Lunchtime in a beachfront restaurant on the long, ramshackle promenade at Yalikavak on the Aegean coast, and I'm a little taken aback at the bill. Three beers, a sharing plate of meze and two baskets of bread (well, we had swum a lot that morning) came to around £6. In Kalkan, a resort I know well on the south coast, it would be at least double that amount. I settle up, leave a large tip, and wander back along the seafront, realising it's been a long time since a restaurant bill in Turkey left me pleasantly surprised.

But it soon becomes clear that Yalikavak offers a very different experience from that of the bigger, more anglicised resorts further east. The Bodrum peninsula has lush wooded hills and clear blue sea everywhere you look, but what it doesn't have is great beaches – which has saved the villages from the worst excesses of mass-market development. Instead, each has developed its own character, from the shabby-chic charms of backpacker-y Bitez, through to the Ibiza chic of Göltürkbükü, with unassuming Yalikavak perched literally – and metaphorically – somewhere in between.

I begin my week at the 4Reasons Hotel near Yalikavak, where the charming owner, Esra, tries to prise me off my sunlounger with offers to arrange horse riding and boat trips and hikes across the nearby hills. I make it as far as Yalikavak's weekly market, and come away laden with spices and scarves, handbags and T-shirts. Although there are plenty of tourists, the market is filled with locals: short stout women in floral blouses and white headscarves, picking through heaps of tomatoes and mounds of purple aubergines.

I buy a gözleme – a thin pancake filled with fresh parsley and feta – and watch people stream past. There's an agreeable sense of a town going about its everyday business with tourists just an add-on, rather than a raison d'etre.

The 4Reasons – a clutch of sleek whitewashed rooms overlooking a large pool terrace and small bar, is just one of a handful of chic, boutique hotels on the peninsula, built primarily to cater for the steady stream of Turkish holidaymakers from Istanbul and Izmir.

I pop into the Maçakizi hotel in the neighbouring resort of Göltürkbükü and find myself in a world of Aviator shades and iPad-scattered sunloungers. It's one of the hippest hotels on the peninsula, with lush, bougainvillea-strewn gardens and a neat, decked bar and restaurant that stretches out over the sea. This is where the beautiful people come to chill, lazing on wide, cream loungers and sipping cocktails, or nibbling on seared octopus at the candlelit restaurant next door.

But the arrival of the €959-a-night Amanruya, just a little further down the coast near Torba, has upped the ante further. The 36 cottages, each with its own garden and pool, stretch out along an untouched curve of beach; four dining pavilions offer everything from authentic Turkish cuisine to Oriental stir-fries and all in the classically stark minimalism so beloved of Adrian Zecha's mini-chain. With such high room rates, the Aman will be on the radar only of the privileged few – but there are more affordable options offering remarkably similar charms.

North of the Aman, 40km up the coast in the hamlet of Güllük lies the Med-Inn, another new hotel, with green lawns that run down to the water's edge and elegant, modernist bedrooms that go for a fraction of the Aman's price.

I finish my stay with two nights at the Sandima 37, also in Yalikavak, where the garrulous manager, Kenan, appears at the gate and leads me down to a delightful small garden, dotted with trees and a handful of loungers around a small pool. There are just six suites at the Sandima, which runs on a whatever-you-want-whenever-you-want-it kind of vibe. Vast breakfasts are brought to your private terrace, crisp gin and tonics supplied for the spectacular sunsets and Kenan is only too happy to book me on to a beautiful gulet for a blue-skied day at sea, skimming the rocky coastline.

There are other hotels I want to try. In Torba, there's the Casa Dell'Arte, where the rooms and communal spaces are dotted with sculpture and artworks by Turkish artists. And there's the Ada in Göltürkbükü – stone-built cottages dotted around lush gardens. But a week just isn't long enough.

Of course having a reason to go back is hardly a problem. It took me 17 years of going to Turkey to make it to the Bodrum peninsula. Now I've been, I may never go anywhere else.

• EasyJet (easyjet.com) flies to Bodrum from Bristol, Gatwick, Stansted and Liverpool from £95 return. 4Reasons (+90 252 385 3212, 4reasonshotel.com, doubles from £70 B&B); Macakizi (+90 252 377 6272, macakizi.com, doubles from £192 B&B); Med-Inn (+90 252 522 2925, med-inn.com, doubles from £63 B&B); Sandima 37 (+90 252 385 5336, sandima37suites.com, from £115 for a B&B double); Casa Dell'Arte (+90 252 367 1848, casadellartebodrum.com, from £130 B&B); Ada (+90 252 377 5915, adahotel.com, doubles from £280)