Didim
This seaside resort town has grown up immensely in the last 30 years, famous for miles long golden, sandy beaches and the calm, crystal clear Aegean sea around Didim, it is a one of the favorite holiday destinations.
Countless bars and restaurants mainly at the Altinkum promenade are well visited by holiday makers and europeans who has choosen Didim as new hometown to live permanently. Recommandable very good Restaurants are Dolunay, at the promenade, Arti Restaurant on the Atatürk Boulevard famous for the best steaks in town and Mekan with live musik every night.
Unlike Didim centre which has been overrun in the property boom of the last years, when more then 500 Real estate agencies one next to another where counted in town, the small sleepy resort Akbuk is surounded by mountains and just 10 km from Didim centre.
In History also called Didyma, ancient sanctuary and seat of the famous oracle of Apollo, located south of Miletus in modern Turkey. Before being plundered and burned by the Persians (ac. 494 BC), the sanctuary was in the charge of the Branchids, a priestly caste named after Branchus, a favorite youth of Apollo. After Alexander the Great conquered Miletus (334), the oracle was re sanctified; the city administered the cult, annually electing a prophet. About 300 BC the Milesians began to build a new temple, intended to be the largest in the Greek world. The annual festival held there, the Didyma, became Pan hellenic in the beginning of the 2nd century BC. Excavations made between 1905 and 1930 revealed all of the uncompleted new temple and some carved pieces of the earlier temple and statues.
Made a township in 1991, Didim is a peninsula surrounded with the most beautifully beaches the Akbük cove
in the east, the Aegean Sea in the south and west and the lake Bafa and the river Meander in the north.
Where to stay?
Probably the best hotel in Didim is the Garden of Sunat the 3rd beach, a 4 star hotel close to the new Marina and walking distance to Altinkum, cheaper, very friendly but a bit noisy what doesn't matter when you like to enjoy Didims nightlife is the Orion Hotel right in Altinkum at the magnificent beach.
If you like to relax and looking for serenity it is for sure the Holiday Resort 10 km out of Didim at the entrance to Akbuk
How to get to Didim?
Didim is 100 km from Aydin, 50 km from Söke, 70 km from Kusadasi, and 110 km from Bodrum. The Bodrum international Airport is 60 Km. A ferry is planed to connect Didim with Yalikavak on the north side of the Bodrum Peninsula. Yalikavak is only 20 miles from Didim by Ferry.
