Well, I always buy clothes, shoes, handbags etc. There is some nice potteryware; and carpets of course.

Jewellery is also excellent value, remember to haggle over the price !! What you pay for it over there is worth 2 - 3 times more here.

Les

remember the price of gold is through the roof not a good time to buy ,but a good time to sell youre broken an d odd bits we just got near to a 1000 for a bag of old rubbish , best buy id say is pide beats our pizza

i tend to buy handbags and sandals in turkey lol, got lovely sandals last year for just 10 lira woohoo lol! as for jewellery, just be careful,my mum got ripped off before, ive always been ok though touch wood and the jewellery there is 14 ct and 22 ct therefore more pricey than here!i was in turkey in march lol and we went to fix my ring, i tried on bracelet,hubby said you liek,i said oh yes,how much...........well..........it was £500 we were needless to say i didnt get it lol!just shop around and be careful, sometimes depending what your buying your better off buying original here,last year when i worked in marm i needed trainers,i couldnt find any and needed them quickly so bought puma ones (fake of course) they fell apart after 2 weeks for the price i had paid i coulda had orignal ones from home!!!!!!!its just i was desperate!x

lol. I do agree about the jewlery, be careful. I bought some white gold earings last summer and I could have got them cheaper here. But DH had his CC out and it was a late birthday pressie so I wasn't arguing.

Gold there seems to be bought more for investment purposes rather than given for sentimental reasons. I spoke to a Turkish lady who was give 35 gold items of jewellerry as wedding gifts and then sold 30 to fit out her kitchen (or might have been her home cant remember) so i'm not sure but it may mean that prices hold there better than here, where we all stash our money in building societies. They just flog it when they hit hard times. Although gold prices are supposedly set worldwide.

yes you are right,they do buy it as investment for future,my in laws have some and they sell it if they money for something lol!no wonder, with expensive jeweleery costing hundreds id be scared to wear it i think the thing with it also is because things are higher in gold if you sell you dont lose too much ie. my hubby for me ring for anniversary last year,it was 180 lira,but if we sold it (which we arent lol!) we would lose just 30 lira so still good investment!x

Strange as it may seem we always bring back chicken stock cubes! They are not as salty as the ones you buy here. We also get a big bag of peppercorns on the market.
If you want any specialised jewellery its a good place to get it.
Last year our daughter had a ring made with her husband and 2 daughters birth stones. Not sure how much it cost, but I think it was good value, and was made very quickly!

The best thing I bought back last year, was a huge bag of some kind of meat spices that you put in bolognese or lasagne meat sauces. I got mixed up with the prices and think it was quite expensive but it's lasted an age and I use it each week. I will be gutted when its run out.

I know we all spend different amounts but if you said a meal for 3 in the evening with a couple of beers, couple of soft drinks and couple of wines - how much do you think? Just trying to work out what to take for a 2 week stay self catering .... we will have breakfast in apartment, probably buy snack type lunch and then have evening meal out

jeans are a great buy still wearing ones i got over a year ago , diesel and armani are the good ones that i found and tommy hillfiger (spelling).

Efes beer?

yeah say efes .. just a guideline

Or maybe he was saying Efes was the best thing to buy in Turkey

Yes, I did indeed mean the best thing to buy in Turkey is Efes. A great invention.

My wife wanted to buy an olive tree from our local garden centre last year.Because of the British climate they are ok in their pot in the garden,then in winter they are brought inside where they will hibernate until the following Spring.After reading about them they will also withstand cold temperatures as they become more mature.
Anyway at our local garden centre last year they were £35 so we never bought one.Went back in April this year they had risen to£45.
Went to another garden centre.£54...Thought I would get one whilst in Turkey but was not sure if you could bring them back.On the British Horticultural website it said non EU countries including Turkey allow you to bring back up to 5 plants and flowers.
With this in mind we went to a garden centre in Fethiye whilst there in April and bought 2 Olive trees approx 2ft in height.Best buy ever 5 lira each .
On the day of leaving I took them from their pots washed all the soil off the roots and wrapped them in wet kitchen roll.Put them in a bag and then in the suitcase.Must admit I was still nervy at Dalaman but no problems at all.They are now potted up and on my patio and new leaves are appearing.Saved myself about £85.How good is that.

Excellent! I have often looked at the olive trees here but they are so expensive. Maybe we will bring one back, it wuld look nice in our garden.

yes great idea might try that ...
whats it like re buying alcohol - ie. can you buy wine etc in the supermarkets for your aparrtment or do we have to buy it duty free and take it with us? how much can you take in too? and what about coming home? i know my sister went to dubai which is a muslim country and once there couldnt buy alcohol anywhere except at a bar

You can buy wine in the supermarket no problem. It isn't particularly cheap though. You can get beer, spirits etc too in all the supermarkets

We bought two pairs of jeans. One D&G (10 Lira, but are looking quite worn out, and only ever worn a few times), and Replay (around €30, with a discount from the lovely man in the shop - one advantage of a woman haggling - and have lasted being worn at least once a week - only damage is whre the dogs claw went through the pre-worn part!).

My mum got a lovely diamond ring from the jewellers in the hotel. We haven't had it valued over here, but have proof that it is a real diamond. It's reasonably big, and one of the sparkliest I've seen. It was quite cheap as well, even for Turkish standards. That said, I was quoted £600 for a silver ring with a smaller diamond in, and that's nearly twice what we paid for mum's! Just shop around for jewellery, and haggle. My sister also got a two-tone gold pendant, and a chain specially made, for her birthday, under £120.

A strange one is the medical supplies. I had to visit the chemist on two occasions whilst we where there, and hardly spent a thing. The first was when I got a cold (don't ask me how), and need decongestant. It cost around 2 lira, for 20 tablets. I then got bitten badly by a fish (I still have the scars), and the wounds got pretty badly infected. I went to the doctors, and was given two creams, an antihistamine, and an antibiotic. These got about 6 lira together, and they were big tubes. Only thing is they don't tell you want the stuff you're given is. I had to ask one of the barmen we knew to read the information for me!

Other good buys were handbags (I saw a fake Chloe one, quite cheap, but it had sold out by the next night ), and perfume. Sun scream and deodrant were quite cheap outside of the hotel, and the deodrant seemed to be stronger, and last better (even though it was the same brand).

Most things are a good buy, just be prepared to haggle it down by at least 15%.