Icmeler hasn't lost it's magic

[JulieA]

Hi Everyone,

Firstly I have to apologise for taking sooooooo long to write my review. Well my husband, two sons and myself went to Icmeler on the 14th of August for 2 weeks, we travelled with a well known tour company from Glasgow and arrived at Dalaman an hour early!! On arrival at Dalaman we were warmly greeted by the tour rep who showed us where to get our coach to the resort. The coach we were on was only half full and the rep asked if anyone would mind if we didn't visit the comfort stop. Everyone on the coach was happy to just keep motoring on which meant we arrived at the resort well ahead of schedule. We had booked to stay at the Gondol Apartments on the Canal and eventhough we have been to Icmeler 5 times, we had never stayed at the Gondol. On arrival the boys from the apartments came to greet us and swiftly took our luggage from us and spirited them up to our room which was a godsend as we had to ascend at least 3 flights of stairs to get to our room. When we entered the room I was pleasantly surprised as it was quite spacious and we had a great view of the canal, pool and the hills. I won't bore you all about the Gondol but if anyone has any queries please send me a private message and I will happily reply, but if you have booked these apartments I think you should enjoy them. For our first night we went to the Pop In - I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with their menu and food. We visited the Pop-In quite a few times last year and always had a great meal, but this year it was lacking the atmosphere, though the guys did try their best to bring the people in. Other restaurants we visited were Friends, Dreamboys, Venice, Florida and the Majestic. I have to say that the Majestic was our faveourite. I just think they have a great menu and the boys do an excellant job at entertaining the crowd and they give it 150 %. I was disappointed in Dreamboys this year. Although I have read reviews about the staff being rude I have to say we never encountered this from any of the staff, and Yanni always greeted us with a warm handshake and smile. I just think they were lacking the enthusiam that the boys in The Majestic had, but then I am sure there are people out there that would disagree with me. We mostly spent our days on the Beach as I am not a pool person. We would have went to Sonnys beach, this is just at the end of the canal in front of sweet kiosk. Sonny would have always kept us our beds which were just at the edge of the sea, this was handy for our 4 year old son as it meant he could just come and go as he pleased. I always enjoyed watching the watersports and the commings and goings of our Eastern European Friends, I remember especially two girls who just loved to pose for anyone with a camera!!!! My older son and I enjoyed our swim every day up to the end of the buoys. We always would have met a little fish there whilst we were resting. I am not sure if anyone else has met him but he was a lovely green colour and everytime I swam up to the buoys he was there, and he was always on his own. When I told my husband he looked at me as if I had gone mad, but every day that little fellow was there to greet me. As I have said we have been to Icmeler 5 times and as my husband loves going on trips we have more or less done them all, so this year it was hard to decide which trip to do. One trip we hadn't done before was the lazy day BBQ. We booked with the guy at Sonnys beach and went on the Friday. The boat we went on was small and compact and we went round the bay of Marmaris stopping off at various beauty spots for swimming breaks. Whilst I really enjoyed this trip I was glad when we arrived back at Icmeler. I would only recommend this trip if you like to swim, my Husband is not a swimmer and after a while he did start to get a bit bored. We were very lucky with the weather when we were there as it was hot and sunny every day and there was never a cloud in the sky. I have to say that we really enjoyed our stay in Icmeler and yes people do complain about the Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Freddy Mercury shows and the hassle from the restaurants but I have to honestly say that Icmeler is one of my faveourite holiday resorts and as far as I can see the Michael Jacksons, Tina Turners etc are all part of the package and if these ever disappeared I don't think Icmeler would be the same. The only negative point I have is that during our two week holiday we never saw one female belly dancer, I remember they used to be in all the restaurants and I think this is sad as it is what you epect to see when you are in Turkey. If anyone who hasn't been to Turkey has made it to the end of my review and is thinking of going on holiday to Turkey I would thouroughly recommend going to Icmeler because you will just have an absolutely fantastic time and you will be hooked forever. Unfortunately we won't be going to Icmeler next year as we plan to go to the Dominican Republic for our holidays, but we will be back again the year after, and for all you lucky people already booked for next year - Enjoy!!!!!