Tranquil Turkey: soaking up the coast at a slower pace

Life moves at a gentler pace in the peaceful fishing villages of the spectacular Bozburun peninsula

Early evening in the small Turkish village of Orhaniye, and the sun has just dipped below the mountains. Above the jagged peaks, the sky is streaked with vivid golds and pinks, a chorus of cicadas warming up in the olive and citrus trees. As I swim in the pool, the call to prayer echoes out from the mosque behind our villa. It’s a beautiful moment; the kind you want to bottle and keep – and which could be nowhere else but Turkey.

Orhaniye is one of a clutch of sleepy fishing villages that dot the Bozburun peninsula, a jagged hook of land rolling south from the busy resorts of Marmaris and Icmeler. Favoured by the sailing crowd, its spectacular coastline and simple waterfront restaurants have remained relatively undiscovered by mainstream tourism. Most of the people who stay in the small, independently owned hotels or quiet villas are Turkish, giving the area an authentic, unspoilt feel that has been lost in some of the bigger, more mainstream resort.