From Wikitravel

Aegean Turkey (Ege Bölgesi) is in Turkey. It occupies western part of the country, including the western coast (Aegean Sea coast) across a wide arch of Greek islands and some places more inland.

• Central Aegean – Izmir and its vicinity with lots of history
• Northern Aegean – milder climate than the south with olive groves everywhere
• Southern Aegean – crystal clear torqouise sea, verdant pine forests

• Izmir – Turkey’s third biggest city, and a beautiful coastal one. Undeniably the capital of the region.

• Ayvalik – a pleasant town in the north with distinctlively Greek/neo-classical architecture everywhere.
• Bergama – located near the ruins of the ancient city of Pergamon.
• Bodrum – nice and trendy resort known for its castle and/or “foam parties”.
• Çeşme – town on the westernmost tip of Turkey.
• Denizli – hub to Roman sites such as Pamukkale, Hierapolis, Aphrodisias in southeastern Aegean Region.
• Fethiye – a town in the south, surrounded by verdant mountains and torqouise sea. Gateway to Ölüdeniz–the Blue Lagoon.
• Kusadasi – a resort town with the citadel on an island. Has a large harbour used by ships cruising around Mediterranean.
• Marmaris – a little touristy, but nice resort. One of the gateways for “Blue Voyage”.

Travetines of Pamukkale

• Dalyan – miles of channels meandering around marshlands, beach where endangered caretta caretta turtles lay eggs, and nearby rock tombs engraved on hillsides.
• Ephesus – once the capital of Roman province of Asia Minor, now one of the Roman sites that are in best condition in Turkey.
• Ölüdeniz – the “Blue Lagoon”.
• Pamukkale – the “cotton castle”, white world of travertines.

Talk

Turkish is the native language in the region. But as tourism is one of the main industries of this region, finding someone who can communicate in English or German to a lesser degree is generally not a problem.

• Most of the tourism-oriented towns have direct bus services from many other important centres of the country, such as Istanbul.
• The major airports of this region are located in/near Izmir, Bodrum, and Dalaman. All handle a number of international flights as well as much more frequent domestic (national) flights.
• All major coastal towns have ferry links with the nearest Greek islands.
• Major hub of the region for rail transport is Izmir.

Library of Ephesus

This is the region with the highest concentration of ancient city ruins in Turkey. At every 10 or so kilometers, you’ll come across with another ancient city. Some, such as Ephesus, still exhibit much of their former glory, while many others are nothing more than a pile of collapsed marble columns at first sight, awaiting excavation. Even most of still-inhabited cities and towns (such as Izmir, Bodrum, Bergama to name a few) are merely modern versions of ancient cities. It’s hard to find a city younger than 3000 years old in this region.

Get out

If the sea, sun, and ancient cities here are not enough, why not moving on southeast to Mediterranean Turkey?