Things to do in Bodrum

Halicarnassus underneath

Bodrum sits on Halicarnassus, which built the Mausoleum. Earthquakes brought that tomb down, and the Knights Hospitaller used its stone for a castle they built between 1402 and 1437. The Mausoleum site is now a quiet excavation pit, which catches people out.

The castle is the better visit of the two. It holds the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, opened in 1964, built on wrecks lifted off this coast. Its centrepiece is the Uluburun ship, found by a sponge diver in 1982 and dated to about 1300 BC.

Two bays and a peninsula

The town wraps around the castle promontory in two halves. Marina, bars and the bazaar face one bay; the swimming beach and the white cube houses climb the other. Everything else has spread west along the peninsula.

• Gumusluk. Built over ancient Myndos, with a part-sunken Hellenistic causeway you can wade across to Rabbit Island in knee-deep water on a calm day.
• Yalikavak. The superyacht marina, and the steepest prices on the peninsula.
• Turgutreis. West-facing, so this is where the sunset is sold.
• Bitez and Gumbet. The near beaches, and where boat days pick up as well as in town.

Days on the water

The gulet is the local boat, a broad wooden ketch still built in yards along this coast. A shared day runs seven or eight hours. It is bays, swimming stops and lunch aboard; chartering the boat privately buys the same route without the other twenty people.

Off the water, the choice is short and honest. A hammam in the old quarter takes a couple of hours, and a helicopter loop over the peninsula takes twenty minutes.

Practical

• The meltemi. A northwesterly blows most summer afternoons, often 15 to 25 knots. It made the peninsula a sailing centre and it keeps the heat bearable.
• Season. May to October. June and September are the sweet spot; July and August are full and expensive.
• Boat timing. Departures are around ten, back by five. Take a morning start if you are prone to seasickness, because the wind gets up after lunch.
• Airport. Milas-Bodrum is 36 kilometres out, roughly forty minutes by road.
• Kos. The Greek island is 20 kilometres away and the fast boat takes under half an hour. Passport control both ends, and book the day before.
• Costs. Prices here run above the rest of the Turkish coast, and Yalikavak runs above Bodrum.