May 2024 Update
Upon entering museums and sites in Türkiye run by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, tourists may purchase a Museum Pass. You can also purchase a mobile pass on the website. For the price of 90 Euro, you can get a Museum Pass for the Mediterranean area; it covers one 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.)
If you plan on traveling to other parts of Türkiye, you can purchase a Türkiye-wide pass for 165 Euro that covers one 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 and continue to rise, 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 current (as of May 2024) list of the costs of some of the major attractions in Antalya:
Perge: 11 Euro
Aspendos: 15 Euro
Phaselis: 10 Euro
Antalya Archaeological Museum: 15 Euro
Olympos:10 Euro
Termessos:3 Euro
Myra:13 Euro
Patara:15 Euro
Side Theatre:17 Euro
To visit all nine of the above sites, it would cost 109 Euro. Honestly, in seven days, you would be pushing yourself to make the 90 Euro Museum Pass worthwhile.
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: Unfortunately, as of March 2024, it appears foreigners living in Türkiye with TC numbers and residence visas are no longer able to purchase museum cards at the local price. Passes purchased prior to January 1 seem to still work at most places, but when they expire they cannot be renewed
We are deeply saddened by this and hope in the future there might be a middle ground for foreign residents that allows us to purchase an annual pass at a higher rate. In the meantime, if you would like to join in with the mass of foreign residents sending their concerns about this new policy, you can send an email here: alo176@ktb.gov.tr
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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. […]