Beaches
The beaches worth the drive
The peninsula has sand on one side and rock on the other. Which you want depends on the day you have in mind.
Read guide7 min
Itinerary
Three days on the peninsula
How to spend a first visit without spending it in the car: one bay, one town, one long dinner per day.
8 min read
Three days is enough to understand the peninsula if you accept its rhythm: swim in the morning, move inland in the late afternoon, eat late. The itinerary below alternates the two coasts so that no day repeats the one before it, and keeps drives short — nothing here is more than half an hour apart.
Itinerary
How to spend it
Day 1
Morning
Arrive and settle in Alaçatı
Drop your bags, walk the stone lanes before the heat builds, and have a long Aegean breakfast rather than a quick coffee. Nothing else needs to happen before noon.
Afternoon
Ilıca for the first swim
Twenty minutes away, the long shallow bay is the gentlest introduction to the water and warm enough to stay in. Take a lounger set and stay put until the light softens.
Evening
Dinner in a courtyard
Book a table for nine in an Alaçatı courtyard: cold mezze from the tray, one hot plate, grilled fish, and a local white. Walk the lanes afterwards when the crowd thins.
Day 2
Morning
Out on the water
A boat day is the only way to reach the coves with no road. Leave mid-morning while the sea is flat, and expect four swimming stops and lunch cooked on board.
Afternoon
Back through the marina
Return in the late afternoon, walk the harbour front and the castle above it, and take a coffee somewhere with a view of the boats before changing.
Evening
Ayayorgi for dinner on the rocks
The bay east of town keeps going after dark. Dinner on a terrace above deep water, with the music rising as the evening does.
Day 3
Morning
Erythrai and the northern bay
Drive to Ildır while it is cool. The ruins are unfenced and scattered across the hillside, and the bay below is the calmest water on the peninsula.
Afternoon
Lunch on the water at Ildır
A plain fish lunch at a village table by the quay — whatever the boats brought in, grilled simply. The best unreconstructed meal of the three days.
Evening
Sunset on the west coast
End where the peninsula faces open sea. Drive west for the last hour of light, then a final dinner near the harbour before the drive back.
Editorial
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Eating
How to eat well in Alaçatı
The village has more restaurants per street than anywhere on the peninsula. A little structure helps.
Read guide7 min