HOME WHAT WE DO FOR YOU   AREA INFO BUYING POLICIES NEWS USEFUL LINKS CONTACT US  
VILLAS
DELUXE VILLAS
APARTMENTS
DELUXE APARTMENTS
LAND
NEW DEVELOPMENTS
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY  
RENTALS  
TESTIMONIALS
 
                 LATEST PROPERTIES
 
   KALKAN NEWS

-Turkey 2010: summer holiday booking guide

Tourism in Turkey is booming, with more options than ever for 2010. Sophie Butler looks at the deals on offer for the country's good-value, smaller-size resorts.

By Sophie Butler
Published: 6:02PM GMT 11 Feb 2010

Turkey had a boom holiday season last year. Perceived as a good-value shelter from the soaring euro, and with a big choice of package holidays that included flights and hotels, it did brisk business. It looks likely to do well this year, too – though unfortunately things may not seem quite so cheap when you get there.

The Turkish lira has strengthened only a little against the pound, but prices on the ground have jumped significantly. According to the Post Office Holiday Money Report published last month, a typical shopping basket for tourists has risen by 44 per cent in Turkey over the past year, with the cost of a meal out at about £58 for two. These sort of surveys do not tell the whole story, of course. Steer away from tourist restaurants and you will find prices are far lower. I enjoyed an excellent meal in a small local restaurant in a resort near Izmer last year for £7 a head, including beer. Even if prices have since risen – and I very much doubt that they have – the meal would still cost only about £10 a head.

In fact, generally speaking, you might do well to steer clear of the bigger resorts and tourist honeypots. The sort of all-inclusive packages offered by the big tour operators, at large resort hotels with in-house sports, entertainments and children’s clubs, often appeal to families because they make budgeting easier. But they limit your choice to the bigger resorts such as Bodrum, Kusadasi, Gumbet, Side, Fetiyhe and Olu Deniz, where prices are higher. Before you rush to book one of these, have a look at what the specialist tour operators are offering in family-run hotels in smaller resorts. As an alternative to Bodrum, for example, you might want to look at the nearby sponge-fishing port of Yalikavak, where you will find good beaches, less development, a more relaxed atmosphere and lower-priced restaurants and bars.

Special-interest holidays also remain good value this year. Take walking holidays, for example. Headwater’s “Walking along the Lycian Coast” trip in Turkey costs from £799 for eight days; a similar week in Crete starts at £919. And with Istanbul taking on the mantle of European Capital of Culture for 2010, this might be the year to plan a trip that includes a few days on the Bosporus as well as some time on footpaths or on the beach.


-Turkey: Extraordinary landscapes, lively resorts - and all for half the price of most European destinations

By Iain Mayhew-Daily Mirror 18/07/2009

 Doc Holiday reveals why the rugged Lycian region is proving a magnet for canny holiday-makers...

I am standing in the heat of a summer’s afternoon amid the ruins of Patara, one of the most important Eastern Mediterranean cities and ports of ancient times.It’s a huge site of Roman amphitheatres, triumphal arches, temples, columns and sarcophagae, and a broad, cobbled main avenue leading down to a sandy beach and an emerald sea.Fascinating though this is, particularly for archaeologists and history buffs, you may be more interested to know Patara’s other main claim to fame. This is where Santa Claus was born.

By all accounts he was a decent chap who performed several miracles in the area around 350AD. And when the port silted over and everyone fell on hard times he used his family fortune to help the needy.On one famous occasion he climbed on to the roof of a poor man’s house and dropped a sack of gold down the chimney.Which, of course, he’s been doing ever since – except now it’s not so much gold as Nintendo games, DVDs and Barbie dolls.

Santa – or St Nicholas, to give him his proper title – is said to be buried in a church a few miles from here. But you and I and every child under the age of about 11 knows that he now lives in Lapland.And quite why the kindly old buffer swapped this warm, idyllic spot for an icy grotto near the Arctic Circle is beyond me. Alzheimer’s, possibly.

