Foça (Phokaia) and Seferihisar (Sığacık): Slow Coastal Towns Near Izmir

If you want a relaxed seaside day out by the Aegean without the high-season crowds and prices of Çeşme, two historic fishing towns, one north of the bay and one south, preserve the slow pace of old coastal Izmir and are both reachable on municipal ESHOT buses using your regular İzmirim Kart.

1. Old Foça (Eski Foça, Ancient Phokaia, 65 km north-west of Izmir)

Founded by Ionian mariners in the 11th century BC, ancient Phokaia was home to the legendary long-distance navigators who sailed across the Mediterranean to found Marseille (Massalia) in France in 600 BC, as well as Corsica and Empúries in Spain. Today, Eski Foça wraps around two sheltered bays (Büyükdeniz and crescent-shaped Küçükdeniz) lined with honey-coloured 19th-century stone houses, wooden fishing boats and waterfront fish taverns:

• What to do in Foça: walk along the cobbled sea wall past the 16th-century Ottoman Beşkapılar Castle and boatyard, climb the hill to the restored Stone Windmills for views over the offshore Foça Islands (a protected marine reserve for the endangered Mediterranean monk seal, Akdeniz foku, after which Phokaia was named), and take a summer wooden boat trip out to the volcanic Siren Rocks (Siren Kayalıkları) mentioned in Homer's Odyssey.
• How to get there: take the northbound İZBAN train to Hatundere station and step onto connecting ESHOT Bus 744 straight into Eski Foça harbour (around 30 minutes from the station).

2. Sığacık and Ancient Teos (In Seferihisar, 50 km south-west of Izmir)

Designated Turkey's first Cittaslow ("Slow City") in 2009, the district of Seferihisar has its coastal gem at the harbour village of Sığacık. Unlike hill-top castles built purely for soldiers, the intact stone walls of Sığacık Castle (built in 1522 by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent as a naval base for the Rhodes campaign using stone blocks from nearby Teos) enclose a living neighbourhood of whitewashed two-storey houses with blue shutters and lemon trees:

• The Sunday Sığacık Producers' Market (Sığacık Üretici Pazarı): every Sunday inside the narrow cobbled alleys of the castle walls, local women set up stalls selling homemade gözleme flatbreads, stuffed vine leaves (yaprak sarma), artichoke pastries, tangerine jam and local Armola goat cheese.
• Ancient Teos (3 km south of Sığacık harbour): walk or bicycle ten minutes through thousand-year-old gnarled olive groves to the Hellenistic ruins of Teos, home to the largest Temple of Dionysus in the ancient world, an odeon, a theatre and an ancient harbour where columns stand beneath twisted olive trunks.
• How to get there: take the Metro or Tram to Fahrettin Altay (Üçkuyular) and board ESHOT Bus 640 (to Seferihisar) + 642 or a direct Sığacık minibus (50 minutes).