Last updated: September 2026
Icmeler holidays deliver the perfect antidote to the busy energy of Marmaris, just 8 kilometres around the bay.
Icmeler holidays offer a quieter, more intimate resort with its own fine beach, exceptionally clear and calm water, a good choice of hotels and restaurants, and easy access to Marmaris by dolmus or boat.
Set in a sheltered corner of the vast Marmaris bay, Icmeler holidays place you on one of the most sheltered sections of the southern Turkish coast.
Icmeler has developed steadily over the past two decades without losing the relaxed village character that makes it so appealing to those who want a genuine Turkish beach holiday at a slightly gentler pace.
For families with young children, couples seeking a quieter base, or those who simply want calm, clean water without the late-night noise of a larger resort, Icmeler is one of the best choices on the Turkish coast — and an excellent value Turkey holiday destination from UK airports.
Icmeler holidays has a well-deserved reputation as the more relaxed, family-friendly alternative to Marmaris — all the advantages of the larger resort’s location and facilities, without the noise, crowds and late-night energy that make Marmaris less suitable for those wanting a quieter holiday.
The bay is sheltered by pine-covered headlands on both sides, creating naturally calm and exceptionally clear water that is ideal for swimming at all skill levels.
The resort has a compact and manageable layout that parents with young children particularly appreciate — the beach, hotels, restaurants and shops are all within comfortable walking distance.
The accommodation range in Icmeler covers the full spectrum from small self-catering apartments to comfortable mid-range hotels and a small number of all-inclusive properties with pools and entertainment.
The pricing is consistently lower than Marmaris town for equivalent quality, making Icmeler one of the best-value resort options on the southern Turkish coast.
The restaurant and bar scene is pleasant and varied without being overwhelming, with a good number of genuinely Turkish establishments alongside the international options favoured by British visitors.
The combination of Icmeler’s calm and quality with instant access to the wider Marmaris resort — its marina, boat trips, nightlife, bazaar and range of day trips — makes it arguably a better base than Marmaris town itself for many types of visitor.
Families in particular benefit from the calm beach and manageable resort atmosphere during the day, with the option of visiting Marmaris for an evening or a day’s exploration without the commitment of actually staying there.
Icmeler holidays beach is a well-maintained strip of fine sand and pebble stretching along the southern shore of the resort’s sheltered bay. The beach is narrower than the main Marmaris beach but the water quality is outstanding — exceptionally clear, calm and warm throughout the season.
A forested headland to the west protects the bay from the prevailing winds that can occasionally rough up the more exposed Marmaris seafront, making Icmeler’s water calmer and more suitable for young or nervous swimmers even on breezy days.
Sun loungers and parasols are available for hire along the length of the beach, and beach bars and cafes are spaced at regular intervals. The beach is cleaned daily by the municipality and maintained to a consistently good standard.
The morning is the best time to visit — before the sun reaches its full intensity and while there is still space on the sunbeds. The water is shallow enough near the shore for young children to paddle safely while parents relax on the beach nearby.
The beach promenade that runs behind the sand is pleasant for evening strolling — lined with souvenir shops, cafes and ice-cream parlours that are busy until late in summer.
The harbour area at the eastern end of the promenade has a small marina and a selection of seafood restaurants with tables right at the water’s edge — an excellent setting for an evening meal.
Icmeler holidays offers a solid range of watersports and active holiday options, centred on the calm bay and the surrounding coastline. Jet skiing, parasailing, banana boat rides, pedalo hire and kayaking are all available from operators on the beach in the peak season months.
The clear, sheltered water makes kayaking particularly enjoyable — paddling around the headlands to small coves inaccessible from the beach is a rewarding way to explore the immediate coastline.
Boat trips depart daily from Icmeler’s small harbour, visiting coves and beaches around the wider Marmaris bay and sometimes venturing further to Cleopatra Island and the Datca Peninsula.
These excursions typically run from around 10am to 5pm, include a lunch stop and several swimming opportunities, and are good value at around £20–£30 per person.
Scuba diving is available through several certified operators in both Icmeler and Marmaris, with good visibility and interesting dive sites along the rocky coast. Horse riding through the pine forests above the resort is a popular half-day activity.
Icmeler holidays’s restaurant scene is compact but good, with a pleasant mix of traditional Turkish cooking and the international dishes expected by British visitors.
The waterfront restaurants at the harbour end of the resort specialise in fresh fish and seafood — the standard of cooking is generally good, and eating at a harbourside table with the boats bobbing nearby is one of the most enjoyable experiences the resort offers.
Elsewhere, a row of restaurants along the main promenade covers everything from simple kebab houses and pide restaurants to pizza and pub food, catering to the full range of British holiday tastes.
The best Turkish food in Icmeler is found at the smaller, less immediately visible restaurants behind the main promenade — family-run operations serving home-cooked Turkish cuisine with genuine character.
These are worth seeking out for a meal that reflects the real quality of Turkish domestic cooking, very different from the tourist-oriented menus of the beachfront.
Several have been favourites with returning British visitors for many years.
One of Icmeler holidays’s greatest advantages is its proximity to Marmaris — close enough to use all its facilities with ease, far enough to avoid its noise and crowds at the end of each day.
The two resorts are connected by a regular dolmus service (around 10 minutes, very cheap), by a waterfront path that can be walked in about 45 minutes along the beach, and by regular boat services that cross the bay in season.
From Icmeler, it is completely practical to spend the day on Icmeler’s calm beach, take the dolmus to Marmaris for the evening to enjoy its wider restaurant, bar and marina scene, and return to a peaceful night’s sleep in Icmeler.
The best of both worlds — the quiet and the activity — are effortlessly available from a single Icmeler base.
