A different side of Türkiye
Izmir, the ancient Smyrna, is Türkiye’s third-largest city and the one that looks least like the picture most visitors have of the country. There are no great imperial mosques or sultans’ palaces here. Instead there’s a huge bay, a seafront promenade where people cycle at sunset, cafés that stay full until midnight and a Mediterranean feel that has more in common with Thessaloniki than with Istanbul.
For travellers, Izmir has a double appeal. It’s a pleasant city to spend two days in with no agenda, and it’s the best base for the whole Aegean coast: Ephesus is an hour away, Pergamon an hour and a half, Alaçatı 80 kilometres and the villages of the peninsula a short drive. Many trips that begin in Istanbul fly in here for the classical Aegean leg.
What to see in Izmir
The Kordon and Alsancak
The Kordon is arguably the loveliest seafront promenade in Türkiye: kilometres of lawns, palm trees and benches facing the bay, with bicycles gliding past behind them. At sunset it fills with families and groups of friends sitting on the grass. Behind it lies Alsancak, the neighbourhood of colourful house fronts, old-style taverns and nightlife. If you only have one evening in Izmir, this is where to spend it.
Kemeraltı Bazaar
A market that has been trading since the 17th century, with more than 3,000 shops in a maze of covered alleys. This isn’t a bazaar for tourists: it’s where the city does its shopping. Between the stalls you’ll come across Ottoman caravanserais turned into cafés, synagogues of the Sephardic Jewish community and the Hisar Mosque. Set aside a couple of hours and get lost on purpose.
The Roman Agora of Smyrna
Right in the centre, hemmed in by modern buildings, are the ruins of the 2nd-century agora, rebuilt under Marcus Aurelius after the earthquake of AD 178. You can see the vaulted basements, the columns of the portico and the Roman graffiti, said to be the oldest in Anatolia, that merchants scratched on the walls.
The Clock Tower and Konak Square
The symbol of the city: an Ottoman tower from 1901, built for the jubilee of Sultan Abdülhamid II, with a German clock and plenty of pigeons. The square is where everyone arranges to meet, and from the pier beside it the ferry crosses the bay to Karşıyaka. That 20-minute crossing at sunset costs little more than a metro ticket and gives you the best photo of Izmir you’ll take.
Pergamon (Bergama)
An hour and a half to the north lies one of the most impressive ancient cities in Türkiye. The acropolis rises 300 metres above the plain: the Temple of Trajan, the steepest theatre of the ancient world, the site of the Great Altar of Zeus and the terrace that once held a library of 200,000 volumes. When Egypt cut off the supply of papyrus to hold that library back, the city perfected the treated animal skin we still call parchment, a word that comes from its name. Below lies the Asclepieion, one of the three great healing sanctuaries of antiquity, where Galen worked.
Alaçatı and Çeşme
Out on the peninsula, 80 kilometres from the city, Alaçatı is a former Greek village of stone houses, blue doors and bougainvillea, now the most fashionable spot on the Aegean: boutique hotels, a Saturday market and some of the best restaurants on the coast. Next door, Çeşme has its seafront castle and beaches with clear water, and at Ilıca you’ll find fine sand and thermal springs that well up in the sea itself.
When to go
May to June and September to October. In July and August the coast gets crowded and the heat is intense, although the Aegean breeze makes it more bearable than inland. In winter Izmir is still pleasant (daytime temperatures rarely drop below 10°C), but the villages of the peninsula largely close for the season.
Getting there and getting around
Adnan Menderes Airport has several flights a day to and from Istanbul (about an hour) and connections with much of Europe. From the airport, the İZBAN suburban train reaches the centre in about half an hour. In the city you can combine the metro, the tram and the bay ferries, all on the same travel card.
For Ephesus, Pergamon or Alaçatı, the easiest option is a day tour with a vehicle and a guide: these are large sites with little shade, and a guide who explains what you’re looking at changes the visit completely.
What to eat
Food in Izmir is different from the rest of the country: more herbs, more olive oil, more fish. Try boyoz, the pastry of Sephardic origin eaten for breakfast with a hard-boiled egg; the kumru sandwich from Çeşme; midye dolma (mussels stuffed with rice) along the Kordon; and any dish of ot, the wild greens that are eaten here boiled and dressed with olive oil and lemon. And in Alaçatı, anything made with the catch of the day.
How many days to spend
Three days let you see the city at an easy pace, with time for a day trip to Pergamon and another to the peninsula. If your trip also takes in Ephesus and Pamukkale, the usual plan is to spend two nights around Izmir or Kuşadası and do the sites from there.