Turkey
Datça Peninsula
Two seas collide at a wind-raked cape where almond blossom blankets the hills each February.
Two seas meet at the peninsula's tip and you can feel the difference: the Aegean rough and cool to your left, the Mediterranean warmer and kinder to your right. In February, almond blossom whitens the hillsides so completely that the peninsula looks snow-covered from a distance. The road narrows and narrows until it ends at Knidos, where the ancient world built a city at the collision point.
The Datça Peninsula runs some 80 kilometres into the sea from southwestern Turkey, dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean. Locals still quote the ancient line that God sends those he wants to live long to Datça, a saying loosely traced to the geographer Strabo. The almond trees flower from late January into February, and the harvest ends up everywhere, from market stalls to fish crusts. In the restored old town of Eski Datça, stone houses have become pensions and cafés, while the coastline alternates rocky coves with small sandy beaches.
Couple
Datça is Turkey's slow coast: almond blossom, stone village pensions, harbourside fish dinners, and the quiet knowledge of standing where two seas touch.
Solo
Drive the peninsula to its tip, swim where two seas meet, and eat char-grilled octopus at Knidos as the sun sets over the Aegean. Datça rewards anyone willing to go to the end of the road.
- The peninsula marks the boundary where the Aegean Sea meets the Mediterranean.
- Locals still quote the ancient line that God sends those he wants to live long to Datça.
- Almond trees blanket the hillsides in white blossom from late January into February.
- The old town of Eski Datça has been restored, its stone houses now small pensions and cafés.
Almond-crusted sea bream at harbourside restaurants where the fishing boats bob against the tables.
Datça almonds roasted with sea salt, sold warm from market stalls.
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