Bodrum Driving Tour

 

Hiring a car in Bodrum is the best way to get to see this part of Turkey’s Aegean Coast. There’s plenty of attractions in the region surrounding Bodrum, and although you can take organised excursions to some places, nothing beats the independence that a hire car gives you while on holiday in Bodrum! There are literally hundreds of places you could visit, all within reach of Bodrum, that take in history, scenery and culture, so we’ve put together just one driving tour that shows you the best of the Bodrum Peninsula.

 

Bodrum lies at the south western end of the peninsula of the same name and therefore makes a great starting point for a driving tour of the area. Starting from your accommodation in Bodrum you can follow the roads and travel in a clockwise direction around the coast, taking in several different villages and different coastal scenes. There’s also an ancient city to explore! We’ve given several options to make the tour longer or shorter

 

Leave Bodrum heading west on the main road (the D330) and you’ll quickly get to Gumbet. This village has become more like a suburb of Bodrum as the town has grown, and it’s become almost as popular as a holiday destination. Gumbet has the best beach in the vicinity of Bodrum, so this is a great place to come for a day on the beach. Take the opportunity on this Bodrum driving tour to check out Gumbet and to see whether you’d like to come back for a longer visit another day. This is just a short side trip, but if the beach and the touristy atmosphere doesn’t appeal to you, you can continue on the D330 without heading into Gumbet.

 

Leaving Gumbet the way you came in you join back onto the D330 heading west. After just a couple of miles you’ll come into the village of Ortakent. This is an attractive inland village with plenty of orchards as this seems to be one of the few spots on this side of the Bodrum Peninsula that has an abundance of water. The main landmark of the village is the 17^th century Mustafa Pasa Tower. This village gives you a good taste of the more traditional way of life experienced in Southern Turkey, something that’s highly recommended when you have a holiday in Bodrum.

 

Continue through Ortakent on the main road but take the second major road on the left as you come out of the village, towards the coast, and the village and beach of Kargi. If you’ve had the privilege of taking a boat trip from Bodrum it’s possible you will have already been here as it’s a popular stop on the Bodrum boat tour routes. Named Camel Beach, (and there’s no prizes for guessing why!) this is a fun place to stop for a little while, especially if you’re travelling with children, to enjoy a ride on a camel.

 

Return the same way you came down to Kargi, back up to the main D330 road, then continue heading west. The road takes you almost all the way into Turgutreis, a resort village that’s probably second to Gumbet in size and popularity. Unless you particularly want to stop here to look around you can continue following the main road to the north and on to the village of Gumusluk.

 

Gumusluk is a nice little village that hasn’t grown as large as some of the others on the Bodrum Peninsula because it’s built partly on the site of the ancient city of Myndos, and hence development has been restricted. This makes Gumusluk a nice place to visit while on holiday in Bodrum as it has a quieter and more traditional feel. There are remnants of this ancient city, which dates from the 4^th century BC, around the waterfront, but some of the ruins are best seen from underwater as it’s thought a large earthquake submerged parts of the city.

 

Continuing along the same road you’ll reach the northern coast of the Bodrum Peninsula, where the landscapes are quite a bit greener than on the southern side. Approaching Yalikavak is very scenic as you see the coast and numerous windmills that take advantage of the windier side of the peninsula. Yalikavak itself doesn’t have much to set it apart from other villages, so unless you want to stop for refreshments you may prefer to just continue past.

 

The other side of Yalikavak the road splits; keep right. When you reach a large roundabout, depending on time, you can either head onto the 48-55 back to Bodrum via Ortakent, or continue along the northern coast. If you continue you’ll pass through several villages before reaching Torba.

 

If you want to stop at Gundogan there’s a fairly nice looking bay and marina on the coast, or stay inland and see the village where you can climb up to a ruined monastery.

 

Torba is the last stop on this Bodrum driving tour. It’s an attractive coastal village that has been discovered by tourism but development is still low key at this time. There are some nice fish restaurants here if it’s time for dinner, and the pine clad hills surrounding the bays make this a very picturesque spot.

 

By this time you’ve almost done a full circle of the Bodrum Peninsula, back to your hotel in Bodrum; in fact it’s only about 4 miles from Torba to Bodrum so you can get back to the town in no time at all!