pandy1956 wrote:

Never mind, we learned our lesson, and we will take our precious 2 week holiday elsewhere in future. Turkey doesn't deserve my hard earned money!!!

Bit harsh to slate an entire country on the basis on one experience, no?

Absolutely! Obviously the hotel you stayed at wasn't very good so you have every right to give it a bad review, (although you will find that nowhere will let you take your own food and drink to the poolside if they have a bar - we usually go back to the apartment to have our food and drink rather than eat at the bar/restaurant). However putting down the whole country because of your bad experience in one hotel seems a bit harsh to me too.

Some hotels and apartments can become downright possesive,demanding to know where you are going every night why you arent eating there,pushing turkish nights on you boat trips etc etc,although in their defence i know for a fact that the tour operators pay an absolute pittance for the rooms at some of the smaller places and money has to made elsewhere(food,drinks).When we last visited spain two years ago we had to readjust to being allowed to take our own ice creams water food round the pool and were pleasently suprised to find the bar staff friendly but not intrusive,and had no interest in if this was our first trip to spain,what we did for a living,did we own our own house.I must say however olu deniz ,icmeler gumbet and the like are resorts and that is all ,they literally close in winter so money has to be made during the season.We were very impressed with bodrum when we visited there and the hotel we stayed in was fantastic with friendly staff who where pleased to see you spending money or not.Tourists probally do get scammed in other parts of the world but the sad thing about it happening in turkey is that on the whole the turks are a charming race and it is quite dissapointing to think that some of the charm could be false and money orientated .

It wasn't just one bad experience though................ It was a whole fortnight!!!!!

I have to admit our love affair with Turkey is certainly not what it once was . I have long since taken off my rose tinted specs when it comes to their "genuine" warmth & hospitality . I'm in no way taring all with the same brush but I feel with the way the economic climate is & the understandably tighter clamp we have on our pursestrings this has flushed out the not so Genuine in the Turkish resorts . They have become far too used to our good nature & happy go lucky spending habits whilst we are on holiday & dont like it now we are being more careful & not willing to pay inflated prices for stuff we can buy at home for much less. . Not that they believe us .

We will still visit ,although at this present time we feel somewhat "Turkeyed out" but will do so because they provide a great range of good quality A/I accomodation with a buzz that we like & not necessarily any other reason.

Over the next few years our holiday habits will no doubt change as our children dont come with us & it will be nice if Turkey can impress us in the self catering market as it has always done with A/I .I will reserve my judgement fully until then .

lyn

Thankyou lyn for writing your post.
We have been going to icmeler for 10 years now and we have felt that the last couple of years have just not been the same, can't put your finger on whats wrong but just not right. We like you are feeling all turkeyed out so for the next couple of years are going to give it a miss and try some where else.
We WILL go back at some stage but just not sure when.

Karen

lynwestie a very perceptive post,you have said what i have been thinking for a few years now,dont be completley put off turkey though we find some areas a lot worse than others and there are still some genuine people working in the resorts.

pandy1956 wrote:

It wasn't just one bad experience though................ It was a whole fortnight!!!!!

Correct me if I'm wrong though, but was it not just based on one resort? That was the main point I was trying to make. I wouldn't write off the whole of Spain, for instance, because I personally can't stand Benidorm (although I know loads of people who love it!)

I am glad I stay in a villa, but to answer your question pandy I am not in the habit of buying drinks/snacks from the bar during the day if I am self catering in apartments: I would just go back to my apartment to drink/eat if I wasn't actually leaving the complex - so yes, I would go a whole day without buying something from the bar, even if I were to pay for it as I went along.

Perhaps because I have only had villa holidays in Turkey, and not been to the bigger resorts, I have not felt ripped off in the same way as some others. I definitely hope to go back sometime.

blondiescot wrote:

pandy1956 wrote:

It wasn't just one bad experience though................ It was a whole fortnight!!!!!

Correct me if I'm wrong though, but was it not just based on one resort? That was the main point I was trying to make. I wouldn't write off the whole of Spain, for instance, because I personally can't stand Benidorm (although I know loads of people who love it!)

And just one hotel. I know it is easy to be put off by having a bad holiday but Turkey is a very big country and there are many different resorts. You could equally have gone to a different hotel in a different resort and come back saying what a fantastic holiday you had.

You are absolutely right Kedi, BUT we once had a bad experience in Rhodes and I wouldn't go back even if the holiday was free! Each to their own. Must say though I think tourist numbers to Turkey will certainly decline over the next few years,price increases for one but I also personally think the Turks think we are made of money. Like Lynwestie I have also taken off my rose coloured specs this year after witnessing certain behaviour I haven't experienced on previous visits. That said we booked just last week to return next year. Must say though this is due to the excellent WOW Bodrum resort rather than Gumbet itself which we found really expensive and nowhere near as friendly as other areas we have previously visited.

Who's talking about one hotel, or one resort?????
We were even charged to sit on the beach!!!

I live in Cornwall, and my livelihood depends on tourism, but when did you last visit Cornwall and have to pay to sit on a beach, or get hassled to buy something, or eat in a restaurant, grabbed by the arm and marched into a shop, where the door was locked behind you, and you were pressured to buy fruit tea at a ridiculous price, just to get out of the shop?
Have you ever visited Cornwall and looked in a jewellery shop window looking for a price on anything, only for the assistant to come out and practically force you to buy? WE DID, and when we firmly and politely said we were only looking, mocked and mimicked. "only looking, just looking, always you English just looking" (not a pleasant experience)

It wasn't ACTUALLY our first visit to Turkey, we went to a Kusadassi 3 years ago
and hated it. HOWEVER, we decided to give it a second chance, and tried a different part
this time, hoping it would be a more pleasant experience....................It wasn't, and we still hated it!!!!
Turkey is a very beautiful country, BUT there are equally beautiful countries to visit whereby you CAN walk down a street without being hassled, or shop without the fear of being ripped off and pestered.
Holidays are meant to be pleasant relaxing experiences, NOT constantly being hassled to buy or eat something you don't want.
By all means LOVE Turkey, that's YOUR prerogative. Mine is to go somewhere I feel comfortable next time, thanks!!!

