Bodrum is a town on the Aegean coast of Turkey, popular with northern European tourists, amongst others.

Bodrum Castle

Understand

Bodrum is the site of the ancient city of Halikarnassus, the location of the famous Mausoleum of Halikarnassus (built after 353 BCE) - one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Unfortunately, the ancient monument was destroyed by earthquakes in the Middle Ages - some of the remnants can be seen in London's British Museum.

Modern Bodrum strangely seems to have two contrasting sides to it.

The east half of the town has a long thin but reasonable beach. Behind the beach lay all the bars restaurants and night clubs that are typical of Mediterranean resort towns. This means open fronted bars that do not come alive until 10pm when everybody goes out. As well as some nice beach fronted bars (e.g. cafe del mar being a reasonably chilled out and attractive bar, with attractive staff so that helps) it also has some terrible ones. Think the worst version of club 18-30s. It does have some reasonable clubs. Halikarnas being the obvious one as it is huge (4000 people). It also is mostly outdoors and hosts foam parties on regular occasions.

The other half of the town is the west side. This manly revolves around the harbour and yacht club. Here life is a little more sedate with shops catering mainly to those who have stepped of their boats. Expensive supermarkets with proper wine and olive oil as well as the obligatory Henley Hanson to be able to purchase your new jacket. There are a couple of nice restaurants if you look hard enough and some nice clothes shops.

Get in

Get around

See

Landmarks

The castle is quite pretty and the views are spectacular.

• Bodrum Castle / the Castle of St Peter (Bodrum Kalesi) [1] - built from 1402 by the Knights Hospitaller, the Castle is easily the most prominent landmark in the city. The castle now operates as a museum, with the focus on the Museum of Underwater Archaeology (see below).

Museums and Galleries

• the Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaeology [2], inside Bodrum Castle, tel +90 252 316 25 16, fax +90 252 313 76 46, open Tu-Su 9am-12pm, 2pm-7pm, closed Mondays - established in 1961, this great museum has won numerous awards, and displays amazing finds from underwater excavations along the Turkish coast. Includes the famous Uluburun Shipwreck, one of the earliest and richest wrecks yet discovered. Not to be missed.

Do

Further a field there are the mud baths to visit. You go down the river on a rickety of chug-chug jump in bit baths of mud and roll around (The fun bit) and then clean off and go home. It’s also easy to go across to Kos or Rhodes for a day or two. When arriving there get a scooter (very dangerous but the best and easiest way to get around). There is of course loads of old architecture to visit around if you like that kind of thing.

• Hamam &mdash Bodrum has a fine hamam, also known as a Turkish Bath, located a few blocks inland from the harbour. Facilities are separated by gender with both sexes enjoying the same hours of operation.

• Windsurfing — There are some good possibilities for windsurfing at nearby Vass. It has a bit of a hippy air to it with lots of hire stands for boards and sails. Some may find there are just tooooo many people around in high season for it to be much fun, especially when there are competitions running.

Buy

Always haggle for a better (if not half price) deal ! and go for CLOTHING. Some great quality designer labelelled outfits, shoes and trousers (fake or not) are definately worth the lira being asked.

Eat

the home of the doner kebap offers more tasty treats, try local delicatessens for flavoursome vegetable, pulses and meat dishes.

Drink

Gumbet seems to be the second choice for Brits to go out drinking in. There are more Brits and Aussies here than any where else in turkey. The bars generally ban the locals which can cause small grievances my generally don’t cause large problems.

Sleep

Around Bodrum are a number of small towns/villages dominated by western resorts (Mark Warner, ClubMed SunSail, and Neilson). These resorts are normally aimed at families of water sports people.

Gumbet has a great beach and recommended is hire of a private boat for your own trip around the bay. Make sure all passengers have and wear lifejackets and that there is an emergency oar and kit on board. Taking a mobile phone in a palstic bag is advisable. Try snorkelling (go for good quality glass based googles and kit available in most shops at around 20 Lira)

Gumbet club scene is mainly bars with open windows, music is based on current R&B and dance but is full of local men constantly chasing foreign ladies.

Try club x on corner of bar street (bouncers at door) which have more sophisticated clients and music is excellent mix of R&B, Dance, Funk and Turkish Pop.

Do not stay at hotel known as Club Bozak as this is run by unfriendly devious staff. You have to pay extra for air conditioning or a fan !!!

In Bodrum (avoiding bar st)there are some great clubs at which locals go to chill out and there are good places to eat.

Get out

In the high season, there is direct boat service to:

• Kalymnos, Greece
• Kos, Greece

From Bodrum, you can catch a bus to anywhere in Turkey.