Icmeler Online Holiday Forum & Reviews - Turkey

I have just read Skillys review and saw she had encountered the grape man as well, we were there 1st week sept and my hubby had walked us down to the beach as always then he wanders off shopping and bar hopping, whilst he was on the beach road a man approached him with a carton of grapes he offered him a couple and to be polite my husband took it and asked how much, he told him 1 lira so he opened his money pouch on his belt and went to get a 5 lira out the man grabbed his hand in and took 2 20s which my husband grabbed straight back and told him to shove his grapes. It quite shook him as we have been to Icmeler loads of times and never seen anything like this a turkish friend of ours was on the beach road as well and went straight over to him and asked if he okay he shouted after the grape seller in turkish and he went off up the beach road. That week they came round the beach a few times and normally I would have bought some but this time told them no.

I had a similar experience last October. We were on the beach and the grape man approached and asked us to sample. Again, to be polite I said we would buy a carton. I reached for my purse and before I knew it, like Jack Flash, his hand was in my purse and whipped out a note. I am sure it was a 20 lire note but I had no means of proving it and he sped off up the beach. It happened so quickly I couldn't believe it. Talk about sleight of hand. Paul Daniels watch out! I'll be more careful in future. And.... it didn't put me off Icmeler - going back next week.

The thing that bothered me was that the honest grape sellers will lose a lot of business because I, for have lost my trust and that's a shame.

Everytime a grape seller approached me after that I was shoo ing them away and that is not my nature, I hate to be rude.

I have the exact same story but it happened to us just as you get to Marmaris and there was two of them one with curly hair and he grabbed some twenties out my wallet - needless to say they were back in my wallet ASAP.

Watch out for them - this has been my only bad experience in Icmeler in 7 years.

All the best Archieb

My husband was also approached by the grape men a few years ago. He had just been to the bank, so he knew exactly how much money he had in his wallet. He began to walk through the waste ground towards the old village when he realised what had happened. You can imagine the sparks!!!!! My son was with him and he saw these two men getting into a white car, and disappear. However, my husband was so cross he went down to the Police Station to report the incident, and he was told by the Police "Oh we know who they are", but nothing was done about it.

About half an hour later my son spotted the white car again, and decided to stand atride in front of the car (dangerous thing to do) and pointed and shouted in Turkish to these men "Baba, Baba uzum" (Father, father, grapes) (we speak a little Turkish) My husband's brother went up to the car and demanded the money. They did not hesitate, they handed back all the cash and gave him a tray of grapes.

Beware, do not take anything from strangers!!!!!!!!

My sister in law and husband were unfortunately "HAD" by a grape man in August and lost a lot of money. However after a lengthy and unpleasant trip to the police station in Marmaris, where they were treated like criminals themselves, Elios from Blue Rainbow made a couple of calls and their money was returned within half an hour.

Elios is a gentleman and had he not intervened, their holiday would have been ruined by this incident.

This particular grape man was a professional hustler, so you do have to be very cautious.

We were advised to report what happened to us to the police but judging by the experiences of other people targeted by this pair I am glad I didn't!

I think that by highlighting this con on the forum we will have done a lot of good in warning people, so thanks to everyone who has contributed to this topic.
If the police know who they are, why are they and the council not doing anything about it because as I said in my review, if it had been my first visit to Icmeler I doubt if I would have returned

We had a similar experience in July. We were walking from our hotel down near the stella show and going to the canal. The grape man approached my mum, son and his friend. I was walking on a little, he gave the one or two grapes and my mum thanked him, at that he gave the three of them a little tray with a half dozen grapes that were only fit for the bin. Again my mum thanked him (to be polite) and we started walking off, he started shouting at us in Turkish and very obviously swearing at us (we learned a few sweary words). My dad walked back and asked him what the problem was.

He started shouting "lira, lira" my dad asked how much it was and he said 5 lira, we thought that was in total - but that was each! When my dad opened his wallet the guy had his hand straight in and was grabbing my dad's money. I thought my dad was going to flatten him!

Needless to say, he only got his 15 lira and a mouthful of Turkish abuse - which I think shocked him

So be aware, if anyone was to offer us anything in future, we will just say a polite no thank you and move on.