Turkey · İzmir
Where to Stay in Urla, İzmir
Where to stay in Urla
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Where you stay in Urla turns on the town or the coast. The old centre and its art street keep the galleries, the market, and the tavernas within a walk, and staying in town suits anyone here for the old quarter. The lanes fill on summer evenings.
Rooms sit among the old houses. Down at the shore the town meets the sea and the marina. A room by the coast trades the old streets for the beaches, the boats, and the seafood by the water.
The blue bay opens past the edge. If you want the galleries and the market, stay in town; if you want the sea, take a room by the shore. Either way, the old town is close at hand.
About Urla
Urla is an old Aegean town of vines and olives.
What is Urla known for?
It stands on the coast west of İzmir, over the ruins of ancient Klazomenai, one of the old Ionian cities, and now it is known for its vineyards and wine, its seafood, and an art street of restored Greek houses. Olive groves cover the hills. Wine and ruins mark the town.
What are the main landmarks in Urla?
The ruins of Klazomenai lie by the sea at Urla. The ancient Ionian site, with its old olive-oil workshop and its early harbour, spreads along the shore, the mark of the old town, near the water. An art street fills the old quarter.
The restored Greek houses hold galleries and cafés, while the olive-oil museum and the vineyards around tell the story of the coast.
What is the history of Urla?
Urla grew on the ruins of an ancient city. Here on the coast stood Klazomenai, one of the twelve Ionian cities of the Greeks, a place of traders and of the philosopher Anaxagoras, who taught that the sun was a burning stone. It shipped its oil across the sea.
The people of Klazomenai pressed olives in stone workshops and sent their famous oil to the ports of the Aegean, and they built one of the earliest harbours known. Greeks lived on the coast for ages. Through the ages of Rome, Byzantium, and the Ottomans a mixed town went on by the sea, growing vines and olives as it always had.
Later the old Greek town emptied. When the Greeks left in the great exchange, their houses stood empty for years, until artists and winemakers came and brought the old streets back to life. The vineyards still climb the hills.
Urla keeps its ruins and its vines on the Aegean.
Where is Urla?
Urla lies on the Aegean coast west of İzmir in western Turkey. The town sits on a green coastal plain at the neck of a peninsula, among vineyards, olive groves, and low hills, looking out on a bay scattered with small islands. Olive hills rise inland.
The blue Aegean spreads to the west.
What is the climate of Urla?
Urla has a warm Mediterranean climate. Hot, dry summers bake the coast and the vineyards, and the winters stay mild and wet, cooled by the sea breeze, so the hills turn green in the cooler months. Sea winds ease the summer heat.
The coast stays mild and bright.
How do you get to Urla?
Urla lies on the coast road west of İzmir in western Turkey. The highway runs east to İzmir and west out along the Çeşme peninsula, and side roads drop to the coves and bays. Buses reach the coast towns around.
Most arrive by road from İzmir.
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Updated August 2026