Turkey Experts..the place not the bird!

We went to Kas this summer. It's not so much a 'resort' as it's a proper working Turkish small town/large village. It's in the most beatiful setting though, on the Lycian coast, about Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-alt:"Calisto MT"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature*** **** 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature*** **** 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0cm; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} span.EmailStyle15 {mso-style-type:personal; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; color:windowtext;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;} @page Section1 {size:612.0pt 792.0pt; margin:72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt 72.0pt; mso-header-margin:36.0pt; mso-footer-margin:36.0pt; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {pageection1;} --> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} two hours from Dalaman/three hours from Antalya.

We stayed at the Hideaway Hotel which is quite basic in that the room is quite small and there’s only a shower room (no bath etc) but it’s spotlessly clean and the people who run it are incredibly friendly. They collect you from the airport for free too and drive you to the hotel (at any time, we arrived at midnight!) The town itself has a nice harbour, lots of restaurants, loads to do (we went paragliding, seakayaking, to a Turkish bath for a massage, hired a car and toured around a bit).

The thing for me though is that it was not full of British holiday makers. We went in October so it was quiet (but still very warm) and we were the only British people we met there (quite a few Australians, Italians, Canadians, Americans though). Most of those people were travelling around the area though so were only staying for a max of 4 or 5 days (we were there for two weeks). There is one bar with a plasma TV that shows European football but nowhere with Stella Happy Hours or anywhere that sells a fried breakfast or fish and chips. It’s very ‘Turkish’ and quite rustic which i really liked.

If you think you’d like somewhere a bit more ‘touristy’, my friend adores Kalkan which is 20 mins along the coast. The bars and restaurants there are more ‘upmarket’ in that they serve Asian/British/Italian food and are ‘decorated’ rather than wooden chairs and tables and mismatching cutlery like you might get in Kas. There are many more Brits here too.

Neither place has a beach or a ‘strip’ – it’s lots of windy cobbled streets with small shops and open front restaurants run by Turkish families. They do have sunbathing platforms though with sunloungers so you can swim in the sea and sunbathe beside it. Only a handful of the hotels have a pool but we didn’t use that once.

Thanks!

We would probably like somewhere a bit more touristy but not too commercial. We normally go to Maspalomas in Gran Canaria. We recently stayed in a 'Thomson' hotel and we didnt like it, too many brits!

We would also like a nice beach being the sunworshippers we are.

Should I look at Bodrum or Marmiris (sp)

Avoid Marmaris likethe plague - it's the Blackpool of turkey. horrible place full of resturants serving full English breakfast andfish and chips.

Dylan is lovely, really nice quiet resort but still has lots of resturants serving local food right on the river. The beach miles long with gorgeous sand, however to get it you need to a get dolmus (water taxi) which takes about 20 minutes. It's also a protected sight due to it being a nesting area for loggerhead turtles. Only 20 minutes transfer from the airport.

Kalkan is a wonderful harbour village, packed full of resturants, again serving local traditional food. No beaches to speak of but there are bathing platforms built into the side of the cliffs. A really longtransfer from the airport (2.5 hours) but well worth it.

Which airport do i need to select for Dylan? It sounds nice btw, thanks

I think its spelt Dalyan?

Kalkan is fantastic, I recommend it and the Asfiya hotel. http://www.asfiyahotel.com/ We went there when we were in our late twenties twice and loved it we still have friends who go now. We have a child now and it is not really child friendly, hence not going back.

I agree that you should give Bodrum and Marmaris a wide berth, and I've also heard good things about Kas and Kalkan, though never been there myself. I like Antalya - the old town is lovely and there are lots of great bars and restaurants. The harbour is lovely. There's no actual beach there, however, so it's a case of staying in a hotel with a jetty on the seaside. I'm not sure how many charter flights go there but there is an airport.

Dalyan is near Dalaman airport. I think Fethiye is supposed to be nice, but certainly the sort of place you can get a bacon butty and a Boddies. I'd recommend Kyrenia in the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, which isn't too touristy unless you go in high season, and has a beautiful harbour. The downside is that you have to land in Turkey first (though I don't think you have to change planes.)

