A township apart in practically all its aspects, Ilıca administratively depends the municipality of the district center of Çeşme, at a distance of 5 km to the west.

Ilıca started out as a settlement towards the end of the 19th century, initially as a retreat for wealthy people, especially from İzmir, during summer holidays.

[4] Mentioned by Pausanias and Charles Texier, Ilıca thermal springs are also notable in Turkey for having been the subject of the first scientifically based analysis in the Turkish language of a thermal spring, published in 1909 by Cemal Yusuf.

By his time the thermal springs were well-known both internationally, scientific and journalistic literature having been published in French and in Greek, and across Ottoman lands, since the construction here of a still-standing yalı associated with Muhammad Ali of Egypt's son Tosun Pasha who had sought a cure in Ilıca before his premature death.

A unique feature of Ilıca Beach is its shallow and warm waters allowing swimmers to wade up to 100 meters out to sea.