A Seaside Haven That's Infinitely Better In the Off Season

Bodrum is a town that anchors an eponymous peninsula on the southwest coast of Turkey, about an hour by air from Istanbul. The area has become a fashionable getaway spot in recent years. In summer months, when daytime temps hover around 90 degrees, electronic dance music permeates the seaside bars and pours into the fish restaurants. Sunburned Brits and Russians jostle for dance space on pirate-themed party boats. Tech tycoons and supermodels dip in for dinner and spa time in the Amanruya, Mandarin Oriental or Edition hotels. Long before those places opened, the style set gravitated to Macakizi, a hotel of white walls and tumbling bougainvillea. Summer is hot, busy and fun.

By late September the tourists are gone. A soft Odysseyian wind blows off the pine hills and the air and water merge into a temperate 82 degrees Fahrenheit. The locals—exhausted by the season, thrilled to have survived—emerge to reclaim their territory. Shopkeepers take a coffee by the marina and have a smoke. Big Turkish families stroll the boardwalk at dusk. Children climb the hills near the 15th-century fort that looms above the town. Customs and habits that were driven underground resurface. “Summer here is hot,” said Engin Akin, a Turkish food writer who splits her time between Istanbul and Bodrum. “I prefer this area in September and October. The sea is not so rough. There is less rock ’n’ roll.”

Bodrum is at heart a fishing village set at the edge of pine forests. Wander a few miles in any direction and the hills become thick with small farms and sheep. In the 1970s it took 20 hours to get there by bus from Istanbul. Nevertheless, Ahmet Ertegun, the Turkish-born founder of Atlantic records, and his wife Mica took a shine to the place. They restored a 10-bedroom stone house in Bodrum and began inviting friends. American rock stars were soon seen wandering through the bazaar, buying leather sandals and embroidered caftans. As wars ended and economies grew, Turks and Lebanese became rich and built summer houses on the peninsula’s north coast near the town of Turkbuku and the Yalikavak marina. The northern part of the peninsula became a hub for wealth; the southern part a place for shoppers and budget travelers. The airport, opened in 1997, connects Bodrum to several European cities.

Like many towns in that part of the world, it’s rich with history. Bodrum is home to the ruins of Halicarnassus, which housed the tomb of Mausolus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Herodotus was born there. Above the town sits Bodrum Castle, a fort built by the Crusaders and a museum of underwater archaeology holding artifacts from shipwrecks along the entire coast of Turkey. Undergirding all the beautiful-people parties and seaside frolicking are the bits of history that made the modern world.

“At first Bodrum was just a place to come and escape the rush of Istanbul,” said Sibel Tilev, who helped found a hospital in Bodrum 20 years ago and now lives there full time. “We would come on Thursday, recharge our batteries and go to fight again. But then it became a place to live. It became a place for intellectuals and musicians.”

Ms. Tilev says the off-season is a time when touring local musicians and dance companies visit the city. She emerges from her villa to take cooking or dancing lessons. She goes to listen to live music at the Bodrum Yacht club. She ventures out to dinner, confident she can get in without a reservation or having to wait in line. As more Turks have warmed to the charms of Bodrum, more hotels and restaurants are staying open after the summer season. The Macakizi closes in early October, but the Mandarin Oriental and Amanruya welcome guests later into the fall, as do a number of more modest hotels. Students and middle-class families come to Bodrum in October to see the sights and eat some fish. It’s the month for weddings and celebrations.

The markets, quieter in the fall and all but shuttered in winter, offer fine leather work and caftans, hard-to-find spices and piles of dried fruit. Even in October, you’ll see piles of peaches, melons, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes. “Italy is famous for tomatoes,” said Ms. Akin, “but I just came back from Napoli and was, like, where are the good tomatoes? They don’t know our tomatoes.”

Ms. Akin doesn’t venture out much in summer, but come autumn she goes to the Gundogan Market. Her favorite spot for mezze is Kaan’A in Gundogan, on the north shore of Bodrum peninsula, but she also likes Garo’s in Turkbuku. The more stylish and expensive Miam, also in Turkbuku, turns into a disco at midnight.

You’ll find dozens of culinary options all over the peninsula late into the fall, but it doesn’t take much to enjoy a good meal under modest circumstances. On my final night in Bodrum I walked the quai of the old town and watched Turkish families embark on evening cruises aboard wooden gulets, sailboats with wide sterns common in Turkey’s seaside towns. I watched as a father in a black tank top lit a small grill on the deck and his wife skewered chicken onto kebab sticks. Just as the boat pulled out of its berth, the kebabs hit the grill. People on the quai stopped, lifted their noses and took in the scent of grilled meat, the salt and the sea. I lingered, thinking about how much I’d like to come back the following October and rent a gulet with a grill for a week—or least for dinner.

The Lowdown // Off-Season in Bodrum

Getting There: Fly into Bodrum airport directly from London, Istanbul or other points of origin in Europe, the Middle East and Russia. Take a taxi to your hotel or rent a car at the airport. Travel time to most spots on the peninsula is no more than 30 minutes. The roads are good in Turkey, but be careful. People and animals can wander onto smaller roads without warning.

Staying There: The Macakizi is a low-key and elegant hotel with a great restaurant, but it can book up a year in advance so plan ahead (from $450 a night, macakizi.com). The Mandarin Oriental has a nice spa, is very luxurious and stays open through October (from about $350 a night, mandarinoriental.com). The Edition hotel is open through late November, has a Latin-themed restaurant and is close to the marina (from about $160 a night, editionhotels.com). The Amanruya has a world-class spa and offers signature style and privacy (from about $750 a night, aman.com).

Eating There: Check out the Miam in Turkbuku for well-prepared seafood, lovely views of the sea and a lively nightlife scene (facebook.com/miamrestaurant). People line up to get into NusR-et, which prepares only grilled meats, located at Yalikavlak Marina (nusr-et.com.tr).

Garo’s in Golturkbuku has great fish (garosturkbuku.com), and Kaan’A, in Gundogan, is famous for its authentic mezze (facebook.com/kaanagundogan).