36 Hours in Izmir, Turkey (2024)

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• The Historical Lift, built in 1907 to connect neighborhoods of different elevations, has a tower-top terrace providing panoramic views of Izmir and the bay.
• Ataturk Square, better known as Konak Square, has historical sites like the Clock Tower, First Bullet Monument and the Yali Mosque.
• Kemeralti Bazaar, Turkey’s largest open market, is a tangle of nearly 100 streets packed with cafes, restaurants and thousands of shops.
• The Agora, constructed in the 4th century B.C. at the foot of Pagos Hill, was Smyrna’s social, governmental and commercial hub.

• Kordon is Izmir’s seaside promenade and external living room, where families and friends gather to walk, relax and play.
• Izmir Ataturk Museum, the Izmir residence of Turkey’s founder, is filled with memorabilia and photographs detailing his life and the country’s history.
• The Izmir Culture and Arts Factory, a former tobacco factory, houses the Archaeology and Ethnography Museum and Izmir Painting and Sculpture Museum.
• Karsiyaka is a district on Izmir Bay’s north side with pedestrian shopping streets, cafes and bistros, and a neighborhood vibe.
• The Gediz Delta, a nationally protected wetland, is home to close to 300 identified bird species and more than 80,000 wintering fowl, including flamingos.
• Flamingo Road Boat Tour offers a 90-minute outing to see the many bird species that make the Gediz Delta home.
• The Konak Pier, a one-time customs office built in the 19th century, is now a collection of shops, restaurants and bars.
• Urla, a seaside town about 25 miles west of Izmir, is a popular destination with an outdoor market, developing culinary scene and surrounding beaches.
• Turkey’s section of the EuroVelo 8 cycling route is a rolling ride that runs the length of Izmir province with a stop in Urla.

• Tarihi Asansor Cafe, atop the Historical Lift, has a terrace with great views, cold beer, Turkish coffee and traditional tea.
• Sirena, a locals’ bar since 1976, serves pub food, co*cktails and beer with outdoor seating and views of the Aegean.
• Deniz Restaurant, on the Kordon promenade, specializes in seafood and has been an Izmir cornerstone for four decades.
• Aysa Bosnak Borekcisi, an eatery within Kemeralti Bazaar’s Abacioglu Han courtyard, specializes in borek: savory, phyllo-dough pies filled with various delicacies.
• Balmumu Dukkan Lokanta, a diner with a covered garden in the Alsancak neighborhood, serves inventive dishes based on daily market finds.
• North Pier’s, a seaside restaurant and bar in the Konak Pier, is a great spot for sunset co*cktails to kick off your evening.
• Sevince Lokantasi is a neighborhood tavern in Alsancak with rustic touches, a warm atmosphere, traditional mezes and raki, a local liqueur.
• Hayyam, a wine bar in Alsancak, stages live jazz on the weekends and serves a wide selection of wines.
• Cinati has live music on the weekends, specializing in blues, and serves co*cktails to a relaxed crowd of local patrons.
• Tato, in Alsancak, is a go-to spot for more raucous shows featuring local acts playing heavier rock and metal.
• Reyhan Patisserie, an institution for almost six decades, is a good place for breakfast — with cakes, pies and pastries — and people-watching.
• Begendik Abi is a Michelin-recommended, family-run restaurant surrounded by olive and fig trees in Urla.
• Urla Berlin’s is a bar with a coastal vibe and an array of original co*cktails near the Urla harbor.

• The Yazihane Hat atelier sells traditional, framed calligraphic art created by a master of the craft who also makes the paper and ink.
• Ekim Seramik, in the Kemeralti Bazaar, crafts pottery, intricately painted plates and tiles.
• Lula & Loop, on the first floor of the Kemeralti Antikacilar Carssi, sells vintage Turkish clothes, hats and handbags.

