Marmaris: pine-backed bays and the best boat trips in Turkey

Marmaris, İçmeler or Turunç

Marmaris sits in a large, almost enclosed bay ringed by pine-covered mountains, which is what distinguishes it from the more open, rockier coast further east. The sheltered water is why the boat trips here are so good, and why three quite different places share the same bay.

Marmaris town

The big one: a long promenade, a huge marina, the old castle and bazaar, and Bar Street. Most choice in hotels and restaurants, and the most noise.

İçmeler

Six kilometres round the bay, smaller, cleaner water, mountains directly behind the beach. The default recommendation for couples and families.

Turunç

Over the headland, smaller again, reached by a winding mountain road or a water taxi. Quiet, scenic, and a genuine trek to anywhere else.

The dolmuş minibuses run between all three constantly and cost very little, so staying in İçmeler does not cut you off from the town. Water taxis do the same route more scenically for a bit more.

The beaches

Long Beach (Uzunyalı) runs for several kilometres along the Marmaris seafront — convenient, well-equipped, and busy in season. The water clarity improves noticeably as you move west towards İçmeler.

İçmeler beach is the better swim: same bay, cleaner water, with the mountains as a backdrop. Turunç has a small, steep-shelving bay that suits confident swimmers.

The genuinely memorable swimming, though, is not from a beach at all — it is off the side of a boat in one of the bays you cannot drive to.

Boat trips and Dalyan

This is what Marmaris is actually for. Three trips stand out:

• Dalyan and İztuzu Beach. A river boat threads through reed beds beneath Lycian rock tombs carved into the cliff, out to a long sandbar beach that is a protected loggerhead turtle nesting site. Most versions include the sulphur mud baths. The best day out on this coast.
• Cleopatra Island (Sedir). An island in the Gulf of Gökova with unusual coarse white sand — protected, so you cannot lie directly on it or take any away, and there are wardens who enforce that. The ruins and the water are the draw.
• The standard bay-hopping day. Out of Marmaris marina, stopping at Paradise Island, Phosphorus Cave and Aquarium Bay, lunch included.

The Datça peninsula

The long finger of land running west from Marmaris is the part most visitors never reach, and it is the most beautiful drive in the region — a narrow road along a ridge with sea on both sides.

Datça town is a low-key harbour with almond groves and none of the resort scale. At the very tip, Knidos is an ancient Greek city on the headland where the Aegean and Mediterranean meet, with a theatre looking straight out to sea.

It is about two hours each way from Marmaris, so it works as a long day trip or, better, an overnight.

Getting there

Dalaman (DLM) is the airport, about 90 minutes and 95km away. That transfer is longer than people expect, and it is the main argument for Marmaris being a week rather than a long weekend.

Options are the Havaş shuttle bus, a pre-booked private transfer, or a considerably pricier taxi. If you are also visiting Bodrum, note that Milas–Bodrum (BJV) is a separate airport roughly three hours north — combining both usually means a bus between them rather than a flight.

Marmaris also runs a seasonal ferry to Rhodes, which makes a Greek island day trip straightforward. Bring your passport and check the schedule, which thins out sharply outside summer. Wider transport detail is in getting around Turkey.