Aegean Coast

  • Ephesus

    Ephesus is the best-preserved ancient city in the eastern Mediterranean and the single most visited archaeological site in Türkiye. For centuries it was the capital of the Roman province of Asia, a port city of perhaps a quarter of a million people, built around the shrine of the goddess Artemis. It was also a key…

  • Izmir

    İzmir is Türkiye’s third-largest city and its Aegean capital. It was ancient Smyrna, it sits on a wide bay, and it works as the base for Ephesus, Pergamon and the Çeşme Peninsula. Most visitors treat it as a transit stop. It repays a night or two: a long waterfront, a historic bazaar, a Roman agora…

  • Marmaris

    Marmaris is a resort town on a deep, sheltered bay in Muğla province, and the main departure point for boat trips along the southwestern coast. It is lively in summer, with a marina, a castle above the harbor and beach resorts in nearby bays. For visitors who like the sea more than the town, it…

  • Bodrum

    Bodrum is the Aegean’s most glamorous resort town, on a peninsula in Muğla province with a crusader castle at its harbor. It is the ancient Halicarnassus, birthplace of the historian Herodotus and site of the tomb of King Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world, and today it is known for white…

  • Antalya

    Antalya is the capital of the Turkish Riviera, a city of nearly all-year sun between the Taurus Mountains and the Mediterranean. It has a walled old town above a Roman-era harbor, one of the best archaeological museums in the country and a ring of ancient cities within day-trip distance. Many visitors only see the beach…