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Olu Deniz Resort Hotel - Turkey.
My wife and I went on holiday from Thursday 1st May to Friday 16th May 2003 at Olu Deniz in Turkey. We booked our holiday with First Choice and paid £583 each for 14 days All Inclusive at the Olu Deniz Resort Hotel . At the welcome meeting they give you a guide which, if you read it from cover to cover as I did, tells you all you would want to know about Turkey. This is a lovely hotel set in marvelous grounds - it is like living in a garden centre. There are two gates at this hotel, one is the coast road and the other leads straight onto Belcekiz beach. The hotel is on the edge of the resort, which is about the size of Lyme Regis. The heart of the resort is only 10 minutes walk along the promenade. A lot of my family, friends and workmates questioned my choice of opting for an All Inclusive deal rather than having bed and breakfast or half board. Well, I definitely made the right choice! It was great not having to traipse around looking where to eat and not having to worry about the cost. Gail always wants a starter, main course and a pudding - she is not a cheap woman to feed and water! I had the best food I have ever eaten. The range of food was huge, quality top rate and everything was thoroughly cooked. The taste is difficult to describe - so full of flavour, nothing was bland. You simply helped yourself to as little or as much as you wanted with no restrictions whatsoever. It was 14 days of feasting. I put on 8 pounds and Gail put on 10 pounds. From 00.00 to 07.30 you could only have drinking water. From 07.30 to 23.59 you could help yourself to umlimited food and soft drinks, including tea and coffee. From 10.00 to 23.59 you could have unlimited alcoholic drinks - no catches - just ask. There was Tuborg lager, locally distilled whisky, brandy, vodka, gin and raki. Red, white and rose wine. I enjoy real ale at home but I found the lager very easy to drink. I do not drink spirits but tried the local raki out of interest. It is a Turkish spirit very similar to Pernod. Wow, it certainly gives you a kick - great with lemonade. I had a number of these - great after the lager. The red wine was great with your dinner. The staffing levels were very high - their morale was very good. Their customer facing was spot on. Not false and American, just personal. They all appeared to speak some English - all the signage was in English as well as the entertainment. The fun and games start at 10.00 and continue to 23.59 - the music is varied with a lot of euro-disco. The lead entertainer would talk in English and repeat the important bits in Dutch, German and Russian. There were 6 entertainers, 3 men and 3 women plus a Belgian DJ. The humour was rather gay but never offensive - I think it went over a lot of people's heads! At noon and at 23.00 there was the ritual of the "Club Dance" - you get the hang of it very quickly. It was done to a record called "Yaman Olacak" by Reyhan Karaca. All the accomodation is either 2 or 3 storey with a balcony or veranda. Each room is air conditioned with full disabled access - ramps and grab rails everywhere. The swimming pool is large with a big 1.8m depth swimming part. There is an amphitheatre for the 22.00 nightly show which was also used during the day for activities. I was very impressed with this hotel and can recommend it. It is aimed at families and couples, not stag and hen parties. It was time to trim my beard so I tried the traditional Turkish Shave - 12m lira - for the experience. Nobody has ever shaved me before and boy do they fuss. Soap, more soap, massage, crack finger joints, more massage, more soap and shave. Pull the skin and not a knick. Nasal hair cut, eyebrows cut and ear hair singed with fire. Loads of lotions and potions - this is pampering, I felt like a real tart! The resort of Olu Deniz is good. It is not for your living-it-large party drunkards or 18/30 disco fodder. It is not overtly commercial, it is not plebby or a mini Blackpool. There are no global chains - just small local businesses. Going further west is the famous Blue Lagoon , the most photographed beach in Turkey. It is a well managed water park which is quite similar in character to Cosmeston Lakes . I had a stroll around and saw a camel, with one hump, sheltering below a tree. So I took a photograph of it and it's owner came up behind me and in English offered to use my camera for £3 and take photographs of me on his camel going around the car park. I got up on King Corbain and what a shock I got. When he was laid down he appeared the size of a dairy cow but when he got up he got higher and higher! Goodness knows how long his legs where! Around the car park we strolled, pausing for photographs. His owner gave the command for him to let me off and he knelt as gracefully as a kneeling coach. The path does not go all around the Blue Lagoon so I hired a canoe for an hour at 7 million lira - £2.80 - to see the other side. I have not had a go in a canoe before but the lagoon is so sheltered and calm I was not in any danger. The canoe was very light and I did not get wet. I mastered control after a bit and fully appreciated this nature reserve. We got chatting to another couple and they had been horse riding . I have never ridden a horse and the price had always dissuaded me but they had only paid £10 and they were gone for hours. So I paid my £10 and was picked up in a minibus from our hotel at 15.30 and taken to