Turkey package holiday

Hi All,

I have decided on the easy and cheap option of a package holiday at the
beginning of October (see thread "Advice on a european package or
driving holiday"). It seems turkey is by far the cheapest, so that is
where I shall go (probably around 150 GBP per person). I would be very
interested in hearing anyones thoughts on what it is like. In
particular, I have the following questions;

A) Is the weather likely to be hot enough to sit on the beach and go
swimming? I have not been able to find a good weather histroy site
that gives me this information.

B) Which resort should I go to? It seems that most of the holidays are
in the Bodrum region, in one of; Altinkum, Bodrum, Gumbet and Kusadasi.
Does anyone have any thoughts on these? Our priorities are (roughly
in order);

History. It would be nice to be able to hire a bike or car and go and
explore some ruins or other interesting sites.
Beach. In particular interesting snokalling and rock pools, so a plain
sandy beach is not great.
Fishing port. My friend is a vege, but he eats fish. It would be a
big advantage to be able to buy fresh fish and cook it ourselves.
Night life. We are not expecting Ibiza type things, but to be able to
get a drink in this Muslim nation would be an advantage, and to be able
to go out and meet people would be good.
Sight-seeing. A large interesting city would probably keep us busy for
a day or 2, so access to something like that would be an advantage.

C) Can one get by with English? We will make an effort with turkish,
but I would imagine that starting from zero we will not get very far.

Jack Campin - bogus address wrote:
>>I have decided on the easy and cheap option of a package holiday at the
>>beginning of October (see thread "Advice on a european package or
>>driving holiday"). It seems turkey is by far the cheapest, so that is
>>where I shall go
>>A) Is the weather likely to be hot enough to sit on the beach and go
>>swimming? I have not been able to find a good weather histroy site
>>that gives me this information.
>
>
> Try wunderground.com. Shpuld just about be warm enough but I don't
> swim myself.

That is a great site, thanks. It looks like 70 F is about average, 21
C. Should be OK, but not too warm.

>>B) Which resort should I go to? It seems that most of the holidays are
>>in the Bodrum region, in one of; Altinkum, Bodrum, Gumbet and Kusadasi.
>> Does anyone have any thoughts on these?
>
>
> Probably about the same. As a town, Bodrum will have the most going
> for it. Fish will be available from the market, but getting it cooked
> won't be that much more expensive.

Really? I guess I have not spent much time in such a poor country, but
I cannot imagine how buying cooked fish woul dbe comparible to the
market. Oh well, I shall just have to find out.

>>C) Can one get by with English? We will make an effort with turkish,
>>but I would imagine that starting from zero we will not get very far.
>
>
> No way will you learn a useful amount of vocabulary in that time, but
> learning how to pronounce it properly makes a big difference. It's
> so easy that it's only polite to make an effort. There is only one
> sound not found in English, the u-umlaut vowel. So get an introduction
> like "Turkish in Three Months" and work just on that (and maybe how to
> count).
>
> Two of the placenames you listed are pronounced *very* differently by
> Turks from the way British tourists say them. The locals must cringe.

I shall see if I can get a CD or some such of turkish prononciation.
Just to get as far as thank you, yes, no, that one I usually find makes
a big difference.

You cannot get such things on-line as an MP3 or something can you?

Thanks for your input.

<davidjones@myself.com> wrote in message
news:1158313802.893076.192370@p79g2000cwp. o...
> Hi All,
>
> I have decided on the easy and cheap option of a package holiday at the
> beginning of October (see thread "Advice on a european package or
> driving holiday"). It seems turkey is by far the cheapest, so that is
> where I shall go (probably around 150 GBP per person). I would be very
> interested in hearing anyones thoughts on what it is like. In
> particular, I have the following questions;
>
> A) Is the weather likely to be hot enough to sit on the beach and go
> swimming? I have not been able to find a good weather histroy site
> that gives me this information.

Probably.

> B) Which resort should I go to? It seems that most of the holidays are
> in the Bodrum region, in one of; Altinkum, Bodrum, Gumbet and Kusadasi.
> Does anyone have any thoughts on these? Our priorities are (roughly
> in order);
>
> History. It would be nice to be able to hire a bike or car and go and
> explore some ruins or other interesting sites.
> Beach. In particular interesting snokalling and rock pools, so a plain
> sandy beach is not great.

