“The Bodrum peninsula is Turkey’s answer to St-Tropez – get ready for glittering marinas, be-seen-in bars, and beaches worth donning oversized shades for.”
The Bodrum Peninsula is where old and new meet in dramatic style. On the one hand, this region – at the southern end of Turkey’s Aegean coast – is home to the battlegrounds, palaces and castles of past empires. On the other, it’s the stomping ground of Turkey’s fashionable set, who flock to its sleek marinas and chic boutiques.
For full-on glamour, head for Bodrum town’s new marina. Along with top restaurants, you’ll find yachts so big they’d eclipse most semi-detached homes. Original features aren’t hard to come by, either, including sugar-cube houses and a huge stone fort.
If it’s beaches you’re after, try next-door Gumbet. It’s got a narrow sand-and-pebble strip, plus, its streets are teeming with bars and clubs. Keep heading west from here and you’ll get to Turgutreis. Backed by rolling mountains and home to a 19-kilometre beach, it’s snowballed from a fishing village into a bubbly harbour town.
Just north of here is Altinkum. The proud owner of a wide, gold-sand bay, it’s an unhurried sort of place, with a traditional Saturday market. Plus, the resort – along with the rest of those along the Bodrum peninsula – is within easy reach of Ephesus. The second biggest ancient site in the world is do-able in a daytrip.