• The Izmir Palas Hotel, opened in 1927 and the oldest hotel in the city, sits directly on Kordon, Izmir’s seaside promenade. Modernized multiple times over the years, the Palas has kept pace with newer hotels and has 148 rooms (65 with sea views), a bar on the top floor, a library and a fitness room looking out to the Aegean. Room, breakfast included, from 3,200 lira, or about $97.
• The modern, 80-room Ontur Hotel Izmir, in the Konak neighborhood, is within easy walking distance of Ataturk Square, the Kemeralti Bazaar and the Alsancak district. It also offers a spa, fitness center and restaurant. Rooms, breakfast included, start at 2,500 lira.
• L’Agora Old Town Hotel and Bazaar is the only hotel inside the Kemeralti Bazaar. In the Kucuk Karaosmanoglu Han, which was a former marketplace inn built in 1750, the 18-room boutique hotel also has a cafe, bar, restaurant, shops, and often, live music. Rooms, breakfast included, start at around 2,600 lira.
• For short-term rentals, Izmir has plenty of options through platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com. Alsancak and Konak are perhaps the most popular districts for visitors, but the Karsiyaka district, on the north side of the bay, has plenty of shopping, cafes and restaurants, and a slightly more neighborhood feel.

• Izmir is extremely easy to navigate with a slew of reliable and well-connected public transportation options that include trams, local trains, ferries, subways and buses. For most trips, a one-way ticket costs 13 lira. There are also bicycle, e-bike and scooter sharing stations around the city.

3:30 p.m. Elevate your position

Start from a bird’s-eye vantage of Izmir with a ride up the city’s Historical Lift (free). The elevator — once steam-powered, now electric — was built in 1907 to connect lower districts to hilltop neighborhoods, which are separated by 190 feet of elevation. The tower-top terrace provides panoramic views of the coast, the ferries traversing Izmir Bay and the neighborhoods influenced across epochs by Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Macedonians, Romans, Ottomans and Sephardic Jews. More recently, this port city on the western shore of Anatolia boasts a mix of immigrant communities including Italians, Armenians and French. Settle into the historical vista at the terrace’s Tarihi Asansor Cafe with a cup of stove-brewed Turkish coffee or traditional tea (both cost 40 Turkish liras, or about $1.20).

4:30 p.m. Walk the walk

Come down to Izmir’s two-mile, shoreline promenade known as Kordon, where college kids play music on surrounding grassy quads, families picnic, fishermen cast into the bay and vendors hawk mussels, nuts and fruit. A bike lane, part of a 30-mile path, runs along the walkway. Saunter to Ataturk Square, or, more colloquially, Konak Square. The octagonal, 82-foot Clock Tower at the plaza’s center, built in 1901, has ornate Ottoman motifs spread across its four levels of carved marble, fountains and columns. The mechanical clock, a gift from the last German emperor, Wilhelm II, is still reset manually every sixth day. On the square’s sea side, the First Bullet Monument depicts the first shot fired in Izmir during the Turkish War of Independence in 1919. Across the square, the tiny, 18th-century Yali Mosque is adorned with exquisitely painted tiles.

6 p.m. Appreciate change, then discover a locals’ bar

Izmir’s constant is change. The city weaves disparate eras, styles and architecture: Ancient ruins meld with Ottoman, Neo-Romanesque and Art Nouveau architecture and glass-and-steel constructions. The other consistent theme is the image of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on buildings, flags and signs. The country’s founder, in 1923, espoused secularism and is a hero to Izmirli (someone from Izmir), who are stereotypically more progressive than the rest of Turkey. Stop at the Izmir Atatürk Museum (free), in a 19th-century neoclassical house Ataturk used when in Izmir, to glimpse photos, his living space and clothing, and to learn how he helped shape the nascent country. Then amble along Kordon to the patio at Sirena, an open-air locals’ bar since 1976. Order a half-liter mug of Turkish Efes beer (120 lira) and watch the sun disappear into the Aegean.

