Alaçatı: Sleeping beauty awakened by blowing wind

Monday, July 14, 2008

Alaçatı welcomes visitors with its small square and narrow streets. The stone houses, which are not more than three stories high, are mostly rented out or sold to restaurants, cafes and boutiques. Each of the stone houses is painted in a different color. If one is painted light pink, the next one is white and the one next to it is painted baby blue

ASLI SAĞLAM
İZMİR – Turkish Daily News

A place that once only hosted stone houses and tranquil fishing sports and was reachable only by a dangerous and dirty road, Alaçatı was a sleepy and lazy village for years. But today Alaçatı is considered among the best windsurfing and kite boarding places in the world and is now more popular than ever.

Çeşme, one of the well known sun, sea and sand destinations on Turkey's western coast, has seen its tourism improve thanks to the new windsurfing spot.

There are still fishers, craftsmen and farmers, but they now share the village with many other establishments, including restaurants, cafes, bars and shops – and especially windsurfers.

Alaçatı, which has always been famous for its stone houses and architecture, vineyards and windmills, now also attracts local and foreign tourists with its crystal clear water.The blooming village can compete with holiday resorts in other countries.The center of Alaçatı welcomes people with its small square and narrow streets. The stone houses, which are not more than three stories high, have mostly been rented out or sold to restaurants, cafes and boutiques. Each stone house is painted in a different color. If one is painted light pink, the next one is white and the one next is painted baby blue.

For those who live in Istanbul, the names of the places one comes across while walking through the quaint streets of the village may sound familiar. There are many famous Italian and Mediterranean restaurants that have branches in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. But the design and architecture of the venues is very different. The buildings definitely carry the authentic soul of Alaçatı. The shops, designed as small boutiques, mostly sell dresses and accessories.

There are nearly 20 inns and boutique hotels welcoming guests with their hospitality. Alaçatı is also famous for its antique market located along an alley one-and-a-half kilometers in length, which happens on Saturday mornings. Food and clothing from nearby villages are brought to the village and antiquities are offered for sale. Besides these goods, plants, fish and meat are also on offer. There is also an open market with stands placed next to each other. Summer dresses, colorful bracelets, earrings and necklaces, and souvenirs brighten the streets.One can see small but old-looking coffee houses, where elderly locals play backgammon and sip Turkish coffee. They seem to enjoy watching the tourists passing by.

Windsurfing

Most windsurfing places offer their own equipment. One of them is the Alaçatı Windsurf School, which offers classes for individuals and groups from beginners to advanced levels and rents equipment to customers.

Babylon and Otto, relatively new places in Alaçatı, are both beach clubs and bars. Located next to each other on the Çark bay, they are designed in the style of Hawaiian bars.

Babylon, opened three years ago, offers large pillows on a wide grass field that begins where the golden sand ends. There is a bar and a performance stage. Otto, with its four piers and two beach bars, has the capacity to host 250 people. Opened last summer, it is a popular place for windsurfers.

The bays have been taken over by famous establishments and surf schools in the past years. Those who want to experience the cool water and the chill out places in Alaçatı have to pay at least YTL 20 to enter to a beach club. Parking the car usually costs another YTL 10. But for those who want to experience the beauty of the late-awakening Alaçatı it might be worth paying that money once or twice. Not the entire center has been renovated and there are still a couple of untouched streets and beaches in Alaçatı but it seems that in a few years there will not be any untouched corners left.

Keeping the character, changing the face

The village, located 72 kilometers west of Izmir near the tip of the Çesme peninsula, is considered to be one of Turkey's vacation havens. Windsurfers coming for the predictable brisk winds over a safe, waveless sand bottom bay say that Alaçatı is among the top five windsurfing spots in the world. The village was founded around 1850 when Ottoman Greek workers from the Aegean islands were brought to the mainland to drain malaria-breeding marshes. The Greeks liked the new place and stayed, producing wine for export. After Turkish Muslims from the Balkans moved to Alaçatı most Greek inhabitants moved back to Greece, which changed the face of the village. Now this sleeping beauty, which kept its character for hundreds of years, is a wonderful place to escape from the bustling city life for a few days and set sail for new adventures and experiences.

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