I have saved this report till now so as to keep things going as the forums become quieter. This is my excuse for being a bit slow and I'm sticking to it. Well here goes and I hope that I don't bore you all too much.

The journey to Gatwick was the worst ever. It took nearly four hours (normally less than two) because of traffic hold ups. After queuing for check in and security we just had time to grab a quick baguette and a drink before going through to departure lounge. Flight with Onur Air was fine, left a little late but not more than the usual. Meal could have been better but so could all flight meals. Arrived at Dalaman, (first time to the new airport), to more very long and slow moving queues for passport control. I think they should have put the visa desk before the passport control. Some people having managed to get to the front were then sent to get a visa and return again to the back of the queue. Baggage reclaim was good. Duty free was more expensive this year. Transfer was also not too bad, only taking about ninety minutes. After nearly 15 hours of travelling we eventually arrived at the Juniper hotel just in time for breakfast. We have made a mental note not to book for a Friday evening again.

I won't write too much about the hotel as I did a review on it after we stayed there in May. However I will say that despite the quieter times this year it was full all the time we were there and I believe it was the same through the season.

Weather wise, we had a lot of heavy rain on the Sunday, but apart from a couple of other showery days the sun shone brightly and was very hot.

Icmeler itself, well what can I say. After 14 visits to Turkey 12 of which to Icmeler, we still find it beautiful, relaxing and great fun. The welcome we always receive is second to none, especially the one we received on our first evening from the Lion (sadly to be no more) staff which is indescribable. If any of you read this, thank you all so much.

We tried to eat at a different restaurant every night; these included the Rainbow, Majestic, Artemis, Loveboat, Wayside, Lion, Pop In, Coco Beach, Heat & Breeze, Dream 3 Bells & Melissa. We never had a bad meal anywhere though if I had to choose the last 2 were probably the least favourite and I'd like to recommend the Rainbow as a new and upcoming restaurant for this year.

We went on to a few different bars after eating but found ourselves ending up in the Lion just about every night. They are a great bunch of lads, who put so much effort into keeping everyone happy and achieve it. We find the atmosphere at this bar the best but I know everyone has their own favourites.

Sadly the two weeks went by too fast yet again and back to Dalaman we had to go. Transfer was good as was the initial arrival at Dalaman. Check in was very slow and once through we were not overly impressed. The duty free had sold out of tobacco, the only place to sit was in the food areas and the ladies toilets had no toilet paper anywhere (now there's a surprise eh ladies). The escalators were a bit of a farce, one end of the building closed and the other end both seeming to go the same way. The nicest part we found was the actual departure lounge as you do get a good view of the aircraft coming and going. We may have been lucky in the past but have to say that things for us were better in the old airport. Let's hope all the issues this year will be put right in time for next season. The flight back was good, but by the time the duty free trolley got to us, guess what they had run out of tobacco, I think somebody is trying to make us give up the smoking. We arrived back at Gatwick on time and we reached home after 12 hours of travelling tired, glad to be home but sad at the thought of not seeing Icmeler again for over 6 months.

Icmeler along with Turkey in general, did have a quiet season this year and I hope that next year will be better for everyone concerned. This wonderful place and its people deserve a lot of support and we for one will be back in May next year as I'm certain will many others. Roll on May.

Barbara