Yalikavak lies at the north-west corner of the Bodrum Peninsula, 17 km or 10 miles from Bodrum and used to be a fishing and sponge divers village. The permanent inhabitants of Yalikavak number around 6, 800 people. This fertile coastal region is ideal for sailing and all water sports and attracts many foreign yachts to the harbour that once sheltered mainly fishing boats.Yalikavak is renown for superb sunsets and its unspoilt shoreline and sparkling clean sea is one of the few remaining abodes of the endangered “Monachus Monachus” mediterranean seals and therefore a protected area. In 2002 Yalikavak Bay was awarded the "Blue Flag" for its clean waters.

Yalikavak & Bodrum Map

The gilt head bream and red mullet served in the town’s waterside restaurants are a local speciality.The historic sites such as Sandima, Pasanda (Geriş), Kandiba and Termil (Dirmil/Gökçebel) attract visitors from all over. Archaeological excavations have established that human habitation in the region began near the end of the second millennium B.C., and artefacts show that the area was inhabited in the Carian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman eras. Yalikavak is famous for the numerous windmills found in the vicinity.The winds that until recently turned the vanes of these working windmills, now fill the sails of boats and windsurfs. Another “typical” feature found in abundance here are domed water cisterns which, in the past, were used in times of drought and are now being adapted for artistic and cultural uses.