Bodrum: the most glamorous hangout in the Mediterranean

The afternoon sun slants low, hazy as a dream, and paints the water gold. Out in the stillness of the bay a group of girls and boys swim, heads slick as seals, their laughter skipping over the sea like a song. It is known as the Turquoise Coast but here, where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean, the colour of the sea is capricious as the shifting sky.

The sea informs everything in Bodrum. This place only really makes sense from the water. Turkey’s jagged south-west does not lend itself to sweeping corniches, its evergreen peninsulas stretching out into the inky waters towards the Greek islands a couple of miles away. Its seafaring people lived around its edges, in disconnected fishing villages which, even now on Bodrum’s sleepier neighbours of Bozburun and Datça, are only accessible from the sea. Well-groomed Bodrum also keeps secrets: fragments of islands too small to name, hidden coves where you drop anchor to swim in lagoons or come ashore for lunch at beach restaurants.

Bodrum’s stars aligned almost 100 years ago when a writer – an aristocrat from Istanbul called Cevat Sakir Kabaa˘gaçli – was exiled here for three years. In a hut! On a beach! He fell in love, of course, and stayed for three decades. The local sponge divers showed him the underwater treasures. As the Fisherman of Halicarnassus, he wrote about Homer’s land of eternal blue with its submerged cities, its imprints of Greeks and Romans, of saints and apostles, of Antony and Cleopatra. His idea of the Blue Voyage brought all Istanbul society to Bodrum, to spend summers sailing gulets along the fragrant coast.

In the 1970s Bodrum emerged as the most glamorous spot in Turkey. And now, in pale-mineral Göltürkbükü bay, the waterside decks shine with oiled limbs lying cheek by jowl like a backgammon board. Hard to believe that a couple of years ago Europeans and Americans had all but stopped holidaying on the Turkish Riviera. It hasn’t taken long to recover. ‘People have short memories when the offering is this good,’ says Sahir Erozan, the owner of the hotel Maçakizi, surveying all the buzz and beauty with a fiendish grin.

It’s true. Bodrum was back with a bang in 2019, booming like never before, all aflutter with sleek openings which manicured great swathes of the peninsula into next-level hotels. Old favourites have been revived; Nicolas Sarkozy was among those holing up in the sexy and secluded Amanruya. The enlarged Yalikavak Marina is deep and glitzy enough to accommodate superyachts with Monets and Rothkos on board.

Among the newcomers is the Bodrum Edition, importing Ian Schrager’s trademark all-white minimalism and knock-out proportions, along with the star chef Diego Muñoz from Peru, soft sand on the beach where children splash about on paddleboards, and Balearic house music. Its bar, Discetto, has a giant pink disco ball.

Across the water on the mainland, an altogether more grown-up crowd drink cocktails from copper cups at Kaplankaya’s Anhinga beach bar. Rising up from the shore into a scrub of pistachio and olive trees, Kaplankaya is not just a hotel, but an entire new town: a turbo- smart hideout on a wildly ambitious scale, with one modernist Six Senses hotel and destination spa, and three more hotels in the offing (Cheval Blanc is confirmed) plus a marina by Foster & Partners.

Kaplankaya’s creator, Burak Oymen, spent hot, happy summers here as a child in the 1980s, his parents part of that Turkish intelligentsia lured by the Fisherman’s tales. Like Bodrum, Burak grew up and made his fortune; and with it bought a stretch of empty land. ‘I wanted to recreate the Bodrum of my childhood,’ he says. Such is the power of nostalgia. It started simply, he and his girl Tereza living in a beach hut, not in exile but in love. If they wanted civilisation, they took their boat across the bay for lunch at Maçakizi, the trade winds in their sails.

Maçakizi has encapsulated the spirit of Bodrum since it was opened in 1975 by Sahir Erozan’s mother. It is authentically Turkish yet completely international, pretty yet progressive, barefoot and sexy as hell. Whitewashed suites tumble down the hillside among oleander and palms; then deck after deck for eating and drinking and dancing, all the way to the sea. Sahir is invariably found in the thick of things, telling stories. He throws the kind of parties that get out of hand. ‘You know – you tell two girls, they tell 88 people.’ Guests waft around, brown skinned and beautiful with absurdly tiny waists. Kate Moss, so the story goes, checked out of nearby detox retreat LifeCo early and came straight to Maçakizi.

People dance here all hours of the day, ebbing and flowing with the rhythm of the tides. It looks artfully effortless, but don’t be fooled: this is a slick operation. Sahir spends his winters travelling the world for inspiration and rebuilding – last year adding a new beach club and state-of-the-art outdoor kitchen.

