September 10-17th - review
Posted: 20 Sep 2016 17:07
Flew from Edinburgh with Easyjet - on arrival at Dalaman, there were customs staff situated just at the exit doors and they had stopped a couple just in front of us, so be warned! Our transfer driver was waiting for us and we enjoyed a quick and troublefree journey to Icmeler. We were staying at the Efem apartments in the old village, just up from Sidik's family restaurant and Tipsi Burger, and were given the choice of an apartment on the ground floor or one on the second. We opted for the ground floor one, as it seemed slightly more spacious. The apartments are nice - our kitchen even had a toaster, which we haven't often seen in apartments - and spotlessly clean. Nice pool area too, with a slide which is switched on twice a day - although there was a certain amount of sunbed hogging going on while we were there. Didn't bother us though as we don't spend all day around the pool anyway. It was very hot during our stay, so the aircon was a must. Icmeler was very busy that week with Turkish visitors in the resort for the Bayram holiday - the beaches were packed and the little Turkish restaurants were all heaving. We enjoyed some fantastic food - our favourite (as ever) was Meryem Yemek Evi, where we enjoyed breakfast, lunch and a couple of evening meals, including a wonderful mixed grill with an additional dish of liver. Now I never eat liver - but this is exceptional and cooked to perfection. They are lovely people there too - always happy to explain their dishes and recommend something. We also ate at Kardelen, Kayra Pide, Kebab 42 and Cadde Pide - all of which offer lovely Turkish food at good value prices, and had a couple of lunchtime snacks at Babam on the beachfront, Waffleland and Tommy's bar. We also enjoyed the village breakfast at Backstage (make sure you ask for the village breakfast and not simply the Turkish one) - it was huge, and we went back a second time and asked if they could just make us the menemen and sucuk yumurta, which they were happy to do. Average price for beer seemed to be 10-12TL in most places - you can get a cooked breakfast from as little as 5TL in some places and many restaurants were offering good value set menus - three courses (some including a drink) for 27TL upwards. As it was so hot, we didn't really do much other than enjoy a relaxing week - although we did take the water taxi to Turunc one day, returning over the mountain on the dolmus.