Blondie's review part two - Icmeler (long one!)

[blondie]

Well, we left Istanbul and flew down to Dalaman with Turkish Airlines - again, great service and you even get a snack meal although the flight only takes around an hour. Had arranged transfers with ICR - slight hiccup as we couldn't find the driver at first, only to discover that he was waiting at the international terminal rather than domestic - something to bear in mind if you are taking an internal flight.

Arrived at the Sun Village apartments and got settled in. The apartments are nice - small family-run complex and very friendly and helpful. The air con in our apartment wasn't working - but as it turned out, we didn't really need it anyway, and they did offer to move us into a different apartment. Good location in the old village, very peaceful - although if you are a very light sleeper, bear in mind that they are close to the mosque.

We had decided that this time, we would make an effort to eat at some different places, which we did. We had to visit some "old favourites" too though. The Wayside was as good as ever - their Hunkar Begendi is simply delicious, while the Holiday remains a great place with excellent value set menus and fantastic service from Mehmet and co. We also visited Sidiks and Hanedan again and enjoyed our meals at both yet again.

New to us were Nefis Pide and Kardelen - not sure why we've never eaten in either before, but we had some great value meals in both. Husband particularly enjoyed the Beyti Kebab in Kardelen. We've often walked past Alin's Grill and meant to try it, and we were pleasantly surprised. For some reason, I had visions of it being a fast food type of place, but it's lovely inside and the food was even better.

We had decided to try the Turkish breakfasts at Deniz Kapisi after they were recommended to us - what can I say, they are fantastic. A little more expensive than some - but they are huge (kept us going until our evening meal) and such a great selection. Never actually been to the Kapisi before either, but we settled at their beach for the week - great, comfy sun loungers and a nice, quieter area of the beach. Good service too.

However, the "find" of the holiday for us was Meryem Yemek Evi, just up from the Romance Palace on the other side of the road (between the jewellers and pizza place). It's a little cafe type place selling good Turkish home cooking and it's fantastic value. It had only been open six weeks when we were there, but was fast earning a reputation through word of mouth. We tried the casseroles (lamb and chicken), which were excellent, while the mezes were also very good indeed, as was the fruit platter (on the house). On our second visit, we tried a type of mixed grill and they also did us a plate of fish which was lovely. If you like Turkish food, you have to give it a go - oh, and their Turkish breakfasts are also good.

This year, we decided to venture out and about and got to dolmus to the otogar at Marmaris, where we hopped on a bus to Datca. Very efficient bus service - nice journey through some lovely scenery, and enjoyed a wander around Datca and a bite to eat before we returned. We would definitely do this again as there are quite a few places you can get to by bus from Marmaris.

The low point, if you like, was the boat trip we decided to do. We've done the usual lazy day ones before but this one (not through ICR, I hasten to add!) was on the Hisaronu side. Well, we trailed all over the place picking up people in the minibus before even getting on the boat, only to find that it was crammed full with about twice as many people as there were sunbeds! We were the only British people on it, the vast majority being Russians, and while I hesitate to generalise, they were the rudest, most arrogant people I've had the misfortune to meet. We had been told that there would be several stops, but these turned out to be only swimming stops, except for one. Oh, and the lunch was pretty poor too. I won't be making that mistake ever again - ICR all the way for me!

Icmeler itself did seem quieter than usual - something which quite a few of our friends in bars and restaurants also remarked upon, but it still holds that same "something special" which keeps us all coming back time and time again.

For the final three days of our holiday, we had decided to stay in Dalyan - so stay tuned for part three of my review next...