Turkey - Bitez, Gumbet, Bodrum

RaiderHammer

Hi All,

I am off to Turkey for the first time soon.

Any suggestions for visits around the Bitez (where we are staying), Gumbet, Bodrum area.

How about prices there now?

Beer?
Water?
Soft drink?
Snack meal at lunch (Half board in hotel)?

How about currency? Take it all with me in Turkish Lira or take a card to use while there?

Anything we should do while we are there?

Thanks.

RaiderHammer

Anyone have any hidden gems on places to visit that the general ones on the internet.

Anyone who has been there know if a visit to Cotton Castle at Pamukkale or is it just too far from the area we are visiting?

Thank you.

Saint_Chris

Hi

If you are going in the next few weeks, it will be a shopping haven for you, as it will be near the end of the season, and shop owners just want to get rid of stock. (bet that is what you wanted to hear..lol)

Came back from gumbet, 2 weeks ago, things to do, not much in gumbet, it's more for the nightlife, which is good, although we do avoid bar st, as it's a bit to manic and young for us, but the road at the top of bar st, has some good bars, cheers, leos smilies, all have good music and dancing on.

Bodrum is nice at night, get the dolmus into it, and take a walk down to the harbour and the boats, then go through the bazar, shops then you come to a narrow street, with shops on each side, look down a few of the side streets and you will see the moonlight bar, it is a small bar with around 10 small tables on the beach, lovely to sit out at night and look out over the castle lit up at night.

Bietz, i love it here, so peacful and quiet, we go to the lemon tree bar, it's in the middle of the bay, next to the mosque, free sunbeds on the beach, we have breakfast, dinner and tea here, then we stay till the early hours of the morning, as they have lovely big sofas on the beach.

A boat trip is brilliant, if your not sea sick.
Prices are not bad, around 5 tl for a bottle of effes around £2.20 but cheaper in smaller side street bars.

money i took £100 in turkish lira, then i used my nationwide flex card when over there, plenty of atms in all resorts, don't take travellers checks and you have to exhange them in the bank, and the nearest one means a trip into bodrum, and a long wait.

As for food, if your h/b you would only need a snack during the day, i had quite a few turkish kebabs not the processed meat ones, the ones that are chicken, paid 2 tl for these about 75p.

We also bought a couple of bottles of vodka from manchester airport to take out with us, we was s/c so we had a drink on our balcony before we went out at night.
Cigs (don't know if you smoke) i don't but some who were with me did, and we wouldn't buy them from turkey as plenty of fakes about, my friends bought a box of 1000 l&b for £100 at manchester, coming home they were about £18 from Bodrum airport.

Good buys in turkey are leather bags, for us ladies, bought 2 lovely fake ones for the kids paid £15 each and they are good leather.
My friend brought back some fake uggs for her daughter, and paid £20 for them, and i have to say they do look good on her daughter.
I prefer turkish delight, there is a shop in gumbet that sells it fresh, you pick your flavours and make your own box up.

Not sure about other trips as we did them years ago from marmaris.

hope that helps a bit, we've enjoyed gumbet for the past 3 years so much, i booked our flights for next sept already.

Oh and it's a fiver for a small, no tiny coffee in bodrum airport, so take a bottle of water with you, and drink it before you go in.

Go over to tripadvisor.co.uk and have a read on the bodru, gumbet, bitez forums, there is loads of useful information over there.

RaiderHammer

Hi Saint_chris - Thank you very much for the detailed report, very much appreciated. Sounds like you had a great time there and hopefully we will too.

I will take a look at the Trip Advisor forums.

Thank you once again.

Pollycat

Hi
Turgutreis is further down the Bodrum peninsular, maybe a 20 minute dolmus ride from Bodrum.

On Saturdays, there is a busy market, selling everything fromT-shirts, bags, shoes, jewellery, household goods to fruit, veg & spices.

There's lots of little alleyways with restaurants and shops that you can wander through and also a paved promenade along the sea front/beach.

I found the silver jewellery cheaper than similar items in Greece.
Some nice things set with turquoise or opals.
For example, I bought a 'collar' style opal necklace and ring in Turgutreis for £100 (2009) and a similar necklace in Kos a few months later was over double that price, and that was the lowest he'd go.

Trips:
Maybe consider Ephesus, one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World.
Full day trips were around £25 (2009) including lunch, transfers, guide and entrance fees.

Pamukkale (Cotton Castle) was about the same.
Both are quite a long way and will be an early start and late finish.

You might fancy doing a combined 2 day tour of Ephesus & Pamukkale which cuts down on some of the travelling for approx £55.
That included accommodation, 1 x dinner, 1 x lunch, 1 x breakfast, transfer, guide & entrance fees.
NB:
these are local tour company prices, if you book with your holiday rep the cost will be about double.

I second the recommendation about Tripadvisor forum, also try Holidaytruths, they have a busy forum too.

We've been to Turkey quite a few times, you might find a bit of hassle from market traders, restaurant and shop owners etc trying to get you into their places.
We found a smile, head shake and 'No thanks' was sufficent to deter them.
If you're not interested, just keep walking.

RaiderHammer

Thank you for the information. We would really like to see the cotton castle at Pamukkale.

Pollycat

The first time we went back in 1988 it was the most amazing thing we'd ever seen.

The last time we went, which could be anywhere between 11 years and 20 years ago, we were very disappointed.

Some of the hotels had diverted the water flow so a lot of the pools weren't full.
Also, because of the number of visitors, it wasn't the blinding white that we'd seen earlier - and bore no resemblance to the postcards and tour promotion literature.

I'm sure if you ask on TA or HT someone will be able to give you a view of what it's now like.

I hope you enjoy Turkey.

Nobjocki

RaiderHammer wrote: »

Hi All,

I am off to Turkey for the first time soon.

Any suggestions for visits around the Bitez (where we are staying), Gumbet, Bodrum area.

How about prices there now?

Beer?
Water?
Soft drink?
Snack meal at lunch (Half board in hotel)?

How about currency? Take it all with me in Turkish Lira or take a card to use while there?

Anything we should do while we are there?

Thanks.

Not sure if you're a man or a woman but if you're a feller I'd recommend an old-fashioned cut-throat razor shave in any one of the myriad of barber shops.
If you're a woman be prepared for wolf-whistles, leers and general misogynistic behaviour from the Turkish men and if you shake hands with any of them count your fingers.