Turkish Coffee, Künefe and the Slow Antalya Afternoon

In Antalya the afternoon is not a gap between activities. It is the activity. Between roughly two and five, when the Mediterranean sun makes ruin-walking a poor idea, the city moves into shade and orders something sweet.

The two drinks that matter

Cay — black tea, grown on the Black Sea coast around Rize — is the true national drink, served in small tulip-shaped glasses from a stacked double kettle. It arrives constantly, often unbidden, and refusing it is harder than accepting it. Sugar cubes come on the saucer; the tea is drunk without milk.

Turk kahvesi, Turkish coffee, is the ceremonial one, and UNESCO lists its preparation and social ritual as intangible cultural heritage. Very finely ground coffee is heated in a long-handled cezve and poured, foam and all, into a small cup, with a glass of water and usually a cube of lokum alongside. Order it by sweetness — sade for none, az sekerli for a little, orta for medium, cok sekerli for sweet — and stop drinking when you reach the grounds. Someone will offer to read your fortune in them; it is a game, and it is part of the pleasure.

Look also for menengic kahvesi, made from roasted terebinth berries rather than coffee beans, milky and nutty and entirely caffeine-free.

The sweet counter

• Kunefe: shredded kadayif pastry layered around stretchy unsalted cheese, baked in a copper dish and served hot with syrup and pistachio. Southern Turkey's signature dessert, and the single best reason to sit down in Antalya.
• Baklava: the pistachio versions from Gaziantep set the standard nationally, and good pastry shops in Antalya sell them.
• Dondurma: the stretchy mastic-and-salep ice cream associated with Kahramanmaras, sold with theatrical showmanship along the promenades.
• Tulumba and sekerpare: syrup-soaked, unapologetically sweet, sold by weight.
• Salep: a thick, orchid-root winter drink dusted with cinnamon, for the handful of cool months.

If you arrive hungry earlier in the day, the serpme kahvalti — a Turkish breakfast spread of cheeses, olives, jams, honey with clotted kaymak, eggs and endless bread — will hold you until evening.

Where to sit

Kaleici, the walled old town, has the best of it: courtyard cafés under orange trees, a few tables tucked against Roman walls, and terraces above the old harbour where the mountains sit on the horizon. Walk down towards the marina in the late afternoon and the whole basin turns gold.

For a view without the old-town markup, take the clifftop path to Karaalioglu Park, where benches face open sea beside the Roman-era Hidirlik Tower, and tea sellers work the paths. Republic Square, by the clock tower and the Ataturk statue, is the city's own meeting point rather than a visitor's, which is exactly its appeal. The Konyaalti promenade adds sunset over the Bey Mountains.

Tip: Kunefe is made to order and served genuinely scalding — expect fifteen minutes and let it sit for two. If a place brings it out instantly, it was made earlier, and it will not stretch.