I have been going to Turkey for 20 years to different resorts and although the hassle was worse then it seemed to be good natured.
I have been to Icmeler the last 5 Octobers and this year was just not the same.
Many people we spoke to had been overcharged or had drinks added to their bill in restaurants.
I couldnt put my finger what was wrong but lots of people felt the same.
My friend has an apartment in Marmaris on the Datcha road and next year she is only going for 2 weeks in May and 2 weeks in September.They normally go for a month at least 3 times a year.
I will probably give Turkey a miss next year and I am off to Egypt next week,Spain in January and Rhodes in May.
I may not enjoy these holidays as much as Turkey but the only way to compare is to go somewhere else.

well done Lyn for hitting the nail on the head - I thought it was just us becoming jaded
In a nutshell, I think one word sums it up and that's "greed"

We still love Icmeler and turkey in general, and our rose tinted glasses came off a couple of years ago once we'd had a couple of "mistakes" on our bills.

Colette's earlier post sums things up brilliantly too - let's just say we're wiser now and share Col's views on not returning somewhere again.

I could bore you all with examples of this happening to us in Icmeler here and there,especially in recent years, but I won't. We've found places where we get true hospitiality etc and they are the places we make sure we visit. More importantly we'll soon be on our countdown for next year's hol there

pandy1956 wrote:

...when did you last visit Cornwall and have to pay to sit on a beach, or get hassled to buy something, or eat in a restaurant, grabbed by the arm and marched into a shop, where the door was locked behind you, and you were pressured to buy fruit tea at a ridiculous price, just to get out of the shop?
Have you ever visited Cornwall and looked in a jewellery shop window looking for a price on anything, only for the assistant to come out and practically force you to buy?

I haven't been to Cornwall for a long time so I can't comment on what it is like there however in all the years I have spent in Turkey I have never had to pay to sit on the beach (we did have to pay in Greece and Lanzarote though), I have never had any hassle from shopkeepers or restaurant workers, nor have I been grabbed or pressured by anyone so I guess that is where our experiences differ.

I do understand that if you have had a bad holiday it would put you off from visiting again. There are parts of Turkey I would not choose to visit either as I didn't like them, Kusadasi and Marmaris for example, however all I was saying you can go on holiday to Turkey and not experience the things you did, as many, many people do every year and come back loving it. I think it was just unfortunate that so many bad things happened to you on your holiday. Had my first holidays to Turkey have been that awful then I may not have gone back either, luckily I have never experienced anything like that and I have spent a lot of time in Turkey!

I hope wherever you choose to go next time you have a better holiday

pandy1956 wrote:

have to pay to sit on a beach

Was that to actually sit on the beach, of was the payment for the hire of sunbeds? Like Kedi, I've never had to pay just to use the beach, but the hire of sunbeds while on the beach is normally always chargable, wherever you visit.

Darren

I have never had to pay for a sunbed in Turkey either.

I think one thing is becoming clearer and clearer and that is us brits are wising up to some turks.Personally i have to disagree with people who claim to have felt ripped off in spain ,greece etc i have never felt dubious when visiting theese places about hidden costs scams etc and never felt the need to go over bills with a fine tooth comb but hey that is just my opinion.We love turkey have relatives living out there and through marriage have turkish family too all living in one resort,however the downside to this as i have stated before is that when you visit for a lengh of time understand a little of the language and discover what really goes on in some resorts it is a bit of a shock and a huge dissapointment.Even when we where still a little knaive and wet behind the ears whilst on holiday in icmeler we were always suspicious that we might be being ripped off on some things a feeling i have never had in any other country(apart from perhaps egypt).This has never put us off turkey we are just a little more cautious and most of our bad experiences have happened in the same area (to which we still happily return might i add)however i can completley understand that some tourists are being put off turkey by some greedy resort workers and can understand where pandy is coming from.we have visited most of the touristy places and some are definatley worse than others so maybe pandy had you tried somewhwere like dalyan gocek or yalikavak you might have seen the country in a completley different light,

I've always felt that Turkey is one of those Love or hate destinations . I can completely understand where Pandy is coming from . Those that love Turkey will continue to defend the country / holiday destination they love and that is understandable too . We too used to defend the country we loved so much. My sons girlfriend went there for the first time last year (gumbet) and hated it . Did nothing but slate it and I found it hard to swallow & shut my mouth .

I dont want this topic to drift off too far into the "hassle" aspect but just using that as an example nobody here can deny that is part of a holiday in Turkey. It seems everybody has a different take on what Hassle actually is . Now I personally dont mind a bit of banter and have always enjoyed it . My husband hates it to the point he no longer enjoys a stroll into town . If we cant take a relaxing stroll out without 10 guys in a row asking us to look at their menu and having to politely keep repeating" no thanks we have eaten" only to then be asked to still look at the menu for another night then I call that hassle but others may not . If I want to eat I want to perusal a menu in peace . Let the guy stand inside and if I enter the restaurant it means I like what I see & he can show us to a table . I don't want to hear what he has to say until then .

I've never actually felt ripped off because I enjoy the bartering and if I don't see the value I won't be buying . What I'm personally sensing more than anything is caution over the "genuine " warmth and hospitality . I don't believe a word of it anymore . Now i'm in danger here of taring all turks with the same brush & I dont mean to do that but more often than not they just tell us what we want to hear and we have been mugs in the past for falling for it .

lyn