You can combine the two on the Bodrum peninsula! There are Roman ruins just under the
water which you can snorkel around.

> Fishing port. My friend is a vege, but he eats fish. It would be a
> big advantage to be able to buy fresh fish and cook it ourselves.

No problem - although eating out is cheap enough and restaurant owners will often
take you into the kitchen to show you the fish they have before you order.

> Night life. We are not expecting Ibiza type things, but to be able to
> get a drink in this Muslim nation would be an advantage, and to be able
> to go out and meet people would be good.

You'll have no problem - it's not Saudi, alcohol is freely available. Gumbet is full
of nightclubs, bars and tacky restaurants (mostly Indian/Chinese/Fish and chips!).

The Turks are very friendly, we were there for just two weeks and it felt like we
were leaving loads of new friends behind when we left.

> Sight-seeing. A large interesting city would probably keep us busy for
> a day or 2, so access to something like that would be an advantage.
>
> C) Can one get by with English? We will make an effort with turkish,
> but I would imagine that starting from zero we will not get very far.

We never had a problem. I did get a course in Turkish from a couple of friendly bar
staff and I managed to master numbers and "how much" type conversations, plus
greetings etc. Also "get lost" and worse, as you do tend to get hassled in markets
etc - but they tend to leave you if you reply in their language.

--
Andy

The Kurdish exiles here have a very effective propaganda poster they
stick up around town from time to time, especially when the season comes
to book winter holidays. I haven't seen it in a while now, so this is a
paraphrase. It goes something like this:


"Western Tourists! Come to Turkey!
We are very happy to welcome you and your money.
The foreign exchange you bring in helps finance our
valiant Turkish army in their struggle against the Kurdish
terrorist insurrection in the southeast of our country."


Something to think about, particularly if you're the kind of person for
whom morality is important.

"Henry" <henry999@eircom.net> wrote in message
news:1hlppso.rsjrw61ub08awN%henry999@eircom.net...
> The Kurdish exiles here have a very effective propaganda poster they
> stick up around town from time to time, especially when the season comes
> to book winter holidays. I haven't seen it in a while now, so this is a
> paraphrase. It goes something like this:
>
>
> "Western Tourists! Come to Turkey!
> We are very happy to welcome you and your money.
> The foreign exchange you bring in helps finance our
> valiant Turkish army in their struggle against the Kurdish
> terrorist insurrection in the southeast of our country."
>
>
> Something to think about, particularly if you're the kind of person for
> whom morality is important.

Some people would say the same about the UK.

--
Andy

On Fri, 15 Sep 2006 14:00:11 +0100, in .europe, "Miss L. Toe"
<missltoemissltoe@m> arranged some electrons, so they looked like this:

...
... "Henry" <henry999@eircom.net> wrote in message
... news:1hlppso.rsjrw61ub08awN%henry999@eircom.net...
... > The Kurdish exiles here have a very effective propaganda poster they
... > stick up around town from time to time, especially when the season comes
... > to book winter holidays. I haven't seen it in a while now, so this is a
... > paraphrase. It goes something like this:
... >
... >
... > "Western Tourists! Come to Turkey!
... > We are very happy to welcome you and your money.
... > The foreign exchange you bring in helps finance our
... > valiant Turkish army in their struggle against the Kurdish
... > terrorist insurrection in the southeast of our country."
... >
... >
... > Something to think about, particularly if you're the kind of person for
... > whom morality is important.
...
... You mean they aren't eternally grateful that 'we' rescued them from Sadam ?

"Yankee go home" rings a bell...?

You are right.. :))
my name's Sinan from istanbul..

it's a reaally sample and chapest holiday if you want to do a
holiday...

see yaa.





