Datça does not really do the giant golden-sand beach. Its coastline is scalloped into dozens of small bays, some with a shingle beach and a couple of tavernas, others just a scoop of clear water you reach down a dirt track. The pleasure is in the variety, and in the fact that even in August you can usually find a quiet corner if you are willing to go a little further.
Start with the easy ones. Datça town has two beaches either side of the harbour — convenient, calm and fine for a swim between errands, if not the stuff of postcards. Kumluk, on the town side, is the sociable one; Taşlık, the other, is pebblier and quieter. Both are walkable, which matters on a lazy day.
For the water everyone photographs, head out along the peninsula. Palamutbükü is the classic: a long pebble bay of astonishing clarity with fish tavernas right on the front, made for a long lunch and an afternoon of doing nothing. Ovabükü and Hayıtbükü, neighbouring coves on the north coast, are smaller and gentler, popular with families and with anyone who likes their swim followed immediately by grilled fish.
The rewards go to the patient. Some of the loveliest spots — a hidden bay below an olive grove, a cove reached by boat from the harbour — do not have names you will find on a sign. Ask where you are staying, take a picnic, and be ready for the track to get rough. The bays that take effort are the ones you will still be thinking about at home.
A note on timing. The water stays swimmable from May well into October, and the shoulder months are glorious — warm sea, empty coves, no jostling for a sunbed. July and August are hotter and busier, though even then Datça never feels crowded the way the big resorts do. Pack reef shoes for the pebbles and you are set.