Akbuk holidays

Holidays to Akbuk bring you a turquoise bay and white-sand coves, with a side order of the healthiest air in the whole of Turkey.

Quiet town

Get to Bodrum, zigzag a route northbound up Turkey’s west coast, and Akbuk comes in to view within about an hour and a half. This former fishing town is set at the foot of a deep bay lapped by the Aegean Sea. It’s cradled by forests of fir trees and gently sloping mountains, making for a scenic spot with tucked-away appeal.

Clean living

Akbuk’s laid-back and healthy lifestyle – it’s well-known for its oxygen-rich air quality – bagged the Turks’ vote many moons ago. Upmarket hotels, villas and summer houses by the dozen bear witness to its popularity. If that’s not enough, it’s got a good-looking harbour and a winning smile of a beach, plus whole avenues of bars and restaurants with grandstand views of the bay.

Hide-and-seek bays

This area of the coast is studded with little beaches and hidey-hole bays. Boat trips leave from the harbour to ferret them out. Closer to hand, the town beach is a long belt of sand with rocky outcrops. Some parts of it are hush-hush quiet with a thick backdrop of trees, others are bright with parasols and bordered by a paved promenade.

Ancient sites

Akbuk puts you within striking distance of ancient sites that hark back to the glory days of Greece and Rome. The closest is the crumbling Temple of Apollo in Didim, where roofless columns reach up to the heavens. It’s 30 minutes’ drive away. Meanwhile, history buffs will have a field day mooching around the ancient city of Ephesus, 74 kilometres north. It doesn’t take much imagination to picture the life of the residents a few millennia back after walking their marble pavements and sitting among the remains of their temples and theatres.