Bodrum, and esp. it’s municipality Yalikavak is mostly called Turkey’s local St. Tropez – and this beautiful Turkish resort really lives up to this name ! The popularity of this town seems to have no limits, and it is the darling of the Turkish jet-set, with numerous Turkish celebrities live in the holiday apartments in and around the city. It has an international flavour and restaurants, nice hotels and Turkish entertainment of the highest class. Today, Bodrum is an international center of tourism and yachting, that has something for everyone – even those who are just looking for peace and relaxation for body and soul. You can see this all along the Bodrum peninsula, in the boutique hotels and beaches of Turkbuku and Torba, in the gorgeous expansive seasides at Yalikavak, Ortakent, Akyarlar and Turgutreis, and in the poetry of the mystic sunken ruins and waterside fish restaurants of Gumusluk. It is clear Bodrum still has quite a long way to go before becoming just another one of Turkey’s overbuilt seaside resorts like Belek, Kemer or Antalya.

The city centre of Bodrum is small and easy to negotiate and most things are within walking distance. It’s main street runs parallel with the blue water and the sea is never far away from you. Even though Bodrum has developed into a popular place for the jet-set in Turkey, it’s easy for the “normal” tourist to find a lot of popular places in the city or the surrounding villages. In the local shipyard, the traditional tirade and gulet boats are still built and these can be hired for short or long trips along the beautiful coastline.

This travel guide will show you the places you must visit, like the Bodrum Castle, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus and the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, all easy to find as maps are included on these pages. At the ‘Bodrum Peninsula’ menu you can find much more information about the other beautiful places near Bodrum, like Gumbet, Ortakent, Bitez, Torba, Gundogan, Turkbuku, Yaliciftlik, Yalikavak, Guvercinlik, Gumusluk and Turgutreis.

To find a hotel in Bodrum, you can check the Bodrum Hotels section, where you can find reviews, information, pictures of selected hotels, and you can even book them for a discounted internet rate ! Don’t forget to read the ‘Bodrum Tourist Information’ section, where you will find information about ways of transportation to this beautiful town, a 9 day Bodrum weather forecast, a list with important phonenumbers and information, and funny facts about this town you probably didn’t heard of before. To find the right directions during your Turkish holiday, check out the ‘Maps’ section where you find an (interactive) Bodrum map and a Turkey map. And if you want to make some nice day trips, from the ports of Bodrum and Turgutreis you can travel by ferry to the Greek islands Kos and Rhodes, and other Turkish popular places like Marmaris and Datca. More about this in the ‘How to visit Bodrum’ section.

If you want to read books about Bodrum and Turkey we recommend the ‘Turkish Bazaar’ section, where besides travelguides you can also find art and souvenirs of this marvelous white and blue port town.

You can find a lot of pictures on this website from all these interesting places, but ofcourse you have to see these places yourself ! As a favour we ask you to write the experiences of your visit to Turkey in our guestbook, we thank you in advance for this -tesekkurler- ! We wish you a nice and sunny vacation in Bodrum, and we hope with this Bodrum travel guide you get the most out of your holiday in Turkey !