Where you actually ride: inland at Aspendos, west of Side
The riding does not happen in Side, and that is the first thing worth being clear about. Our course is inland at Aspendos, west of you along the same coast, in open countryside at the foot of the Taurus Mountains. It is private off-road ground rather than a public road: shallow river sections, dusty forest tracks, rough open terrain, and mud when the ground holds enough water. Nobody rides out there from a Side hotel under their own steam. You are collected, driven west, briefed, handed a machine and sent onto the course with a guide, then brought back the same way.
So this is a drive away from the resort, and we are not going to dress that up as something else. We have never measured the run between Side and the base, so you will find no distance and no drive time anywhere on this page — publishing a figure we cannot stand behind would be worse than leaving it out. What we will put in writing is that the round-trip transfer is included in the price, that no pickup surcharge is added for Side, and that you ride our own course, further west.
Who the drive west is worth it for
It suits people who would rather choose the ride than take the one they are handed. You pick between a short ride of one and a half to two hours in the saddle and a long one of two and a half to three hours, and between a quad (ATV) and a two-seater buggy. Four combinations, four prices, all of it decided before you book rather than at the counter.
It suits couples and pairs, because only the person at the wheel pays the full fare — whoever rides along pays exactly half, on either machine. It suits families with a teenager, because drivers start at 16 and a sixteen-year-old drives their own machine rather than sitting behind an adult. And it suits complete beginners, because nobody is put on a machine on trust: every driver takes a compulsory test ride at the base first, and anyone who does not pass it, or simply decides they would rather not drive, comes along as a half-price passenger and keeps their place in the group.
It is a poor fit if the shortest possible transfer is what matters most to you. Side sits at the eastern end of the belt we cover and our base is further west again, so you spend more of the four hours in a vehicle than a guest staying in Belek does. We would rather say that here than let you discover it on the morning of the tour.
Two machines, two ride lengths, four prices
The price is per driver and it is the whole tour price: the machine and its fuel, the guide, the helmet, the round-trip transfer from your hotel in Side, and the programme itself. Nothing is added on top for the pickup, and the total you are quoted is the total you hand over at the base.
There is no child tier to work out either, and no free seat for anyone. Everybody who gets into the transfer and comes out to the course is paid for, whatever their age, and whether they drive, ride along or only come to watch. Whoever takes the wheel pays the driver price and whoever sits beside or behind them pays half of it — that half is the only reduction on this page. The passenger fares are literal halves, which is why the short buggy passenger is €17.50 rather than a tidied-up €18. Count the people leaving your hotel and you have your total.
- Quad, short ride (1.5–2 hours riding) — €30 per driver
- Quad, long ride (2.5–3 hours riding) — €38 per driver
- Buggy, short ride (1.5–2 hours riding) — €35 per driver
- Buggy, long ride (2.5–3 hours riding) — €43 per driver
- Passenger riding along instead of driving — exactly half: €15, €19, €17.50 and €21.50 in the same order
- Nobody rides free — every person who comes along is paid for, at the driver rate or the passenger rate
The transfer from Side is included, and your time follows the booking
Round-trip hotel pickup and drop-off from Side is included in the price. There is no transfer surcharge for Side and there is nothing to negotiate on the day. The same holds along the rest of the coast we cover — Manavgat, Evrenseki, Kumköy, Çolaklı, Gündoğdu and Kızılot to the east of you, and Boğazkent, Belek, Kadriye, Kundu, Lara, Antalya, Muratpaşa and Konyaaltı to the west.
We run two sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. What we will not do is print a clock time for Side. Average pickup times are published only for the resort areas that have actually been timed, and Side is not one of them; taking a neighbouring area's average and putting your hotel's name beside it would be an invention, however convenient it looks on a page. Your own time is confirmed to you after you book, once we know which hotel we are coming to.
- Round-trip transfer from Side is included in the price — no pickup surcharge is added
- Two sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon
- No average pickup time is published for Side — yours is confirmed after you book
- Tell us your hotel name in Side, your date, and how many of you want to drive
- If your hotel sits outside the regions listed above, write to us on WhatsApp and we will answer honestly
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure
How long you are away from your hotel in Side
Plan on roughly four to four and a half hours door to door. That covers the transfer out, the briefing, the test ride, the riding itself and the journey home, and it is the same window whether you take the short ride or the long one — the long one simply spends more of it on the machine. Exact timings shift with where your hotel sits and with the day's transfer schedule, which is the honest reason we do not publish a departure time for your area.
