Although it stands almost on the doorstep of ancient Perge and Aspendos, Belek is actually a pristine purpose-built resort, founded in the 1980s specifically to feed the golf and luxury market. There are some cheaper apartments and smaller hotels inland and in the nearby village of Kadriye, but the bulk of the resort is made up of a string of extremely classy four- and five-star de luxe hotels, many of which are all-inclusive and leave no room for the development of any local infrastructure. People come here to chill and play in luxury; experiencing the local culture is low down the list of priorities.
Belek tends to attract a rather strangely mixed and very moneyed crowd - golf fanatics, wealthy families, footballers and their hangers-on, birders and botanists...
Belek is 35km (22 miles) east of Antalya, on the south coast of Turkey. The resort stretches along a flat coastal plain, with the backdrop of the Taurus Mountains a few kilometres inland.
Belek has one of the finest beaches on the Turkish coast, 16kms (10 miles) of pristine, fine white sand fringed by shady pines and gently sloping down to limpid turquoise waters. A perfect playground for children, it is also a popular nesting place for loggerhead and green turtles, so the area is carefully policed to ensure that the nesting sites are not damaged. The beach is public but is treated as private by the resorts that line up behind the dunes. Most of them offer a range of watersports from pedalos to dinghy sailing and parasailing for their guests.
Belek was built on golf. So far it has 10 championship level golf courses with another 10 due for construction in the next few years. This brings in golf fanatics from across the world. The resort also has world-class football facilities that attract A-list European teams for training camps and a fine tennis school. Somewhat bizarrely, all this greenery has also made it a fabulous birding and wild flower centre. Most of the resorts offer a wide range of sports and spa facilities. There is virtually nothing on offer outside the hotels.
The sandy beach is ideal for children and there are gentle watersports on offer along with land-based activities such as riding, cycling and tennis. Most of the larger resorts offer excellent family facilities and kids' clubs. The Troy Aquapark & Dolphinarium provides the usual range of rides and slides and offers the opportunity to swim with its resident dolphins.