2020’s hottest seaside destination will be Turkey's Turquoise Coast

British holidaymakers are returning to Turkey in droves. Tourist numbers tumbled in 2016 following a spate of terrorist attacks and a failed coup, but they have steadily returned.

 

In 2019, Turkey attracted 41 million overseas visitors from January to September, and was especially popular with Russians, Germans and Brits. Part of the appeal is the favourable exchange rate: the Turkish lira is one of the few currencies that has weakened against sterling in recent years, so you get a lot more bang for your buck than you do in France or Spain.

 

Thanks to a raft of sleek new hotels, 2020’s hottest seaside destination will be the Turquoise Coast — western Turkey’s long, craggy, forest-fringed coastline, which is lapped by the crystalline Aegean Sea. Its popularity is nothing new. This region was once the heart of the Aeolian, Ionian, Lydian and Carian civilisations and is littered with ancient ruins, so there’s plenty to see if you find beaches a bore and watersports aren’t for you.

 

The best preserved of its classical cities is Ephesus, which was once an important Greek seaport and the capital of the Roman province of Asia. As well as temples, aqueducts and ancient loos, there’s a solitary column of the Temple of Artemis — one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. But the region’s biggest attraction is at Pamukkale, where you can bathe in a sky-blue, mineral-rich thermal pool beside snow-white terraces, and explore the nearby Graeco-Roman spa city of Hierapolis.

 

Archaeological wonders are never far away in the Aegean and you’ll have many sites to yourself. Among the most dramatic are the rock-cut tombs found in the mountains behind Fethiye, and in the ancient Carian city of Kaunos, near modern Dalyan.

 

There’s plenty of history in its towns as well. Take Bodrum — formerly the Greek city of Halicarnassus and now the Aegean’s answer to St Tropez. As well as a new batch of luxury hotels, it has a magnificent fourth century theatre and a medieval castle built with stone from the tomb of Carian king Mausolus — another of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Today the castle is home to the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, a true treasure trove.