Izmir trip

An Izmir trip will have you visiting Turkey’s third-largest city and one of its modern. This might make it hard to enjoy at first sight, but with a simple chance you’ll find it has quite a few gems in its hat.

The city was pretty much saved from a very urban look by a mayor with a vision, the late Ahmet Piristina. He nixed plans for a motorway that would’ve ran along the seafront and pedestrianized large parts of the city’s centre, thus giving the centre back to its inhabitants pretty much.

The sea-facing Kordon is nowadays one of the premiere places in the city to go enjoy a promenade, a great place to jog, cycle, walk the dog or even just lounge around enjoying the weather and atmosphere. That atmosphere is getting increasingly complex seeing as how the northern district of Alsancak – an older district – is undergoing steady reconstruction, with its old houses being quite reminiscent of the Greek island of Chios for some odd reason.

Depending on how much time you have on your hands, you can visit some more of the place’s museums, the antiquities or simply waste time in the cafes on the waterfront, or why not, head for the Kadifekale castle and enjoy the views from there.

The castle of Kadifekale was built by none other than Alexander the Great, as a result of a sacking by Lydia. It’s a wonderful testament to that era’s architectural capabilities, and the view from what some call the ‘Velvet Fortress’ is truly magnificent.

There’s an agora in the city as well, having been initially meant for Alexander the great; it was destroyed by an earthquake in AD 178, and then rebuilt by Marcus Aurelius. What you’ll see today are colonnades made from reconstructed Corinthian columns, and the vaulted chambers and arches should give you a solid idea of what the Roman bazaar would’ve looked like in its heyday.

There are many other things to see and do in Izmir and with the help of our Izmir car hire services you can do exactly that.