9 p.m. Embrace the sea

The artful preparation of food, especially seafood, anchors Izmir’s social life. Over the past four decades, no spot has mastered this art like Deniz Restaurant (deniz means sea). After diners take their seats on the sea-facing terrace, a waiter will present a tray of mezes, or appetizers (typically vegetable- and yogurt-based), to be paired with wine, beer or raki (pronounced rah-kuh), a liqueur of grapes and aniseed. People from Izmir often don’t consult menus, preferring to let waiters guide the experience. Try the fava beans with red onions and dill, wedges of grilled local cheese, grilled eggplant with yogurt, and shrimp wrapped in kataifi (crunchy, shredded phyllo dough). Then, savor the sea bass sauteed in light cream before a bowl of melon and strawberries appear with the coup de grâce: housemade baklava. Dinner for two costs around 4,000 lira.

People look over Izmir from the ruins of Kadifekale castle.

10 a.m. Breakfast at the bazaar

For much of its 24-century existence, the Kemeralti Bazaar was the beating heart of Izmir, a key western port on the Silk Road. This open-air market — Turkey’s largest — united Asian and European traders exchanging goods and world news. Today, mosques, cafes, restaurants, approximately 2,000 protected buildings and thousands of shops crowd the market’s tangle of nearly 100 streets. Start with brunch at Aysa Bosnak Borekcisi in the public courtyard of Abacioglu Han, formerly a marketplace inn. Aysa specializes in borek: phyllo-dough filled with minced beef, cheese, spinach, potato or eggplant (around 100 lira per portion). Turkish cay (pronounced “chai”), or tea, costs 15 lira.

11 a.m. Shop for treasures

Smells of incense, roasting coffee and spices waft through Kemeralti’s pedestrian-only labyrinth filled with coppersmiths, cobblers, gold and silver merchants and artisans. Along a street named Havra (the word for synagogue), one of the market’s busiest corridors, fishmongers, butchers and produce vendors vie for customers. Around the corner, stop in at the Yazihane Hat atelier to peruse traditional, framed calligraphic art painstakingly crafted by the shop’s master, Ilkay Kanar, who also makes the paper and ink (prices from 1,500 to 200,000 lira). At Ekim Seramik, Yesim Sahin sells intricately painted plates, tiles and other clay pottery (from 200 to 4,000 lira). Inside Kemeralti Antikacilar Carsisi’s (Kemeralti Antique Market) two floors of antique shops, visit Lula & Loop for curated, vintage Turkish clothes, hats and handbags that make story-worthy souvenirs (from 450 to 5,000 lira).

12:30 p.m. Follow the dream

According to lore, Alexander the Great took a nap on Pagos Hill above Izmir, where the ruins of Kadifekale castle are today, and dreamt of relocating the city known then as Smyrna to its current position. The Oracle of the god Apollo confirmed Alexander’s vision and that the move would make citizens at least three times happier. The Smyrna Agora — the result of that dream, originally constructed in the fourth century B.C. on the slopes of that hill and behind Kemeralti — acted as the newly moved city’s social, governmental and commercial hub. Roam the ruins (entrance, 210 lira) to get a sense of the sprawling site’s importance. Of particular note: the intact Corinthian portico columns; the subterranean arched architecture, aqueduct and cistern system; and graffiti adorning merchant stalls believed to be more than 1,500 years old.

2 p.m. Eat up culture

Melding culinary traditions is the philosophy at Balmumu Dukkan Lokanta, a diner with a clutch of tables in an intimate covered garden in the Alsancak neighborhood. There’s no fixed menu. Inventive soups and dishes are created from daily market finds. If available, try the baked mullet with red peppers, green beans, onions, dill and local olive oil (400 lira). Afterward, stroll to the recently opened Izmir Culture and Arts Factory, a 19th-century tobacco factory-turned-cultural complex housing museums, libraries and art workshops. One ticket (350 lira) provides entry to the 78,000-square-foot Archaeology and Ethnography Museum, with artifacts like coins, lamps and jewelry from the Archaic Period (approximately 700 to 500 B.C.), and the Izmir Painting and Sculpture Museum, which showcases works by renowned Turkish artists.

