September 3-18
Dilhan Hotel
The holiday started very well for me, mum and dad with a quick check in at Exeter Airport and no extra charge for me being 3kg over the 20kg allowed, we departed on time and were all given a meal even though we'd not paid for one!
The flight was good, smooth and pretty uneventful, and we landed at Dalaman at midnight, 10 minutes early. The passage through Dalaman was swift and painless - no queuing for visas, straight through passport control (the passport officer even smiled and welcomed me back to Turkey as he was trying to find the correct sticker to stamp!) and we didn't have to wait too long for all the bags to arrive. I'd booked a private transfer (worth every penny) so we were soon on our way "home".
We got to Icmeler about 2am, mum and dad were dropped off at their apartments first (not ICR) and I was then dropped at the Dilhan Hotel, where I was greeted by the lovely JJ the overnight receptionist (one of his many duties).
I've never stayed at the Dilhan before, and I have to say I will not be staying there again.
The hotel itself is tired, in desperate need of new furniture, redecoration and a larger water tank. Every evening it was a bit hit and miss as to whether you got water coming through the shower, and when you did, you never knew if it was going to be freezing cold or scalding hot - it didn’t seem to matter whether you were showering at 5pm or 8.30pm! However for those of you booked to stay at the Dilhan in the not too distant future I have a tip - if the water dries up half way through your shower pull the lever on the mixer taps down and you will get water out of the tap, thus enabling you to rinse the soap off whilst doing a bit of limbo dancing!! I'm told the water tank is too small to cope with many people showering at the same time...... and there are plans to put a larger tank in during the winter.... but apparently they said that last year!
The room I was initially given was on the top floor and no bigger than pokey dark cupboard with no view at all, but I managed to move to another room on my third day, still on the top floor, but was much bigger, brighter and had the most amazing view over the resort. I even watched a wedding ceremony take place at the Waterfall just below which was lovely!
Having said all that the hotel does have some good points - Oz the pool barman who is a great guy, always there with a smile, a laugh and a (dreadful) joke, the pool is nice though not huge, beds are comfy and the air con is brilliant.
The weather was fantastic the whole fortnight with temps reaching 48C on occasion and not dropping much below 26C by night. I guess everyone’s heard about the rain we had… all I’ll say is I’ve never seen rain like it in my life and thank goodness it only lasted a day! We spent most days lazing on the beach in front of Yakamoz where Ibrahim and "Doctor" kept everybody fed, watered and well and truly entertained with their antics, it was like watching a comedy act at times. Ibo reads the forum sometimes – so a big thank you from all of us!
We had some super meals in our favourite restaurants - Cupids, Ozzys, Chef, The Lighthouse and Charlie's – all up their usual good standard. Lunch was usually in the shade of the Erdem Cafe where I had my fair share of chicken doner wraps (delicious!!) and sampled the apple pie on more than one occasion
I must just say we stumbled across the Erdem the first time we went to Icmeler, in fact on the very first day, and 10 years on it's still the same brilliant value for money! By the way they have now started to do “flight meals” – a packed lunch of doner sandwich/wrap, apple pie or whatever you want for your journey home.
The Magic Garden was as charming as ever - though busier than ever! And I found Cupids a great place to chill with a drink or 10 until the wee small hours with King, Shaggy, Aaron and my best friend "Wicked" from the forum who is openly admitting to the whole world that she's getting on and is no longer the party animal she was!! We had a laugh though didn't we hun!
All too soon it was time to hit the road back to Dalaman
I had arranged for our transfer to pick up the 3 of us, “Wicked” and her mum and all our bags from the Lighthouse restaurant at 9.15pm which was great as we were able to have a proper meal together with our other friends who were staying for another 2 weeks before leaving.The journey back to Dalaman didn’t seem to take long at all – probably as I slept most of the way – it pays to have a couple bottles of Efes before leaving!! Check-in at Dalaman was quick and painless, we were all 20kg or under and thankfully none of our hand luggage was weighed (I think it depends who you’re flying with – this was a TOM flight). We left 15 minutes late but landed back at Exeter on time…
I thoroughly enjoyed every second of my holiday (despite the hotel) it’s just a shame that our holidays have to come to an end at some point, but I have lots and lots of very happy memories to keep me going through the next 12 months!
They say the best cure for the Icmeler blues is to book another holiday.... so that's what I've done.... 49 weeks and counting!
Mazz
