İzmir's villages will steal your heart again and again, not just with their beauty but with the stance they take. After touring İzmir city centre, if there's time, some of you may want to enjoy the Aegean. As you know, İzmir is very rich; up north there's Foça, and further down many seaside towns like Çeşme, Alaçatı, Karaburun, Sığacık and Pamucak. People from İzmir are off enjoying themselves somewhere every week, you know, and we Istanbulites get envious and hit the road too:
FOÇA
Foça is one of the charming towns where the end of the Gulf of İzmir meets the Aegean Sea; it's at the top of the best areas for those who want to enjoy the sea under the sun. Foça is divided into two: Eski Foça and Yeni Foça.Eski Foça
The fishing boats lined up along the shore symbolised peace in rhythm with the blue water. With the laughter coming from the places on the shore and the happiness of the strolling crowd, you can feel peace with every breath. I can say it has the best seaside town I've seen so far.
With its historic fabric, Eski Foça attracts more tourists than Yeni Foça. That being the case, crowds are inevitable. It's worth visiting the neighbourhood market set up on Sundays too, and seeing the village aunties' heartfelt chatter and their own particular manner.
Finally, if you're hungry, you can stop by Fokai Restaurant and try the fish flavours typical of the Aegean.
Getting there: Leaving İzmir centre, by taking the D550 road and switching to the Çiğli-Foça road, you can reach Eski Foça after 64 km. By public transport, you can take the İzban train towards Aliağa, get off at Hatundere station, and then take bus 744, which leaves from outside the station.
Yeni Foça
Unlike Eski Foça, it's an area where building has increased rapidly and that has surrendered to concrete buildings. Here, if possible, it's worth going by rowing boat or boat to various bays and enjoying the sea there; Alman Koyu and Mambo Beach Club are bays with wonderful sea.
If you're hungry after the sea, you must stop by Eray Restaurant. Anyway, while walking along the seafront you'll see it's the only place that's full.
Getting there: Leaving İzmir centre, by taking the D550 road and switching to the E87 motorway, you can reach Yeni Foça after 67 km. By public transport, you can take the İzban train towards Aliağa, get off at Biçerova station, and then take bus 745, which leaves from outside the station. It's 24 km along the coast between Yeni Foça and Eski Foça, so those with cars can tour both little towns in 1 day.
BARBAROS VILLAGE - URLA
One of those İzmir villages that makes you say my heart stayed in the Aegean…
I was proud of our villagers, who say: "Our aim is to revive traditions, show our productive power and secure our sustainable development without harming our village's calm, without spoiling its natural fabric and without compromising the blessings rural life offers us!" Barbaros Village, very well kept, calm and with warm people, should be added to the places to visit in İzmir!
In Barbaros Village, a quiet, calm village inland, out of sight and close to the motorway, these wonderful scarecrows greeted us from the village entrance on. As we explored the village, we understood that it's very different from the villages we know.,
Barbaros Scarecrow Festival
While the people of Barbaros have made embracing agriculture their main principle, to stand out as a tourism village they also organise the Barbaros Scarecrow Festival every year.
Çat Kapı Houses
In the village you can knock on the doors of places with "Çat Kapı" written on their doors and be a guest in the houses. The villagers say: "Know that in the çat kapı houses there will be lovely local flavours to offer you."
The Labour, Culture and Art House
It's at the top of the places you must see in the village. It was created by a couple retired from the İzmir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, whose work turned the old village school into a culture house.Getting there: On the E881 İzmir-Çeşme Motorway, once you take the O-32, it's 5 km in.
BADEMLER VILLAGE - URLA
Imagine a village whose theatre has been staging plays since the 1930s, with all its actors being villagers. Just as it has a 76-year-old library, it also has a toy museum. In the shop, the tailor's and the barber's, pictures of famous thinkers hang with their sayings. They separate their rubbish and recycle it. There are no infrastructure problems. Everyone can read and write and no one commits crimes. While the villagers sow and reap their fields, they also talk literature and philosophy. Yes, very utopian, but this is real! This is one of the İzmir villages, part of Urla, built on a hilly area. According to one story, the village's name comes from the almond trees on the hills, becoming Bademler (Almonds) Village.According to a survey in 2012, the village was chosen as Turkey's cleanest village. Here the village's young people take an active part in village life.
Turkey's First Village Theatre
The love of theatre was instilled in the village by the teacher Mustafa Anarat, appointed in 1925. Anarat had the villagers perform shows, and so the village was taken over by a passion for theatre. Plays were staged in Bademler when there wasn't even a State Theatre in İzmir yet. Every year from 1933 to the present day, one or two plays have been performed in Bademler. The students Anarat trained also played a big role in the village's enlightenment.
What to Do in Bademler Village?
