I did read the othr day that bookings were up by 20% to Turkey this year.

in the sun this week it listed icmeler,marmaris, in top ten desinations for holidays, i no from experince that flight prices have gone up from last year due to fewer seats being sold this year. even with people booking through T O to be safe by abta and atol.
you can get good apartments/hotels by booking direct and you dont pay anything intil you arrive going diy is good and can work out cheaper.
turkey needs more tourists because the last few years numbers have been down and alot have suffered and gone out of buisness.
example room at the grand aquarium in icmeler with local based travel agent is £588 with £177 deposit for family of 4, 24th july for 14 nights.
direct price http://www.aquariumhotels.com is £452.20 which includes 15% early booking discount which you pay 50% before 31st march . saving over £138 just on one booking.
going diy is safe as long as you only pay small deposit when booking direct and your flights are covered by abta,atol

sits back and waits for 'spains cheaper blah blah blah ' 'greece is cheap blah blah blah blah'

sits back and thinks everyone is entitled to their own opinion!

Louie

I ll start the ball rolling here. I am just back from Fuengirola on Costa Del Sol and have to say that in general eating out was on a par with Icmeler. I have only been to Icmeler/Marmaris and I believe agin in general that these 2 resorts are amongst the cheapest resorts in Turkey. Some restaurant prices were even cheaper than Icmeler, but a holiday is not simply about prices of eating out, although I appreciate that for many this will have a big impact on their holiday

As a general rule Spain Greece are usually cheaper to fly to than Dalaman so that may have an impact on the total cost of your holiday including spending money, flights transfers etc

The restaurants in Spain I am sure know that with the £ being so poor against the Euro, they may have to drop thier prices to encourage people to come in and many of them were doing that in Fuengirola. I only hope that the resturants in Icmeler do not do the opposite and increase thir prices as they will have a captive market with more people booking for Turkey

As I said i am only speaking from my own experience in Spain recently. Aholiday is what you make of it yourself. Wherever you go come back onto this site and let others here about your own experiences either good or bad and most importantly enjoy yourself

Remember this forum is all about our own opinions and not everyone will agree or disagree with you. Lively debate is welcome

Stewart

Stewart

Not sure of the time of year you go to Icmeler. If you are just back from Fuengirola then you were there out of season. I would imagine if you had gone to Icmeler at the same time you would have got drinks and food cheaper too. I tend to think prices do fluctuate depending on the time of year.

Wilson

Hi jcarey2536.

Doubtless your pricing is accurate for the Grand Aquarium example, but having stayed there my girlfriend and I thought it was decidedly poor for supposedly 4 star accommodation. Yes it has a pool slide and a hairdresser, but we've stayed in better 2 star rated apartments in Turkey than the cramped and dingy apartment we had at the Grand Aquarium. No TV, limited air conditioning and it's still the only place I've stayed where you have to provide your own toilet paper!

They gave us a flyer advertising cheap prices by booking direct with them, but we certainly wouldn't want to go back there!

Cheers.

Louie,You are a mind reader!
I dont care if Spain and Greece are half the price of Turkey I would still rather go to Turkey. My friend has just been back from Benalmadena 3 weeks and she said it was a lot dearer than Icmeler was when she was there last October.

Off to Marmaris in June,and Icmeler in September.Decided to give Benidorm a miss this year,last year we paid £35 for just 2 steaks!!.

They will be dropping prices in the spanish resorts when in turkey with a bumper crowd they will up prices as much as possible. Some newspaper compared prices and spain was cheaper then turkey. The lira is strong against the pound, the lira is very overvalued and when it goes back to it correct value then turkey will become cheaper. Is inflation still strong in turkey, before the hard lira inflation was high and the currency was devauled daily but now inflation was high and the currency strengthened. It can't continue, the pound will make a recovery against the euro unless the government start printing money there is a money over supple, but when the pound does recover against the euro it will recover against the lira.

Its 2.42TL to the pound today!

I stand corrected jay trip, the pound must of shot up in value in the last month, thats says to me the pound will be worth a hell of a lot more than it is if its value against lira if the pound strengthens more against the euro.

I am going to turkey this year so more spending money. The hotels don't get cheaper when the pound increases against the lira, the hotels price in euro's, damn euro has pushed up prices in countries that don't have the euro.

We have never paid for a hotel in Euros, only sterling or lira.

all the prices i have had for quotes to istanbul, from hotels to are airport pick ups are all in euro, it drives me crazy and when i asked some of the hotels i was interested for a price in either lira or sterling as i explained i lived in the uk, the reply i got was at todays rate it is --- but depends what the exchange rate is when you get here, now i can understand to a degree that against the £ put not against the lira , not 1 of them were prepared to give me a confirmed price in lira, so i totally agree with what mike says

Hi im a bit confused about all this money talk lol basically what should we be taking lira or sterling??

Redcrop x

yes istanbul works in euro and lira
most tourist resorts work in lira ,sterling ,dollar and euro

john ive booked my istanbul hotel at last, the hanedan looks quite cute

redcrop as john says they do take a sterling, lira, euro & dollar, but the med resorts like side, antalya etc do tend to price things up more in euro

I always change sterling into TL there as you get a better rate,especially if you have a Nationwide Flex card.
Even if something is priced in Euros I ask for the price in TL.