What makes Southern Turkey special ? First the beauty of its geography, then the climate offering very long summers and a very short winter without much heavy weather or constant wind and then the many inlets and small bays all over make it perfect for cruising.
If you enjoy swimming, snorkeling then you will be happy throughout the whole coast. Scuba diving is also nice, not terrific like in the Caribbean or Red Sea but still nice. There are numerous accredited diving schools accepting Padi and Cmas certificates.
We live busy lives in İstanbul so when we go south we first enjoy the serenity. It also is a fact that when you have children then free time is not easy to come by ! When I took the upper photos I was with my little daughter taking a photo and then running after her !
Is that it ? Just geography and climate ? No. There is certainy a food factor but not much in the south coast. But if you would speak, especially in Turkish, then you would have a totally different cultural experience. Many tourists simply do not engage in conversations in any language, they come, see around and then leave. But this is just the beginning of getting a taste of Turkey and is equivalent to visiting France and limiting your lunch and dinners to Quick burger restaurant.
It is important, or in better words, strongly suggested that you engage in conversations in Turkey. You can sit at a seaside coffee shop or restaurant and start talking to the waiter. The trick is to talk without thinking or calculating. After you get to know him, a couple of days later ask how his family is. Make a genuine compliment about something and start asking questions. Tell him about yourself too. What you like, dislike. If you are upset about something feel free to share it with him, not immediately but after several days. You should note that in Turkey a single woman trying to engage in a conversation with a guy can be understood as an advance.
When you talk, do not calculate, make sure to express, share emotions and do not go into politics unless you have lived for a while in Turkey and you speak Turkish. What I like about travelling is that it lets us get rid of the cultural templates that make us believe that we are absolutely correct and superior when we know little about others. This also applies to Turkey so leave your pre-conceived ideas and live the country !
Now, let us continue from Orhaniye to Selimiye. First the photos :
Simple, serene and beautiful. Selimiye has basic houses scattered around the treeless landscape. Not much when you arrive first time, indeed when we did arrive I refused to stop by as it looked pretty dry. But on a later visit I came to realize that when you walk ashore it looks pretty nice. There are some restaurants offering nice food, try Sardunya or Luna. Both make local seafood dishes but the taste is pretty good !
Selimiye is a lonely soul, albeit a good one. It is far from Marmaris so not many people will stop by unless it is the high season. I might be mistaken but it has no large scale luxury hotels. I would recommend Luna Begonvil at,
http://www.lunabegonvil.com.tr/
Your boat will have more accommodation options, there are multiple little pontoons around Selimiye all run by municipality. Anchor and approach stern-to. Expect to pay 10-20 Euros per night.
You can have nice walks around Selimiye, it is just one cute, small, undeveloped village. People are usually very friendly, as you might expect and this is a nice place to really relax and let the stress of city go by. If you don't mind living in isolated areas then Hisarönü and Yeşilova offers many opportunities. We now live in the age of internet so I keep wondering why some people do not move south but choose to stay in İstanbul ? It should be possible to do work by internet and especially for self-employed people this area is a godsend.
Selimiye can have a touristic feeling too. It is quite common for people from Istanbul buy to land here and then sell it for multiple times after several years. This is destructive for the whole area as it triumphs quantity over quality. A friend wanted to buy some land here but he was surprised at the prices.
Anyway better is to come soon so stop by and enjoy Selimiye.
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