Jewel of the Bodrum Peninsula Population: 4,500
Old name: Myndos
As the Bodrum Peninsula grows ever more built-up pretty little Gümüşlük (“Silver Place”) remains a haven of tranquillity, despite some ugly development on the outskirts. It’s over on the far western shore where a lovely sandy beach is backed by a scattering of discreet hotels and restaurants.
Historically this was the settlement of Myndos, first settled by the Lelegians in about 2000 BC, and remains of the old city are scattered about both on the mainland and on Tavşan Adası (Rabbit Island). To get to the island at low tide you must wade across from in front of the mermaid statue (don’t follow the old stone mole that you can see under the water – locals say it is slippery and covered in sea urchins). Wear plastic shoes to keep a grip on the slippery stones.
When I last visited you had to duck through a gap in a torn barbed-wire fence erected by Uludağ University to keep visitors out. What I saw was the unlabelled foundations of what looked like rooms, their tops smoothed over with concrete. The island was supposed to have opened to the public in 2015. The views alone justified the visit.
Otherwise if you walk up Batı Şehir Sokak, just past the Mimosa Restaurant, you will come on the right to a huge apse-like building that is the remains of a bathhouse, again behind barbed-wire and signs bidding you to keep out.
If you look at the doors and windows of the small stone houses on the beach that are now holiday lets you will recognise that most of them probably belonged to local Greeks (Rums) before the Turco-Greek population exchange of 1924.
Eating
If you’re not into windsurfing or kayaking, there’s not a lot to do in Gümüşlük although eating features high on the short list of possibilities.
Day trippers mainly head for the string of fish restaurants near the bus terminal, all of them very inviting and offering a similar and standard repertoire of mezes and fish. Don’t expect cheap pickings though.
Further up the northern side of the beach, the Mimoza, once a small cafe, is now a restaurant of almost scary stylishness with seats set up in the sea and painted branches planted like trees beside them. Again, it goes without saying that you will get through a lot of money if you sit down to eat here.
Sleeping
Club Gümüşlük
Club Gümüşlük, a collection of beach chalets almost hidden in a ramshackle garden, stands right in the centre of the village overlooking Rabbit Island and a thin strip of sandy beach. The chalets are fairly basic with small bathrooms but there’s an inviting outdoor bar in the shade of a eucalyptus tree and a pleasant indoor restaurant for chillier days.
Yalı Mevkii, Tel: 0252-394 3401
Mandalinci Studios & Cottage
At the extreme northern end of Gümüşlük beach, the Mandalinci Studios are a group of self-catering apartments right beside the beach. The stone apartments are big and well-equipped, if hardly luxurious, and there’s an inviting garden to relax in. Past the Studios are the remains of a Graeco-Roman communal lavatory. The beach then loops round and passes Mandalinci Cottage buried beneath a canopy of bougainvillaea. Its solitude promises silent nights although its view has been marred by development on the far side of the bay.
Tel: 0252-394 3151
Transport info
There are frequent dolmuşes from Bodrum otogar to Gümüşlük. Check the last one back if coming here for dinner.
Day trip destinations
