Going to Bodrum

What to do in Bodrum

by Evelyn Spence

On one side of Bodrum, Turkey, there’s Halikarnas, a 5,000-capacity disco that’s been throwing laser-light shows and hosting DJs like Boy George for more than 25 years. On the other, visitors find quiet tangles of tangerine groves, dripping bougainvillea, and blue minarets. And smack in the middle of this Mediterranean port town are the twin bays of Salmakis and Kumbahçe, where tourists charter Mavi Yolculuk (sailboat voyages along the Turkish Riviera). Nearby, the Crusader-era Castle of St. Peter looms. In the 1960s, Bodrum was a quaint fishing village with a population of 5,100; now, summer vacationers number half a million. And while the aptly named Bar Street offers plenty of nightlife, you can slip away from it, too. Türkbükü and Gümüşlük offer low-key daytrips where hippies sell scented oil and restaurants set up tables in the sand.

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