Tours in Bodrum

Walk down to the harbour in the evening and you will see how Bodrum works. The castle sits on its small promontory with the water on both sides, and the whole town curves around the bay below it. White houses climb the hillside, bougainvillea spills over the walls, and the lanes behind the waterfront smell of grilled fish, jasmine and sun-warmed stone. Go early, before the cafes fill, and the place feels like a fishing town again.

The castle is the landmark to start with. Walk the ramparts and the courtyards and you get the town laid out beneath you, along with the boats going in and out. The museum inside is known for its underwater finds, and it is worth the time if you like old ships and what they carried. Down on the front, the marina, the bazaar streets and the long run of bars and restaurants make up the evening routine. For something quieter, take a boat or a dolmus to one of the smaller bays on the peninsula and spend an afternoon swimming.

Bodrum is also a good base for the ancient world. The tour we sell here goes to Ephesus, and it is the one to linger over. You leave from the cruise port and meet your guide in Selcuk. Then you walk the marble streets of the ruins, past the Great Theatre and the Library of Celsus, whose facade is even better in person than in photographs. Your guide takes you on to the House of the Virgin Mary, set in quiet hillside woodland, and to the site of the Temple of Artemis, where little remains but the story is a big one. It is a private tour, so you can slow down where something catches you.

The Mausoleum site and the old theatre in town are the other names you will hear. We do not list tours to them yet, but a local guide can take a request, so ask.