The province of Muğla accommodates the popular holiday cities of Bodrum, Marmaris, Datça, Köyceğiz and Fethiye. Beautiful resorts, comfortable hotels and motels, cosy guest houses, impressive ruins of past civilizations and magnificent landscapes offer holiday-makers plenty of choice.
Not far from the towns, you can swim in crystal clear, tideless, warm seas. Underwater divers will especially want to explore the numerous reefs, caves and majestic rock formations there. The waters offer up multicoloured sponges of all shapes and sizes and an immense variety of other aquatic life, including octopus.
Bodrum and its hinterland is particularly attractive for its relaxed ambiance, historical architecture and its proximity to a vast array of fantastic beaches, fishing villages and trendy nightclubs. With its picturesque shoplined streets, restaurants, discos, sophisticated bars and cafes for all ages and tastes, the county is always lively whatever the season. Its delightful charm remains unspoilt with palm-lined streets and whitewashed, flat-roofed houses dotted across the terraced hillsides.
Bodrum is the ancient Halicarnassus, the birthplace of the famous historian Herodotus, and a place known in antiquity for being the site of one of the Seven Wonders of the World – the Mausoleum, a gigantic tomb erected for King Mausolus in the fourth century BC. Destroyed by successive earthquakes, the stones of the Mausoleum were then used by the Knights of St John to build their castle nearby.
Gümbet offers a long, sandy beach lined with hotels and pensions. Gümüşlük is a very pleasant place to stay, with unspoilt scenery, a long sandy and gravel beach, where you can swim very close to ruins of ancient Myndos. Turgutreis boasts a sophisticated marina complete with exclusive cafes, restaurants and boutiques, as well as a host of new bars and discos. Yalıkavak has an enjoyable and relaxing atmosphere for visitors. Göltürkbükü is famous for its array of exclusive hotels, excellent seafront restaurants and trendy bars. Bitez, a popular place for windsurfing and sailing, attracts an upmarket crowd.
