
May 2023 Update
Upon entering museums and sites in Turkey run by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, tourists may purchase a Museum Pass. For the price of 1700TL, you can get a Museum Pass for the Mediterranean area; it covers unlimited entrance to more than forty museums and archaeological sites in Antalya, Mersin, Adana, and Denizli for seven days (starting the first time you use the pass.) The Museum Pass also gets you a 10% discount on souvenirs in official gift shops, as well as on food at snack bars/cafes inside museums and sites.
If you plan on traveling to other parts of Turkey, you can purchase a Turkey-wide pass for 2500TL that covers entrance to over 300 museums and archaeological sites for 15 days.
While it seems like it might make sense to go this route since prices have quadrupled or more in the last year, we still think you are better off just paying the entry price at each place unless your sole purpose for being here is to see every museum and archaeological site possible. If you are not doing extensive traveling and visiting at least one or two sites a day, the Museum Pass is not going to save you much money as you can see below.
Here is a list of the costs of some of the major attractions in Antalya:
Perge: 200TL
Aspendos: 200TL
Phaselis: 180TL
Antalya Archaeological Museum: 200TL
Olympos:180TL
Termessos:50TL
Myra:180TL
Patara:200TL
Side Theatre:180TL
To get an even better idea whether either pass is worth it for you, you can see the current prices for most museums and sites on the Museum Pass website.
Side note: If you are a foreigner living in Turkey and have a TC number, you should be able to get a museum card by showing your current resident permit/ikamet at a sales office.
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[…] Most of what you see at Side are remnants from between 1st century B.C. to 3rd century A.D. During the Roman period, Side was known as the slave trade capital of the Mediterranean, which provided the wealth necessary to build the theatre, Roman baths, Nymphaeum, colonnaded streets, agora, library, and monumental gate, all of which you can see signs of today. There are separate entry fees for the museum and the theatre, so if you plan to visit multiple sites in addition to Ancient Side, look into the Museum Card. […]