Go Turkey!

Off late Turkey has become a sought after holiday destination for many. So when my friends came back raving about their vacation in Turkey, I marked it off as a country on my map of places to visit soon! Whether it be dance & music, glimpses of civilisation from the glorious past, bird’s eye views from a hot air balloon, a sip of hot Turkish coffee or a bite into a juicy and flaky baklava, Turkey can have different meanings for different people. Adam Reaney the author for this post shares with us his take and what he thinks are 5 things to do in Turkey 5 Things to do in Turkey that won’t get you killed Turkey is a country with many fingers in many pies. With most of it in West Asia, there is a small part that is in Europe, separated by the Dardanelles and the Sea of Mamara. This makes it one of the few places in the world where you can move across continents and stay within the same nation. Holidays to Turkey have become very popular in recent years with European tourists, and it has recently applied to be accepted into the European Union. UK citizens have to pay £10 for a visa when in the country to stay for 90 days, but most other countries in the Union can go there without this. Recently, there have been one or two deaths in the southern resorts of the country, due to extreme activities like paragliding and white water rafting. Below is a list of 5 things you can do in this beautiful country that won’t get you killed which is after all quite an important part of going on holiday!! Get Scrubbed in a Turkish Bath One of Turkey’s most famous pastimes, a Turkish bath (called a hamam in Turkish) consists of a good exfoliating scrub followed by what is essentially a bubble bath. The bather lies on a pyre and allows the attendant to cover you in bubbles and give you a light massage. It’s very relaxing and leaves you feeling refreshed and revitalised! The chap at the Spa told us it was like ‘Bathing in champagne’, and he wasn’t far off! Most bath-houses will offer lots of spa treatments to follow, such as facemasks, massages, foot treatments and hand treatments. It is advisable to always book through a tour operator or rep, as they will choose the best bath-houses. It isn’t unheard of for a street vendor to sell tourists Turkish Baths that are run by less than savoury folk wanting to rip you off.

Visit a Market The Turkish markets are spectacles to behold with awe. There are literally hundreds of stalls in some places, such as Fethiye, selling everything from faux-designer clothes to spices and herbs. A lot of Turkey’s exported goods are leather, and the country has built up a reputation for some of the best leather goods in the world. This means that the markets will often have real leather products at quite good prices. The vendors are very much accustomed to English tourists, and will shout and barter in English (“Asda price”). We even heard one shout ‘quality crap’, we’re not sure if he was told by an English person to shout it or not. One of the essential experiences of the market is to barter with the stall vendor. Often they will overprice their goods to play to the ‘ignorant tourist’ stereotype; but you can avoid this by having a fixed price of what you want to pay and not budging, often you will come out on top as the vendor wants a sale.

Enjoy a Jeep Safari These are mainly available in the southern resorts such as Fethiye and Oludeniz. They cost around £20 per person, which includes the tour, transport to and from your hotel and lunch. Jeep safaris are a fantastic way to spend a day, it’s well worth the price. The one I went on was with Karacay tours near Oludeniz.  Something to bear in mind is that along the way between destinations, the locals love to spray the jeeps with their hose-pipes and throw water on you. It’s all very good fun and the best thing to do is to throw it back at them! Firstly the tour took us to the nearby ruins of Tlos, where Pegasus is supposed to be buried. It then took us to the Yaka National Park; a beautiful place which is like something directly out of Robinson Crusoe, with wooden huts and waterfalls and a freezing cold pool full of massive trout. The bar staff let you have a free drink if you can stay in the pool for 15 minutes, I lasted 2 and couldn’t stand it any longer! We then moved on to the gorge of ‘Saklikent’, which means ‘Hidden City’ in Turkish. Here you’re allowed to walk up the gorge in the freezing water, where there’s some beautiful photo opportunities, before coming back to the actually village for lunch. After lunch there’s time to spend hanging out in a hammock over the water and just lounging in the booths that dot the riverside. Then it’s on to the mud-baths of Dalyan, where you get to behave like a 4 year old again and roll around in the mud and have mud-fights. Then at the end of a very long and very tiring day, they take you to a beach in Fethiye where you can lounge for an hour and have a drink, swim or just relax on a hammock! This trip was possibly the best £20 I ever spent. Sail into the Sunset This is a very cheap way to spend an evening with your partner. It’s not such a good family activity as it’s very relaxed and quite romantic. It cost us £8 per person, which includes as much wine as you can hold, and a BBQ dinner. The boat takes you to points of interest, such as Camel Beach where you can dive off the boat into the sea or snorkel around the nearby rocks if you’re so inclined. Then it takes you on a lovely scenic route of the local islands until finally resting at the rocks of St Nicholas island. Which is itself a beautiful spectacle as it’s bursting with ruins of the long lost Greek population that lived on the island before the Turk arrived. Dinner is served just before sunset, as it has been slowly BBQ-ing on the back of the boat while you’re been floating around. Then everybody disembarks to sit in the rocks and watch the sun go down behind the islands. It’s a fascinating sight, and it’s perfect to sit and watch with romantic partner!

Smoke Some Shisha! Shisha pipes are extremely popular in Turkey, with most shops selling them and the accompanying tobacco and syrup needed to operate one. They can be bought as trinkets in the majority of shops but there are one or two places that actually sell you the pipe. If you’re not inclined to have the actual tobacco then you can just have a smoke pipe, which is just flavoured smoke, nothing sinister. We paid 15TL for a small pipe, although when i it arrived it was pretty big! It lasts for around 2-3 hours if you can take it for long enough, but it’s very good value for money and definitely worth a try if you’re feeling bold enough! The place we went was called the Help Beach Bar on Oludeniz beach, and it was basically a couple of hundred bean-bags on the beach with candles and cocktails and lots of shisha! An excellent way to spend an evening. So for all those heading to this wonderful place filled with warm people and excellent food, “Serefe” … 🙂