‘Good, simple food like my mama used to make,’ insists Sahir, when the dishes arrive. His mother – whose picture is in every room – must be a sensation in the kitchen, because this is no down-home cooking; it is accomplished and worldly wise, joy after jewel-coloured joy. Chargrilled octopus, its fat tentacle curled into a question mark, suckers like trumpet keys, comes with lentil cream and coconut vinaigrette. There’s sunchoke and purslane, roasted aubergine and stuffed vine leaves, and heavenly salads with spice.

Forget your plans. Lunch lasts all afternoon. By the end of it I am three hours late and three too many sheets to the wind to drive wherever it was I was supposed to be going. What fool drives here, anyway? ‘The important thing is never to stop at stop signs,’ says Sahir. ‘Because if you do the person behind will crash into the back of you.’ Luckily, Sahir has a boat. Someone in Bodrum always has a boat.

Like the sponge divers of Bodrum past, restaurant owner Çağlar Bozçağa still swims for his supper. Even this morning, with a broken leg, he slipped off the plaster cast to free-dive 25 metres down and pluck urchins from the sea bed as though it were an underwater larder. Whatever he does not slice open and eat raw for lunch on his boat, he serves in his restaurant, Orfoz. It is found on an unlikely side street of Bodrum City, where bergamot trees planted by the Fisherman of Halicarnassus shade the whitewashed buildings, next to a statue of the cross-dressing singer Zeki Müren. Beneath the bougainvillaea Caglar is clattering around on crutches, balancing plates of meze and pouring homemade wine from bottles scribbled with ‘Chardonnay’ and ‘Shiraz’ in marker pen.

It all looks unassuming, but what he serves is a bold adventure in seafood. Grouper soup is followed by morsels of house-smoked eel; oysters grilled with Parmesan; stone crab and sea snails and huge clams in their shells, sweetness in saltwater. The grand finale is testing: mantis-shrimp ceviche. Caglar is particularly delighted by these semi-opaque götügöz (ghosts), which he gleefully calls ‘eyes on arse’. People who lustily slurp down oysters should try raw mantis-shrimp ceviche. I manage a head or an arse, I can’t tell which; then sink a glass of biodynamic white in a rush. It is made in a tiny local vineyard called Neferiye. The hand-labelled bottles may hint at moonshine, but the wine is good, clean and sweet; as Caglar points out, ‘They’ve been making wine in Bodrum since 2000bc.’

Homegrown and home-cooked is not a trend here, but an eternal way of life. At the peninsula’s quiet tip, Gümüslük’s sheltered shore is lined with rustic restaurant tables set literally in the water (in-the-know Turks head for Mimoza, the best of them), so you can cool your toes while you eat what the fishing boats hauled in that morning. Hidden in the hills above, bohemian Limon is possibly the best sunset spot anywhere, a patched-together outdoor café with bright-painted sculptures among the mismatched vintage furniture, and festoon lighting strung tree to tree, serving seasonal dishes and mama’s legendary mint lemonade. Nearby, grass-rootsy Adali Kafe opened in summer 2018: blue views on a cool hillside, where the family pour local Vin Bodrum and grow their own tomatoes.

Turks, like Italians, can talk about tomatoes for hours. In Bodrum the pink ones are the sweetest; seek them out in the market, where the sellers tease with scoops of stardust, offering them up to my lips to taste and leaving the scent in my hair and on my skin. People still shop like this here. Testing the firmness of fruit and swapping cookery tips. Around the periphery, old men sit in the shade beneath strings of dried chillies (pictured above), smoking like mad and drinking sweet black tea, and playing okey (rummikub with Turkish rules), the tiles rattling in their hands like pebbles in a jar.

Old and new swim together in Bodrum. As the muezzin calls at dawn, young things are swaying home, the night finally over. Out to sea, a gulet cuts across the water, its prow thrusting sharp as a sailfish. There’s a softness to the early-morning light that’s something close to nostalgia for this very moment, even as it happens. And it is easy to see how, despite all Bodrum’s newfound glossiness, you can fall in love with the simple life here. Just as long as there is good food to eat and good wine to drink, and someone has a boat.

8 Off-the-radar addresses

1. Havva Ana in the quiet village of Gökçebel is a true farm-to-fork breakfast spot. It pulls in urbanites from Ankara and Istanbul for hot börek (flaky pastry filled with vegetables), sweet cherry jam, fried eggs with peppers, and urns of red-tinted Turkish tea. The sheep, chickens and cow in the neighbouring field support the whole endeavour.

2. Akyarlar Bay’s pale turquoise water makes it one of the loveliest places to go for a morning swim. Its sandy beach is backed by whitewashed houses and a handful of seafood restaurants that line the harbour.

