We drove slowly through the Pontic Mountains to reach the Black Sea coast. We arrived late in the busy town of Ünye, and we couldn’t find any suitable parking place near the center. It was getting dark, so we decided to overnight at Shell. The history of Ünye goes back to the Hittite...
Our next stop was Kızkalesi, where we visited its fortress rising from an island 250m offshore. Kızkalesi Castle (🎫 20 TRY) has mosaics of birds and trees in the central courtyard, where there are the remains of two chapels side by side and a vaulted gallery with 13 arches. The castle was...
We spend an hour at the little village Narlıkuyu, built around a placid cove lined with seafood restaurants. A Roman benefactor, Poimenios, built a bathhouse here in the 300s AD. A small museum on the village square houses its mosaics of the Three Graces Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosine...
Antalya, a city, and the Mediterranean Sea port in southwestern Turkey, is situated on the Gulf of Antalya. Ancient Greek Attalia was founded as a seaport in the 2nd century BC by Attalus II Philadelphus, a king of Pergamum. It was bequeathed to the Romans by his successor, Attalus III...
We had a great afternoon at beautiful 18 kilometers long sand beach backed by large sand dunes. It is one of Turkey’s best beaches and due to its length, it´s never crowded. Sunshades and loungers can be rented and there are also some shops and a café. Depending on the season, parts...
Akyaka is a seaside town that is located in southwestern Turkey at the edge of the Datca peninsula along the Aegean Sea. It is popular for its laidback lifestyle and natural beauty. Akyaka was the second town in Turkey to join the “Cittaslow” (slow city) movement and has resisted...
Beaches, boutique hotels, trendy restaurants, and clubs – this is the Bodrum – summer destination in southwestern Turkey at the northern end of the Gulf of Kerme of the Aegean Sea. More than any other Turkish seaside getaway, it has an enigmatic elegance that pervades it, from the...
One of the quieter alternatives to the rumbling Bodrum city center is the Gümüşlük bay. Despite the glaringly visible inroads of modern tourism, tradition and tranquillity are partially preserved by local open-air vegetable markets and the rugged coastline, overlooked by scarcely...
To our surprise, one day at the resort town of Alaçatı, some 10km southeast of Çeşme, became our most expensive day in Turkey. The Greeks originally founded Alaçatı in the 17th century. After the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars, Ottoman Muslim refugees fled to the western coast...
We took a cheap ferry (3,85 TRY with Istanbul Card) to the islands, which most İstanbullus refer to as the Princes’ Islands. The slow ferry goes around 1,5 hours to the largest and most popular Büyükada island, which is Iying 20 kilometers southeast of the city in the Sea of Marmara...