Water has a long memory. This summer the Aegean was like a warm bath, and even now there is a good chance that it is still well into the low twenties on the Bodrum peninsula. Thirty-odd years ago this knobble on the knee of southwestern Turkey was still remote enough to be a haunt for travellers and yachties.
These days, however, it has become the Turkish Monaco, with extensive nightlife, designer shops and an increasing number of exclusive boutique hotels. Its fabulous harbour, jammed with wooden gulet sailing boats, usually also hosts a cruise liner or two, moored beneath the walls of the Castle of St Peter. And the surrounding hills are patched with blue pools and braided with new villa developments. Gumbet, the bay adjacent to that of Bodrum, is the place to seek out something more affordable, particularly for anyone thinking of self-catering, which helps to make the most of the favourable exchange rate and relatively low cost of living.
In the steep hills not far from the lively nightlife scene of Gumbet, less than an hour’s drive from the airport, you’ll find the Zera Bodrum, a small family-run block of apartments with kitchenettes, as well as an on-site restaurant. The Zera has modern rooms, a good-sized pool with a bar and sunloungers and is a five-minute walk from a long sandy beach. And in mid-October you can have a week there for £320.
For a change of scene rent a car for a foray beyond the town and into the nearby hills, where life will suddenly seem very different. The landscape is spectacularly craggy and quite arid, dotted with villages built many centuries ago, far from piratical raids launched from the Greek islands visible offshore. Here there are elderly ladies bent into the quarter-to-six position tending their cactus gardens.
Or stick to the waterside and head to Gumusluk, a sheltered natural harbour ten miles from Gumbet, on the western edge of the peninsula (less than £1 by shared public minibus; bodrumdolmus.com). Despite the rapid development elsewhere, this remains a hangout for local people and has a welcoming, laid-back ambience. Small pensions covered with bougainvillea stand at the water’s edge, interspersed with relaxed cafés where you can feast on mezze of mushrooms, aubergines, pine nuts, hummus, fava beans, anchovies and octopus.
You can also rent a pedalo in Gumusluk and snorkel from it over the ruins of the ancient Greek settlement of Myndos, at the harbour entrance. Or wade out along a short submerged causeway to Rabbit Island, which as its name suggests has a thriving population of the long-eared and cotton-tailed.
In the evening Gumusluk’s waterfront cafés are favoured haunts of Bodrum sophisticates, who drive here for an aperitif before their serious nightlife gets under way.
• Europe’s most affordable spot for late summer sun
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What you get for your £320pp
The Zera is a five-minute walk from a long sandy beach
• Return Gatwick-Bodrum flights, departing on October 14
• 20kg hold luggage
• Coach transfer
• Seven nights’ self-catering for two at the Zera Bodrum (tui.co.uk)
Feeling flush?
The £700 holiday
The Diamond of Bodrum has three pools
Prefer something with all the bells and whistles right in the action? The Diamond of Bodrum is all that. This 219-room all-inclusive stands on the beach, with a commanding view of comings and goings at the harbour. Its architecture gives it the feel of a traditional village, but the rooms are boutique in style and almost all have a sea view. Also on site there are three restaurants and three bars, three pools and a spa and wellness centre. Downtown is a ten-minute stroll away.
Details Seven nights’ all-inclusive from £657pp, including flights and transfers, departing on October 13 (jet2holidays.com)
The £1,200 holiday
Club Med Bodrum Palmiye has a private beach
Presiding over its own little peninsula, seven miles southeast along the shore from Bodrum, the Club Med Bodrum Palmiye is where the fit and the young at heart concentrate on their quest for health and beauty then order some Franco-Turkish cuisine before the evening cabaret. Its rooms are in dazzling white bungalows spread out down flower-lined paths, among pines and palm trees. The resort also has a private beach and a sailboat fleet, as well as Pilates and fitness classes, tennis and mini soccer sessions and more — all included.
Details Five nights’ all-inclusive from £1,232pp, including flights and transfers, departing on October 8 (clubmed.co.uk)
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