Alacati (Alaçatı) is one of the most popular vacation destinations in Turkey. I prepared an Alacati guide before season started in 2016 so you know what to do in Alacati, where to stay in Alacati and what are the popular places to go in Alacati.
Alaçatı is a village from Çeşme town of city İzmir located in west side of Turkey, next to Aegean Sea. Because of the strong winds it was first discovered by surfers. But especially in last couple of years it became so popular that you can see many celebrities coming here at least once in summer season, not to mention hordes of local and foreign tourists. Gotta say though, local people used this tourism chance good and turned whole village and cafes/restaurants into basically an Instagram/pinterest scene. It is indeed beautiful place though might be a bit too much tourist oriented now. People who knew this place `before it became mainstream` complains it became too crowded and pricey in the season. Nevertheless I think it is a nice place to visit at least once for a day trip or a weekend if not longer!
Windmills are symbols of Alacati
Actually a weekend would be just fine. Because if your first priority/expectation from a vacation is to hang out near seaside and seaside being walking distance to wherever you stay, Alaçatı is not to place to stay! But it is perfect for a weekend trip/day trip especially if you are staying seaside near Çeşme or visiting Turkey.I didn’t want to make this Alacati guide unbearably long so please check here if you need info on how to get to Alacati from İstanbul or İzmir.
It’s the details in decor that makes this place cosy!
Actually you can see if you check the map that Alacati is not immediate seaside. But beaches are pretty close, most closes ones are in Ilıca which is known for warmer waters and sands just 2-3 km away (5 minutes taxi ride). But if you are a surfer as well you should check beaches in Alacati Port side (to the south) and known for its winds.
On where to eat in Alacati and sightseeing in Alacati check the later parts of this Alacati guide . I will first start with general information.
Where to stay in Alacati: As I mentioned for immediate seaside you can chose to stay near beaches and plan daily trips to Alacati center or vice versa. Because staying at center also has its charms as Alacati is known for its beautiful cosy boutique hotels. Actually you can also find Alacati guide just for boutique hotels. Though in general all have nice quality, here are some names for consideration: On port side `Katra otel` is one of the popular choices and on Ilica beach side `Nars otel` is known. In center `Kurabiye otel` which literally means `cookie hotel` is famous for its breakfast (you don’t have to stay here to get their breakfast by the way). But there are many many options so you can also choose according to your budget. I chose to stay at center as I went there pre-season so water was cold to get in anyway and stayed at `Kajavic otel` which had good price. And motel owner is also managing `Afet Hanımın Konağı` which is another popular place to stay in the center. Later is literally in center and Kajavic is in one of the side streets so it is a bit calmer.
What to eat in Alacati (Alaçatı): My favorite part in Alacati guide 😀 Aegean kitchen of Turkey is famous for its green herb foods, mezes (hot or cold small dishes like dim sum served before or during meals) made from olive oil and artichoke dishes. It is likely that you wouldn’t even know what that kind of green herb is called but you can try randomly and won’t be disappointed 🙂
oo Tava toast with pesto sauce, I’ll take it!
Generally Aegean food is more vegetable, herb and olive oil oriented but another popular street food is `kumru` a kind of sandwich which is filled with sausages and salami. Also for meat lovers `küşneme` is a local dish to try.
And as for the dessert anything made from mastic as it is a local ingredient. You can get mastic flavoured ice-cream, pudding (sakızlı muhallebi), jams! Also try mastic flavored Turkish coffee as well!
Alacati prices : Oh yeah. Give it to me baby level 🙂 Well compared to many cheap vacation alternatives in Turkey and Europe prices are worthy of `popular` destination level.
So for 2016 season, Alacati prices were coffees around 9-12 tl, cocktails around 30-35 TL, beers around 15-20 TL, main dishes (pasta or non-meat) around 25-45 TL and main dish (with meat) 30-60 TL, kumru 10-15 TL and ice cream (one scoop) 3-7.5 TL. (Alacati prices 2016).
Best time to go Alacati: Season starts at June but things starts going around May especially for weekends. But if you go there before june on weekdays some night clubs and places might not be open, though on weekends thanks to weekend trourism they will be open. Also sea water is usually colde before June to dive in.
Where to go in Alacati, places to visit in Alacati ? It is easier to combine these almost same answer questions 🙂 so as for sightseeing first place that came to mind is hanging around near Kemal Paşa street and seeing some windmills near center or around. And for entertainment go to Alaçatı Port.
But the real charm of Alaçatı is visiting small boutique style many shops in center area. Each restaurant/café/hand craft goods shop/winery/pub around this area are really nice, all decor worthy of Instagram shoots and serve good food/drink (though you pay good money for it so it better be!).
So first I would like to congratulate myself for being able to sit around 35 hours in 3 days in Alacati places! Part of it was my “blogger” instincts wanting to try next one for Alacati guide but like I said this was the charm of the place anyway but even I didn’t expect such performance! 😀 I tried 10 places, excluding street food places and famous ice cream places which means I stayed in one place approximately 3.5 hours and I was with a friend and assuming we shut up for 5 hours it still makes 30 hours of talking and I have no idea what we talked about! Which kind of made me fear “the girl power” but anyway the summary of this trip was “we did indeed sit around for good!”
So here is the result of that “hard” work to prepra you the best Alacati guide ever, below you can find “classic” and “new kid on the block” suggestions to take note on “ where to go in Alacati ” .
Traktör: This one of the new cool kid in the block places, though it is relatively new opened it already seems to be one of the popular places. It has a nice garden and of course nice décor. I had breakfast here and can suggest “tava toast” and omelette. But I heard they are popular for their cocktails as well!
