Climate
Göcek experiences an average of 300 days of sunshine annuallyâyou will indeed be hard pressed to find a single cloud formation in the skies in long summer, when temperatures constantly range between 35°C and 40°C during the day and no lower than 27°C during the night. Average winterâwhich, in fact, would be called "spring" really, in more northern climatesâtemperature is +17°C.
Water temperature at the bay is more or less around 25°C on the average during summer.
Understand
Most of what you see today as "Göcek" is actually a town purpose built on a grid plan in late 1980s/early 1990s to boost and serve then newly-emerging tourism in the area, on what was then the coastal plains of the village of Göcek. Up to that date, much of the plains was covered with marshes and some farmland, along with a small port used for exporting logs harvested from surrounding forests for paper-milling and chromium ore, found abundantly and extracted since late 19th century in the surrounding mountains and the reason of many men from surrounding townsâwho are now commemorated by a bronze mine worker statue at the town plazaâimmigrating to look for a job at a time when, in the absence of tourism, there were little alternative ways of earning livelihood in this hilly region unfit for large agricultural operations.
The "real" village of Göcek, lying about 2-3 km uphill from waterfront and north of main highway, is still extant and retains its village atmosphere to some degree, with freely roaming sheepdogs and roosters here and there, and omnipresent mulberry trees casting their deep shadows much needed in this sunny and hot climateâquite a different world from the town centre, in short. However, the village itself is now being slowly engulfed by summer villas of urban dwellers from elsewhere.