3. For underwater action, take a gulet out to Orak Island, which is great for both shallow and deep-sea divers, with an incredible vertical reef wall that descends nearly 80 metres.

4. Windsurfers make a beeline for Bitez beach; the calm bay keeps beginners busy in the morning and then the breeze picks up later in the day for the pros.

5. Monochrome-modern Vamos in Bitez village gets packed out at lunchtime for its burrata salads and pizzas in the mandarin- and lemon tree-filled garden. There’s a market somewhere on the peninsula every day.

6. The ones in Bodrum and Turgutreis are well known, but savvy shoppers head to Ortakent or Gündo˘gan for amazing cheeses, fresh honey and homemade soaps. The best leather bags and shoes are found at Tuskany in Bodrum town; the owner Shafak will negotiate a decent discount if you ask nicely.

7. Supper at beachside Ayana Mes still feels like a secret. Even in Bodrum’s crazy high summer the tables on the sand are taken up almost entirely by locals feasting on meze, grilled octopus, stuffed pumpkin flowers and a speciality of boiled cockerel.

8. And for a nightcap, Fenix in Yalikavak serves up citrussy cocktails.
By Ashley Pearson

Where to stay

MANDARIN ORIENTAL, BODRUM

Glamorous on the outside, with swathes of powdery sand and elegant restaurants, and spacious on the inside, with brave colour accents and giant bedrooms, this is a revved-up, starry beach base. But despite the grown-up good looks, families need not panic: all ages are welcome and children will love the buzzy kids’ club. The spa is also worth the trip – a little bit Japanese, a little bit Balinese – with bonsai trees and mini teapots of fresh ginger infusions, plus a lovely indoor pool and steam rooms. For all its grandeur, the space remains intimate, with staff injecting a lot of heart into everything they do. A winner for those seeking bold design along with detail-obsessed service.

Address: Mandarin Oriental, Göltürkbükü Mahallesi 314. Sok. No: 12, D:1, 48400 Bodrum/Muğla, Turkey
Telephone: +90 252 311 18 88
Book your stay

MAXX ROYAL KEMER, ANTALYA

Combining the giddy otherworldliness of a smart members’ club – marble architecture, cathedral-high lobby – with a distinct feeling of seclusion, this hotel faces out to the coastline but backs onto Beydağlari Coastal National Park’s craggy mountains and ruins including Termessos, pictured. Highlights range from the whimsical – a chocolatier station, a campervan bar – to the wonderfully over-the-top, with three beaches and bathrooms stocked with Bottega Veneta products. There’s a chilled-but-sceney vibe as well as an unmistakable sense of place, from the black tea with baklava and the disarmingly good rustic lahmacun flatbread to the sound of cicadas and scent of pine.

Address: Maxx Royal Kemer, Kiriş Mh., Kiriş Cad. No:88, 07980 Kemer/Antalya, Turkey
Telephone: +90 242 813 60 60
Book your stay

MACAKIZI

One of the Mediterranean’s most blissful little seaside hotels. There are 74 fairly simple rooms (though you wouldn’t know it) among the tropical and Mediterranean greenery, bowers of bougainvillaea framing sea views from every spot. It has a small but marvellous spa, a beach-rocking bar and the best restaurant in all Bodrum. In the pipeline for 2020: summer hotel residences, Maçakizi Lofts.

Address: Maçakızı, Göltürkbükü Mahallesi, Narçiçeği Sokak, 48400 Göltürkbükü, Bodrum Turkey
Telephone: +90 252 311 24 00
Book your stay

SIX SENSES KAPLANKAYA

Barcelona architects OAB originally created Kaplankaya’s centrepiece, which was launched as a Six Senses hotel with an epic spa last year. Low-slung and low-impact, it branches along the sweep of the landscape and, inside, opens up into a cathedral-like space. Sleek, warm wood suites and pool villas are arranged like a neighbourhood. On one of Kaplankaya’s seven beaches, Anhinga bar was designed by K-Studio, who did Scorpios in Mykonos; the sea bream is fat and delicious and the drinks are stuffed with herbs from the garden.

Address: Six Senses Kaplankaya, Bozbük Mahallesi, Merkez Sokak No:198, 48200 Muğla, Turkey
Telephone: +90 252 511 00 51
Book your stay

THE BODRUM EDITION

The hot new arrival on the peninsula, the latest collaboration between Ian Schrager and Marriott has public spaces of awesome proportions – best of all is the main terrace, with lots of white and triple-height gauziness. Rooms of creamy stone are uncluttered and calm. At Brava restaurant Diego Muñoz adds Mediterranean and Asian twists to his excellent Latin American food.

