Cesme transfers
Peninsula hub with its castle, marina, Ilica thermal beach and the Chios ferry; 100 minutes from the airport.
Airport transfers
About Cesme
Cesme is the main town of the peninsula at Izmir’s western tip and the harbour facing the Greek island of Chios. The castle overlooking the harbour with its archaeology museum, the marina below the castle, the Kervansaray on the seafront and the bazaar streets are the town’s best-known places. To the east lies Ilica with its hot-spring beach, to the south Aya Yorgi Bay and the Altinkum beaches; the Chios ferry sails from the harbour. The wind blows all year, which keeps summer evenings cool.
Accommodation ranges from boutique hotels around the castle and large thermal hotels in Ilica and Boyalik to summer villas and apartments in Dalyan and Ovacik. Couples looking for thermal spas, younger groups heading for the beach clubs of Aya Yorgi, families returning to their summer house on the peninsula and guests who do not need to stay within walking distance of Alacati all choose Cesme. Alacati is 10 minutes away, the Urla vineyard route 40 minutes and Chios about 45 minutes by ferry.
From the airport you first join the Izmir ring road and then follow the Izmir–Cesme motorway, a flat and fast drive of about 106 km / 100 minutes with no tunnels or bends. On Friday evenings in July and August the motorway exit and the Ilica junction can be busy. Hotels and villas are reached door to door; in the one-way streets around the castle the driver pulls up at the nearest point. Ferry passengers are dropped at the harbour entrance; a minibus is recommended for larger groups. Alacati and Ilica lie on the same road.