Maxx Royal Bodrum

If summer on the Aegean has long evoked images of Grecian island hopping, it’s time to explore the Turkish Riviera, where the shoreline’s ancient hills of prized olive groves and grape vines rival the decadence of the Cyclades. Bodrum is booming this year, and no resort shines brighter than Maxx Royal, which opened there last May. Low-slung tiers of suites and villas are staggered across the naturally sloping landscape. Golf carts idle outside the palatial accommodations, waiting to sweep well-heeled guests down toward a harbor buoyed with six waterfront bars and restaurants amply lined with lounge decks, including international icons Spago by Wolfgang Puck and Paris import Caviar Kaspia. Nearly half of the cove is dedicated to Scorpios, the legendary Mykonos club reimagined here with a bohemian art space and indoor-outdoor dance floor-cum-dining room—an adult playground that rivals Maxxi Land, the hotel’s full-service kids club equipped with its own cinema. Many Maxx staffers are veterans of the mountaintop D Maris Bay resort, on the southern side of the Bodrum peninsula, where guests escape to lazy days at the Christian Dior pool before dressing for dinner at Cannes staple La Guerite. The posh Mandarin Oriental is just steps away from the Maxx Royal, and in the distance you can glimpse the future Bulgari Resort opening in 2026—a sign that the Bodrum buzz will only grow louder.