Bodrum

The crusader knights pulled stone off the Mausoleum to build this castle. It holds the underwater archaeology museum now, with cargo from Bronze Age wrecks set out one room at a time. A circuit of the walls shows each of the two bays in turn.

One of the seven wonders stood here until earthquakes brought it down and its stone went into the castle. What is left is the foundation, the drainage channels and a few carvings. Markings on the ground show what stood where.

The theatre is cut into the hillside above the town, and the top rows look straight down on the harbour. Performances move in on summer evenings, and on those days it closes to visitors by day.

Ancient Myndos went under the water here, and its walls run on below the shallows. A knee-deep crossing takes you over to Rabbit Island on foot. Boats still go out from the village, and after dark the restaurant tables reach the water's edge.

A yard behind the harbour still puts gulets together in timber. A hull takes months, and you pass the bare frames from the road. Finished boats go out on charters of several days.

The singer Zeki Muren's house was opened just as he left it. Stage costumes and hand-written scores hang in the rooms, and the courtyard is small.

Stone windmills follow the ridge between the harbour and Gumbet in a row. Most have lost their roofs and only one or two can be entered.

This is the gate Alexander's siege tried to break, with the trace of a ditch between its two towers. It stands twenty minutes' walk from the centre, and no admission fee is taken.

A twenty-minute crossing reaches an island with yellow mud pooled inside a cave. People smear it on, let it dry and rinse it off in the sea. Check when you pay whether landing on the island is part of the fare.

The shallow water reaches a long way out, which brings families with children. A wind arrives regularly in the afternoon and a few small sailing schools work off it. Behind the beach are mandarin groves, so it stays green in winter.

A small bay on the peninsula's north shore, lined with beach clubs built on timber decks jutting into the sea. It is famous as the summer retreat of wealthy Istanbul. There is barely any sand, so swimmers jump straight off the decks.

A small, calm bay out on the headland west of town, close enough to walk to for a swim. Salmakis, the fountain of Greek myth, said to have fused a youth and a nymph into one body, is placed hereabouts. A little sandy beach and cafe sit at its mouth.

Ninety minutes' drive north, ancient Herakleia hugs a lakeshore beneath craggy Mount Latmos. A temple of Athena stands by the water, and Byzantine monastery ruins sit on islets. Villagers live among the ruins, ancient blocks lying about in their yards.

Boats reach Greek Kos from Bodrum harbour in under an hour, making it a common day out. You clear passport control twice, so carry a passport and check if you need a Schengen visa. Near Kos harbour grows the plane tree where Hippocrates supposedly taught.

Once a sponge divers' village in the northwest of the peninsula, it now hosts a large yacht marina. On the slope behind, old windmills still stand. Smart shops and restaurants line the marina front.