a farm miles away from anywhere. The guy asked how often I rode and I told him never. So I was put on a female horse called Altin and off we went in a convoy of six. A leader at the front, four punters and another leader at the back. There was a metal ring at the front of the saddle to hold on to and the lead from her head. It was as easy as sitting on a bus! Up and down dale we went, along footpaths, through forests and around rocks. This was the back of beyond - and we ended up at Kaya Koy, a ghost village. Here the horses were rested and I bought a beer. After about 45 minutes we got back on the horses and went back to the farm the same way. I probally spent about 2 hours 30 mins on horseback and coupled with the free transport to and from the farm made this the best £10 I have ever spent on a leisure activity. We went on an organised trip at £18 each for an Ottoman Night. We were picked up in a first class touring coach and taken to the ghost village of Kaya Koy where we had a guided tour around the abandoned village. Then we had a three course dinner and unlimited free drinks - all included in our £18 ticket. We were entertained by traditional Turkish wedding dances and a Turkish belly dancer. My dad was right when he warned me that belly dancers can be very erotic. We were then invited to join them in the dancing which was an absolute hoot! The drunken coachload left at around 23.15 - a great night out. I was in the market for a new pair of shoes and caught a dolmus to Fethiye . A dolmus is a minibus that is used as a community taxi. The fare to Fethiye, which is 12km away, is only 2m lira - about 80p and you pay on exit. The market is every Tuesday and is huge. You can buy a lot of "genuine fakes" there. You need to be assertive because these boys can sell, really sell. The market traders either price their goods, where the price you see is the price you pay, or they haggle. With the hagglers you can use the guideline of making a deal at 70% of their initial offer price or, as I did, decide before hand how much you will pay and not budge from that. I was willing to pay £20 for a good pair of leather shoes. I liked one pair of shoes and the guy wanted £32 for them, which in his style eventually reduced to £23. I told him I was not there to waste his time and tried to walk away - two steps I got before he tugged my arm - "OK" he said and accepted my £20. Our rep offered a trip to Dalyan for £19 but for £29 you could do the same trip plus afterwards stay at an hotel where you would have a room and evening meal and only a 20 minute transfer to Dalaman airport. As our plane was flying out at 03.50 were went for this option - as recommended by other internet users! We were picked up in a top class touring coach - I never knew that Mitsubishi did coaches - and were taken to a Turkish carpet making place. Women were making these carpets by hand - long and slow with double knots. Each carpet taking months, even years. I asked the guide why they did not use computerised machines and I was told that machine made carpets would only last 20 years while he claimed their hand made carpets would last over 100 years. I asked him if the women were browned off with such brain numbing work and he assured me that they knew no better and had always done this work. We then went to Dalyan and got on a boat and went up river to a Turkish Mud Bath. Gail and I chickened out of the gunge and smell and had a beer instead! Not far from the mud baths along the river bank I spotted briefly, just below the surface, a loggerhead turtle, which the area is famous for. We then went down river to a riverside restaurant where we had lunch, which was included in the ticket price. Then we went past some catacombs before arriving at Iztuzu Beach were we spent a couple of hours. We sailed back to Dalyan were the coach took us to Club Alla Turca Hotel on the outskirts of Dalyan. This is a 60 room hotel in a wonderful location. There are mountains on both sides, no commercial activity - just a few farms - a true, peaceful retreat. I swam in the 1.55m deep pool gazing up at the mountains. The evening meal was a delicious hot and cold buffet affair on a veranda besides the pool. It seemed daft booking a 00.30 alarm call at reception for the airport transfer but it was right to get some sleep before the long journey home. This hotel was the last pick up point before Dalaman airport and is a brilliant way to end the holiday. It also gave us the chance to compare our hotel with others. There is nothing wrong with the Club Alla Turca Hotel but it is in a different league compared with the Olu Deniz Resort Hotel. You get what you pay for - and considering how much Gail and I ate and drank - I do not think they made much money out of us. Repeat business yes. We certainly had our money's worth - I dread to think how much a similar holiday would have cost us in Scotland. We were simply quids in.
Tesekkur ederim.
About the author.
Websites vary because of the author and what is right for one person may not be right for everyone.
The above is a personal view and I have no business interests in Olu Deniz.
Also by the same author...
Club Milta, Torba, Turkey my holiday in 2004.
My name is Stephen Clynes. I was born in 1958 and now live in Cardiff, South Wales.
If you have any questions or comments then you can email me stephenofwestfieldpark@yahoo.co.uk
Send E-Mail to: stephenofwestfieldpark@yahoo.co.uk
Copyright © 2004 Stephen Clynes. All Rights Reserved