Turkey recommendations

claire16c

I went to Side in Turkey would never go back again, one of the worst places Ive ever been to in my life, because the locals harrassed you so much we only left our hotel once as could not be bothered with it again as it ruined a night out. I thought in Asia people trying to get you to buy stuff was annoying, but the Turkish were a million times worse, it was awful.

However our hotel was great! Unfortunately cant remember the name of it!

So glad to hear you are going to another area OP.

PompeyPete

claire16c wrote: »

I went to Side in Turkey would never go back again, one of the worst places Ive ever been to in my life, because the locals harrassed you so much we only left our hotel once as could not be bothered with it again as it ruined a night out.

Must be a few years ago. That in your face stuff in Side has been banned by the local municipality.
Though apart from a few disorganised archaeological bits, Side is a bit of a let-down.
But it all comes down to getting the pre-holiday planning right.

FatVonD

worried_jim wrote: »

Finally booked it. Off to Hotel Mavi Holiday Village in Gulluk, Bodrum. Paid £1180 for two weeks all inclusive. Started at £800 but by the time we'd added luggage, transfer and upgraded the room the price had jumped a fair bit, but at least spending will be kept to a minimum when we get there. Like most hotels we looked at this had a mixed bag of ratings on holiday advisor so we are taking it with a pinch of salt and aim to make it a brilliant holiday. All I need to do now is sort out some holiday reading. Thanks for everyone's advice and tips.

Seriously, DO NOT go here! We went there in June of 2010, if you can possibly cancel it you should.

Gulluk has no beach at all and the hotel has the only beach but it is TINY and not very beautiful. Gulluk is a fishing village but in more of a heavy, industrial (for Turkey) way than in a pretty fishing village way.

The hotel caters mostly for Turks so quite a lot of the staff don't speak English (this was one of the better points for me as it meant I could use my rusty Turkish ) The pool is nice but in line with Turkish safety standards they had the DJ's speakers balanced on a chair by the edge of the pool :eek: ONe couple checked out and into another hotel while we were there.

If you do go please, please do not eat at the restaurant with the yellow tablecloths in the town. I'd read about the owner kicking a cat like a football on trip adviser and he did exactly the same thing while we were there

SteveJW

Sat looking out of my hotel room in Hisaronou

I can sse one place advertising any chicken, pasta or turkish dish for 10TL anothet one half a chicken with salad and rice for 14TL, both are not bad

Kebab 5TL, beer is anywhere between 2.5TL to 5TL
Vodka and coke (local vodka) 5-8TL if its to weak send it back and ask them to put more vodka in it

And the good news the exchange rate is hovering around 2.82TL to the £1

worried_jim

FatVonD wrote: »

If you do go please, please do not eat at the restaurant with the yellow tablecloths in the town. I'd read about the owner kicking a cat like a football on trip adviser and he did exactly the same thing while we were there

What did they serve the cat with? I like mine in pitta bread with salad.

Turkey really does divide opinion, which is pretty much what is said on trip advisor. The photo's of the beach look ok, I've been to India so health and safety issues are of no concern, I've stayed in Cairo previously so know all about the sh1ts- all in I am looking forward to it, I hope it's not quite as bad as, well, what others are saying. I may report back (from a hospital bed!).

FatVonD

worried_jim wrote: »

What did they serve the cat with? I like mine in pitta bread with salad.

Turkey really does divide opinion, which is pretty much what is said on trip advisor. The photo's of the beach look ok, I've been to India so health and safety issues are of no concern, I've stayed in Cairo previously so know all about the sh1ts- all in I am looking forward to it, I hope it's not quite as bad as, well, what others are saying. I may report back (from a hospital bed!).

If you are more of a traveller than a tourist you may well like it then, as tourism isn't their main concern in Gulluk you will at least get to see the 'real' Turkey.

The food at the restaurant is good so not need to worry about a gippy tummy but, being very traditional Turkish fayre lots is made with the same oil/salca base so gets to all taste a bit samey after a few days so you'll probably want to eat out occasionally. If you really want to push the boat out I had the best steak I've ever eaten at the restaurant on the left hand side as you walk into town!

The Mavi was probably once wonderful but it's very tired and run down, there are fountains at the base of the stairs leading to the restaurant that were dry when we were there and there are bars along the rocks to the side of the beach that were never opened and the Efes in the restaurant is draught and watered!

The snacks were pretty much non existent when we were there, it's become a bit of a standing joke in our house that, when we missed lunch one day and went for snacks we were told they had hamburger or coffee brek (pastries) so we ordered hamburger only for him to come back and say 'hamburger finished' (we were the only ones there and hamburger hadn't even started!)

I hope you have a lovely time anyway

claire16c

PompeyPete wrote: »

Must be a few years ago. That in your face stuff in Side has been banned by the local municipality.
Though apart from a few disorganised archaeological bits, Side is a bit of a let-down.
But it all comes down to getting the pre-holiday planning right.

It was only 2009.

I spent months researching which hotel to stay in. And ended up with a great hotel. I never go anywhere without researching. But people writing the hotel reviews didnt write about what happened if you actually left the hotel...

We werent interested in most of the excursions but one night decided to walk into the town to look at the, well not even sure what the name was but some archaeological site, which had graffiti on it and someone had even set up a night club in one bit of it!

On the way there we went for a meal, and the way back tried to look in a couple of shops.

As soon as we left the hotel, we were harassed until around 10 mins before we got back including the entire walk along the beach. We even had one guy come up to the people infront of us (who we were pretending to be in the same group with, to avoid having to say No we dont want that for the 88th time) and said 'Excuse me, can I hassle you?' :rotfl:

Even when eating our meal they tried to con us into buying a ridiculously amount of expensive fish.

The entire night was like running some kind of gauntlet where you had to avoid these idiots all night long and use varying tactics to get away from them!

Ponkle22

PompeyPete wrote: »

16,000,000 people visit Turkey every year, which says something.
Seasoned travellers should really do their homework properly.
Those that do won't be disappointed.

Indeed. So many different types of Tourist areas in Turkey give you a totally different type of holiday. Researching which type suits you is very important. Don't base your dislike of Turkey based on one location. I love Turkey but there are tourist areas I would not want to visit at all. Likewise there are some amazing tourist areas in Turkey.