Gareth Huw Davies spent some lazy days browsing the boulevards, walking the elegant seafront, riding a century-old cliff-face elevator and visiting some of the most extensive Roman ruins outside Pompeii...

1.Catch of the Day

Izmir is an ideal base, if you don’t require a sandy beach and resort facilities. The airport, served by UK budget airlines, is only ten miles from the city centre. Izmir can be crowd-free even in the first week of August, when historic sites such as Ephesus and Pergamon are awash with tourists.

2. Go Greek

Alexander the Great started building the city and the Romans finished the job, so it’s worth a visit to the Roman and Greek remains at the Agora. Go early morning or late afternoon to avoid the heat, and walk among the colonnades and remnants of once-mighty gates.

3. Book a guide

Most people who visit Izmir by cruise ship are whisked off to the big attractions by coach, at £40 a head or more. I recommend taking a personal guide instead. If you are with three or more people, you save serious money. My guide gave me a tour of Izmir, breaking for an excellent (£20 for two) lunch in the market.

4. Square deal

The spacious Konak Square, with a 1901 clock tower as its central feature, is the spiritual heart of the city and, arguably, of modern Turkey – the fight for independence after partition in the wake of the First World War began here.

5. Roman roaming

Ephesus is a fabulous place, with the largest collection of Roman ruins in the eastern Mediterranean. It is the closest thing to Pompeii as a place of buried marvels still to be excavated – only an estimated 15 to 20 per cent has been unearthed.

6. Retreat to the olive grove

Tours to Ephesus often add the village of Sirince, about five miles away in hills smothered with olive groves and vineyards. A number of the mainly 19th Century houses have become boutique hotels.  Local people make wine and olive oil and grow tasty peaches. I stayed at the Nisanyan boutique hotel where, from the terrace at dusk,