It is a half day rather than a full one. An afternoon session leaves your morning on the beach untouched; a morning session has you back with the rest of the day still in front of you.
What happens once you reach the base
The sequence is the same for everyone. You arrive, meet the guide and listen to the safety briefing, then you are handed a helmet. Next comes the compulsory test ride, a short supervised run that settles who takes the wheel. After that the group heads out onto the course: shallow river sections, forest tracks under the pines, open ground where you can let the machine stretch a little, and a rest stop partway where drinks and snacks are on sale. Then it is back to the base and into the vehicle for the return run to Side.
Two honest notes about the ground. Dust is a certainty — that is exactly what the mask is for, and it is why we tell you to wear clothes you do not care about. Mud and water are not a promise: the river sections are part of the route, but how wet and how deep they run depends on conditions on the day, and we would rather under-sell that than show you a photograph we cannot reproduce for you.
Who can drive, and what the test ride decides
No driving licence is required, and the reason travels with the claim: the route is a private off-road course rather than a public road, so it is not judged like road driving. Drivers must be 16 or over and should carry ID — the ID is an age check and nothing more. Sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds drive their own machine.
Every driver then takes a compulsory test ride before the tour starts. It is a short supervised run at the base and it is not a formality: whoever completes it successfully drives, and whoever does not, or would simply rather not, rides along as a passenger at half the driver's price. Nobody is pushed onto a machine they are uneasy about, and nobody is left behind for it.
Both machines seat two, so the rule is one passenger per driver. The buggy is a genuine two-seater with your passenger beside you; on a quad the passenger sits behind. There is no minimum age for that second seat, but we do not recommend it for a child under four: holding on for the length of the ride is hard for small arms, and the ground is rough by design. If a younger child comes anyway, they come as a passenger and the passenger fare applies — there is no free place on either machine.
The tour is not recommended for pregnant guests or for anyone with back or neck problems, because the ground is rough by design. A helmet and liability insurance for the activity are part of the price. Protective goggles are not: they are sold at the base as an optional extra, and we do not quote a figure for them here because the price is set there.
What the price covers
Everything you need in order to ride is included:
- An experienced guide and the full safety briefing
- Round-trip hotel transfer, included in the price from Side and from the rest of the coast we cover
- The machine itself, fuelled and ready — quad or buggy
- A helmet
- Liability insurance for the activity
Practical notes, and how booking from Side works
The list of things the price does not cover is short and worth reading. Protective goggles are an optional extra sold at the base. Photo and video services are extra. Drinks and snacks at the rest stop are paid for there. Tips are yours to decide.
Booking is deliberately low-commitment. Reserving online creates a real reservation and takes no card details and no prepayment; you pay in euros on the day of the tour. It is not an instant confirmation, though, and we will not pretend otherwise: your reservation is saved and a person then confirms your pickup arrangement with you. The earliest date you can book is tomorrow — for a ride today, write to us on WhatsApp at +90 536 603 75 84 instead. Cancelling is free up to 24 hours before departure, so booking early costs you nothing and holds your machine.
You will find no star ratings, no review counts and no awards on this site, because none of them would be real. What we can put in front of a guest in Side is the operational detail on this page: where the course actually is, four prices instead of one, the half-price passenger rule, the driving rule with its reason, what is in the price and what is not, and a transfer that is included rather than haggled over. Judge it on that.
- Wear old or comfortable clothes — dust is certain, mud depends on conditions
- Closed shoes only; flip-flops and slippers do not work on these machines
- Bring sunglasses, sunscreen and a change of clothes for afterwards
- Goggles are on sale at the base if you want more protection than the dust mask alone gives
- No card is taken online and nothing is charged before the tour
- The earliest bookable date is tomorrow; for a same-day ride, use WhatsApp
- This site and the booking form run in English, German, Russian and Polish