Leaving Altınoluk in the morning, we made the half-day drive past Ismir onto the Çeşme peninsula and into Alaçatı. I chose this place because I read that it was romantic and historical, with a modern and trendy nightlife.

We rolled into town in the early afternoon and tried to follow the navigation to our hotel. The streets were as crowded and one-way / dead-endy as those we had encountered in Altınoluk, but here was something different. If you read more of our travel adventures, you will see a pattern: booking the very cool hotel in the very cool location that turns out to be inaccessible by car. We were losing our sense of humor (and reason) after being pointed in circles around no-entry roads, so we eventually found a parking lot and navigated the rest of the way on foot.

Viento Hotel Alaçatı

Our reservation was at the Viento Hotel Alaçatı. This delightful hotel is in a pedestrian area but is actually accessible by car just a few blocks up the street, as it turns out. We were graciously greeted and checked in, and they insisted on getting our car and valeting it to their lot and delivering our luggage. I was really excited about our accommodation: the Presidential Suite, occupying two rooms at the top of a a couple flights of narrow, spiral stairs. There was a cool dipping tub on the balcony overlooking the swimming pool.

Ortaya Restaurant

Settled in, we set out through the crowded streets to see what the town had to offer. It was trendy — full of young people, motorcycles, bars, and hooka lounges. There were narrow streets and sudden courtyards, brightly lit and bustling with energy. At Ortaya we found some dinner, including an introduction to manti, the traditional meat-filled pasta with chili and yogurt sauces. Photos suggest we dined at House of Pizza, but they don't currently (as of this writing, 4 years later) show on the map in the area we would have been that evening. We walked around a bit more after dinner, then retired. The activity outside our street-facing windows, however, lasted until around 1am.

We got up in the morning, not especially early, and walked out to find some coffee and tea. This was not possible. It was like a ghost town. I suppose being a night-life centered area, there was no point for even cafes to open before 11am. We were at least able to get pictures without crowds of people in them.

Thwarted, we returned to the hotel to take their breakfast. And I am so very glad we did. It was a terrific full Turkish breakfast and we lingered over it to enjoy every bit: soujouk sausages; breads with jams and honey; cheeses; olives; tomato, cucumber, and purslane salad; boiled eggs plus omelets made to order; fresh fruit.

Windmills at Alaçatı Değirmenleri

For the morning, we walked to Alaçatı Değirmenleri park to see the windmills. So much that we see in this Mediterranean land is ancient, so I was surprised to learn that these were built in the mid-1800s to harness the sea air currents for grinding grain. They were disused with the advent of modern milling a hundred years later, but have since been restored as a park and an attraction. The day we went there was very windy — maybe they should consider reinstating their use for power generation! It looks like mostly a tourist area, with streets full of cafes and souvenir shops. But there also seems to be space for local civic events as well. We enjoyed meandering through the town and finding cool street art on the way there and back.

In planning the trip, another reason for the stay here was there were several wineries on the Çeşme Peninsula that I wanted to visit. One was in Çeşme, to the west, and the other two were about a half-hour drive back to the east. Our son was not at all interested in this. That, combined with the logistical difficulty of driving, convinced us to give up that plan and stick around together. We thought we could take advantage of our cool balcony and dipping pool to relax for the afternoon.

My husband and I went down to the restaurant and ordered a couple glasses of wine. We asked if we could take them up to our room. Ever offering good service, they insisted on delivering them for us. We were dubious when we saw the man carrying them on a tray — we did not think he would be able to negotiate the steep spiral stairs hands-free. And sure enough, the tray tipped and dumped everything. We felt so bad for him. We helped with the cleanup and got fresh glasses of wine.

We liked hanging out, outside behind our curtains. But it was so windy and the curtains were flapping unpleasantly such that you couldn't have really used the pool. Instead, I decided to use the real swimming pool before dinner. I had it to myself and it was refreshing. I did, however, step on a little sliver of glass out there, not from our wine debacle but on the pool apron.

I liked this place and was glad to have stayed in the old town area for a couple nights. If I were to go back, however, I would probably try to stay somewhere quieter and easier to get the car in and out of. I also would have booked a wine tour to solve the driving problem, and also made day trips or walking tours to see other parts of the peninsula. I feel like we didn't take advantage of the beaches nor the wineries while we were there.

In the morning, we packed up and prepared to head to our next destination, Bodrum. The hotel staff brought the car for us and we walked just a few blocks to load up and be on our way.

We had a half-day's drive ahead of us but there were some places we could see along the way. I forgot what our other leading offer was to our son, but we were surprised when he chose the Ephesus Archaeological Museum..

It was already mid-day when we got there, quite hot and under a strong sun. We wanted to visit the archaeological site, but felt like it was too late in the day. During the summer, if you want to go you should plan to arrive as early as possible and then spend the heat of the afternoon inside the air conditioned museum.

As we walked from the parking lot, we were approached by someone selling "ancient" coins. He gave us a price and explained that we could get these in the gift shop for a lot higher price. We bought a couple, knowing that they might or might not be real, but in order to have the souvenir and story.

Inside the museum, we got the history of the city, dating from the 10th century BC and surviving under multiple civilizations. It was a powerful seaport but declined as its bay to turn estuary then eventually to land. The archaeological site is now about 4 miles inland. We walked the rooms, seeing many artifacts that had been retrieved from the site. An audio guide gave instruction, including pointing out how the sculptural style changed over time.

Afterwards, we found a park with a food stand and grabbed some lunch, then continued south to Bodrum.