Datca – a Peninsula under Conservation

You should not miss an excoursion to this Peninsula: from the Hotel Palmiye you drive towards Marmaris and after about two hours you arrive at your destination. The road takes you through a marvellous mountain landscapes with summits of more than 1,000m hight.
The Datca Peninsula is one of the few locations worldwide with a very high share of oxygen in the ambient air.
At some places you see both the Gökova- and the Hirasönü Gulf at the same time.

Fortunately, the peninsula is under conservation, and thus – primarily off the beaten track – you experience the unspoiled nature. Sometimes, wild donkeys or turtles may cross your way, and there are some hidden footpaths towards the secluded bays down at the gulf.
The principal town of the Peninsula is Datca, a „Port of Entry“. Here, yachts can „clear out“, e.g. leave Turkey and sail to Greece or wherever the wind will direct you.

Datca is a leisure area for Turkish tourists from Izmir, Istanbul and Ankara. By now, also several Europeans took up residence as well. However, European tourism is still rather scarce, since only few small hotels and boarding houses are available. (Luckily), the distance form the Dalaman Airport is too far for the tourism industry.

The most beautiful Farmer’s Market of the region

On Saturdays, in Datca the most beautiful Farmer’s Market of the region welcomes you for strolling and shopping. In particular, the multitude of products specific for the area, like spices, almonds, honey and more makes the visit of the market a really sensory stimulus. And the harbor promenade with its restaurants and cafés invites you to stay for a break.

In two bays you will find bathing beaches, the nicer one beyond the small harbour. There, surrounded by a small park, you will also find a rather warm sulphurous sweetwater lake with a minute waterfall. Numerous pleasure boats offer roundtrips through the bays of the vicinity, but by car you can also reach nice beaches, like the one in the Kargi Bay – in the past an absolutely lonely spot – nowadays visitors from Datca can be met there.
A little apart you will find Eski-Datca; Old Datca, a small accumulation of houses mostly built from natural stones.
Eski-Datca must be explored on foot. The houses have been lovingly restored (often by foreign nationals) and quite a number of the small atriums have been converted into taverns or guesthouses.

Opposite the town of Datca, in Körmen, there are daily ferry services to Bodrum. The town of Bodrum has evolved into the Turkish counterpart of Saint Tropez or Rimini, however, unfortunately also regarding the prices …