Best Anchorages Around Ayvalık & Edremit Gulf

Ayvalık is one of the most characterful harbour towns on the Turkish Aegean — a former Greek fishing community with a distinctive architecture of 19th-century stone houses, cobblestone streets, and an active fish market that has operated continuously since Ottoman times.

Cunda (officially Alibey Adası) is a large island connected to Ayvalık by a causeway, with a character entirely its own.

The inner bay of the Ayvalık archipelago — the sheltered water between the cluster of 22 islands — provides some of the flattest, most protected anchoring conditions on the entire Turkish Aegean coast.

Patrica Adası is one of the smaller outer islands of the Ayvalık archipelago, offering an isolated sandy bay with clean water and minimal visitor traffic.

Maden Adası (Salt Mine Island) is a historically significant island in the SW section of the Ayvalık archipelago — the name reflects the Ottoman-era salt extraction works whose ruins are still visible on the eastern shore.

Ören is a quiet village on the south shore of Edremit Gulf, where ancient olive groves stretch directly to the water's edge — one of the most picturesque natural settings on the Turkish northern Aegean.

Akçay is a well-developed family resort town on the north shore of Edremit Gulf, backed by the Kazdağı (Ida Mountains) National Park — the mythological home of the gods in Homer's Iliad.

Gömeç is a small, genuine fishing village on the SE approaches to Edremit Gulf — a quiet and unhurried contrast to the busier resort bays further north.