Why this Aegean province is redefining the art of slow, sun-drenched travel. Photo / GoTürkiye
Tamara Hinson gives us the scoop on why Izmir deserves a place on your travel bucket list.
Looking for a crowd-free winter sun spot where you can spend the morning admiring Unesco-listed archaeological sites before hitting the beach for some thrilling water sports? Consider making a beeline for Turkey’s Izmir province, on the country’s Aegean coastline.
It’s hardly surprising that Izmir province is known as the Turkish Riviera. With over 600km of coastline, 66 Blue Flag beaches and glass-clear water perfect for snorkelling, Izmir’s coastline is a stunner. The prettiest spots include Çeşme’s Pirlanta (meaning diamond) Beach, so-called because of its fine shimmering sand. Spent the day hiking around Ephesus? Take a dust-cleansing dip at Pamucak Beach, just a short hop from Selçuk. With its backdrop of fragrant mimosa trees, Mimoza Beach is a family-friendly gem lined with cafes serving up local delicacies (we recommend Casa Mimosa for the fantastic seafood).
A visit to Izmir will leave you in no doubt that there’s more to Turkish cuisine than kebabs (although Izmir’s version, known as the tire shish kofte and sautéed in sizzling butter, is delicious). It’s famous for its street food, including boyoz (sweet, flaky pastries), çöp şiş (lamb skewers) and gevrek (a bagel-like snack). Izmir’s seafood is legendary, and top spots to chow down include Çeşme’s Canbaba Istakoz (the grilled lobster is to die for) and Alaçatı’s harbourside Fahri’nin Yeri restaurant. Whatever you choose, expect plenty of flavour.
“Some of the most popular ingredients in Aegean cuisine are artichoke, cabbage, beetroot, chickpeas, zucchini flower and lamb,” says Arda Dumanlıdağ, chef and owner of Avrasya Lokantasi restaurant in Alaçatı. “We also love to use popular herbs like rock grove, purslane, and golden thistle. The latter is used for a classic Aegean dish – tender lamb cooked with golden thistle.”
When it comes to archaeological remains, Ephesus is the Unesco-listed star of the show. Home to the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, this ancient Greek city was built in the 10th century BC and was ahead of its time, with wide, colonnaded streets paved with marble and bordered by a complex aqueduct system which supplied fresh water. Its most ornate buildings include the Great Theatre, which once held 25,000 people and which has been surprisingly well preserved, and the Library of Celsus, where 12,000 manuscripts and books were stored. Planning a visit? Bring decent walking shoes and arrive early, especially during the blistering summer months. The site opens at 8am, and an early arrival means you’ll avoid both the selfie stick-wielding crowds and the hottest time of day.
While Ephesus (quite rightly) attracts the biggest crowds, it’s absolutely worth checking out Izmir’s other historic sites. Visit Selçuk and you can marvel at the remains of the Et’hem Bey Mosque, built in the 1400s and modelled on the Great Mosque of Damascus. Çandarlı Castle is a beautiful fort constructed in the 1400s, and if you fancy channelling your inner Indiana Jones and heading further off the beaten track, it’s got to be the Karabel monument, one of Turkey’s most spectacular rock reliefs. This 2.5m-high carving depicts a spear-toting warrior with hieroglyphs inscribed on his left arm. “This relief is the self-representation of a Late Bronze Age king who ruled over the small kingdom of Mira at the Aegean coast,” says Dr Ulf-Dietrich Schoop, an expert on Eastern Mediterranean archaeology at the University of Edinburgh. “No other Hittite king represented himself in such a grandiose style.”
Izmir is often referred to as Turkey’s water sports capital, and with good reason. Çeşme and Alaçatı are brilliant options; both offer a wide range of water sports, including windsurfing, kitesurfing and sailing (Alaçatı regularly hosts some of the world’s top windsurfing competitions, but its shallow, calm waters are suitable for beginners, too). Ceşme’s Deep Nature Diving Center offers various PADI courses and dive excursions, as well as trips for snorkellers, who should look out for ocean giants such as stingrays, barracudas, tunas, moray eels and octopus. Oh, and the occasional shark (but only friendly ones, we promise).
Izmir province has countless fantastic museums, but the Izmir Archaeological Museum, in Izmir city, is one of the most impressive examples. A treasure trove of some of Turkey’s most important archaeological finds, the museum has areas dedicated to everything from sarcophagi (clap eyes on the ornate terracotta Clazomenae sarcophagi and the average bog-standard wooden coffins will look rather plain) to gemstones and coins from the Hellenistic, Roman and Islamic periods.
Izmir city has several fantastic markets, and one of its largest is Kemeralti Market, with more than 5000 stores and stalls, a wet market and countless places to eat, whether it’s cafes where you can refuel with a glass of Turkish coffee (served in silver goblets kept warm in trays of hot sand) or street food stalls selling delicacies such as hamsi tava (fried anchovies). Some of the more unusual stores worth sniffing out include Elgani Ezmecizade, which specialises in Turkish ezme (nut pastes), along with the hundreds of retailers selling glass mosaic lamps.
Izmir is a place where vast tangles of walking trails weave through tiny villages and towns of bougainvillea-draped whitewashed cottages. Sığacık, on the coast, has a castle built by the Ottomans in 1522, İldır is a village famous for its seafood and Urla is a town filled with Michelin-starred restaurants and surrounded by vineyards. Stave off hunger pangs on long walks with servings of dondurma, sold by roadside vendors in most towns and villages. Otherwise known as Turkish ice cream and made with mastic gum, this chilled treat is chewy, stretchy and is less prone to melting than normal ice cream.
The writer travelled at their own expense.