Nowhere on the Turkish riviera knows how to party like Marmaris: a town of white-washed condos and bobbing yachts that pulses with thumping British chart tunes and heady Europop from the first sign of spring to the closing of the season.

Sun-seeking package travellers searching for that Club Med edge will feel right at home here; moving between the sleepless open-air drinkeries of the old town’s appropriately-named Bar Street, lounging on the deck chairs of the beachfront prom sipping multi-coloured cocktails and peaking in and out of the gaudy souvenir stalls where knock-off designer wear is consumed just as much as Turkish Delight. And for the morning after, the sands await, complete with lapping shore waters of the Med and the drifting shade of waxy palm trees.

That said, there are moments of culture and solitude to be had here despite the hedonistic veneer. Marmaris tour guides also offer excursions to the crumbling ruins of ancient Ephesus, trips out to the travertine shelves and hot springs of Pamukkale, boating jaunts along the Aegean, hops across to Grecian Rhodes, or hiking out between the pine-clad reaches of the rugged Bozburun Peninsula.