Marmaris’s bazaar, the boat trip departures from the main marina, and the wider range of shopping and nightlife are all easily accessed on this basis.
Icmeler holidays has a compact shopping area along and behind the main promenade selling the standard range of Turkish holiday goods — clothing, leather, ceramics, spices, textiles and jewellery — at prices slightly lower than the equivalent items in Marmaris town.
The resort has a local weekly market that brings a more authentic shopping experience, with fresh produce, local honey, olives and seasonal vegetables alongside clothing and household goods at genuinely local prices.
For a wider range of shopping, the markets and bazaar of Marmaris are easily reached by dolmus or the waterfront boat service.
Icmeler holidays shares the day-trip options of Marmaris — including the outstanding Dalyan river delta with its Lycian rock tombs, Iztuzu turtle beach and the ruins of ancient Kaunos.
Dalyan is around 90 minutes by road and is one of the most memorable natural and archaeological experiences available on the southern Turkish coast.
The Datca Peninsula, stretching west from Marmaris towards the ruins of ancient Knidos, offers dramatic scenery and increasingly remote and beautiful coastline — accessible by road or, more enjoyably, by boat charter from Marmaris marina.
Jeep safaris into the pine forests above Icmeler and Marmaris, visiting waterfalls, beekeeping villages and panoramic viewpoints, are popular half-day excursions that provide a completely different perspective on the landscape. Boat excursions visit Cleopatra Island, the phosphorescent cave, and various secluded bays along the Gokova Gulf.
All of these can be booked through local tour operators in Icmeler at competitive prices.
One of Icmeler holidays’s greatest natural assets is the forested headland that separates its bay from the open waters of the Gulf of Marmaris to the west.
The hillside is covered in Anatolian black pine, Mediterranean scrub and aromatic herbs — wild thyme, sage, oregano and rock rose — that characterise the southern Aegean throughout the summer months.
Walking paths through the forest above the resort provide excellent views over both Icmeler bay and the wider Marmaris bay beyond, and the scent of pine and wild herbs on the warm afternoon breeze is one of the characteristic sensory pleasures of a stay here.
The sea around the headland is particularly clear and good for snorkelling — the rocky coastline provides habitat for a variety of fish, and the water visibility in the sheltered bays immediately below the headland can exceed 10 metres on calm days.
Local boat trips visit these areas as part of daily bay excursions, but independent snorkellers can also reach the better spots by swimming along the headland from the eastern end of the main beach.
The water quality in and around Icmeler bay has consistently achieved Blue Flag status, reflecting the good environmental management of this sheltered section of the Marmaris coastline.
Icmeler holidays retains more of its pre-tourism character than Marmaris town, and the local community of year-round residents — farmers, fishermen and small traders — gives the resort a social texture that pure tourist destinations lack.
The local tea house near the harbour is the traditional gathering point for local men in the mornings and evenings, and the fresh fish market at the harbour (when the boats are in) is a daily event that provides an authentic glimpse of the working life of this coastal community.
The resort’s weekly market brings a more local shopping experience than the tourist bazaars of Marmaris, with fresh produce — tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, cucumbers, pomegranates, figs and the seasonal citrus that is abundant in this part of Turkey — available at genuinely local prices.
The market is also a good source of locally made textiles, embroidered cloth, hand-painted ceramics and the excellent local honey that is produced in the pine forests above the resort.
Getting up early to catch the market at its liveliest and best-stocked is one of the small pleasures of a stay in Icmeler.
The relationship between Icmeler and the surrounding countryside is closer here than in larger, more commercially developed resorts.
Several local farmers sell their produce directly to hotels and restaurants, maintaining a supply chain that keeps the food quality at Icmeler’s best restaurants genuinely above the frozen and mass-produced ingredients that dominate the catering of bigger resorts.
Visitors who engage with the local food and market culture of Icmeler invariably leave with a more satisfying and authentic sense of Turkish coastal life than those who stay entirely within the confines of their hotel.
Icmeler holidays is served by Dalaman Airport (DLM), approximately 90 kilometres to the east — a transfer time of around 90 to 100 minutes by coach (slightly longer than Marmaris due to the extra distance around the bay).
Direct flights operate from London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol and other UK regional airports throughout the summer season.
Package holidays include return transfers as standard; private transfers can be pre-booked for faster and more flexible travel.
Search4Sun works with leading UK tour operators to find the best value Icmeler holidays. Browse departures from local airports across the UK. For peace of mind when booking, always check your holiday is ABTA protected. For last-minute Icmeler holiday deals, check LastMinute.com for the latest availability and rates.
Many families prefer Icmeler for its calmer, cleaner water and more relaxed pace. The beach is safe and sheltered, the resort is compact and easy to manage, and the noise levels are lower than in Marmaris town.
The dolmus and boat links to Marmaris mean families can still access the larger resort’s facilities when they want them.
Dolmus (shared minibus) services run between Icmeler and Marmaris throughout the day and evening — the journey takes about 10 minutes and is very inexpensive. Boat services also connect the two resorts seasonally. The beach promenade can be walked between the two resorts in about 45 minutes if you prefer.
Icmeler offers jet skiing, parasailing, banana boat rides, pedalo hire, kayaking and diving through local operators on the beach and in the harbour. Boat trips visit surrounding coves and bays daily. The calm, sheltered water makes Icmeler particularly suitable for beginners and for those with younger children.
Dalaman Airport (DLM) serves Icmeler, with a transfer time of approximately 90 to 100 minutes by coach. Direct flights operate from major UK airports throughout the summer season. Private transfers offer a faster alternative, typically reducing journey time to around 80 minutes.
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