I wrote a series of posts whilst in Turkey that I’ll be publishing over the coming days starting with this one..

After our short visit to Butterfly Valley on Wednesday we decided to spend a lazy day by the pool.

This isn’t quite my idea of bliss; I start to feel restless after a while. Therefore we decided to pop on a Dolmus.

For those who don’t know, a Dolmus is like a mini bus and works like a regular bus. You jump on, pay a small fee and it takes you a set route dropping passengers off along the way. It’s a super cheap way of getting around.

We jumped on one in Oludeniz without really any idea of where we wanted to go just that we wanted to get out of the flashing Vegas style lights that is Oludeniz beach at night.

Once we started seeing the bars and people we knew we were in the next town up. This is where we discovered…Hisarönü.

Hisaronu is a resort located at the top of the hill less than a 10 minute drive from Oludeniz. Whilst it lacks in the obvious things to do on holiday such as going to the beach, it’s within easy reach of Oludeniz so you can still get your sea fix.

What we loved about Hisaronu is the real sense of community you get here. Rather than the loud bars you find in Oludeniz competing against each other to see who can play their music the loudest at night. Hisaronu actually had reasonably priced restaurants ran by locals. We ate at a very good restaurant named Izzys where we finally got to try Turkish pide.

The cocktails were cheaper, tasty and an added bonus was the place had air con!

The first thing we noticed about this resort is the small quirky bars with personality. Exactly what we were looking for! We discovered the Black Pearl first where there is a relaxed atmosphere and friendly owner. The drinks were great, local ales and every flavour of gin you can think of.

If you’re lucky you can even meet the dog that roams The Black Pearl!

Next up we headed for the pub quiz at The Kitsch. Unfortunately it ended up being cancelled but we enjoyed chatting to people in this bar so much we stayed there all night! So we really didn’t make it very far. I got to have my favourite White Russian cocktail and a few too many delicious mojitos!

We even got chatting to an expat who told us she moved here from the UK when she turned 40. She’d been here about 7 years now and still loving it. She said the owner has just opened the bar so we stayed and chatted to the owner for a while too.

It was so nice to be able to chat to someone who has taken the plunge and moved abroad. It really got me thinking about the future and whether I want to continue living in the UK putting up with the awful weather.

We loved Hisaronu and returned there again a couple of times throughout the week. If you’re looking for something quieter in an evening there are plenty of places to discover here. If you like the loud flashy bars there are plenty of those here too. A bundle of restaurants to choose from and a slight cooler temperature with the breeze. You can reach the ghost village of Kayakoy from here too and I’ll be posting about my visit tomorrow so stay tuned!

Next time you visit this part of Turkey be sure to pay Hisaronu some attention.

Visited Hisaronu, Turkey in August 2019