If you can't beat them, join them! Use the touts for the bar/restaurant you want and get some money off/free drinks. Touts will always be about so used the ones to your advantage. Last summer I found the ones in marmaris polite and friendly enough. A no thanks was usually enough and they would leave you alone but if you said anything other than no they were giving you the hard sell lol Marmaris was fine hassling wise, nothing compared to tenerife! They were just plain abusive over there

thanks Green and Scooby, great advice!

White rabbit, please don't worry about your wife and daughter being harrassed in a sexual manner. Unfortunately Turkey seems to have a bad and pretty much unfounded reputation of this mainly due to lots of silly magazines telling outrageous and a lot of the time untrue stories. Turkey actually doesn't have a probelm with sexual harrassment it is just the British media which portrays it this way.

You will find people trying to get you into their bars, restaurants and shops and as others have said it is worse in the bigger resorts, especially where there are a lot of Western tourists, they don't hassle Turkish tourists. Usually a polite "no thank you" works well enough though.

If your wife and daughter are with you then the men wont hassle them at all and even if they are out without you they wont normally find any man who would touch them or be rude to them, on the whole they are very friendly. Of course much of the problem is that there are a lot of female tourists who go out to Turkey just for the men! Again you will find this in the bigger resorts.

Turkish people are among the friendliest I have ever met, I think you will be pleasantly surprised when you actaully get there.

Kedi

This topic pops up now and again on the forum .You WILL get people standing outside restaurants and bars touting for your custom and trying to sell you stuff at the markets and shops that is their jobs ,personally it has never bothered me as i just say no thank you and walk on , or i stop say no thank you and have a wee bit of a banter with the guys .Never once have i been verbally abused in Turkey and i have been all over the country many times .I have heard many tourists verbally abusing the touts ,by telling them to p--- off and stuff like that .When these people start that then you will get conflict. There are people who dont want to be bothered while on holiday and that is understanable .You will soon find out for yourself how to handle it and then it just wont bother you.

Thanks Kedi and Bluepeter I am already much happier and sure of the holiday being a success and liking the Turkish people, who seem freindly from what you are all saying. I am grateful for all the considerate replies.

What resort has a nice sandy beaach, is not too large and is pretty?

Thanks again all.

ive already give you links to a resort that fits the bill, so has another member of HT !!!

you could also look at olu deniz, this has a nice lagoon with sandy beaches, very scenic and small/medium sized resort

People touting for business are often polite so deserve that same politeness when you respond - I find a nice No Thank you is sufficient and you are left alone. You have to remember these people have between 5 & 6 month to make a living during the holiday season so tourist are always prime targets. I tell them I live here!!!

white rabbit
i dont think you have anything to worry about going to turkey ,
the turkish people are very friendly ,
just a nice and polite no will be ok they will respect you more for it
ave a great holiday in turkey and hope to hear from you.
tony