WHY YOU SHOULD TRADE IN YOUR OLD FAVOURITES FOR TURKEY

As well as being generally cheaper than other Mediterranean destinations, Turkey’s holiday hotspots bear a happy comparison with other places on Europe’s greatest sea…

Swap Cannes

for Bodrum

If this pretty Turkish

resort does not have quite the “chic factor” of the Côte d’Azur, it is not

for a want of trying. The hotels that have been sprinkled along the

north flank of the Bodrum peninsula in the

past 10 years are some of Europe’s most luxurious,

and the town itself is a photogenic marvel, with the tide rolling in below the walls of its 15thcentury castle.

Swap Nice for Olu Deniz

In some ways, there is no comparison. Olu Deniz is

a village, Nice a city. But there is a superficial similarity in the way the

former’s spur of land juts into the sea, just as

Cap Ferrat does into French waters. Of course,

there is no contest between Nice’s beaches and Kumburnu Plaji. The latter, framing a small lagoon of vivid blue waters, is much

more beautiful.

Swap Paris for Istanbul

There are huge differences, obviously, between Paris and

Istanbul – in food, culture, art, history, temperature. But the

French capital and Turkey’s largest city have one key thing in

common – the swagger that comes from being a major

metropolis with a spectacular skyline that

calls to cameras. In Istanbul, this means Hagia

Sophia, the Bosphorus Bridge – and the sunset

shimmer of two continents meeting.

Swap Cassis for Fethiye

It is all about the landscape – which, in

both cases, rears up steeply behind. In French Cassis, it is the limestone

cliffs and inlets of Calanques National Park.

In Fethiye, it is the mountains of the Mugla coastline, their faces carved with ancient

Lycian tombs. The situation on the waterside is much the same – coffee

shops, restaurants and lazy afternoons spent in the sunshine out on the

terrace, glass in hand.

Swap Marbella

for Marmaris

Sometimes all you want of

a beach destination is a beach. It is not that you cannot find wider culture in the Costa del Sol’s most

popular city, just that it isn’t necessarily the first

requirement of the tourists who flock there. The same might be said of Marmaris. There are

hotels. There are sunloungers. The sea is warm. The days are long.

The rest is noise.

Swap Pompeii

for Ephesus

If you have flown to Kusadasi for a tan, you are

already there. Turkey’s most important ancient site is a 10-mile detour from the beach, worth your time on even the

most golden days for sunbathing. Here is a world wonder – Greek in heritage, biblical in

back-story, and as gorgeous as history can be

in both its vast amphitheatre and the

Library of Celsus.

Swap Samos for

Kusadasi

Or any other fragment of

the Aegean you might care to name. But Samos bears mention, as it and

Kusadasi are such near-neighbours. The former is the Greek island

closest to the Turkish mainland; barely a mile separates the two across

the Mycale Strait. Kusadasi is the resort which stares back from

the east, enjoying exactly the same waves

and weather.