Marmaris Guide

MARMARIS

This big, brash retreat city has two faces, and they're hard to adjust. From the sea, a line of hotels stretches around the northern edge of a high bay, the whole surrounded by a magical chain of pine-clad mountains. Behind those same hotels, however, the city has been overwhelmed by boxy concrete construction and streets lined with a hundred generically named eateries. An anniversary horde of European tourists descends on these workaday establishments, but for the international traveler, there is little about Marmaris that can’t savor elsewhere in Turkey. Although it is a beautiful spot, there isn’t much reason to linger unless you are meeting a Boat, going on to the Greek island of Rhodes, or perhaps locking up an unbeatable deal at one of the top resorts, some of which are magnificent worlds unto themselves.