Kapari Bahçe
Eflatun: This was my choice on to have “rakı” night. It was a perfect choice. This place is one of the old restaurants in Alacati. Mezes (cold-hot side dishes that accompanies Turkish drink rakı) were really good. You can see Egean kitchen from the way they use herbs and vegetables in mezes. And there was one meze made from artichoke and avocado and God taste was heavenly! Meze prices were around 15-20 TL which is “normal” prices for Alacati.
Kapari Bahçe: One of Alaçatı’s best. They are also on top from price point of view even among Alacati prices, but the garden is just lovely at night! I highly suggest making reservations if you plan to go for dinner. And one tip, people seem to choose lower level of garden near strret side but I think it is better to have a place on uppers ide so you can see it all. I had a nice pasta with beef and it was 44 TL, my friend had octopus and she said some parts were really good some part were normal. Music was helping the mood and they had a DJ inside.
Kuş Café’si: I think this place is one of the best cafes in Alacati! They have a really eye-catching décor so they stand out even in Alacati. Their name is literally bird café. İnside and outside is just beautiful! Additional to hot and cold drinks you can find some desserts here and they have their home made berry wine which makes a perfect afternoon drink sitting outside.
view from Zeplin
Zeplin: They are next to this huge wall covered with flowers and since street is not huge you can literally smell flowers from where you sit! This makes it perfect place to sit outside in an afternoon, start with a coffee, and then switch to blush or beer or cocktail! It was so hard to leave this scene and smell!
Arwen: This is a place especially recommended for wine lovers. When I was searching a wine place I saw this name I was already game! Their garden is just too cosy and from front side they have many wine choices especially if you want to try more boutique Turkish wines. You can also try it by glass but then choices are a bit limited. (But I doubt in high season this will be an issue) There are other things in the menu but wine is where they shine.
Dutlu Kahve: This is one of Alacati oldest and symbolic places. Like its name, it is located under a mulberry treeand old style coffee place. You can have a Turkish coffee break here and enjoy stting under tree. But there are better places to try so a short coffee break is just enough.
Barn: This is in one of the side streets so a good place if you want to skip crowded streets for a while. I liked their potato fries and my friend were in love with their avocado and bacon burger with no meat bun- made special to her request! And music is Jamaican relax mood so really relaxing place!
Black mulberry and mastic
Veli Baba: Oldest and famous ice-cream seller. I especially recommend black mulberry one (karadutlu). One scoop is 3 TL and you can taste the fruits! It is really good for price/performance and neither your Alacati trip and this Alacati guide would be complete without trying ice cream from here. (But they were not my first ice-cream place in Alacati!)
Dondurmino: Technically this place is actually “Gellatio” place not “ice-cream” place. So before you mark me as bourgeois snoop I wanted to say I mentioned this difference because you will also understand this difference when you pay 7.5 tl for once scoop which is like 2.5 times more than Alacati prices! But they have combination flavours such as fig&walnuts or apple&cinnamon. So even though prices were really expensive taste really made up for it! Therefore my favorite “ice-cream” place in Alacati!
İmren Tatlıcısı: This is famous dessert place in Alacati. Actually you will come across name “İmren” in multiple places in Alacati. Their mastic pudding is the most famous Alacati dessert so even other places but it from here. So another must have on any Alacati guide is to try their mastic pudding. I tried the mastic pudding here and they really did manage to use mastic flavour in dose where you don’t feel like you just swallowed a huge package of gum and enjoy the dessert. Actually I think their mastic flavor ice cream was also better than Veli Baba (what I didn’t say I only went once!)
Kumrucu Şevket: Kumru is as I mentioned a popular food in İzmir and hence in Alacati. There are many places where you find kumru but this places is one of the constantly getting good reviews place. For kumru what makes the good difference is the bread and cheese used and I liked their bread here. But I’m not the kumru expert and honestly all tasted good to me 😀
Sailors: Just where the main streets cross, you have this place which is actually a hotel’s café. But perfect place if you want to watch people as it looks directly to cross ways where many people pass through. I liked the cold pasta in their menu as it was very fitting for hot summer days. But not a first choice unless you are really into watching passing people!
And below list are the ones I heard/suggested but didn’t had a chance to try myself but I wanted to include in this Alacati guide because they seem to be worthy of mentioning:
Asmalı: One of the most popular restaurants in Alacati. You can always see this place full. But they are directly in middle of the street so it may not be the choice if you want to have a more calm night.
Fava: I heard their mezes are really good but since it was suggested to me via couple of friends and wanted to mention also.
Asma Yaprağı: One of the oldest places in Alacati. You can try local Egean kitchen food here. And I noticed they opened a place called “Kiler” nearby which had brownie with beetroot in their menu and I was interested in trying but didn’t has the chance. Let me know if you tried it!
So far I mentioned where to eat and drink in Alacati but of course since this is a complete Alacati guide I must also mention there are many boutique small shops to look around and shop! You can find many antiques, hand crafted items, clothes and authentic accessories here. One of the most interesting shop would be Rue 1387 as it is not possible to miss with their dinosaur skeleton in their outside wall!
And lastly Alacati has a local outdoors bazaar on every Saturday. You can find many things and in good prices too such as nice accessories, handmade soaps, scarfs, clothes etc..
Alacati entertainment or Alacati night life: In the center of Alacati, Tektekçi is a nice alternative (actually it is a chain club which also has branches in İstanbul niche areas). But real night life is around Alaçatı Port. You can find many clubs in Alaçatı Port. Though some of them would be very “tikky” being “just the place to be seen” and some might think “too pretend for me” it is for you to decide! Though frankly after couple of drinks it really doesn’t matter. 😀
So that is the end of my Alacati guide for now. Since there are many places to try and new places opening every year let me know how your Alacati experience was or suggestions or questions was!
