One question decides it: do you want to drive?
Strip everything else away and the jeep-or-quad choice in Side comes down to a single question: do you want to hold the controls, or do you want to be driven? On the jeep safari, guests never drive. Every 4x4 carries eight to ten guests and a professional driver, the vehicles travel as a convoy rather than alone, and your whole job for eight hours is to sit, look and hold on over the bumps. On a quad, you are the driver — the machine responds to your hands, and the ride is only as good as your control of it.
Neither answer is wrong, but they produce two very different days, and picking the one that does not suit your group is what turns a good day into a long one. The rest of this page pulls the two apart honestly: we sell the jeep day, we do not sell a quad day, and we price only what we sell.
The jeep safari: a full mountain day that someone else drives
The full-day tour runs eight hours through the Taurus Mountains at EUR 20 per adult and EUR 10 per child aged 4 to 12, with infants of 0 to 3 travelling free; lunch at a lakeside restaurant and hotel pickup and drop-off from Side and the surrounding resort areas are included. The convoy leaves the asphalt at an old Roman bridge, crosses dry riverbeds on the off-road sections, and threads orchards, ancient Roman aqueducts, the Oymapınar Dam and a viewpoint above Green Canyon, with a swim stop and freshly made Turkish pancakes in Oymapınar village along the way.
After lunch there is an optional one-hour boat trip on Green Lake at EUR 5 per person, paid on the day, which brings the day to EUR 25 per adult. For the stop-by-stop version, the complete guide to the Side jeep safari walks the whole day in order; when you are ready, book the full-day Side jeep safari with lunch and hotel pickup included and pay nothing until the tour day.
- EUR 20 per adult, EUR 10 per child aged 4-12, infants 0-3 free
- Eight hours, hotel pickup and drop-off included
- Lunch at a lakeside restaurant included; the Green Lake boat hour is an optional EUR 5 per person on the day
- Open-top 4x4s with eight to ten guests and a professional driver, travelling in convoy
The quad safari: a machine you master, not a route you follow
A quad day is built the other way round. The machine is the attraction: you grip the handlebars, pick your own line, and the track exists to give the machine something to do. Programmes differ from one operator to the next, so we will not put a length or a route on somebody else's day here — but the shape of it is clear enough. A quad day rewards exactly the thing the jeep removes, the work of driving, instead of wrapping an eight-hour itinerary and a lakeside lunch around you.
We do not sell quad tours on this site, so you will find no quad price and no operator names here — inventing either would make the comparison dishonest. The one place a quad touches our own programmes is the Evrenseki rafting and jeep combo, which lists an optional quad safari that is not included in the tour price. And who drives a quad is a question of skill: whoever can handle a machine confidently on loose ground drives it, and anyone who would not be comfortable doing that is better off in a vehicle somebody else is driving.
What each day feels like from the seat
From the jeep bench the scenery does the work: orchards, riverbeds, aqueducts, the dam, the canyon viewpoint — the view keeps changing while your hands stay free for a camera. In summer the jeeps run open-top, so expect sun, wind, some dust and the water fights between jeeps; in winter the convoy switches to covered jeeps and the water games stop. The tracks are bumpy in places, which is part of the fun, but mention back or neck problems before boarding.
From a quad saddle the day narrows to the track ahead: your eyes stay on the ground you are about to cross and your hands stay on the controls, so the scenery is something you glance at between corners. Either way, summer clothing takes a beating — what to wear and bring on a jeep safari covers the practical side, from footwear to what the water fights mean for your phone.
The verdict, traveller by traveller
These are the dividing lines we can defend, all of them anchored in what we can state about our own tour. Families comparing the fine print will find the full picture in how the jeep day works with children and families.
- Families with children aged 4 to 12: the jeep. Children ride at EUR 10, infants of 0 to 3 go free, lunch is included, and nobody in the family has to drive anything
- Couples where both want throttle time: the quad day is the one actually built around driving — the jeep will feel like a tour, because it is one
- Mixed groups of drivers and non-drivers: the jeep keeps everyone in the same vehicle with the same view; a day built around driving splits the group by who wants to hold the controls
- Anyone with back or neck concerns: tell us before boarding the jeep, and think hard before taking on loose-ground driving yourself
- Photographers: the jeep, without question — your hands are free all day
- Guests who cannot spare a full day: not the jeep — the safari is an eight-hour commitment, so a half-free day needs something shorter
If safety is your tiebreaker
We can only speak precisely about our own day: on the jeep safari a professional driver holds the wheel of every vehicle, the jeeps travel in convoy rather than alone, and guests are never handed the controls. On a quad the machine does what your hands tell it to, so the honest rule is skill-based — confidence on loose ground is the qualification that matters.
If risk rather than driving is the deciding question, our page on the safety rules behind the jeep day goes through the vehicles, the drivers and the rules in detail instead of waving at them.
Booking the jeep day — and where a quad still fits
Reservation is free: no prepayment, no card taken online, and you pay in euros on the day of the tour, with free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure. Pickup is in the morning, after breakfast time, the meeting point is the main entrance gate of your hotel, and guiding runs in English, German and Russian alongside Turkish.
And if your shortlist is still longer than two, the four-way comparison of jeep, quad, buggy and rafting lines every option up on one page. Choosing the jeep day does not rule a quad out for life — a week in Side has room for both, and they compete less than they appear to.
- Free reservation, no prepayment, payment in euros on the day
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure
- Meeting point: the main entrance gate of your hotel
- Guiding in English, German and Russian, plus Turkish