The name 'Bozburun' first came to my attention a few years ago, when I was reading a Turkish interior design magazine at a upmarket cafe in Antalya. Inside that particular issue was a special report of a beautiful Greek-style stone house with a seaview to die for that has been painstakingly restored by its new owners. The house, which used to belong to a Greek family living in western Anatolia, was abandoned since the population exchange of 1923 and had been left in a state of decay until the new owners came and resurrect the house, bringing it back to its former grandeur.
According to the article in the magazine, the house is located within the vicinity of the village of Bozburun, about one and a half hour away by bus from Marmaris. And the very fact that such beautiful traditional houses and such unpolluted, pristine sea (are) still (allowed to) exist in spite of its location close to one of the biggest and fast developing resort areas of Turkey, truly aroused my curiosity. I was smitten by that place at the very first sight, as soon as I set my eyes on the pictures of the house's balcony with the sparkling blue sea in the background. Immediately I noted down the name of the village and place it on top of my 'must-see' list for Turkey.
Finally, after some lags, I arrived at this long fabled place one sunny morning by bus from Marmaris. The very first sight was slightly disappointing, as the village of Bozburun was not as picturesque as I had anticipated. There are no photogenic Greek Sakiz style houses such as those found in Alacati or Cunda, neither are there any beautiful shorefront cafes where I could sit down and have a rest. There are of course a few restaurants serving local fares in the village centre, but as Bozburun is not really on the main tourist circuit for foreign visitors, most places as well as hotels are closed during the winter months.
Fortunately for Bozburun, in spite of the lack of an attractive centre or marina, the village does have some of the most charming and amazing seaviews in the whole of Mediterranean. The highlight of my visit to this little seaside village tucked away at the very end of the Bozburun Peninsula is the hour long walk along its shores which offers marvellous views of the Aegean and access to some of the most crystal-clear waters I have ever seen anywhere in this part of the world. I wondered how and why, given its exceptional beauty and a wonderfully lush hinterland, this place has so far managed to stay out of the preyful eyes of property developers in Turkey. Perhaps this has something to do with its - comparatively speaking - isolated location, as although there are direct minibus services that operate several times a day to and from Marmaris, the journey takes about one-and-a-half hour and passes through some fairly rugged terrains while the bus criss-crosses its way through the entire Bozburun Peninsula.
There are of course signs of tourism in this quiet village, which caters primarily to Turkish tourists and yacht tourism. In the summer, Bozburun is also a stop on one of those Blue Voyage gulet tours. As Bozburun does not have high-rise hotels or apartment blocks, and its scenic hillsides have not been overfilled with private villas or holiday houses, prices of accommodation in this village are actually fairly pricy, but to be honest, it is actually very comforting to note that this village has positioned itself at the upper end of the tourism market spectrum and try to avoid going down the same road as nearby Marmaris or Fethiye. Of the hotels and guesthouses available in Bozburun, most of them do not gear towards mass tourism at all. Instead the owners and innkeepers try to run the establishment as some kind of 'nature get-away' eco-tourism type of affairs, without the trappings of all-inclusive hotels so commonly seen in Marmaris and other big Turkish resort towns. One of the more exclusive guesthouses in Bozburun even has their own traditional gulet to ferry their guests to and from the village centre, as the establishment is located on the outskirt of Bozburun, right at the sea but without direct access path to the village itself.
It is a very relaxed and pleasing experience to stroll from the little marina on one end of the village all the way along the seaside promenade to the little hotel on the other end of the village. En route I stopped numerous times to take photos of the beautiful sea, the boats, the hills surrounding the village, and the dogs and cats tanning themselves in the spring sun. While it is not the stunning eye-catching beauty I had first hoped for, the village of Bozburun has a very open, natural touch, not kitschy at all, and this quality makes me feel very relaxed.
Several hotels in Bozburun remain open all year round, but prices are steep, even by European standards. Although the sea is absolutely amazing in and around Bozburun, I did not stay overnight in the village as I was not enamoured enough with this place to warrant paying almost 60 euro per night for a room in one of those eco-friendly hotels with unbeatable seaviews.
Nevertheless, this quiet fishing village still merits a visit, if you like off-the-beaten track places that are still unpolluted by concrete apartment blocks and have plenty of nature to offer. A walk around the hills of Bozburun will make your camera's memory card fully loaded with snapshots of incredibly beautiful bays, crystal blue sea and scenic coastlines.
Regular buses connect Bozburun with downtown Marmaris. During the winter months, last bus to Marmaris from Bozburun leaves from the square in front of the village town hall at 15:30 in the afternoon. The fare costs 9TL in 2012.
Copyrights@2012. All text and photos by YC Cheng. All Rights Reserved.
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