The Lycian region of Turkey is an extraordinary landscape of towering mountain ranges, pine forests, steep river gorges and broad plains of wheat fields and olive groves.

The coastline is speckled with tiny islands and many of the beaches – like the one at Patara, which is some 10 miles long – are of fine white sand. There are lively resorts, towns with bustling markets and mosques and villages that have changed little over the centuries.

What’s more – and it’s a big bonus for British holidaymakers this year – Turkey is outside the Eurozone so everything, from drinks to meals out, is half the price of France, Spain, Portugal and neighbouring Greece.

Here’s my guide to this fascinating region...

When to go ;

In spring, the fields and hillsides are carpeted in wild flowers and the air is filled with the scent of pine. July and August can be stiflingly hot but the summer season is long and you can be basking in warm sunshine until late October.

Where to stay ;

About an hour’s drive west of Dalaman airport you’ll find the little port town of Fethiye. Around the bay there’s a pine-clad peninsula which has been turned into an all-inclusive resort hotel, Club Letoonia It’s in a great setting, with views of the surrounding mountains and the small sailing ships, or gulets, setting off for the islands around the coast.

Letoonia is a village in its own right. It has shops, beaches, a theatre, a well-equipped spa, tennis courts, at least seven bars and five restaurants. Youngsters can use the water slides and be busy for days on end at the children’s club.

And you can’t, for once, blame the Germans for this. When I was there last week, 80% of guests were Brits, with just a few Dortmunders and Russians.

If you can’t get a sunbed you can always catch the hourly hotel ferry across the bay to Fethiye (10TL return – about £4) for a hearty kebab lunch in the Paspatur, or Old City, which has shady, vine-covered restaurants and plenty of carpet and jewellery shops.

The hotel also has its own gulet, which runs full-day excursions to outlying islands and sleepy Gocek nearby (have an Efes beer for 2TL at the hilariously named Kebab Hospital on the harbourside).

No problems finding a sunbed here – the boat only takes 12 at a time – and you can snorkel, enjoy lunch and drinks on board, and have a great day out for about 40TL.

What to see ;

You could spend a whole week eating, drinking and splashing about at Club Letoonia (indeed, some British families I spoke to had no plans to leave their sunbeds or the bar) but it would be a huge mistake not to explore this region, whether it’s on an organised tour or by hire car.

Head south out of Fethiye and five miles’ driving along winding roads through fields and forests brings you to Kayakoy.

Once a thriving Greek community, this town of more than 1,000 houses, 14 churches and two schools, was abandoned in 1923 when the inhabitants, along with more than a million other Greeks living throughout Turkey were repatriated to Greece through a massive population exchange between the two countries following the Greek war of independence.

Historically, Turks and Greeks lived together in this region for centuries: the Turks as farmers in the Kaya valley, the Greeks living on the hillside dealing in crafts and trades.

Now the village of Kayakoy, as it is called in Turkish, or Karmylassos, as it was known in Greek, which had been continually inhabited since at least the 13th century, stands empty and crumbling, with only the breeze from the mountains and mist from the sea blowing through its ruined houses and streets.

It’s eerie but if you come here in the evening you can enjoy a Turkish meal and music at the Kervansaray restaurant… and listen for the ghosts of the past.

Kayakoy is just a short hop from one of the area’s most famous resorts, Olu Deniz.

With a backdrop of mountains and a long beach of fine white sand it’s popular with holiday-makers, particularly around its natural lagoon.

About 30 miles from Fethiye, winding up through the mountains with spectacular views of the plain below, you’ll come to the ancient Lycian site of Tlos.

As one of the six principal cities of Lycia (and one of the most powerful), Tlos once bore the title under the Roman Empire of “the brilliant metropolis of the Lycian nation”.