Has anyone been to Side? We are looking at Turkey too, trying to book somewhere they don't use the Euro.

I can highly recommend Icmeler, we've been twice and are going back for a 3rd time in June. It's a family and couple orientated resort, lots of lovely restaurants for meals out in the evening, some nice bars for drinks a lovely canal area to walk along with little shops a nice beach too. If you want it a bit quieter then select a hotel or apartment in the old village where you get to see the real turkish people living their lives. You even get woken up some mornings by the mosque calling people to pray.

We love it, it's nice and hot in the summer, not over crowded everything is pretty reasonable, you can get a 2 course meal for two with drinks for about £15

If you want something even quieter then i've heard that Kalkan is a nice resort, it's a bit more up and coming i think that icmeler and not as many people have discovered it yet, i've got a friend that thinks it's lovely and has been to icmeler but finds if a little bit more peaceful.

Also Turunc is quite nice too, also a bit quieter than Icmeler but again lovely. They have a nice market i think on a tuesday.

We love icmeler, tbh i can't imagine having a beachy relaxing holiday anywhere else now. The Turkish people are really friendly and can't do enough to help, also some of the scenery is fantastic.

Try this website for hotels and prices

www.icmeleronline.com

We found Kalkan ok but very 'yachty' and full of Brits. Nightlife wasn't up to much and restaurants very hit and miss. In all honesty we preferred Calis (along the road from Fethiye) lower key, much less developed. Our favourite 'restaurant' (I use the term lightly) in Calis is one where you sit on the beach with your feet in the sand on white plastic chairs and get fab food for not many lira, the Raki flows freely and its all very laid back. You'd never get that in Kalkan! We did find some good restaurants, but the whole thing felt like Cowes transplanted to Turkey for me. Bit braying yachty englishmen in white shorts, sort of thing. And women in too much gold jewellery.

Also Kalkan is on a Very Big Hill so expensive in terms of taxis - no way do you want to walk back up after a night out!

I do love Turkey and will happily go back but would prefer Calis again or somewhere else such as Side or Icmeler next time.

Dalyan is indeed lovely, by the way. Great beach.

Liz

Probably a good time to wheel out my Kalkan review . . .

Len is a 59 year old retired gas-fitter from Bolton. This is his sixth holiday in Kalkan, his second visit this year. As he washes down the last of his chips with another beer he beams at his wife and says “ooh, it’s just like the south of France”.

I wonder if he’s ever been there.

He leans over and asks me “is it your first visit ?”

“What ?” I reply, “to Turkey or to Kalkan in particular?”

He looks bemused. To him there is no Turkey outside Kalkan. I explain it’s our first time in Kalkan.

“I expect you’ll be back next year” he opines, and when I dare to suggest that we probably won’t, he looks at me like I’ve just shat in his wife’s handbag.

Kalkan. It’s like the joke you just don’t get, no matter how your friends (who think it hilarious) try and explain it to you.

Only the English go to Kalkan. All of them over 50. None of them from anywhere further south than Birmingham.*

Now, don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against aged northerners, and Kalkan is a perfectly pleasant little ex-fishing village. There are the usual mix of bars, restaurants and shops selling fake pashminas. You can stroll along the harbour, or hire a gulet to take you out for a day’s snorkelling around the coast, but it just isn’t “us”. Or perhaps more to the point, it just isn’t Turkey.

Earlier this year the local taxi mafia got together and decided to jack up all their prices. As a result it now costs more to take a taxi in Kalkan than it does in central London. Seeing they were on to a good thing, the restaurant owners followed suit (£40 for two courses and a couple of beers ? London prices). And judging by the identical prices in all the shops, the ceramics industry has joined in as well. I don’t mind this per se, but unlike the rest of Turkey, the locals have also given up on haggling. When I asked one why he simply replied “it’s the end of the season”. The strong implication being that they’ve already made a fat profit out of the rich Brits, so take it or leave it. Generally we left it.