davidjones@myself.com wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have decided on the easy and cheap option of a package holiday at the
> beginning of October (see thread "Advice on a european package or
> driving holiday"). It seems turkey is by far the cheapest, so that is
> where I shall go (probably around 150 GBP per person). I would be very
> interested in hearing anyones thoughts on what it is like. In
> particular, I have the following questions;
>
> A) Is the weather likely to be hot enough to sit on the beach and go
> swimming? I have not been able to find a good weather histroy site
> that gives me this information.
>
> B) Which resort should I go to? It seems that most of the holidays are
> in the Bodrum region, in one of; Altinkum, Bodrum, Gumbet and Kusadasi.
> Does anyone have any thoughts on these? Our priorities are (roughly
> in order);
>
> History. It would be nice to be able to hire a bike or car and go and
> explore some ruins or other interesting sites.
> Beach. In particular interesting snokalling and rock pools, so a plain
> sandy beach is not great.
> Fishing port. My friend is a vege, but he eats fish. It would be a
> big advantage to be able to buy fresh fish and cook it ourselves.
> Night life. We are not expecting Ibiza type things, but to be able to
> get a drink in this Muslim nation would be an advantage, and to be able
> to go out and meet people would be good.
> Sight-seeing. A large interesting city would probably keep us busy for
> a day or 2, so access to something like that would be an advantage.
>
> C) Can one get by with English? We will make an effort with turkish,
> but I would imagine that starting from zero we will not get very far.

a.spencer3 wrote:
>
> No point self-catering - meals are very fresh and very cheap.

Except that the OP will be traveling with a vegetarian who is willing to
eat fish. We found that fish was exorbitantly expensive in Turkey; fish
prices were totally out of line with the price of any other entree.

The waiter would come over to us with fish laid on ice on a tray,
glowingly praise each variety, and offer to make a nice grilled
assortment... a couple of prawns... a small whole fish of this variety
.... a small whole fish of that variety.

At the first couple of restaurants, we would carefully ask the waiter to
weigh the fish/seafood and tell us the price. The prices were high, but
lulled by the glorious views and wanting the eat-your-seafood-ten-steps-
from-the-fishing-pier experience, we'd invariably tell the waiter to go
ahead with our order. However, our fish meals came to a screeching halt
when, feeling we could predict the prices, we neglected to tell our
waiter to supply the prices before he finalized our order. Let's just
say that when the bill came at the end of that meal, we could have
bought a small tribal rug for the same price.

During the trip, your vegetarian friend can happily feast on the
glorious Turkish mezze and lentil soups.

Karen Selwyn

"Karen Selwyn" <kselwyntacc@erols.com> wrote in message
news:F9JOg.45493$ok5.10582@dukeread01...
> a.spencer3 wrote:
> >
> > No point self-catering - meals are very fresh and very cheap.
>
> Except that the OP will be traveling with a vegetarian who is willing to
> eat fish. We found that fish was exorbitantly expensive in Turkey; fish
> prices were totally out of line with the price of any other entree.
>
> The waiter would come over to us with fish laid on ice on a tray,
> glowingly praise each variety, and offer to make a nice grilled
> assortment... a couple of prawns... a small whole fish of this variety
> ... a small whole fish of that variety.
>
> At the first couple of restaurants, we would carefully ask the waiter to
> weigh the fish/seafood and tell us the price. The prices were high, but
> lulled by the glorious views and wanting the eat-your-seafood-ten-steps-
> from-the-fishing-pier experience, we'd invariably tell the waiter to go
> ahead with our order. However, our fish meals came to a screeching halt
> when, feeling we could predict the prices, we neglected to tell our
> waiter to supply the prices before he finalized our order. Let's just
> say that when the bill came at the end of that meal, we could have
> bought a small tribal rug for the same price.

We never found fish prices high - they seemed very reasonable, just as cheap as
anything else on the menu. ISTR we never paid more than £15 for a meal for two
including drinks, starters, sometimes desserts.

But that was 9 years ago - perhaps too many thick tourists started telling them "ooh,
that's cheap", and they realised that we are used to paying excessive prices for
seafood in restaurants!

--
Andy

Andy Pandy wrote:
>
> We never found fish prices high - they seemed very reasonable, just as cheap as
> anything else on the menu. ISTR we never paid more than £15 for a meal for two
> including drinks, starters, sometimes desserts.
>
> But that was 9 years ago - perhaps too many thick tourists started telling them "ooh,
> that's cheap", and they realised that we are used to paying excessive prices for
> seafood in restaurants!

Have you ever shopped for fish in the grocery store? Assuming you're
buying fresh fish -- particularly top of the catch -- the prices for
fish are significantly higher in grocery stores than meat or poultry.
That this differential continues in restaurants is hardly surprising.

Karen Selwyn