I am sitting on the verandah of a family home in Etrim, a small hillside village in Türkiye’s south-west and a 30-minute drive from the Amanruya hotel, where I began this journey.
Sunshine hits the pomegranate and fig trees that shade the verandah, sending dappled light across the rich brocade of handwoven rugs and knotted kilims that carpet the floor, and our host, Engin Basol, waves a hand towards the olive groves and pine forests that fan out across his village.
“Bodrum [city] was once like this,” he tells me. “If you look at photographs from 30 or 40 years back, you could see donkeys walking into Bodrum. There were tangerine trees.” His 66-year-old mother sits opposite us, her nimble hands kneading and rolling dough she quickly parcels into spinach gozleme, and pops into a woodfire. In Bodrum, I’m learning, it’s good to bring an appetite to breakfast. A low, large, circular table is set, no, festooned, with a breakfast feast. Spicy menemen eggs with tomato and green peppers. Marinated olives plucked from 100-year-old trees. Turbans of pumpkin börek, pillows of fried pisi bread, and plates of tomato, cucumber and a gloriously peppery rocket.
And on it goes. There are pyramids of pale cow’s milk cheese next to pots of golden pine honey. There is kaymak (clotted cream), and murraba-ye havij (a moreish carrot marmalade zinging with zest, cardamom and rose water). There is a simplicity to this serpme kahvalti – a breakfast banquet typically served on weekends in Türkiye – and its tradition of lazing, grazing and the drinking of much hot tea in traditional tulip glasses. And the simplicity suits the rustic village setting.
Amanruya hotel on the north coast of the Bodrum Peninsula, Türkiye
It’s here that Basol and his family run a co-op for local women weavers, preserving a craft that is centuries old, and fighting a gentle battle to keep the developers at bay.
Perhaps it’s the sunshine, or the gentle aspect out across the village but I’m lulled into a peaceful sense of serenity, as if the modern world is a million miles away.
It’s a feeling that continues at the Amanruya resort. While megayachts and partygoers flock south to Bodrum city and its glitzy coastline of resorts, beaches, restaurants and bars, those who venture north are rewarded with true seclusion and a slower, more authentic pace of life.
Set on a hilltop overlooking Mandalya Bay, Amanruya offers artisanal luxury at the doorstep to Mediterranean cuisine, boutique wineries, ancient ruins, handicrafts and island hopping in the Aegean Sea. My visit to Etrim village is just one of the hotel’s bespoke experiences.
At Amanruya, stone pavilions organically flow one into another. Escher-like paths and steps lead from dining terraces with sea views to the spa, gym and pool, and a honeycomb of villas, before winding down through cypress forests and olive groves to the private beach club and its scallop of pebbled beach and bright blue sea.
There are 36 stone villas, each with a private swimming pool and terraces scented with thyme. Inside the decor is Ottoman in style: marble floors and mahogany ceilings, arches and a white hammam-style bathroom with luxuriously deep tub. The four-poster bed is just as deeply luxurious.
Amanruya hotel pool overlooking Bodrum Peninsula and the Aegean Sea
Breakfast is served poolside at the hilltop dining pavilion, where the blue of the sea blends with that of the pool. I spend my days working through the Turkish menu, beginning with eggs (baked in garlicky yoghurt or scrambled with peppers, tomato and chilli), and sides of hard cheese and yoghurt, smoked suçuk (a fried and mildly spicy sausage) and pastrami, fried bread, peppery rocket salad and long green chillies. Other days, it’s gözleme and house-baked breads with mezze dips.
Executive chef Cihan Beyit draws from Ottoman, Mediterranean and Aegean cuisines with a fine-dining menu that is both rustic and elegant. He tells me: “When it comes to curating dishes, my passion lies in a modern Mediterranean and Aegean fusion that offers a genuine taste of Türkiye’s culinary influences through the ages.” The food at the resort is seasonal and sourced mostly from local farmers and fishermen – a fact that comes into its own at the sushi restaurant where local fish is exquisitely prepared and plated. Fish is also king at the many seaside restaurants in nearby Gümüslük, a fishing village where sea bream, red mullet and anchovies sit on ice in open fridges and, once cooked over open coals, are consumed with shots of raki, the local aniseed liquor. It’s a combination that my new friend Engin Bosul swears by.
Türkiye is a country steeped in history and the hotel offers all manner of local cultural tours and attractions. Chief among these are the ruins at Ephesus, built by the Greeks 3000 years ago and featuring an almost intact amphitheatre and the ornate Library of Celsus, third largest library in the Roman world, which once held 12,000 scrolls. It’s a three-hour drive from the hotel (or short helicopter ride) but worth every second.
Türkiye isn’t known for its wine, but on my last day Amanruya arranges for a driver to take me to Karnas Vineyards, a 40-minute drive along roads banked by olive groves and vines framed by pomegranate and mulberry trees and big blue skies.
This boutique winery has a focus on minimal intervention in the growing process. It opened in 2005 and won gold with the first release of its zinfandel. The cellar door is a dreamy hilltop location where ducks roam freely, and the wine-tasting takes place on the terrace over a cheese plate or rustic organic stew. There are four wines to try, including a syrah and the 2019 zinfandel. Aged in French oak for 16 months, it is a full-bodied wine with hints of wild berries, liquorice and tobacco. Zinfandel is one of the oldest grape vines in the world. It thrives in regions with plenty of sunshine and low rainfall. It is best known in California and Italy (as primitivo) but wine historians place its roots in the Mediterranean, in particular, Croatia. And now too in Bodrum.
Exterior of Amanruya hotel in Bodrum, Türkiye
Getting there:
Most airlines fly to Istanbul, via the Middle East or Asia. From Istanbul International Airport, Turkish Airlines has multiple daily flights to Bodrum. Pegasus Airlines also offer daily flights from Sabiha Gökçen Airport.
