FOCA HOLIDAY RENTALS - IZMIR - TURKEY

• RENTAL: Luxury self-catering holiday appartment
• RENTAL: Luxury self-catering holiday flat
• RENTAL: Luxury self-catering holiday flat

FOCA HOLIDAY RENTALS

Foca is a quaint little town popular as a holiday resort with local people

Foca

Phocaea, ancient Foca was probably settled around 1000 BC and was part of the Ionean League. A small resort popular with families from the nearby city of Izmir, Foca is a quaint little town with a string of pebbly bays along the coast to the north of town, though these get very crowded in summer months.

The town has many traditional stone houses, some of which have now been utilised as boutique hotels.

Around 500 BC the Phocaceans were fames as mariners, sending vessels powered by 50 oarsmen into the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Sea. There is a small theatre dating from antiquity at the entrance of the town. Near the centre of town, you will find an interesting stone tomb known as Tas Kule. There is also a restored Genoese fortress. Here is a good place to take a Turkish bath (hamam)!.

Getting to Foca is getting increasingly convenient and inexpensive and is well worth a visit. It's populations of approximately 36,000 people can grow up to 70 thousand with local and foreign holiday makers who prefer this area for its natural beauties, crystal clear water (some of Foca's bays are rewarded with the Blue Flag), small coves and the climate. There are excellent fish restaurants along the front, where you can experience the delicious kefal (wild sea bass), as well as the more popular dish of calamari.

The town's mascot is the endangered Mediterranean monk seal, which are under preservation. These shy creatures, from which the city took its name, live along the rockier parts of the shore. A project funded by the WWF and the Turkish government is attempting to protect the last remaining seals, which number as few as 400 in the entire Mediterranean.