We also got ripped off in one of the bars (Sultan Ice Bar), an all too common story amongst our fellow travellers. We went there to watch the rugby enticed by a sign reading “Buy one get one free ! All long drinks, all night, every night”. We finally asked for the bill and only the first round had been BOGOF. When we queried this, and pointed to the sign he replied “not on rugby nights”. So we ended up paying £6 a glass for single vodka and cokes. If Turkey ever do get into the EU, trading standards will have a field day.

There were plenty of positives too though. Kalkan has great dolmus links, and so is an excellent base to go and explore the Lycian coast. We made it out to Xanthos, Patara, Fethiye and Kas on the local busses, and hired a guide to take us hiking up Saklikent gorge as well as showing us around Tlos, Demre and the sunken city of Kekova. All absolutely stunning, and some of the best archaeology we’ve seen.

Everywhere we travelled we found the Turks to be welcoming and helpful (as we have done all over the country). By contrast the ones in Kalkan were either surly or grovellingly obsequious – no happy medium.

The restaurants were largely excellent. Korsan’s modern take on Turkish food was a wonderful experience that merited a second visit, as did the highly traditional Belgins (offers of ketchup aside). Deniz fish restaurant as you might expect, did great fish, but as a byproduct of having only one grill, every other dish (from the bread onwards) also came with a slightly fishy tang. But, the star of the town, and incidentally the cheapest was the old Lokanta (Ali Baba) where we dined alongside the locals on fantastic spiced lentil soup, and a daily changing menu of fresh stews and vegetables.

All in all, it was still a good holiday. The weather was fantastic, we took a couple of boat trips and lazed about by the hotel pool. We ate well, and saw some amazing sights. But I guess the whole experience left us wondering whether we would have enjoyed things even more if we’d stayed 20 minutes down the coast in Kas.

I think we probably would have done.

*OK, this isn’t quite true. We did meet two Scots, a woman from Belfast and a couple of young BBC reporters from Oxford, but they were the rare exceptions.

If you fancy that bit of Turkey, Kas would be better. Side was amazing when we were there in 2004 - hopefully it hasn't changed too much.

I really enjoyed reading that review, P&P!

Taxi drivers anywhere touristy in Turkey often try and rip you off. It's illegal for them not to use their meters but if they think there's another willing victim right behind you, they just won't take you for anything less. Such a shame because outside of tourist areas they are pretty much all honest.

We went to Hisaronu, where it was easier to get an English breakfast than Turkish coffee (they kept giving us Nescafe!). Having said that, we found a lovely little restaurant, where the owner was very hapy to cook us Turkish food-we let him choose what and it was fantastic! We could easily catch the dolmus to Fethiye and to Olu Deniz (beach). We enjoyed it, but I must say, my heart sank as the coach pulled up outside our hotel and all I could see were adverts for English food and drink! We had a trip to Dalyan, and it was lovely, though just beach and mud baths so I can't say how English the rest was.

If you do go anywhere near Fethiye, then find the fish market, where you can buy fresh fish and take it to one of the restaurants around the edge who will cook it for you-we loved it there!

Oddly, Nescafe has quite a cache here in Turkey - in middle class circles it is quite the thing to offer your friends. I too would much rather have the proper stuff!

That explains it the Miss Scarlett! H was getting increasingly frustrated as we tried in so many different places! We did find a couple of places that did the proper stuff in the end!

I did a mini backpacking tour of Turkey (well a small bit of it!) a couple of years ago and went to the following places:

Dalyan - near the airport, relaxed, great lake and river cruises, hot mud baths and good clean beach. Bit of a pain in that the town is a taxi ride from the beach but the river setting was lovely

Fethiye - lovely harbour, Olu deniz beach nice but not as spectacular as the brochures make it out to be. A lot of the accomodation seems to be up a big hill away from the beach and lots of very touristy 'english' bars around

We took a 3 day boat cruise from Fethiye along the coast which was absoultely fantastic, just booked it when we were in Fethiye up to Olympus so visited Kas which I thought looked lovely, the water there was beautiful and the town was very picturesque

We just got flights to Dalaman and got accomodation as we went, it was incredibly easy to get dolmus's between towns and the Pension owners were lovely, food was fantastic, I'd highly recommend that sort of holiday if you fancy doing something a bit more adventurous than just going to a resort