I woke up on a Saturday morning a few weeks ago and thought, “ah! I only have 9 more months in Turkey!” Thoroughly convinced that there was no time to spare, I decided to take the kids on a road trip, immediately. “There’s no time like the present,” as my wise Grandmother used to say. And while she was probably referring to completing household chores in a timely manner, I like to think that she’d approve of my travel -centric, carpe diem interpretation as well.
So we packed our bags (quickly, and without much thought to what we’d actually be doing….hence, Meg explores caves and canyons in a dress 🤣) and headed south. I knew that the coast of southern Turkey was considered gorgeous, and I wanted to experience the beaches and boat trips when the water was still warm enough to enjoy.
My rough and ready plan was to drive to Bodrum first and just play the rest of the trip by ear. Bodrum is about 3.5 hours from Izmir and a very popular international destination.
Read that as “very crowded.”
We couldn’t even find parking first time we drove through the popular part of Bodrum. People were everywhere! It was a little chaotic and overwhelming. So I just kept driving! We drove until we couldn’t go any farther and that brought us to the tiny village of Gümüşlük. It has a nice beach and ample beachside cafes. While I searched online for a hotel for the evening, Meg and Brenn went swimming. The village was very cute, but it was clearly starting to close up shop for autumn. The excursion out to the nearby tiny island (you can walk on an ancient sunken bridge out to the place where a king of the last built a summer home!) was roped off for the season and restaurants were closing early.
So we ended up back in Bodrum. Our hotel was close to downtown and had parking. So, despite the fact that it was a bit dubious in the cleanliness department (😬😬😬) it was a win. Well. Kind of a win. Maybe more like a nice participation award. Ah well.
We ate by the Bodrum harbor and everyone agreed that we should visit the Bodrum castle in the morning!!
This was the first Crusader Castle that I’ve ever visited and it was so very interesting! The crusaders built it, and added to it and added to it and added to it for centuries until the raiding Ottomans finally overthrew the inhabitants of the Bodrum peninsula. Also interesting is that the original castle was built using stones taken from the ruins of one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was destroyed in an earthquake years before and those pragmatic crusaders saw an opportunity to save some energy : )
After visiting the castle, we said goodbye to Bodrum and got in the car and headed south.
While researching the town of Marmaris (known as the “Pine Tree Honey Capital of the World” —not something you expect in Turkey 😄) I’d stumbled across a random blog that mentioned a huge cave near the town. Figuring it was worth the three hours round trip out of the way, we went and found it. Pictures don’t do it justice! Named Nimara Mağarasi, it was so very massive and moody.
Archeological work shows that humans had been using for over 10,000 years. At one point, the ancient Greeks worshipped the goddess Leto in the cave, and you can still see where they’d built and altar.
The cave reminded me of some of the caves in Ohio, weirdly. Add that to the fact that the Marmaris area is covered in pine trees and other midwesterny looking foliage and it really felt like we’d be transported back home for an afternoon!
After we finished at the cave, we headed into Marmaris for dinner before finishing our day by driving to Fethiye, Turkey. That hotel was a huge improvement from the one in Bodrum and we slept wonderfully and awoke to a lovely Turkish breakfast! Having promised the kids time at the beach, I made good on my word and we drove to one of the most famous stretches of coast in Turkey, Oludeniz beach.
Paragliders from a nearby mountain drifted through the sky continually, and the water was as turquoise as the pictures depict. No filter needed 😁 I did have a lovely mom moment when to my horror, I (and the rest of the inhabitants of the beach) heard Meg screaming from the water. Fearing the worst, I raced into the surf, pulling on my life guarding skills from 20 years ago. But when I reached my very upset daughter she was swimming just fine, with Jack and Brenn right beside her, their faces the picture of exasperation. “Mom!!!” Meg wailed, “I got salt water IN MY MOUTH!!!”
Sigh. Clearly, the emergency of the century.
After having a little chat about what does and does not warrant desperate screaming, the rest of the morning past by pleasantly. Around lunch time we backed up, grabbed some lunch, and started our journey to the next destination, which was Saklikent Canyon.
Thanks for coming with us on our journey!! Be sure to check out the other blog posts and videos of our epic roadtrip!
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