Things to do
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Mandarin Oriental
A large resort on Paltar Bay near Göltürkbükü with two private beaches and its own jetty, cut into the hillside so the rooms all face the sea. It is the peninsula's biggest luxury address.
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Amanruya
A hotel of separate stone cottages in olive groves above a private beach on the north coast of the peninsula, each with its own courtyard and pool. It is deliberately remote from the town.
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Bitez
A shallow bay of tamarisk trees and wooden jetties west of Bodrum, the calmest swimming on the peninsula and a windsurfing beach in the afternoons. The waterfront restaurants sit on the sand.
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Bodrum Castle
The Castle of St Peter, built by the Knights Hospitaller from 1402 using stone from the ruined Mausoleum, on the headland between the two harbours. It holds the Museum of Underwater Archaeology and the towers are climbable.
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Gümüşlük
A fishing village on the western tip built over ancient Myndos, where part of the old harbour lies just under the water and can be waded across to Rabbit Island. Building is restricted, which is why it stayed low.
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Island
Kara Ada
The island in the bay off Bodrum, reached by day boat, with an iron-rich hot spring in a cave on its north shore that people plaster themselves with. Every harbour tour stops here.
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Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
The foundations and scattered blocks of the tomb built for Mausolus around 350 BC, one of the seven wonders and the source of the word mausoleum. The sculpture went to London in 1846 and the site explains what is missing.
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Pedasa
A Lelegian hill settlement above Konacık with its city wall, cisterns and a temple terrace, reached on a marked path through pine. It is empty, unticketed and about an hour on foot.
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Theatre at Halicarnassus
A Greek theatre cut into the hill above the town, one of the oldest in Anatolia and still used for summer concerts. It looks down over the castle and the harbour and is free to enter.
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Zeki Müren Arts Museum
The house of the singer Zeki Müren, kept as he left it in 1996, from the wardrobe to the piano. It is a short walk from the harbour and is the best window in the town onto modern Turkey.