Tips for Turkey wanted

uselesswith£

Going to Gumbet in June.
First time in Turkey.

Any tips???????
Thanx

Useless x

nearlyrich

Take some cash to pay the entry tax, think it's £10 per person, you pay at the airport.

uselesswith£

Anymore tips?????
Prices of food and drink, excursion, tipping etc.
Thanx

Useless x

suzy_g

the excursion are very good value we always book lots of boat trips, for under ten pounds you are taken out all day and fed lunch, we love these.
The dalyan trip is brilliant too you are taken on a river trip to a beautiful beach, passing tombs that are carved into the rocks then to a place for lunch then to these mud baths then back in the evening, We always take stirling which we change if we need money for the buses, they run allnight and are very inexpensive, worth going to bodrum which is a short ride on the bus.the turkish shop keeper are allways happy to take stirling,

suzy_g

the food and drinks are not too expensive although we have seen the prices go up in the last couple of years
we stay in gumbet twice, we are going again in september but this time to turgutries (probably spelt wrong) which is still in the general bodrum area.

xzibit

I went to Gumbet last June, and have been to turkey many times.

As said, you pay £10 when you get off the plane for your visa, so make sure you have a £10 note on you, as it's £10 per person, and they prefer you pay each with a £10 note.

With regards to the prices of food and drink, it's quite a bit cheaper than the UK. We ate out a few times, and a main course was about £4-£5. Ice creams that cost £1.50 here were about 40p over there.
Drinks varied depending where you bought them. In the hotel bar, a pint was about £2, where as in town you could get one for about 50p-75p, but most places charged about £1.25ish I think.
Cocktails were quite cheap, they were doing bogof on most drinks.

Tipping, well we usually leave about 10%. Never know what to do when abroad, so when we had meals, and used taxis etc we left about 10-15%.
When you leave to come home, if you have any toiletries you were going to throw out or anything, leave them in a bundle on a table or something. We left them, and the maids thought xmas had come early?!? lol.

Excursions for Gumbet. Well, depending on your age, this may vary. I'm 23. We went to Bodrum for a day out, which we caught a Dolmus (cost 50p) there and back. We also went to the water park, Halikanas night club, and on a boat trip. There was a travel agents we used, can't remember the name, but they were cheaper than anyone we asked, and we asked everyone who hassled us. A boat trip was £10 per person for a whole day out, which included lunch.

One thing you will get is hassled. When you walk down the street, shopkeepers will try and get you in their shops, and restaurant and bar owners also.
I'm fantastic at ignoring people, so I was ok. Don't be rude if you don't like it, it's just their way, but EVERYWHERE you go, you will be hassled.
If you do go into the shops, then barter them down on the price. You can get about 40% off if not more!! Never did we pay full price in the shops.

Even in restaurants, they will try and get you to come in. Just say to them, what deal can you do. You can usually get a free bottle of wine, and starters!!

One more thing to add is, they love £££ and €€€ more than lira. You will get a better deal buying in GBP in shops than Lira, so my advice would be to take GBP, and change it to Lira when you are there, as you get a better rate over there, and you will want to use GBP in the shops.

If you want to know anything specific about Gumbet/Bodrum just ask.

bestyman

My advice is to take some ear plugs so you cannot hear them rambling on trying to sell you stuff when you are walking down the street ,having a meal or even asleep sunbathing.
In fact my advice is that if rude people hassling you is not your idea of a fantastic holiday then go somewhere else.
One more thing, they seem to mispronounce words when it suits them . For example I was quoted 90,000 lira for the hotel safe, I told him no way and as I was walking away he said" whats the problem 19,000 is not a lot". Same thing happened at the chemist a few days later when I was there buying stomach medicine for the wife with the squits.
We went on a turkish night show that included free wine, problem was the wine was so terrible it was undrinkable so another tip may be to establish if food and drink is edible or not before parting with any money .

To be fair I know a lot of people who love Turkey and go all the time. We went to Marmaris so other parts may be different .

Bestyman

uselesswith£

xzibit wrote:

I went to Gumbet last June, and have been to turkey many times.

As said, you pay £10 when you get off the plane for your visa, so make sure you have a £10 note on you, as it's £10 per person, and they prefer you pay each with a £10 note.

With regards to the prices of food and drink, it's quite a bit cheaper than the UK. We ate out a few times, and a main course was about £4-£5. Ice creams that cost £1.50 here were about 40p over there.
Drinks varied depending where you bought them. In the hotel bar, a pint was about £2, where as in town you could get one for about 50p-75p, but most places charged about £1.25ish I think.
Cocktails were quite cheap, they were doing bogof on most drinks.

Tipping, well we usually leave about 10%. Never know what to do when abroad, so when we had meals, and used taxis etc we left about 10-15%.
When you leave to come home, if you have any toiletries you were going to throw out or anything, leave them in a bundle on a table or something. We left them, and the maids thought xmas had come early?!? lol.

Excursions for Gumbet. Well, depending on your age, this may vary. I'm 23. We went to Bodrum for a day out, which we caught a Dolmus (cost 50p) there and back. We also went to the water park, Halikanas night club, and on a boat trip. There was a travel agents we used, can't remember the name, but they were cheaper than anyone we asked, and we asked everyone who hassled us. A boat trip was £10 per person for a whole day out, which included lunch.

One thing you will get is hassled. When you walk down the street, shopkeepers will try and get you in their shops, and restaurant and bar owners also.
I'm fantastic at ignoring people, so I was ok. Don't be rude if you don't like it, it's just their way, but EVERYWHERE you go, you will be hassled.
If you do go into the shops, then barter them down on the price. You can get about 40% off if not more!! Never did we pay full price in the shops.

Even in restaurants, they will try and get you to come in. Just say to them, what deal can you do. You can usually get a free bottle of wine, and starters!!

One more thing to add is, they love £££ and €€€ more than lira. You will get a better deal buying in GBP in shops than Lira, so my advice would be to take GBP, and change it to Lira when you are there, as you get a better rate over there, and you will want to use GBP in the shops.

If you want to know anything specific about Gumbet/Bodrum just ask.

These are great tips . Do you know what the temperatures will be like at the end of June??/

Thanx

Useless x:T

xzibit

When we were there it was actually the seond week in July, not June, I just checked. It was about 32-38 degrees mid afternoon, and about 20-23 in the evening.

foxmeister

Sorry to hijack this thread but a few of us fancy a few nights in Gumbet this summer. I went 10 years ago and had a really good time meeting my wife in the process!!
I wondered whether anyone knows of any cheap airlines that fly there more than just once a week.
I've tried thomsonfly from Doncaster but they only fly once a week and my wife wont let me go for a full week!!
Many thanks,
Foxy.

BabyElephant

Are you based in Yorkshire? If you are willing to travel all the waaaaaaaay to Gatwick and book in dvance you can get some BA flights really cheap. My mum and dad have just bought an apartment in Turkey and my mum is flying out from Gatwick, leaving Friday coming back Monday and all for only £65. She also got her train ticket from Doncaster to Kings Cross for about £18 return because she booked early.

There was another cheap airline that flew to Turkey but they got banned from flying in to the UK last week because of safety concerns.... not good!