Our story
We came for a weekend. We stayed.
Three and a half years ago we packed up a flat in Istanbul and moved to a town where the main road ends at a river.
Sanem Aydın Yayla — Dalyan, Muğla
Istanbul gave us a lot. It also took something back every day — the traffic, the noise, the sense that you were always slightly late for something. We didn't leave in a dramatic moment. We left slowly, over about a year of wondering whether there was a different way to spend a Tuesday.
Dalyan was supposed to be a weekend. A boat, a beach, back to the city on Sunday. What actually happened was that we sat by the river on the Saturday evening, watched the light move across the rock tombs, and could not think of a reason to go back.
Why this site exists
When we were planning the move, almost everything we could find about Dalyan had been written by someone who spent an afternoon here. The photos were beautiful and the details were wrong. Opening times, market days, which beach entrance to use, whether the boat or the road is better — the things you only learn by being here.
So this is that: a guide written from inside the town. When a restaurant closes, I know. When the market moves, I know. When someone tells me a hotel has changed hands, that goes into the review.
- 3.5
- years living in Dalyan
- Most
- Saturdays at the market
- 15
- guides, updated as things change
What I'll do, and what I won't
- I say when something isn't worth it. A guide that recommends everything recommends nothing.
- Some links earn a commission. They're marked, they don't change your price, and they don't change what I recommend.
- I fix things. If a price or an opening time here is wrong, tell me and it gets corrected.
Come and say hello
If you're planning a trip and something isn't clear — which month, which side of the river, whether to hire a car — write to me. I answer, and the questions usually end up making the guides better.