5 p.m. Find your flamboyance

Take a ferry from the Alsancak terminal to the Bostanli terminal in the Karsiyaka district on Izmir Bay’s north side. Like the Konak and Alsancak districts, Karsyaka has pedestrian shopping streets, cafes and bistros, but with a more residential vibe. Then, either walk or take the tram to the Mavisehir fishermen’s harbor for a 90-minute Flamingo Road Boat Tour along the shore of the nearly 100,000-acre Gediz Delta, protected under the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty for the conservation of wetlands (180 lira per person). The wetland is home to around 300 identified bird species and more than 80,000 wintering fowl, including Dalmatian pelicans, great cormorants and oystercatchers. The stars here, however, are the gangly, majestic pink flamingos feeding in estuary grasses.

7:30 p.m. Drink on the water, then dine like a local

Back in Konak, head to the Konak Pier. Designed by Gustave Eiffel’s firm in the late 19th century, the iron-girded building has served as a customs office, fish market and, today, a collection of shops, restaurants and bars. Grab a waterside table at North Pier’s and honor the flamingos with a Pink Paradise co*cktail concocted from raspberry gin and melon liqueur (450 lira). For a classic Izmirli dinner, walk to Sevince Lokantasi in Alsancak. Consult the kitchen’s glass case and choose dishes such as fried squash, sun-dried tomatoes and peppers, hummus, arugula salad, sarma (rolled grape leaves stuffed with rice and ground meat), grilled cow liver and boiled lamb brain soft enough to spread on fresh pita. Then, order raki and find a weathered wooden table with a red-checkered cloth inside or on the sidewalk. Dinner for two, around 2,500 lira.

10:30 p.m. Make a splash in Alsancak

After dining, dive into Alsancak’s frenetic maze of lounges, tattoo parlors, palm-lined avenues and kebab kiosks. Test the waters at Hayyam wine bar, which has live jazz on the weekends, with a glass of local red: a blend of cabernet, merlot, petit verdot blend from Sevilen Saraplari Vineyard costs 185 lira. Slip next door for a more raucous experience and live blues at Cinati (cover, 200 lira), where a bicycle hangs above the entrance and photos of Nina Simone, Janis Joplin and Herbie Hanco*ck line the walls. Try the Cinati Special: Beefeater gin, tequila, Malibu rum, lime juice and apple juice (350 lira). Finally, immerse yourself at Tato, a rocker bar that features live local metal (cover, 100 lira) and cold draft beer (150 lira).

Kordon, Izmir’s two-mile, shoreline promenade draws picnicking families, fishermen who cast into the bay and vendors hawking mussels, nuts and fruit.

8:30 a.m. Get on your bike

Fuel up at Reyhan Patisserie, an institution in Alsancak for almost six decades. Cases of cakes, pies, pastries and cookies dominate the entrance. Find a spot on the covered terrace and try the simit toast, a breakfast standard that is something between a bagel and a soft pretzel covered in poppy seeds. Here, it is served with cheese, spicy green peppers, tomatoes and olives (130 lira). Also order the milk pudding called kazandibi (150 lira); similar to crème caramel, it is caramelized on the bottom and served upside-down. Then, hop on a bike and pedal part of Turkey’s 300-mile section of the Europe-traversing EuroVelo 8 cycle route. (BisiKoop, in Karsiyaka, rents touring bikes for 200 lira per day.) Your stage hugs the Aegean Sea for 23 miles of easygoing, paved and photograph-begging road to the beach community of Urla.

11:30 a.m. Relax in a seaside town

For many Izmirli, weekends mean getting out of the city. Urla is a go-to spot because of its old town, outdoor market, vineyard-covered countryside, developing culinary scene and surrounding peninsula with both secluded and lively beaches. Jump off your bike in the traditional bazaar and have a well-deserved lunch at the Michelin-recommended Begendik Abi, a family-run restaurant surrounded by olive and fig trees. Order baked lamb with cream sauce, sauteed leeks with sun-dried tomatoes and chickpeas, and beef-and-vegetable stew slow-cooked in a clay pot. For dessert, indulge in girit boregi: walnuts and cottage cheese in phyllo dough drizzled with simple syrup. Lunch for two, about 1,200 lira. Finish your odyssey with a celebratory co*cktail at Urla Berlin’s, a drinking hole next to Urla’s harbor. The Yuzu Passion combines gin, passion fruit and yuzu juice (350 lira).