50 per passenger
- Buggy Long Tour: €43 per driver, €21.50 per passenger
- One passenger rides with each driver, and everyone on the tour pays: no free place for a child, and not recommended for under-fours