First time to Turkey - where to go

F_Bear

id save abit more and go to greece if u enjoy it. visited cyprus last week and crossed the border into the turkish side of nicosia and it was awful, theres a reason they wont let turkey into the eu.

turkey is also quite expensive now in relation to before the euro rate crashed; bulgaria also.

maybe try croatia?

suki1964

Kalkan, even with no beach and the horrendous transfer time will always be first choice for me

Then Icmelar

Then Hisaranou

But for beach - Turgetreis, although last time I was there, there was only one large hotel,I think it's been built up quite a lot

zzzLazyDaisy

Kas is lovely, hardly any commercial tour operators (if any?) lots of friendly cheap motels on the walk down to the harbour (clean and basic including breakfast), and a short ferry ride across the harbour to lovely small intimate beaches with loungers and jetties free in exchange for buying your drinks/meals from the cafe. No pushy waiters, just chilling. Bliss. Fly into either antalya or dalaman, but the transfer time is long either way.

wouldbeqaulitymoneysaver

First it's a smokers paradise, terrible if you hate second hand smoke, and the weather is divine.

claire16c

I went to Side it was awful. Full of Germans so the entertainment was mainly in German, beach full of sunbeds, beyond ridiculous pushy shop keepers/bar men/waiters to the point we only left the hotel twice, shops selling tourist tat etc, the ruins covered in graffiti. really put me off ever going to turkey again. I hope the rest of it is nicer.

And I love Greece!

PompeyPete

Claire, we didn't like Side either.
Apart from Calis Beach, which is tatty, Side has been our only disappointment in Turkey.

Saint_Chris

we.... a group of 4 women aged from 46-70
went to gumbet 5 years ago, we wanted a cheap holiday, got cheap flights and found a small s/c complex which was good priced and got good reviews from lots of returning guests over the years.

Being honest at 1st i didn't like it , as we were advised to make our way to bar street, as this is where it is lively, well it is, but not for us.
Then half way through our holiday, we got talking to a nice lady round the pool, who told us of other places to go, back streets we could go to, so we could avoid bars st, and your in a different world.

And we loved it, so much that we go back for 2 weeks every sept staying at the same apts, because the same people go back year in year out, and we have all become friends. sometimes we stay in at night, and have a laugh round the pool.

We usually do 2 day visits to bietze, and stay there from morning till night, get our sunbeds at the lemon tree bar, and have brekkie, dinner tea and supper there, they know us now and they bring us home at night.

The owner of our apts has a boat, and twice there we do a all inc boat trip, for about £10, our captain is good, he takes our boat to different places and he takes us snorkling for octopus and stuff. Seagull island where there's no seagulls, rabbit island where there's no rabbits......lol

Bodrum is good for shopping, and one afternoon, we always go into bodrum around 5.00pm, and go to the moonlight bar and have a snack and watch the sun go down. The harbour has some lovely restaurants here, as does the beach area of gumbet.

Can't wait to go back end of summer, did marmaris a few years ago and hated it.

joho

Saint_Chris - that sounds lovely! Do you mind me asking where you stay? PM me if you don't want to broadcast it!

jonny_power

joho wrote: »

Hello all,

The title is slightly incorrect in that I have been to Turkey, but it was a very long time ago. Put it this way I went when Altinkum was nowt but a dot. And as far as I can tell it isn't anymore!

Anyway, cut to the chase - I need holiday recommendations for Turkey in September. We want sandy beaches, good food, tavernas/bars (but not fussed about nightclubs) and maybe some culture too (though not essential as tend to be lazy on hol).

As a guide we love Lindos, Pefkos, Tingaki, Kefalos, but the pound/euro balance is driving us somewhere other than Greece this year. Friends have been to Kalkan and loved it, but said the beach wasn't sandy.

All recommendations greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Jo

ETA: The 1st time to Turkey thing is because my husband has always refused to go there since he watched Midnight Express! But torture and male rape worries him less these days than the pound/euro exchange rate!

We're off to Bitez this year. We did Icmeler a few years ago (would recommend it) and managed to find some day flights (Freebird are doing flights for Thomson) to Bodrum, which IMO makes a big difference with Turkey because in general it's horrible night flights.

mkilbey1

I'd say Olu Deniz (near Fethiye) is the best place to go.. it's not too loud or too quiet and there's loads to do. Side was way way too quiet for me, and they cater for mainly Germans!