One of our favourite things to do in Antalya is the Friday market. As you can probably guess it's on every Friday in town (Address: Çaybaşı, 07100 Muratpaşa/Antalya) if you pop in "Friday Market" to Google Maps it should come up!
The produce and variety are incredible, literally everything you could think of needing, they have it, plenty of it, and multiple shops and options for the same items making it super fresh, affordable and plentiful. Doing our grocery shop here makes a huge difference because inflation is so high in Turkiye right now, even buying fresh produce from the supermarket feels expensive.
We drive in the morning and get there at about 9am. Google Maps says it doesn't open until 11 but we have been getting there at 9ish and while some stores are still setting up we can still grab everything we need. We prefer getting there early because there is more street parking, it's not busy and it's easy to walk through and grab what you need. We have been in the afternoon and it was quite loud and busy, a much more pleasant trip with a toddler in the morning!
We grab and bag what we need, a couple of peppers here and a handful of bananas there. Sometimes they chuck in one or two things extra on the scales - don't worry about it, they are just making up the weight to 500g or 1kg. We recommend having small money on you, if we have to break a 100 or 200 lira bill sometimes the stalls struggle to give change.
What we collected this week and the cost is below!
This is in March just to keep in mind, some things may be seasonal. I know oranges are going mad at the moment which is probably why they are so cheap! 15 lira per kg (70c). They are the juiciest yummiest oranges I think I have ever eaten too.
2 x eggplant 20tl ($1)
1ķg tomato 40tl ($2)
2kg orange 30tl ($1.50)
2kg banana 100tl ($5)
Strawberry (large plastic tub) 120tl ($6)
500g mushroom 40tl ($2)
1kg Cucumber 80tl ($4)
1kg Potato 15tl (80c)
Garlic 20tl ($1)
700g onion 110tl ($5)
Olives (few big scoops in a bag) 76tl ($3.50)
8 x huge wraps 54tl ($2)
700g Turkish sausage 80tl ($4)
Cheese 400g 120tl ($6)
800g Peppers 50tl ($2.50)
500g Nut mix 225l ($11)
Eggs 100tl ($5)
~ 13kg of food!
1,300lira, $61AUD!
So for the week we brought about 13kg of food for $61 which is just wild, a shop like this in Australia probably would have cost us a couple hundred dollars!
As always, prices probably vary a bit, some places show prices some don't, you might pay a bit more here but have a win over there. For us it's still a massive win overall so we don't sweat the minor price differences between some stalls!
Also! We have friends in Alanya (2h drive west along the coast) they have a market but it's not as good and a bit more expensive! We did attempt the daily market style set up down the main Bazar in Istanbul but it was chaotic and far too stressful with the baby. Antalya market is by far the best!
Some supermarkets are very close; you can grab any pantry staples while you're out and about. There's also a park so the toddlers can burn some energy before the drive home!
Antalya Friday Market, 11/10, we will keep returning!
Til next time,
R
WHAT A DEAL!!!!! MARKETS FTW!!! Look at them dang strawberries! Oi take me here! Cav xo