My trips to Turkey

Geography - Personal experience - Rates - Flights - Airports - Hotels - Meals, wine, beer - Sea and bathing - Diving - Fitness center - Animation and discotheque - Jetski and Jetboat - Internet

Geography

The first man on Earth Adam and his girl friend Eve (some say she was his wife. That guy didn't stay free for long) found their paradise 300 miles east from Antalya and Alanya cost, the most popular travel destination in Turkey. I agree with God in his choice of a place for paradise. Turkey is traveler's paradise.

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Personal experience

I have visited Turkey 8 or 9 times, each time it was 7 to 10 day trips. First time in 1994 and last time last November. Last time in November it was Kemer in Antalya region, the weather and the sea were just the right temperature, very warm but no scolding heat of high season.

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Rates

And yes, the rate was incredibly low. I paid about $300 (or was it $250?) for the 8 day/7 night package incl return ticket Moscow - Antalya - Moscow, transfer by Mercedes bus, all inclusive board, SINGLE (!!!) room (actually it had a double bed, why do they call the room single?) and $30,000 insurance. It also included one free excursion to Antalya which I skipped. I don't need tons of gold thrown to me by the goldsmiths whose appetite was wetted by the never ending stream of Russian and German tourists. It was the end of season and the shops in Antalya were glad to everybody dropping in.

I can give you detailed comments on every part of the package but I am not sure you will like my style. Anyway I promised to give you my view of the travel to Turkey. Yesterday I received a letter from the Rep office of Le Petit Fute Travel Guide in Moscow. The kind gentlemen (and probably ladies too) of Le Petit Fute refused me the right to publish their materials on the pages of this site so you'll have to rely on my unbiased opinion about this lovely, sunny country inhabited by fun loving people - Turkey.

If you buy a package in Moscow or in Munich it will be basically the same but the charter flight. I flew Lufthansa several times and I know how the Germans run their business. All ordnung. As efficient as any German operation can be.

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Flights

Just as much as German flights are organized, the Russian charter flights are …. Well, they are very much like everything in Russia. Lots of fun, lots of vodka, kids strolling around the plane in their swimming trunks and inflated swimming cuffs, boys and girls smoking in the tail of the plane and air hostesses trying to maintain what's left of the order. Ordnung it is not. The Russians start celebrating their short leave right from the start at Sheremetievo airport and continue aboard the plane. The right mood is set from the start. Expats living in Moscow know it all.

I forgot, it takes slightly more than 3 hours to fly from Moscow to Antalya and 2 and a half hours to Istanbul. And you can buy your package in Moscow at a lot of travel agencies. I recommend...

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Airports

At the arrival airport you pay $10 to the Immigration officer and he stamps the Turkish entry visa to your passport, that's the start and the end of the entrance formalities. You are in Turkey. Your holiday begins in honest. Walk to your travel agent's booth and the guide will show you to one of the big fleet of Mercedes air- conditioned buses. This bus will take you through the villages and towns and orange groves of the Mediterranean or Aegian costs to your hotel.

If you think that you are too important to carry your own luggage be ready that a local guy will materialize nearby and carry your handall over the 50 ft to the bus. Don't count out the dimes and nickels, leave it for some poor destinations, you are in Turkey. You will offend the guy profoundly, the yanychar in him will start looking for his yatagan to cut off the head of the stupid infidel. To restore the guy's belief in mankind you must give him $5. Don't start dividing $5 by 30 ft of your stroll to the bus to understand the efficiency of the operation because the guy knows damn well that Bill Gates within the same span of his work is rewarded much better.

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Hotels

When you arrive at your hotel and walk out of the air conditioned cabin don't ask the hotel personnel if a tankload of cologne spilled somewhere around, it's the local flowers. Get used to it. The amount of flowers the Turks plant around their hotels is phantastic and they tend to them most attentively. The flower beds are arranged in the style befitting sultan's palace. By the way now you can stay in a sultan's palace, Topkapi hotel is copied after the sultan's palace in Istanbul but placed on the Mediterranean coast of Antalya. They are going to build the Kremlin and the White House nearby as reception and front desk area.

You'll find a lot of hotels on the first line in Turkey, that is no road separates them from the beach. If the hotel is on the second line, sure thing in Spain, but rare occasion here, the owners will throw in a mind-boggling number of perks and discounts.

