As most of you may know, I have been swanning around this area for the last 2 weeks.
If you want a holiday away from the bucket and spade brigade and away from huge hotel complexes etc and just a plain old seaside village then Datca is the place.
Not much in the line for nightclubs and crowds of pissheads but it does offer the ideal place for peace and quiet (untill CH shows up).
Got the boat over from Bodrum which leaves twice a day (0900 & 1700) and costs 25 lira and it docks at Karakoy and from there you can get the service bus to downtown Datca.
I rented a villa for my time in Datca, a nice 3 bedroomed air conditioned place by the community pool.


Paid just shy of 900 lira for 11 days. There are a couple of other villas that could be rented on the complex and if your interested then call Sheila (expat for 33 yrs) on 0537 425 1883 or email stevie on steviekyle (at) dsl.pipex.com.

The best beaches around are Hayit buku, karainci, palamut buku and Aktur tatil koyu although it was just a 5 minute walk to the beach from the villa where old Knidos used to be and you could easily snorkel your way around the underwater ruins although best to wear something on your feet due to the dodgy killer sea urchins.

Karainci beach


I rented a car for my time there from Eskol rent a car (0252 712 9669 or Halil Bey 0536 888 5023) where the price could be 80 lira for a single day or go down to 50 lira if you rent for longer then 5 days. I also used him for a transfer to Dalaman airport which was 2½ hours away and cost 150 lira which is better then getting the bus if there are 4 of you.

Good restaurants I found was the fish mekan which is in an old stone house (refurbed I believe) on the beach front and also Maradonas for the steak with Maradonas own special sauce.
Drinking was mainly at the German bar and another fav was just around from the harbour which CH would know the name for.
Knidos is worth taking a drive to but they now charge 5 lira to get in. Take food and water with you as the restaurant there takes advantage of being the only place around.
Also note that there are only 2 petrol stations in Datca and thats it untill you get to Marmaris.

Also worth checking out is Eski Datca.


Only disappointment was CH refusing to climb up the mountain to rearrange the "Once Vatan" stones.

The task will be completed on my return in honour of your recent visit.

It will read "vacant one"

So, do most beaches look like this Karainci beach in the photo? Are they something like "organised beach zones"? With straw sunshades and more than a dozen white plastic sun loungers in one photo?

Kara ingir is nice but who unlocks the sunbeds???? allaburna up the road is nice too

hilarious - locked sunbeds... ıve been going to Karaincir since 1991 and ive never seen the locked sunbeds (Ive also never seen the beach that empty - probably cos ım ın bed tıl 3 pm...) ... and the rest of the beaches ... well ı trıed to get windsurfing lessons at the next beach - 'Perili Koşk' and got blown out by the Brit expat instructor ... as ı wasnt 'a resident' ... bstd!

interesting fact about the datça peninsula is the reputed hıgh oxgen content and and old fable about the spaniards (probably during the inquisition times) dropping off lepers in Datça to die ... when they revisited the population had flourished - med food, sun, oxygen etc...

this guy wrote a similar story though he says the locals deny the fable (it was a local from emecık village who told me about the lepers so I'll stick my version)

http://www.slowtrav.com/tr/tripreport.asp?tripid=1355

if you go skin diving around the bay - its magnificent - loads of broken amphora on the sea bed .. jacque cousteau script... didnt find any gold dubloons but the locals will tell you all sorts of stories if you line up the rakı - happy days