Izmir in a Day from Antalya

Izmir is a long way north-west of Antalya, over the Taurus and down onto the Aegean, and that drive is the price of admission. Take it as read: this is a full day with real road time at both ends. What you get for it is a city that feels nothing like the Mediterranean resort coast — bigger, older, more secular, more argumentative, and built along a bay rather than a beach.

The city organises itself around Konak Square, where the ornate Clock Tower has stood since 1901, and the ferries cross the bay from the quay beside it. From there the Kordon promenade runs north along the water, wide and treelined, with the Aegean on one side and cafe tables on the other. It is the single best place to understand why people from Izmir talk about their city the way they do.

Behind Konak the streets narrow into Kemeralti, a working bazaar rather than a souvenir arcade — fabric, tools, spices, coffee roasters, and the courtyard of Kizlaragasi Han for a break in the middle of it. A short walk inland brings you to the Agora of Smyrna, the marketplace of the Roman city that Izmir grew out of, with its vaulted basement galleries still standing.

North of the centre, Alsancak has the restaurants and the nineteenth-century Levantine houses. South in Karatas, the Asansor of 1907 is a lift built into the cliff to spare residents the climb, and the terrace at the top gives you the whole bay at once.

Izmir is Turkey's third city and has been a port for close to three thousand years, trading with Greece and the Levant long before it was Turkish. That history left it cosmopolitan in a way the resort coast is not — Levantine mansions, a large student population, a bay full of working ferries, and a food culture built on the Aegean rather than on hotel buffets. Two hours here tells you more about how modern Turkey argues with itself than a week in Kemer will.

Included in the day:

• Hotel pickup and drop-off in an air-conditioned Mercedes
• professional English, German or Russian-speaking guide
• All entrance fees
• Lunch at a local restaurant
• Bottled water
• Insurance

Sleep on the way out if you can. The return leg is when the light gets good.