Do you need cash on a jeep safari in Side, and what for
This is not the price page. That one exists, it does its job, and it owns the question of what each tour costs and why. This page starts one step later, on the morning you are standing at the hotel gate with a bag, wondering how much to put in it.
The honest summary is that the day is mostly prepaid in the sense that lunch, the jeep, the driver, the guiding and the transfers are settled by the tour price, and everything that is optional is not. Nothing on the list below is a surprise charge; every one of them is something you choose on the day.
The fare itself: euros, on the day, nothing online
Reserving costs you nothing at all. No deposit is taken, no card number is asked for, and there is no online payment step to complete — the tour is paid in euros on the day, and free cancellation runs until 24 hours before departure.
We are deliberately not repeating the adult and child fares in this paragraph. They live on the tour page and in the booking panel, which is where a number belongs when it can change; a figure typed into an article is right until the morning it quietly is not. Check it there, then read the rest of this page for everything the fare does not cover.
The one extra whose price is ours to set: the Green Lake boat hour
The optional boat trip on Green Lake is one hour, and it is paid on the day like everything else on this list. It is the only extra on the whole route whose price is ours to set, which is why it is the only one carried on the tour page rather than on somebody else's till.
It comes after lunch, it is genuinely optional, and it needs no arranging in advance — you decide when the day gets there. Whether it is worth the hour is a question the boat-or-no-boat guide answers properly; for your wallet, take the per-person figure off the tour page before you leave and carry it in case.
The Manavgat Waterfall entrance: a number we will not print
The waterfall stop is programme-dependent rather than promised, and when it happens the entrance is paid at the gate. We do not publish a figure for it, and the reason is simple: it is not our ticket. We do not set that price, we do not collect it, and we would be quoting somebody else's number that can change without telling us.
So the honest instruction is to carry enough for an entrance fee for everyone in your party, and to treat the stop itself as possible rather than guaranteed. The page about the waterfall on the jeep safari goes into what the stop is like when it does happen.
The zoo ticket, if you booked the other jeep safari
There are two full-day jeep safaris on this site. The classic Taurus mountain route does not stop at a zoo. The second route does, and there the ticket is not included and is paid on site.
We do not publish that ticket price either, for the same reason as the waterfall: it is charged by somebody else. If you have booked the route with the zoo stop, budget for the tickets for your party and pay them there. If you have booked the classic route, this line does not apply to you at all — and the page on the zoo and the animals sets out which day is which.
Drinks, all day
Lunch at the lakeside restaurant is included; drinks are not, at lunch or anywhere else. On a long day in open jeeps this is the item most people underestimate, because it is not one purchase — it is a small one at the village stop, another at lunch, another on the way home.
The lunch guide covers what the meal itself is like. For budgeting purposes, count drinks per person per stop rather than per day and you will be closer to right.
Photographs from the tour team
The tour team takes photographs and video through the day, and they are not included in the price. Nobody is obliged to buy them and nobody will be awkward about it if you do not.
It is worth deciding as a group before you go, because the decision usually gets made in the last twenty minutes of the day when everybody is tired and agreeable. If you already know you want them, carry the cash for it; if you already know you do not, you have one less thing to think about.
The village stop, and small spending
The route breaks at Oymapınar village for a swim, with freshly made Turkish pancakes and a drink as part of the stop. What is not part of it is anything else you buy there, from a village stall or a small shop, and those purchases are cash by nature.
This is the pleasant end of the list. Small notes are more useful than large ones here, and a note that is too big for a stall is not really money for the purpose of the day.
What the fare has already settled
Worth listing, so you do not budget twice for something that is already covered:
- Hotel pickup and drop-off from Side and the surrounding resort areas
- The full-day safari in 8 to 10 seat 4x4 vehicles with professional drivers
- Lunch at the lakeside restaurant by the Green Canyon
- Guiding throughout the day
- The swim stop at the village, with pancakes and a drink as part of the stop
So how much cash, in the end
Bring euros in cash, enough for the fare for your party plus the optional boat hour for anyone who wants it, plus the entrance if the waterfall is on your programme, plus drinks, plus whatever you have decided about photographs and the zoo ticket if that is your route. Then add a little on top, because the one thing worse than carrying too much is being the person at the swim stop who cannot buy a bottle of water.
What you will not need is a card, a currency exchange stop or a plan. There is no online payment, no prepayment and no hidden charge on this day — only a short list of optional things, each of which you say yes or no to when you get there.