The hotels occupy much more land than anywhere in the world. For example, Seven Seas in Side has a beach front of 3,000 feet and its own monorail to travel thru the territory. Pity the cuisine at this very hotel wasn't as good as the size of the hotel was big.

And this isn't the largest hotel. Lykia World on the Aegian coast is even bigger. 21 bars, I bet you you'll never make it to the last one in one day (24 hr). If you ever dare drop me a line and I'll come to witness together with the commissaries from the Guinness World Book of Records. Another bet is you'll never remember anything about it to tell your grandkids.

Many hotels have bungalows in addition to the main building so the choice is yours. Some are made up entirely of bang.. (sorry, I think I misspelt the word) b-u-n-g-alows and rated as holiday villages HV-1 and HV-2. The rooms in the hotels are spacious with a lot of local marble everywhere. Voltage 220V, European sockets.

No American gimmicks like pressing board, coffeepot, tea, and a laundry line in the bathroom. The minibar can be empty and you must ask the front desk manager to keep it full for you.

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Meals, wine, beer

Generally the cuisine is just phantastic in Turkey, definitely one of the best in the world. Mediterranean with local touch. Turkish night at your hotel will display the array of food usually not served, try them all if you can switch from the first dish which will send your mind reeling. Deserts will disappoint you if you want to keep your waist line within limits.

Wines are good as well, I recommend Kavaklidere and Yakut red table wine. It retails at $1-2 a bottle.

Seafood is expensive, ask the price before ordering at a local restaurant or cafe. If you don't ask for the price the owner will turn into a shark who will eat you alive. The best thing is to insist on the menu to be brought. If you don't fix the price in the beginning, no Tourism Board will help you later.

White wine will help you to enjoy the fish which you can buy from vendors selling it along the Sea of Marmara shore in Istanbul. They will roast it for you right on the spot. If you want to make it more romantic, take a boat from the local guys and catch your own fish. Same vendors will cook it for you. Buy your own beer or wine and enjoy it on the shore. It's not America, so no cop will spoil your fun. The beer is brewed according to Czech and Dutch recipes: Efes and Tuborg, both are good and inexpensive.

If you enjoy good food and are strong willed to exercise enough to allay the surprising effect of the food on your waist line you must buy all inclusive package. They provide food non stop from 7 am till 1 am. The last meal is served at midnight, it's soup and pasta with Parmesan. That's in case you missed your morning breakfast from 7 to 9.30, beach bar with salads, pizza, French fries from 10:30 till 18, lunch from 12:30 till 14, local woman cooking local specialities in the local tent in the shadow of eucalyptus from 14:30 till 16, and dinner from 19 till 21:30.

With free drinks served from 10:30 till 3 am and in some hotels 24/7 you'll save a lot of money compared to a halfboard meals mistakenly perceived by some novices as a cheaper option. All inclusive includes free local drinks - beer, mineral water, coke and pepsi, wine, brandy, vodka, raki, tea and coffee. If you buy maximum inclusive or ultra all inclusive package you'll get free imports - Johnie Walker Red Label, Martini, Cointreau, Smirnoff, Tequila, etc.

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Sea and bathing

After you lock your valuables in your room safe box or at the front desk safe (ca. $2 a day) you can enjoy sea bathing. The Mediterranean in Antalya, that's south of Turkey) is warmer than the Aegian sea in the west coast of Turkey. Even in winter months it stays quite warm unlike Black Sea in the north.

If you like your beach sandy you must go to Side - Alanya coast but the terrain will be flat like a frying pan, and the air temperature in summer will be like you are in the frying pan. A lot of greenery in the hotels but that's common for all hotels in Turkey. If you move closer to Belek you'll find your hotel is in the pine tree forest.

If you want to have snow capped mountains hanging over your beach you must go to Kemer - Antalya area but the beach will be stones. In expensive hotels you may have sand in the beach where you play volley ball but the water edge will be definitely stones. This area is the most popular on the Southern coast of Turkey because of the breathtaking views where blue sea mixes with green mountains.

Water in Mediterranean around Turkey is very clean compared to what you'll find in France or Italy, this is recognized by international authorities. No sharks, they breed way to the west and then leave for the Atlantic. No jelly fish which can spoil your season in the Black Sea. The water stays warm from May till November.

Usually the beach towels in 4-5 star hotels and HV-1 are free. Public beaches can be paid in cities like Alanya but it's pennies.

