Between visits to The Bodrum EDITION, Susona Bodrum, LXR Hotels & Resorts, and METT, Douglas Blyde dines at Ruins and Maçakızı and discovers a peninsula of ancient stone, ambitious cooking, old money and modern excess.
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Blyde → din → stone
‘When you reach the top of the hill, you will see Bodrum.
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you → reach → Bodrum
Don’t assume that you will leave as you came,’ wrote Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı, exiled here a century ago after a controversial article about condemned military deserters.
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Kabaağaçlı → assume → deserters
As Halikarnas Balıkçısı, the Fisherman of Halicarnassus, he turned punishment into a lifelong attachment to the Aegean and helped inspire the Blue Voyage.
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he → turn → Voyage
The advice still works.
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advice → work → ?
Bodrum is a geography of competing appetites: Torba’s pine-backed coves, Yalıkavak’s marina money, Bodrum town’s maritime grit, Gümüşlük’s low-slung dinners and Gümbet’s amplifier-fuelled strip.
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Bodrum → compete → appetites
Thankfully, Ibiza, Mykonos, Saint-Tropez and Dubai still absorb much of influencer culture’s heavy artillery.
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Ibiza → absorb → artillery
Bodrum has its share of people apparently holidaying for the benefit of digital strangers, but its better corners retain a distinctly Turkish pulse.
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corners → have → pulse
The sea has banked the summer heat, restaurants are still running and high-season traffic has loosened its grip.
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traffic → bank → grip
The Bodrum EDITION: polish, interrupted by place
Over a drink at the beach bar, Federico Penzo, who arrived in 2018, described how quickly the surrounding hills have filled with resorts.
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hills → interrupt → resorts
EDITION itself folds into one of those slopes, descending towards the sea like a particularly well-funded village.
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EDITION → fold → village
The stairs provide useful penance for lunch; buggies exist for anyone unwilling to repent twice.
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buggies → provide → anyone
Our Deluxe Sea View room came in the brand’s full spectrum of beige, improved by a very good lemon and olive-oil cake.
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room → come → cake
At the bottom lies the stronger reason to be here: a calm sandy bay, unusually sheltered from the winds that trouble much of the peninsula, where white marble pebbles gleam beneath the water and shoals of tiny silver fish nose around your ankles.
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shoals → lie → ankles
The beach draws a well-heeled procession of camera-ready faces, handsome cover-ups and expensive sunglasses, yet remains more polished than aggressively party-driven.
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beach → draw → faces
Breakfast is excellent, particularly the gözleme rolled out, filled and cooked in front of you.
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Breakfast → roll → you
Michelin-starred KITCHEN by Osman Sezener supplies the serious gastronomic machinery.
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KITCHEN → star → machinery
Its tasting menu is at its best when Turkish ingredients disturb the international fine-dining grammar: local shrimp, satsuma, tarhana and mastic interested me more than avocado and truffle.
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shrimp → disturb → avocado
Senior sommelier, Merve Ceren Bıçak, Türkiye’s Best Young Sommelier 2026, went further, replacing the usual mixed pairing with an entirely Turkish one for us.
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sommelier → go → us
Paşaeli Emir, from ungrafted Cappadocian vines, and Likya Arkeo Acıkara made indigenous grapes feel not like dutiful local excursions but the obvious wines to drink.
DAHA is more emphatically rooted.
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DAHA → make → excursions
chef Mehmet Akdağ, from Antalya institution 7Mehmet, sends out Circassian fish, elegant kokoreç and superb charcoal-grilled goat chops.
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Akdağ → send → fish
A pudding of pumpkin, walnut, double-roasted tahini and water-buffalo clotted cream, drawn from a family recipe dating to 1937, was the most luxurious dessert I ate in Türkiye.
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I → clot → Türkiye
Down by the water, Morena loosens the tie.
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Morena → loosen → tie
Its pide received the sterner judgement of my eight-year-old daughter: the best pizza she had ever eaten.
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she → receive → daughter
Penzo’s Back to Roots cocktail programme follows the same instinct.
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programme → follow → instinct
His Satsuma Smash takes Bodrum mandarins, gin, cucumber, lime and salted sour plum and makes considerable effort taste effortless.
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effort → take → mandarins
The beige rooms, brand polish and immaculate service could travel.
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rooms → travel → ?
A wedding was absolutely banging on the shoreline below while Miraj, upstairs, appeared to have reopened after its advertised seasonal closure for precisely three diners: us.
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Miraj → bang → diners
In front of us, Mercedes three-pointed stars were stamped into the pool loungers.
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stars → stamp → loungers
Caraway-scented bread, beef tartare and excellent wild sea bass cooked over coals were accompanied by a chef attacking the pass bell with the urgency of 150 covers rather than three.
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bread → scent → covers
Afterwards, the route led unexpectedly through an exhibition hall.
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route → lead → hall
The Body After Desire, a Muse Contemporary group show curated by Taner Yılmaz, explored the body as something continually reshaped by technology, aesthetics, nature and cultural memory.
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Body → curate → technology
Beyond it, Sips, Barcelona’s No. 3 bar in Europe for 2026, delivered a Metate Margarita with one final surreal detail: a child in an official Sips T-shirt brought it over.
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child → deliver → it
Susona: the corporate resort that became human
Even at capacity, it rarely feels busy.
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it → become → capacity
At Suyah, a playful pool comes with a sunken bar, inflatable flamingoes and midye dolma.
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pool → come → bar
The spa has a hammam, a jacuzzi beneath a glazed dome and steam rooms capable of removing most remaining evidence of civilisation.
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spa → have → civilisation
Our King Deluxe Room had its own garden, partial sea view and a private-residence feel.
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Room → have → garden
The vast bath faced the buggy route but was entirely secluded, provided one remembered the floor-to-ceiling blinds before embarking upon contemplation.
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one → face → contemplation
Volkan Amaç arrived as general manager in July 2025 after seven years running Hilton Kyiv.
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Amaç → arrive → Kyiv
When minor problems arose, he dealt with them quietly rather than staging the usual operetta of service recovery.
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he → arise → recovery
…and 48 more, not listed.
The Aporia
