Golturkbuku: Where Turkish Pop Stars and A-Listers Spend their Holidays

Golturkbuku is very well-known amongst the Turkish jet-set elites as a place for some rest and relax activities. But this little seaside hamlet is almost unheard of outside of Turkey, in part due to its somewhat secluded location tucked away on a small bay off the other side of the Bodrum Peninsula.

If you think Golturkbuku's relatively isolated location means cheaper prices and lack of quality accommodation, be compared for the real shock. This little seaside hamlet has some of the most expensive hotels and restaurants in the whole of Turkey - on par with such illuminous names including the Ciragan Palace Kempinski Istanbul, Four Seasons Istanbul at the Bosphorus - and plenty of members-only private resorts full of beautiful and rich Turkish celebrities tanning themselves on their expensive yachts.

In spite of its rich and famous cliente, this small former fishing village does not appear too pompous or flashy at the very first sight. You do not need to pay for some expensive taxi or shuttle service to get there. Regular public transport by mini-bus are available seven days a week from Bodrum's downtown bus station to the entrance to the hamlet of Golturkbuku, and it is just a short 100m walk before you get to the nice little beach at the centre of the settlement. In Turkey, you know you are in for something really exclusive and expensive when nobody at the local bars and restaurants hassles anybody who happens to pass by the front of their premises. That is the case with Golturkbuku. There are very few foreign tourists here - the village is geared towards domestic turkish visitors from Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir - and the whole place has a very accomplished yet sweet, unpretentious atmosphere about it.

Hotel and Resort Salmakis, Bodrum: Pleasant All-Inclusive Hotel

Illy has never been a fan of all-inclusive hotels and all-inclusive tourism in the Mediterranean areas, be it in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Greece or Turkey. But she is a big fan of Bodrum, the ancient city of Halikarnassós and home town of Herodotus, so she was kind of introduced to several all-inclusive resort hotels in the Bodrum areas over the years. 

Admittedly some of these all-inclusive resorts are truly horrid - full of loud, half-naked randy drunken tourists  and noisy children on packaged tours, and the food and service of the resorts were far from being satisfactory - but there have been a few decent ones as well. Salmakis Spa and Resort is one of those all-inclusive places which is actually worth a mention.

Located at a part of town known as Bardaci, Salmakis Resort has its own private beach and a great view of the Castle of St. Peter and the Bodrum Bay. The resort complex, built along a slope overlooking the bay of Bodrum, can be reached by water taxi boat from the Bodrum harbour, or alternatively by car and dolmus from the bus station in downtown Bodrum.

Restaurant -Cafe Alla Turca, Marina Yacht Club, Bodrum (Now No Longer Open)

One of the best hidden secret in Bodrum's highly competitive restaurant and bar scene is the Alla Turca Pub, tucked away on the upper floor of the open terrace of a building located inside the compound of Bodrum's exclusive Marina Yacht Club.

For several years in a row, Illy spends several months in the year tanning herself up in this upmarket resort on the southwestern coast of Turkey's Aegean shore. Bodrum has always been one of Illy's favourite sunny spots on the Mediterranean coast, alongside Symi, Valencia, and the Ionian islands.

Eversince Illy's very first visit to the renown resort town almost a decade ago, Bodrum has changed a lot. Still a relatively quiet (by Spanish Mediterranean standards at least) and elegant seaside resort catering to wealthy Turks and not-so-wealthy British holidaymakers, Bodrum nowadays has become a sprawling busy place all year round, with a summer population up to almost ten times the number of officially registered local residents in this fast developing St. Tropez of Turkey.