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JOE BROMLEY

Glittering seas and unbridled debauchery — it’s the heady summer cocktail many of us are after and for 2024, Bodrum is the place to get it. This chunk of the Turkish coastline, trimmed with luxury resorts by the turquoise Aegean Sea, has already proven as much, well before the season has entered full swing.

All the signifiers are there: in April, Roman Abramovich’s Solaris superyacht was spotted anchoring at the Yalikavak Marina, and last month Kate Moss touched down for the first Med Bodrum festival, where she was pictured arm-in-arm with headline act Skip Marley, the grandson of Bob. They join a long list of Bodrum fans, from Cleopatra and Mark Antony — who were enchanted by the landscape and visited on their way to Rome — through to Mick Jagger, Princess Margaret and Michael Caine, who made it a zinging spot for late Seventies revelry. 

Today, that allure is coming back full-throttle. The Maxx Royal, a sprawling 11.4-hectare hotel that has just opened (“Bodrum is Türkiye’s most glamorous riviera,” purrs its executive brand director, Banu Akan), joins other ultra-luxe spots with familiar names. Bodrum’s shiny renaissance started 10 years ago with the opening of the Mandarin Oriental, followed by outposts of Aman, Six Senses and EDITION. The latter, from Studio 54’s co-founder Ian Schrager, has brought a taste of New York’s louche party spot since it opened in 2018. Nestled in Tilkicik bay, at the western point of the peninsula, the scent of Le Labo and slabs of white marble welcome arrivals. For its season-opening bash last month, these included a fit (well-tweaked) mix of 24-hour party people from Istanbul and London. 

CHE STUDIOS

“As one of the first luxury hotels to open in the area, The Bodrum EDITION has long recognised Bodrum’s allure to the rich and famous,” Mustafa Bulmus, the hotel’s general manager, told me. “The picture-perfect coastline, crystal clear Aegean Sea and privacy that our bay offers has attracted everyone from Kate Moss to Jeff Bezos. The world’s most discerning jet-set are choosing to spend their summers in Bodrum, and for good reason.” 

Perched on a sun lounger, as the cream of the E1-dwelling-influencer-boy crop dived into the water, I began to understand the appeal. One of the resort’s three restaurants, KITCHEN, has just received its first (richly deserved) Michelin star. The beach waiter-service, passing out EDITION-branded coconuts and baklava-flavour ice cream, is unparalleled. But Bodrum is best known for what goes down after dark. Tatler named it the “hedonist hotspot” in its 2024 travel guide, and come a Friday night, with its 108 guest rooms, suites and villas full to the brim, I was about to find out why… 

Arriving by complimentary golf buggy, the DJ’s thudding bass grew louder, before the sea-facing dancefloor filled with silk slip dresses and floating linen shirts, came into view. Champagne was passed out like tap water and the maître d’-type gestured towards well presented Turks, explaining Bodrum is akin to the Hamptons. Top city dwellers come here for rest and play — “think of it as ‘Istanbul-on-sea’,” they said. The British contingent had flown out thanks to model Oliver Cheshire, the husband of Pixie Lott, who was opening his and Toby Watkins’s pop-up menswear shop, CHÈ Studios, down by the beach. 

I find Cheshire in a corner, wearing one of his own knitted polo designs. He explains over a margarita that Bodrum was “the perfect choice for CHÈ’s first resort store because it feels undiscovered, fresh and new compared to other summer destinations, which reflects our brand’s ethos. It has an effortless, understated luxury feel so it felt like the perfect match for us.” Later, a Parisian drag queen was met with a roar of applause as they mounted the bar in a feather headdress, and bellowed Like a Prayer into the ocean. One sensed that such scenes were common occurrences. 

Bodrum has lured in the one per cent since the mid-Seventies, when its lucrative sponge-diving industry declined and the 650 sq km area turned towards tourism — helped by landmarks including the ruins of the Mausoleum (one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World), and the 15th-century Bodrum Castle. International glamazons were first spotted in Macakizi, which is now a five-star paradise that welcomes everyone from Bill Gates to the Delevingnes. It started life as a B&B in 1977 and quickly became a late-night hangout for guests of Ahmet Ertegun, the American-Turkish co-founder of Atlantic Records, who had a villa nearby, and whose regulars included Jagger, Bette Midler and Chuck Berry. By 1979 the infamous Halikarnas Discotheque nightclub swung open its doors for Sting, Yves Saint Laurent, Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock, and Bodrum’s name was established among the upper echelons. 

After a dip in quality, 2017 saw it return to form with the opening of Yalikavak, Turkey’s glossiest yacht marina. That year, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “escaped undetected” on a trip to Bodrum before their wedding, as per the 2020 biography Finding Freedom, as they stayed five nights in a private villa with views over the Yalikavak Bay, and made a trip to Markle’s jewellery favourite Kismet by Milka, which has an outpost by the boats. The current waterfront today has a restaurant offering of Nobu, Zuma, Bagatelle and Novikov — think of it as the Mayfair of marinas. 

Turkish photographer Mert Alas, the first choice for supermodels and David Beckham alike, as well as the man behind the Jeremy Allen White shoot for Calvin Klein, must also be given credit for raising Bodrum’s credentials — he introduced Moss and Naomi Campbell to the spot, both of whom have grown to love the detox retreat The LifeCo. He has now invested in the area too, with his Seventy One Gin brand (which comes Madonna-approved) served at a host of party epicentres.

You can be sure to find him, alongside 2024’s A-list holidayers, at The MAINE Bodrum — the Hanover Square haunt with outposts in Dubai and Ibiza, which has also opened at The Maxx Royal. “We are introducing ‘eatertainment’ and more nightlife to Bodrum,” says founder Joey Ghazal. “It already has a lot of day options like Lucca Beach and Macakizi which are pulling in the trendy boating crowd along the coast, but there’s nowhere for the team to go for a night out — that’s going to change.”

Catch you in the hammam — or, most likely, on the dancefloor.