We (myself, my wife and my 15 year old daughter) booked through Thomas Cook back in January and were seriously counting down the days to our 10 days in Icmeler.
We arrived at Manchester airport at 6pm for a 9:40pm flight. The check in was fairly quick due to us being fairly early but were told the flight was delayed by 20 minutes - I can cope with that.
Boarding the plane the pilot told us the temperatures in Turkey which we already knew thanks to JT's regular updates
The flight was fine but got no sleep as my daughter was so excited (her first time on a plane, or even abroad for that matter). Arrived in Dalaman airport at approx 3:30am on Wednesday morning.
Check-out though Dalaman was pretty quick and within 30 minutes had collected our luggage and were outside the aiport and made our way down to the coach area. The transfer was an air conditioned coach and we got a little sleep as it was a good 2 1/2 hours (a lot of stops in Marmaris before we got to our hotel - we were second from last drop).
We finally arrived at The Grand Aquarium Hotel at 6am and were very tired and bleary eyed. We checked-in and were given 2 wristband watches which we loaded with cash (the only way you can buy drinks and food at the hotel but a good idea in my opinion). We were shown to our room (room 124) which upon entering found to be spotlessly clean - it had a separate double bedroom for me and my wife and a bed/chair for my daughter. Previous reviews said the rooms were really small but we found it alright. We unpacked and made our way down to the restaurant for some breakfast.
I had a full english (I normally eat local food on holiday but as I was hungry I wanted a big familiar meal lol). <y wife had beans on toast and my daughter had scrambled egg on toast. A lovely mug of tea and we were ready for the long day ahead.
We got 3 sun loungers easily enough and had a refreshing swim in the large, deep pool. As we were looking around the hotel getting familiar with it we were approached by Aydin Sari and shown the Turkish bath and gym area (underground). We booked a Turkish bath for the next day which cost £35 each - the cheapest was £20 but we opted for the mud body pack and massage too. Aydin is self employed and does Turkish bath, photo's, hairdresser, tattoos and body piercing (among other things) and he is the only one who takes cash (preferably Sterling). He is a really funny guy and had a mass of curly hair (we nicknamed him 'Hair-bear' lol).
He would often just come and talk to us as we were sunbathing and he wrote me a list of Turkish welcome phrases with English translations (thank you, hello, good morning, how are you, I'm fine thanks, and you? good evening, good night) and translations to learn for 'homework'. I learned them and next day we had a little Turkish conversation in the morning - this was very helpful during the rest of our stay - I used them when greeting any locals and they seemed to like that.
Anyway our Turkish bath was lovely and relaxing and good fun too - best I've ever had in Turkey as it was just the 3 of us. They don't do loads of people together like some of them.
The staff at the hotel were wonderful and really couldn't do enough for you, we learned all their names and quickly became friends with them. Two of the guys were the mini-disco entertainers and we had so much fun dancing with them for the 'kids' disco lol. My daughter and I were up every night and although the routine was the same every night, you quickly picked up the dance moves. My daughter even bought one of the 'Follow the Leader - Entertainment Team T-Shirts lol.
The pool was huge but only problem was it was very deep, I could just about stand up on my tip-toes so children really need inflatables of some kind if they aren't strong swimmers. The only shallow area was where the water slide exited - this was on twice a day for about 30 minutes at a time and was great fun. They did have a separate small and shallow children's pool for the little ones, and a jacuzzi that was on while the slide was open.
We went into Icmeler a few times, sometimes walked and sometimes Dolmus (2.50 TL to Icmeler and 2.50 TL to Marmaris). The walk was about 20-25 minutes but not too bad even in the 40+ heat, just a slow walk was fine.
We visited the beach just the once but found the waiters really nice and friendly, we paid 3 TL each for sun loungers for the day which I didn't think was bad - we got them right next to the sea as the beach was quite shingly. The sea was lovely to swim in.
We ate out a few times too at Tommy's Bar and the Tandoori Sizzler and another I can't remember the name of and all meals were delicious and reasonably priced (most expensive was the Sizzler at around £40 for 3 of us with drinks - not bad eh?)
Drinks were fairly cheap - around 5-7 TL in resort and 5.25 TL in the hotel for the usual Efes which we had plenty of (perhaps too much some nights lol).
We spent a lot of time at the Hotel and my daughter made friends with some other guests of a similar age (14-17ish) and she had a great time with them. She would often leave my wife and I to go play pool or 'moonbathe' on an evening. I felt It was a safe enough environment to let her do this. She would often be out til 1-2am and a couple of times my wife and I went to our room and just left the door ajar for her - it really was THAT safe.
The entertainment team where fantastic and the evening entertainment was pretty good most nights, a couple of nights it wasn't so good but I guess they have to cater for everyone. They also have regular music quizzes and karaoke - I sung about 6-7 times on the karaoke nights as they would insist (I did use to be a semi-professional singer and this obviously helps lol).
Weather-wise it was glorious sunshine with no clouds in sight most of the time, it was quite humid on a night as the air-con in our room was only in the lounge area and not in the bedroom, we slept ok after a few Efes though lol and also kept the window open. We had a major thunderstorm and rain on Thursday 2nd Aug but this was quite nice and refreshing, made sleeping easier that night as it wasn't so humid. No sign of mozzies during the whole stay but did get a few wasps around the hotel balcony - however a quick squirt of mozzie-spray soon saw them buzzing off lol. My daughter got stung on her thumb on the last night as she swiped her hand through her hair and there was a wasp in her hair - I think it just wanted to give her a reminder of Icmeler lol.
We did a couple of trips all booked through ICR, these were Atlantis Water Park (small but fun), Jeep Safari - excellent wet fun but a bit disappointed we had to 'hire' the water pistols at 20 TL each - I thought we had bought them until halfway through they took them of us - Mine didn't work most of the time either so ended up throwing buckets of water at the other Jeep lol. Also, lunch was included but you had to pay extra for chips!
The boat trip was the best and I met a few forum members and their family/friends - Sami, Misty Sunshine, Scouser, Dodge and Cockney Boy to name a few - really nice people and such fun and plenty of swim stops.
Coming home was sad and my daughter had a few tears when we had to go, we got waved off by all the staff and began our long journey home. We were picked up at 10:15pm for a 3:30am flight. Again, a long transfer with a stop off for drink and loo visits. We arrived at Dalaman at about 1am and were told our flight was 20 minutes early (unusual but welcome). Check in was again fairly quick and we managed to get some sleep on the flight home. Arrived back in Manchester just over 5am (out time) and were outside for around 6am. We went straight to my parent in York and they took us out for Sunday lunch which was nice of them.
Finally got home at 5pm and went to bed for a few hours lol.
All in all - a fantastic holiday, fantastic hotel, fantastic weather and fantastic location. We are definitely going back to the same hotel next year with another one in tow - my stepdaughter wants to come too
So only around 360 sleeps to go 
I never normally do this but just a few heads up.That Turkish bath you paid £35 for you could have bought from us for £15 and the bus around Icmeler is only 1.5 lira.happy you enjoyed the boat