At the top of the main places to visit in the village is the Village Theatre. On the theatre stage, where around 150 plays have been staged to date, a Theatre Festival is held every year in the first week of May. What's more, Turkey's first Children's Toys Museum is also at the top of its places to visit. A Mathematics Farm has also been opened in the village, led by our teacher Tufan Döleneken, a mathematics teacher of 30 years in the village. At this place, whose first example in Turkey is the Nesin Mathematics Village in Şirince Village in Selçuk, with the philosophy that everything in basic life has its mathematics, it becomes a summer camp for children with games, activities, art and sport.As luck would have it, at Şermin Anne'nin Yeri, open on Sundays, we recommend eating the oh-so-delicious gözleme made with cheese and various herbs, with village ayran. Şermin Anne's conversation is very sweet too; if you have time, chat a little and you'll love that warm-hearted mother.
Getting there: It's 35 km from İzmir centre, 9 km from Urla, 10 km from Seferihisar and 28 km from Barbaros Village. On the İzmir-Seferihisar road you turn right towards 15000. Sokak. There's also a bus to the village every hour from the İzmir/Fahrettin Altay Stop.
TURGUT VILLAGE - SEFERİHİSAR
A pilot lavender-planting project by Seferihisar Municipality in Turgut Village has given the village a special air, and has managed to attract quite a few tourists to the village. Unfortunately there aren't endless lavender fields like in Italy or France, but I think it's an important development for our country.Lavender, which we know for its unique scent, has recently been drawing attention for its benefits to human health. Although the Mediterranean Region stands out because of the climate it grows in, it was thought that Seferihisar's fertile soil was also suitable for planting, and it was first planted on a four-dönüm area in Turgut Village. And from June 2016, the lavender planted in 2015 started being celebrated with the Lavender Festival.
We hope the planted areas grow year by year and İzmir becomes a tourist centre for lavender too.
Getting there: It's 43 km from İzmir centre, 13 km from Urla and 3 km from Bademler Village.
5. SIĞACIK
Sığacık is the small, quiet, walled seaside town of Turkey's first slow city. It's one of the most colourful and calm towns not only of Seferihisar but of İzmir too.Sığacık Castle
The castle was built by Sultan Süleyman, and life inside it was renewed last year through the initiatives of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality and Seferihisar Mayor Tunç Soyer. Today, with its spotless streets and restored traditional historic buildings, it looks very pleasing to the eye.Sığacık Market
On Sundays the Sığacık Market is set up inside the castle; everyone brings out in front of their house what they've grown in their garden and cooked in their kitchen and sells it. At this market, where nobody pushes you to buy anything, you can taste organic flavours and buy them if you like them. Homemade jams, börek and desserts, local vegetables, homemade wines and the famous Aegean Herbs are the best of the Market.Getting there: On the E881 İzmir-Çeşme Motorway, once you take the İzmir-Seferihisar road, it's 27 km in. By public transport, you can get to Seferihisar with the İzmir-Seferihisar minibuses (3.5 Lira) or municipal bus 730 (district fare), and then get there with the green dolmuşes going to Sığacık.
ŞİRİNCE VILLAGE - SELÇUK
Şirince, an old Greek village in İzmir's Selçuk district, built among lush green hills covered in olive trees, has largely managed to preserve its original historic architecture. Şirince has become famous for its fruit wines and restored Greek houses. It's also home to the Aziz Nesin Mathematics Village. Staying away from the big hotel concept, there are sweet little guesthouses.
It's worth reminding you: thanks to the claim that on the doomsday of 21 December 2012, believed in by the Maya, only Şirince on earth would be saved, Şirince Village became known all over the world.
Besides vineyards and olive groves, peaches, figs, apples and walnuts are also grown in Şirince.
What to Do in Şirince Village?
- The Church of St. John the Baptist,
- the historic primary school building,
- the Nesin Mathematics Village,
- the streets of Şirince,
- and the village hilltop should be added to the list of places to visit.
It's a bit hard to come to Şirince and go back without buying something from this charming village. All kinds of products, from clothes to wine, from soap to glasswork, and rare handicrafts are offered to visitors. You can see handmade products on stalls in almost every street in Şirince.
Elderflower Syrup
The Elderflower Syrup generally brought after meals in Şirince was delicious. The flower the syrup is made from blooms only one month a year and is generally found by streams. When it blooms, you pick and pick; if you don't pick it in that time, too bad, it has to wait until the next year. Luckily the owners of the place had picked it, and we didn't miss out on this flavour.
Getting there: Şirince, about 90 km from İzmir centre, is 8 km from Selçuk centre. You can reach Şirince Village by continuing from the İzmir-Aydın motorway towards Selçuk.
Surely there's still a lot more to write about İzmir; maybe it's time to take your loved one and hit the road..
The things to do in İzmir aren't over yet! Our guide in the style of an İzmir gourmet guide!
33 km
295 km
295 km