We had passed the town of Dikili several times during our tours along the Turkish Aegean, but it was never a good place to stop. Now we were again coming from Ayvalik on the road 550 towards Izmir when we were overcome by a “little hunger”

Why not drive the few kilometres to the district town of the Dickili district of the same name and stop off at a restaurant there.

In April, however, the beaches were almost deserted

Since it was only about 100 kilometres from here to our caravan in Izmir, we decided to follow our meal with a short city tour. Dickili itself has around 17,000 inhabitants, so you can definitely call it a small town.

However, our tour showed a town centre that has hardly any sights and is probably only worth mentioning as a tourist spot during the short summer season. A typical Turkish small town that has so far been little affected by foreign tourism. The Greek Island of Mitilini is only a few kilometres off the coast. In the summer months, however, the beach area is filled with mostly Turkish tourists, as can be seen from the existing infrastructure in the individual beach sections. Now in April, however, the beaches were almost deserted and many shops were still closed.

Destination of a day trip from many cruise ships

After some conversations with locals, we also learned a little about the history of the place, which was of some importance as the port of the city of Bergama during the Ottoman Empire. In the 18th century, the Karaosmanoğlu family founded a tree nursery here in the village, which probably led to the village being named Dikmelik, which translated means "tree nursery". It was only with the excavations in Pergamon at the end of the 19th century, which were carried out mainly by Germans, that Dickili also attracted some attention because here the finds were transported on the German embassy's station ship "Lorely" to Izmir, which was then still called Smyrna, and then onwards to be transported to Germany.

Today, the nearby Bergama, or rather Pergamon, is the destination for a day trip by many cruise ships, which anchor in front of Dickili for this purpose and thus bring some additional tourist flair to the city. Alternatively, passengers can spend the day in the city or visit one of the sandy stretches of beach, which is accessed by a long beach promenade. If you want to escape the hustle and bustle of typical seaside resorts but are also looking for a reasonable price-performance ratio in the city, you can look forward to a quiet beach holiday in Dickili. With Pergamon, the island of Mitilini and Ayvalik in the area, other places worth seeing are easy to do as day trips and can also be easily reached via public transport.

Please read as well:

The Red Basilica of Pergamon - Bergama

Menemen - city on the road between Izmir and Çanakkale