My love affair with Turkey got off to an inauspicious start. It was well over 20 years ago, and my friend Debbie and I - strangers, in those days, to the art of researching a holiday - had set off blithely to Istanbul one January in search of winter sun. It was bone-chillingly cold, and it rained every single day.
We had one pair of socks between us, which we de-iced on the hotel radiator each evening before tossing a coin to decide who would wear them the next day. (Not that this was much of a boon for the winner. It was like wearing boots made of cold, wet toast.) Eventually it dawned on us that we could buy an extra pair - Istanbul being not exactly short of markets. Immediately, we got lost in the Grand Bazaar. I had my purse pinched, and we ended up in a police station.
As we sat shivering with misery, we were overwhelmed by kindness as one of the officers disappeared for a rummage through a locker room and emerged with two brand new pairs of police issue socks. His friend popped out to a street stall and brought in paper plates of menemen - delicious scrambled eggs, mixed with onions, tomatoes and peppers - to warm us up.
Balloons flying over rock landscape at Cappadocia, Turkey.
I never saw my purse again, of course. But that episode inspired in me a massive admiration for the courtesy and innate hospitality of Turkish people (apart from the rat-bag who stole my purse) - a first impression that's been strengthened over the years by countless acts of generosity and friendship. Having visited almost every summer since that first trip, I've been able to get to know the country so much better.
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I initially threw myself into exploring what became my favourite part of Turkey: the glorious Turquoise Coast. This enchanting strip of Mediterranean seaboard in the south-west harbours the bijou towns of Kalkan and Kas and little fishing villages galore, alongside a treasure-trove of ruins dating back 3000 years.
Cappadocia, a historical region in Central Anatolia dating back to 3000 B.C is one of the most famous tourist sites in Turkey.
For me, there is nothing - but nothing - as magical as weaving through silky creeks on board a beautiful traditional gulet, visiting deserted pine-covered islands or crystal coves by day, then falling blissfully asleep on deck.
Later, I travelled further afield to other-worldly Cappadocia, in central Turkey, taking a balloon ride over its astonishing sherbet-coloured landscape of fairy chimneys.
I've also revisited Istanbul many times, thrilled not just by Sultanahmet's ravishing mosques and minarets, but also by the city's vibrancy as a fantastically varied waterfront metropolis. The Bosporus ferry zigzags between Europe and Asia for a beguiling 20 miles (32.1 km) on its way to the remote fishing village of Anadolu Kavagi. Traffic-free Buyukada island, just 50 minutes or so south-east of the city across the Sea of Marmara, is what the Hamptons are to New York: a leafy rural idyll of clapboard houses and honeysuckled porches.
Large mosque Yeni Cami in Istanbul, Turkey next to Bosphorus river.
Only in the summer of 2016 were my Turkish travels disrupted after a barrage of terror attacks, closely followed by an attempted military coup. Visitor numbers dwindled, but then a miraculous recovery began. Perhaps people realised that Istanbul is hardly unique in being targeted - and that south-west Turkey is as far from Syria as London is from Prague.
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By this summer, Turkey was recording a 28 per cent rise in bookings and people began to return. Like a boomerang, I landed back on the Turquoise Coast to revisit my favourite haunts. It was as though I'd never been away.
Harbour town Kalkan was as gorgeous as ever - awash with papery clouds of pink and purple bougainvillea and twinkling at night with its cheery of seafront restaurants buzzing with smiling waiters. It was exactly the same in neighbouring Kas. Late in my stay, as I sat in the town's central tea gardens, shaded by eucalyptus trees, an elderly man I didn't know came up to the table and pressed a blue "Evil Eye" lucky charm into my hand. "It's good to see you Brits back," he said, shyly.
The pleasure, I was happy to tell him, was all mine.
