A pearl “Mecidiye Village” in the middle of Armutlu Peninsula

We start visiting the Armutlu Peninsula, entering from Yalova and leaving Gemlik. Apart from the holiday centers on our way, coastal villages covered with summer sites that turn into retirement’s paradise, residential areas well known to those seeking healing in the thermal spring waters, this trip will recognize new secrets hidden in the changing portrait of the peninsula, with its air, panorama, flavors, and the course with completely different features, with sentences. I will reveal it with photos …

If you set off from Istanbul with a private vehicle, we either go to Topçulara from Eskihisar or go to Çınarcık road in the thermal direction from Yalova by wandering around the gulf. Actually, it is possible to reach Armutlu with a short and comfortable journey directly from Istanbul Yenikapı, but one of our goals is to see the details and to know the environment and make a comparison.

On the thermal road, we take the sea to our right and move on. The first ones we come across are the flower greenhouses and the May artichoke sellers that grow in the fertile soil of the region. These are followed by the attractive stalls of those who sell flower pots and cut flowers.

The first stop is Çınarcık, the summer houses, which are formed like the Great Wall of China, are crossed by ten-storey apartments with their backs to the forest. Even if the population sign says 9000, don’t be fooled and see it in the summer. At this point, you have 34 km to Armutlu and 75 km to Gemlik.