We usually find ourselves at the Oasis Centre in Bodrum at some point during our stay at the villa. It’s a modern, tastefully designed, pedestrianised shopping centre on three levels with wide walkways and plenty of outdoor space interspersed with exotic plants. There’s an eclectic mix of small shops and a few larger ones, plus a good variety of restaurants and snack bars on the lower floor. You’ll find fashion, home furnishings, gifts, textiles and more. A free car park encircles the centre and there are spotless toilet facilities inside.

We recently discovered an excellent place for lunch, called Urfa, where the speciality is ‘lahmacun’ – a very thin crispy type pizza which is cooked on the premises in a traditional pizza oven. Like a pizza, the lahmacun comes with a variety of toppings and is served with parsley and slices of lemon. Not sure of ‘lahmacun etiquette’ we started to attack ours with knife and fork as we would a pizza. It started to shatter… Then we saw other people sprinkle the parsley and squeeze the lemon on the lahmacun, roll it up and eat it rather like a large wrap or fold it in half and half again and hold it in a serviette to eat. We’ll know next time…

Another very inexpensive favourite of ours for a light lunch is ‘Koftecisi Ramiz’. In addition to the meatballs (Kofte) and other chicken or meat options, they have an extensive ‘help yourself’ salad buffet. Salad, bread and a soda water cost us a mere 8TL (£3) each! Seating is in their open courtyard surrounded by enormous cacti.

How to find the Oasis Centre:

The Oasis Centre is situated on the main road into Bodrum. It’s on the left near the bottom of a hill as you approach Bodrum from the Ortakent (and Gumusluk) direction. Look out for its large colourful sign – a blue global ‘O’, other letters in yellow, green and purple and a palm tree above the ‘i’.