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Diving

In practically every hotel there is a diving center which will provide you with diving gear if you show your diving certificate, or help you to get one. Couple of times a week the diving instructor will bring his gear to the swimming pool to seduce the innocent to the depths of Mediterranean. Everybody can put the gear on and try it in the pool at the depth of 3-6 feet. Photos will be taken so you can buy the photos and show it to friends telling them colorful stories about your Navy days in the SEALs.

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Fitness center

Most of the gyms are poorly equipped and very badly run. Probably the hotel management can't believe that anybody can seriously consider physical exercises but sex in paradise.

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Animation and discotheque

In all Turkish hotels young people, usually attired in the most fancy way, walk around trying to generate fun and merry mood. These are animators doing animation (anima-s-i-on). Each of them speaks at least a couple of languages, they look after kids, organize aerobics and step aerobics, stage an evening show and try to infuse life in the discotheque which is not visited by the majority of the tourists because of the acid music and stroboscope lights.

Same tourists enjoy twisting, jiving and rock-n-rolling to the old tunes often played live by a combo by the pool bar after dinner but usually the fun is stopped by animators after 90 minutes in favor of a discotheque. I have stayed in a lot of hotels and never seen a discotheque run for the middle aged who are a majority.

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Jetski and Jetboat

Jetski is quite expensive at $25 - $35 for 15 min. It's run by private companies from the hotel premises so you can't charge it to your room bill. Have the cash ready and don't ask anybody around to break your $100 bill. I did once and lost it immediately. The guy who took the money on behalf of the jetski owners saw me off astride the jetski, waved farewell and walked away to a week of joy and happiness.

Last year Medcraft, a company from New Zealand, ran their jetboats at 50 knot along the shallow waters of a mountain river near Antalya. The boat took 20 passengers aboard, then the pilot, name's Bob, asked everybody to hold tight by the bar in front of each row and stepped on gas.

The boat gained 90 km/hr in several seconds and flew along the rivulet which was 30 ft wide and in some places only half a foot deep. Bob maneuvered the boat at 50 knot so as to avoid hitting some tree branch or a rock jut in the last moment. The adrenalin was pumped in gallons. When the river widened to 50 ft and deepened to 3 ft Bob gave a signal to everybody to hold tight and did 360 degree turn. The boat immediately caught it's own wake and everybody became as wet as a submarine just surfaced. The passengers didn't stop yelling from the first moment Bob reached max speed and directed his boat at the rock wall, they never shut their mouths and the boat raced along the river like a banshee.

When everybody thought that it's all over because Bob did another couple of double U-turns, he took us at max speed (I forgot to say that he never lowered the speed and only moved at 50 knot) to a narrow canyon with rocky walls going up to hundreds of feet.

The walls were separated by 20 ft and you could touch the walls rushing by if you had a spare arm in stock back in the hotel. The river wasn't quite straight and the scene was right out of a computer game for kids who can allow themselves in the circumstances to occasionally ram the wall to hear loud 'KAR-R-O-O-M' and to start the race again. We had our vests on but understood that if Bob missed one of the juts by an inch we would ram the wall at a speed of an Oriental Express on a flat stretch between Istanbul and Baghdad and no vest would help us because only our tiny fragments would make it to the river surface.

Bob never missed because every move was measured and planned and rehearsed. Those Kiwi guys earned their money in a hard way. When we made it back to the pier all cholesterol blobs on the walls of the blood vessels in our bodies were successfully washed off by the tons of adrenalin produced and we gave Bob a standing ovation. At least those of us who could stand up. Later the guys told us that they ran their boats in Grand Canyon in the States and somewhere else, I think in Scandinavia.

You can compare it to a jetski ride only in terms of speed and maneuverability but the jetboat moves in a very limited space making it more fun and much more dangerous than a jetski.

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Internet

Nowadays a lot of hotels in Turkey have Internet connection but still you can find a big hotel without its website like Seven Seas Hotel. Some of them don't even have email address. At least it's not indicated on the official list of hotels prepared by the Turkish Association of Travel Agencies TURSAB.

Still a lot of hotels have a laptop connected to Internet in the hotel lobby. You swipe your Visa to get connected and you are back in the virtual world. It's about $1.50 /hr. If the hotel has no setup go to the front desk manager and he'll refer you to the hotel computer guy. He'll never refuse you to read your email and answer it.

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