Left Glasgow, no delays. Great flight - very smooth with Thomsons..although felt sorry for the passengers in front as it was Cameron's first flight. He fell asleep literally as we landed!!!
Dalaman airport...hate it. Been here 5 times before. Queued for the usual passport/visa grumpy official queue. Make way to luggage collection. You would think that the buggies/pushchairs would be first up...don't be silly, they arrive about 30 mins after all the luggage has been collected. Then ask pretty turkish woman for trolley...she says 2 quid (as no one else is around)...aparrantly it is only 1 pound...but she feels the need rip us off.
Transfer to Icmeler...excellent...cool bus with water for sale, cheap. No stop and in resort for 1 hour 30 mins time. Driver is excellent but the roads are very bumpy...arrive at apartments tired.
Arrive at apartments around 2-3am. Owners/staff there to meet and whisk us off to room. Very friendly/helpful. The rooms are very basic but are very clean and are very well run(as we find out over next 14 days). Don't know if allowed to say but the apartments are Pinewood...really good and in an excellent position. Only complaint is that you can hear everything as the walls seem to be paper thin.
As usual on the first morning, I go out early to try to get our bearings whilst the wife and Cam enjoy the excellent pool/bar & hospitality.
I find that Icmeler is lovely and flat and well laid out. With the help of the online map it was easy to get to know the centre/old village/surrounding areas.
As usual the locals are lovely, I expect nothing else and am pleasantly surprised to find that there is not too much hassle.
september for me is the best time to go to Turkey (espciaially with 18mth old boy) and we are not dissappointed. The weather is great with only 2 cloudy days and 1 with rain. It is nice and cool at night with one spectacular light show(thunder & lightning).
The apartments/staff are absolutely brilliant and the surrounding area is great. Brilliant base for exploring the surrounding area.
We make our way around the town and find that there is everything that we need.
The canal area and beach front boulevard are really nice and the bars and restaurants are ideal. We have been to Turkey several times but are still surprised by the genuinely friendly welcome we get everywhere...especially with our son.
What made the holiday for us was the fact that he woke up somewhere completely alien to him but within hours felt at ease and had a great time... completely at ease with all the strange but friendly faces!!!
We had a couple of meals at the apartments (fine/reasonable price)...exchange rate was good.
favourite places to eat...
Florida- great value, service...best breakfast.
Masala - fantastic fresh food, excellent service, great wine...amazing value.
Wayside- bit more expensive but the best food....great people.
Ozzy's - not the best...clothes got stained from badly painted chairs
Cafe Anne - brilliant cakes & pastries..
Holiday - great for football and food, great guys.
Spent a couple of days/nights in Marmaris with friends ...found it fine. waterpark worth the visit.
Had a boat trip (private 16 friends)...excellent value, thoroughly recommended. 12 quid each - lunch and drinks inclusive. Stop at Turunc...stay away from harbour bars(much more expensive)
Icmeler market - great and horrible(see my comments on forum)
Tansas- handy, cheap... assistants from hell.
Bakers just next to Tansas .... beautiful, grocers across the street, same.
So many places we did not have the time to visit...but with a polite "no thanks", all was ok....polite replies of "have a lovely evening" returned.
the only gripe apart from tansas was an expeience i had at the market...i wont bring my review down by repeating it but you can view it in the forum in a thread started by Vixx.
We had an absolutely great holiday...everything was just right from the weather to the apartments to the resort..
I had read a few negative posts before going but we had a fabulous time....all I can say is that if Icmeler isn't as good as it was, then before it must have been perfect...as it was, it was damn close.
I thank all in the forum (I viewed for a while before posting) and all the lovely people of Icmeler
We will be back soon...but i think that September is the best time to go...the weather is ideal.
Thank you all..we had a great time. if anyone needs any further reason to go to Icmeler please PM me
