my daughter stayed at the monachus park all inclusive. in may this year.i was at the hemera at the same time and went to visit her. now i dont want to alarm you but the place looks like beruit building work is not the word thay are doing vew roads et etc etc. so go back to the travel agents and ask about all the work going on , and seeing as under turkish law all work has to stop at a certain time of year so this work will not be finished. i found it very difficult to walk all the rubble everywhere.there is one main street with a few shops and restaurants.

so sorry about having to say this but prewarned is prearmed.

dave

the kamelya resort generally gets good reviews...apart from complaints that the hotel is more geared for german guests...and that some of the bedooms need new furniture!
otherwise people like the facilities,the food and especially the aquapark .its a large complex very near to a good beach. Colaklı is a developing area, lots of new apartment blocks and villas going up in and around the area as a lot of people from the uk are moving here.

Thanks for the replies. I kind of guessed it was a developing area but rubble everywhere seems a bit harsh!

We made sure we read every single review out there, and it seem relatively positive for the resort itself, but yes - the german presence seems to be quite strong compared to other nationalities - I suppose it will be good for us to practice our german

Is the area of Side a nice place to visit? With it being 8km's away, it cant be that expensive for a taxi or bus?

Cheers

Side is my favourite Turkish resort!.It has an old town which you enter through the remains of a Roman town.There are 2 large sandy beaches on either side of the town.The dolmus runs to Side from Colaki and only costs about £1.
My friend has stayed at the Kamelya hotel and loved it so dont worry as you will enjoy your stay.

That's quite a relief then. So does the Kamelya hotel provide information on this bus, or does it become general knowledge when you get there?

The Dolmus,the local minibuses,usually run from the nearest main road.We dropped people off at the Kamelya when we went to the Hemera and I dont think it was far from the main road,it looked a fabulous hotel.If you put a post asking where exactly the hotel is and how far from the bus stop,someone who has stayed there will give you information.

We stayed at Kamelya World a few years back so lots of things have probably changed, but it's a fair bit out of Side. We got taxis there and it was well worth going. The archeology and history is amazing. Also make sure you visit Aspendos and do the white water rafting if that's your thing.
The hotel had nothing around it worth looking at IMHO but the beach was ok.
I was very disappointed in the hotel so I hope its improved. The staff were the main problem then. They had little English, which is fair enough, but had no interest in helping the guests so it made everything more difficult. The one exception was the kids animation team who were very good. The food was poor with little choice then and the rooms were poky. There were lots of Germans and Russians but that wasn't a problem, apart from the Russians having no concept of waiting their turn, which you kind of get used to.
I hope things have improved since we were there.

stopped in colakli 18 mths ago, dolmus passed our can garden hotel frequently we just waited on a nearby roundabout for it to turn up.we did stop in a smaller resort i think it was called kumkoy on the way into side,which had more shops,bars etc than colakli,but i think you are better off going into side since there,s more there.
the dolmus stops at a dolmus station just outside side and you transfer to a tracter/trailer for the last 1/2 mile through all the ruins.its at that same station that you can catch a dolmus into manevagat which is a small nearby town, we got off at the river in centre of town and went on a river trip to the falls.we prefer to do trips this way rather than an organised tour arranged by a tout on the beach.
we enjoyed our nights in side other than walking through the persistent shopkeepers to get down to the harbour area.there's live entertainment in the bars,the last dolmus was around midnight to return to colakli after that its taxi's.

Thanks again for the replies. We did a lot of researching before deciding on Kemelya, and it seems that it has gone through a bit of a renovation in recent years due to the contrast in reviews. But as people have said before, English seems to be quite scarce which is why I asked whether it's easy to find out about the Dolmus and where it goes to.

So is Aspendos quite close to Side? I guess i'll do a bit of research on what's to do in this area!

If you can tear yourself away from the hotel for a couple of days I can recommend a trip to Cappadocia.Its a truly amazing place and a 2 night 3 day trip costs around £36 with the local companies which can be found near to the hotels.

The dolmus to colakli is clearly marked..... the next area down between colakli and Side is Kumkoy lots of hotels shops and bars. The dolmus station at Side will take you firther aftield, easily.

Here's the hotel's website if you haven't already viewed it. http://www.kamelyaworld.com/

Bridd are we better off changing our location of this hotel from Side to Colaki in your opinion?

Don't know, Glynis. It's marketed by the TOs as Side but is actually a couple of miles out and you couldn't really walk there in the heat.

Thanks Bridd - what a palavar Turkey is

Colaki is 15kms from Side and Thomas Cook have some hotels on their website as being in Colaki but others which are there show up as being in Side!.I dont think Thomas Cook know themselves where the hotels are.