ESSENTIALS:
Linda Cookson travelled as a guest of Fairlight Jones (fairlightjones.com). A week's self-catering in Kalkan's one-bedroom waterfront villa, Sun, starts at pounds £675 ($1291) per person, based on two sharing. The price includes transfers from Dalaman airport (flights arranged on request).
MY SECRET SEVEN
A 'Swallows and Amazons' island
Tiny, traffic-free Sovalye island in the Gulf of Fethiye is a charming Swallows and Amazons enclave with shingle coves, shady walkways and a pine forest that can be circumnavigated by canoe in less than an hour. The bustling working port city of Fethiye is only 20 minutes across the water - its old quarter complete with a lively bazaar and a tiled fish market, where you can choose your own fish for the grill, and a picture-perfect cafe.
Tranquil Ece Boutique Hotel (ecehotel sovalye.com) has doubles from €110 ($185).
Butterflies and coastal trail
A primeval rocky canyon swirling in mist, Butterfly Valley is a miniature Lost World. More than 100 species of butterfly gather here, amid waterfalls spilling down through fir trees to an unspoilt sandy beach (below). It's reachable by boat from the nearby lagoon resort of Olu Deniz, or by climbing down from Faralya, a mountain settlement teetering 1150ft (350m) above the gorge. The antithesis of touristy Olu Deniz, Faralya is an eco-friendly paradise on the Lycian Way walking trail.
Villa Mandarin (villa mandarin.com) has doubles from €255, half-board.
A crusader castle and sunken city
The waterfront village of Kalekoy is a location scout's dream. Flower-filled restaurants, higgledy-piggledy wooden jetties and dusty backstreets climb steeply to a storybook Crusader castle. Just opposite is Kekova island, where the remnants of the sunken Byzantine city of Batik Sehir can be glimpsed. As you sail across to the island in a glass-bottomed boat, you'll glide past a part-submerged Lycian tomb.
Pretty Sahil Pension (sahilpension.com), bang on the seafront, has doubles for €70 B&B.
A ghost village
Clinging to the mountainside in the sleepy, agricultural Kaya Valley is the evocative "ghost village" of Kayakoy, an eerie cluster of deserted stone houses, empty streets and little chapels housing the remains of fading frescoes. It was abandoned in 1923 after the Greco-Turkish population exchange, and was the inspiration for Louis de Berniere's 2004 novel Birds Without Wings.
Rural retreat The Fig Garden (thefig garden.com) has mesmerising views of the village; a two-bedroom cottage costs from £399 per week.
Turkey's longest beach
The 12-mile (19.3km) stretch of white sand at Patara is spared development because it's a protected breeding ground for loggerhead turtles and because of the Roman ruins. The ancient city was the birthplace of St Nicholas, better known as Father Christmas. After a stroll through its colonnaded ruins, repair to the shack restaurant on Turkey's longest beach.
The stylish Patara Viewpoint hotel (pataraviewpoint.com) has doubles from £45, B&B.
From red peppers to gulets
The pine-clad Bozburun peninsula (also known as Loryma) is as unspoilt as you could hope. This is farming country, with hillsides dotted with beehives, smallholdings of sweetcorn and fiery red peppers, and fields of cotton and tobacco. It's also home to the area's gulet-building industry. The coastal village of Orhaniye, though now something of a yachties' favourite, still has bags of charm.
Waterfront vineyard Sakin Vadi Winehouse (sakinvadiwinehouse.com) has two-person bungalows for €75, B&B.
Cliff tombs and mazy meanders
The Dalyan Delta harbours an amazing snake of a river that wriggles lazily from Lake Koycegiz towards the open sea. Over the centuries, silting has created mazes of reed-laden streams, navigable only by small riverboats that weave their way slowly downstream towards the colourful waterfront restaurants of Dalyan town. High above, carved like mansions into the rock face, are fascinating 3000-year-old rock tombs.
The riverside Midas Pension (midas dalyan.com) has doubles from £40 B&B.
- The Telegraph
Source:
Turkey isn't just for Christmas
