Didim

As Didim is so well-situated in the 1980s people from large cities around Turkey, especially Ankara, began to buy holiday homes, apartments, and villas in the area. Most of these were built as cooperative housing projects with private beaches. The attraction of the area is proved by the number of Ankara families that have now been going to Didim for two or more generations, and even today you will see many cars with Ankara (06) numberplates in Didim in summertime. Property values are now rising dramatically and the building boom continues as foreign buyers, especially the families of Turks living and working in Europe, follow their lead. The growth of Didim in the 1980s was enhanced with the building of hotels to accommodate visitors, originally from Britain but now from Turkey itself, on cheap package holidays. Since about 2001 British people have begun to buy holiday homes in Didim, establishing themselves as a visible community of many thousands, to the extent that utility bills in the district are now printed in English as well as Turkish.You will see the Union Jack and other British flags all around Didim, especially in the bars.

Didim town has hotels, a weekly market, a waterpark and the antique temple of Apollo nearby. Didim is also close to a number of other ancient towns and natural wonders: Lake Bafa national park is nearby, along with the Büyük Menderes River and historic sites such as Miletus and Priene.

In the evenings, visitors try to find somewhere quiet to sit by the sea and look at the lights of other towns across the water. For those of a more energetic nature, Didim has a number of discothèques, smaller bars and clubs, some with live music, mostly Türkü (Turkish folk music). However, Didim is mostly a quiet, family resort with a great coastline, and visitors looking for nightlife would be better off in Bodrum. Summers in Didim can involve sitting on the balcony drinking rakı, playing volleyball, sitting on the beach, or wandering along the seafront while eating sunflower seeds or Pistachio. The local station, Didim TV, is an amateur project by a television repair shop owner and neighbourhood councillor (muhtar), and is mostly advertisements for local shops and hotels.

The new fifty million dollar Didim Marina (D-Marin Didim) was constructed by Doğuş Group and became operational in 2009 with berths for 8m to 50m boats, 400-ton boat lift, dry docks, hangars, maintenance yard, yacht club, shopping mall, restaurants and visitor facilities. The new marina is expected to encourage further tourism and rising property prices in the area