Address: The Bodrum Edition, Dirmil Mahallesi, Balyek Caddesi, 48400 Yalikavak Bodrum, Turkey
Telephone: +90 252 311 3131
Book your stay

The locals' guide to the Turkish Riviera

This story includes images of Bodrum and along the length of the Turkish coastline from Turquoise Coast, a travel book published by Assouline. Co-producers Irem Kinay and Nevbahar Koç let us in on their Turkish Riviera secrets...

Where is home?

Irem Kinay: I live in Rumelihisari, very close to Istanbul’s Bebek neighbourhood on the Bosphorus. For me being at home means having an escape in a city populated by 17 million people. I love being close to the water yet nestled among the trees. Bebek is also where I opened the first Assouline store.

Nevbahar Koç: My hometown is Istanbul, but we spend the summer on a boat, sailing along the south coast of Turkey.

What would your ideal day involve?

IK: Wake up early to the sounds of the birds around my home, then go for a walk along the Bosphorus. After a quick breakfast in a local café in Bebek, I’d take a boat to the old city and take in Istanbul with all its contrasts. I love getting lost in the bazaar, listening to the shopkeepers who always have the most interesting stories from all around the world. I would finish the day in Pera, on the terrace of Mikla restaurant, sipping a locally inspired cocktail overlooking the Golden Horn and the Topkapi Palace for a true synthesis of East and West.

NK: My ideal day would be to wake up in one of the beautiful green bays of Göcek and enjoy the sun and sea with my family and friends. I like cruising around the coast and getting to experience all it has to offer. Whether it’s visiting a magical cave where you can enter with a dinghy or waterskiing in the late afternoon when the water is calm, there’s always something to keep you occupied. At night I like going to one of the local restaurants for fish and mezze.

What is the most unusual experience you’ve had?

IK: When you are anchored in a bay in Göcek – isolated in peace and quiet in pure wilderness – you can hail the pancake boat in the morning for fresh pancakes filled with cheese and herbs. Similarly, you can jump on the massage boat in the afternoon for a spa treatment just when you thought you were far away from any form of civilisation.

Are there any secret spots you like to go to?

IK: Orfoz restaurant is a great secret spot in Bodrum, behind the castle. It’s really the most extraordinary restaurant on the coast for fresh shellfish, all prepared by brothers Cağri and Cağlar and paired with a perfect local wine list. The original Orfoz was run by their parents in Bozburun, and I used to crave the food during the winter, but their sons’ restaurant in Bodrum is also a treasure.

NK: Bozburun Cave is still not known to many. It’s amazing.

Where do you go for the best view?

IK: There’s a small island in the Gulf of Hisaronu, across from the D Maris Bay hotel, which is a great spot to anchor and watch the sun go down. I have seen the most epic, magical sunsets here.

**NK:**The sunset over the ‘Seven Islands’, or Yediadalar, is like walking into another dimension.

Which are the most impressive historical monuments in the area?

NK: The carved rock tombs in Kekova. To swim around them is an incredible experience.

Where do you go to soak up the atmosphere of the coast?

IK: For me, Bodrum is the Maçakizi hotel in Türkbükü. The sea, the food, the music and the crowd all come together to create a unique atmosphere.

Your top places to eat?

NK: The Bozburun Yacht Club for its delicious fresh food – it’s like eating at home. Sit down at a table right by the sea and order the just-caught turbot.

Is there one place where you always order the same thing?

IK:

At Orfoz in Bodrum I get the fish soup to start, then pink tomato salad, oysters with Parmesan and oven-baked aubergine.

What is your favourite local dish?

NK: You can only get the famous blue crab in Dalyan, nowhere else.

IK: Gözleme (local pancakes) with herbs in Göcek.

Where are the best shopping areas?

IK: Bodrum bazaar on Tuesdays for textiles, herbs, wooden spoons, fresh fruit and local teas. And Yalikavak Marina for local designers.

NK: I love the shopping in Kaş – there’s a street with small artisan shops and antiques. The best items to buy are the authentic thin Turkish towels and robes. I’d recommend anyone to get a couple of them in different colours.

Do you have a favourite shop?

IK: Atelier by Sumru Sekeroğlu in Kaş.

Do you go to any food markets?

NK: If you catch the weekly local bazaar, you can buy directly from the villagers. If not, they come to your boat to sell food and crafts. In downtown Bodrum there’s an open bazaar where locals sell everything from herbs to fish and fabrics to wooden spoons and sponges…

Which local artisans have you discovered?

NK: There’s a lovely atelier in Kaş producing authentic clothing. Other artisans make natural soaps with herbal ingredients, or craft objects in wood and mother of pearl.

Do you dress differently when you’re on the coast?

NK: Light, soft fabrics and Riviera-chic designs are my favourite for sailing.

Turkish Coast is published in summer 2019 (£65; assouline.com)

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