It is one of the oldest and largest settlements of Lycia and was eventually inhabited by Ottoman Turks – it was one of few Lycian cities to still be inhabited until the 19th century.

There is evidence that Tlos was a member of the Lycian Federation from the 2nd century BC and the mythical Bellerophon and his horse Pegasus are said to have settled here. You may not see a horse with wings but you will stumble across some amazing artefacts as you wander around the site. There’s a Roman amphitheatre, evidence of temples and archways, and, carved into the side of a hill, a necropolis of delicately carved house-tombs.

What to buy

The best time to get a sunbed at Letoonia is on a Tuesday, when everyone else heads off on the ferry to a huge market in Fethiye.There you can buy just about everything, from Turkish delight to leather coats, gold and silver jewellery to pottery and spices.                 If you haggle you’ll get a bargain. And there are some great fakes, too – fancy a “Gucci” bag? It could be yours for under a tenner.  

Need to know  ;

 You’ll have to buy a tourist visa when you land in Turkey.  

 This costs £10 per person (they accept sterling) and it saves time if you have the correct cash handy.  

 The local currency is the Turkish Lira and there are around 2.5TL to the £.  

 If you are planning to visit any religious sites, women should cover their shoulders and men should wear shorts which come below the knee.  

 Topless sunbathing is frowned upon.  

 For more info about Turkey, visit www.gototurkey.co.uk  


-TURKISH LIRA FOURTH MOST POPULAR CURRENCY AS HOLIDAYMAKERS SHUN EUROZONE 21-04-2009 (THE DAILY TELEGRAPH)

The Turkish Lira has become the fourth most popular currency at the country's leading bureaux de change, as British holidaymakers start to desert the increasingly-expensive Eurozone.

According to the Post Office, which changes £1 in every £3 that holidaymakers take overseas, the demand for Turkish Lira increased by 21 per cent last year and is on course to grow again this year.

Last year it overtook the Canadian Dollar to become the fourth most popular currency and if its current popularity continues it could overtake the Australian dollar to reach the third spot by the end of this year.

The popularity of the currency is the latest evidence to suggest destinations in the Eurozone, such as Spain and Italy, have fallen out of favour with holidaymakers because of the collapse in the value of the pound.

A year ago £1 would have bought €1.27. Though it has improved greatly over the last month from a low of €1.03, it only buys €1.13 this week.

In contrast the Lira has remained stable at about £1 to 2.40 Turkish Lira over the course of the last 12 months.

OAG, a research company which monitors passenger numbers around the world, indicated that the number of passengers leaving the UK in the first three months of this year fell by 10.5 per cent, with 5.28 million fewer seats filled than a year ago.

Most of this slump has been driven by a sharp fall in trips to Europe. The Civil Aviation Authority said traffic between Heathrow and the Eurozone had fallen by 8.7 per cent, while traffic to other destinations was up by 1.8 per cent.

Turkey has emerged as one of the winners, offering holidaymakers a range of cheap hotel rooms, combined with the promise of low priced meals, drink and trips.

Sarah Munro, head of travel at the Post Office, said: "We have seen unprecedented demand for lira over the past year. Turkey is still cheaper than anywhere in the eurozone.

"The strength of the euro compared with the weakness of the Turkish lira against sterling is obviously having an impact and 2009 sales to date suggest another growth year for Turkey. That is why we are extending our over the counter service for Turkish lira from 1,400 to 4,000 Post Office branches."

Previously customers needed to order Lira in advance if they wanted to change money at the great majority of Post Offices.

The Lira was the fourth most popular currency last year, behind the euro, dollar and Australian dollar.

So far this year, demand has increased by 9 per cent, compared with last year. The Lira is expected to overtake the Australian dollar to become the third most popular currency.


Home   |   Services   |   Buying Policies   |   Turkish Tax System   |   Contact Us
© 2003-2009 Copyright by Platinum Property Ltd.®;All Rights reserved.