Areas
I’ve visited Turkey scores of times, exploring it on my own, with family and friends, and with tour groups. I’ve travelled in boats, jeeps, local buses, hire cars, tractors and canoes, and I’ve tramped it in hiking boots. These are the areas I return to. You’ll find thumbnail links for all featured areas at the bottom of the page, along with a map for locating them.
I’ve poked into pretty much every corner of this vast country but have repeatedly returned to the mountain-backed concertina coasts between the ports of Izmir and Antalya in the far southwest – the main (but by no means only) focus of this website. This beautiful region at the juncture of the Aegean and the Mediterranean is especially rich in classical ruins, delightful beaches, verdant hillsides, olive groves and smallholdings. It’s no surprise that these lands – ancient Ionia, Caria and Lycia – should draw the vast majority of holidaying visitors.
One sorry consequence of the region’s popularity is the proliferation of disheartening package holiday monocultures like Marmaris or Kuşadası. Somewhere Wonderful avoids such resorts to show Turkey at its most bucolic and enchanting. The website’s coverage ranges from county-sized regions and cities down to individual villages, also taking in an island, a peninsula, a lake region, a riverside town, some low-key back-to-nature beach resorts and much else besides. It also includes favourite areas beyond the southwest littoral including the surreal volcanic landscapes of Cappadocia and the extraordinary cultural riches of the country’s southeast, and will be regularly adding new discoveries in due course. It’s a selection designed to appeal to adult travellers and family groups alike.
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