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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Holiday in Turkey

87 replies

RunAwayWife · 04/03/2011 16:22

My mum is looking to book a holiday and tells me Turkey is quite cheap, um yes I think this is because it is a bit unsettled at the moment, so please can I ask would you go on holiday to Turkey in April????

Would you take children????

OP posts:

twilight3 · 05/03/2011 13:31

fifi, I've been robbed in London and feel unsafe in the UK most of the time. It doesn't mean anything

begonyabampot · 05/03/2011 13:37

Turkey is beautiful but Icmeler, Marmaris and Altinkum have to be some of the more disappointing resorts. Pick wisely and it's hard to beat.

fifi25 · 05/03/2011 13:38

Twilight, Ive never ever been robbed in Newcastle and dont feel unsafe here at all. When Gypsys grab your kids to force tomatoes in their mouths so they can demand your money because they have ate it..THAT is unsafe. whilst pinching all your belonging as your trying to get your kids back off the gypsys who have surrounded you is unsafe. My friends 10 year old daughter at a different resort was drugged. Ive never experienced this in Newcastle and feel very safe here. All this whilst the Bulgarians laughed.

twilight3 · 05/03/2011 13:41

I was just making a point that there a million places in the world that bad things could happen to you, you seem to go against a country you have bad experience from, as if everywhere else is safe. It could happen in turkey, you know....
And yes, our kids could get stabbed in london on the way back from school...

fifi25 · 05/03/2011 13:43

Fair point but i still wouldnt give it as a reccomendation as a safe place to go

bishboschone · 05/03/2011 14:26

Turkey is beautiful, I had reservations before we went 2 years ago but we hired a car and drove all around, its so green ! The Turks are soo friendly and love kids.

mumcanihavearabbit · 05/03/2011 16:24

Fifi25 we are also going to be enjoying Park resorts this year!

fifi25 · 05/03/2011 18:12

mumcan, ive been to Pontins and Haven but never been to Park. I only booked it as it was really cheap compared to Haven. I dont think its the best park (withernsea sands) but hey ho we will still enjoy it

My daughter goes to Cayton Bay ever year with her friend and they prefer it to Haven.

Original poster

RunAwayWife · 05/03/2011 19:18

Well it has been booked and paid for.
I am sure it will be fine, I have always fancied going and mum has been before, I was just a bit worried.

Mum was also looking at Tunisia but I do draw the line at going there at the moment.

Would have loved to go back to Morocco as been before but never taken the children.

OP posts:

mumcanihavearabbit · 05/03/2011 20:15

Fii25 We have been once before about 7 years ago, and it was ideal for us, it was also an ex-haven park, even better bonus is that is was a sun holiday promotion too!! It is in North Wales, Towyn, it is like a home from home to us.

cantspel · 05/03/2011 20:32

We have also been to a 5* gated resort on the beach in Elenite and it could well be the same on as there is not that many and agree the place is a shite hole. We flew with Balkan airways on a clapped out plane which was dry so we couldn't even have a holiday drink. The resort looked lovely until you got there, the beach was dirty, the resort was just as dirty, the food was disgusting but you couldn't eat it anyway as there was never any clean plates or cutlery and if they did put some out you were have trampled by the russians and other eastern block tourists as they pushed you out the way to get to them. The barts and everything else in the hotel shut up by about 10.30 but that was ok as by then we had had enough of the rude staff, poor seating and dire shows.
Give me Turkey any day. i love belek and the med coast and even the so called chavvy resorts. Infact we are doing chavvy this year as we are off to the first choice holiday village.

fifi25 · 05/03/2011 22:39

sounds like the one cantspel, did it have the royal park and royal bay hotels on by any chance. We had no electric for 3 days, the food was rank, ive never been so ill, kids were ill, 22 of us went we were all ill. Did the russians nick all the food and you were left with some mouldy fruit lol

cantspel · 05/03/2011 22:56

Thats the one. We stayed in the so called holiday village. We didn't get ill but only because the food was to revolting to eat and we lived on chicken and chips from a small bar in sunny beach (which was also a hell hole but at least you could find food that was edible.
We also took a trip to Varna which was too awful for words. Varna is worse than east berlin and we went there during the soviet era.

fifi25 · 05/03/2011 23:19

I only went last July. Nothings changed. Sunny beach is where i got mobbed and robbed, i went along for look and it was horrible. I gave up eating the food after day 5 after me and kids were seriously ill for 2 days. If i had of been here i would have went to hospital but i was too frightened to go over there. I went to the al a carte restaurant and got served chicked in a pool of blood and kids got raw pork. It was a truely awful experience.

fifi25 · 05/03/2011 23:20

when did you go?

cantspel · 06/03/2011 00:11

august about 5 years ago and it sounds like it hasn't got any better.
The whole country is pretty grim and you are either trying to avoid the beggers or pickpockets. My boys refused to touch the food as it was mostly half cooked meat swimming in some sort of greasy sauce
Anything half decent like fruit was taken by the basket load by the eastern europeans and we would be lucky to get something that looked like it had been left in the gutter by the market stalls.
I had to stop my boys going in the swimming pool after a turd floated past and the kids play area was an accident waiting to happen.
The airport was like some sort of large tin shed and we got stuck with a 4 hour delay. No one gave us any information and health and safety was a joke as they let us out on the the tarmac area where they refuel the aircraft for a smoke.
Never again in this lifetime or the next.

fifi25 · 06/03/2011 00:52

Thats what i said. If i ever win a holiday to Bulgaria i will be giving it to my worst enemy. I am still in touch with woman from Norway whos family were seriously ill the same time as us. Shes also of the same opinion. I only went to sunny beach so dont know if its all like that. ive heard some sunny beach horror stories and mil went on a trip to nessebar and that was awful. I was ringing my fried who was flying out to Golden Sands 2 days after i got back telling her to change it. She was admitted to hospital with food poisoning and robbed. I felt awful as she booked it hearing me saying it cant be that bad

cantspel · 06/03/2011 01:23

recently i have been working with a bulgarian fella and even he thinks bulgaria is a cesspit. He was due to go home again but decided to go to europe instead, sensible lad.
I am a real holiday person. The type who books one holiday as soon as i get back from the last and bores everyone with photos and what a great time we had. But there is not one good thing i would say about Bulgaria.
People always go on about how cheap it is but it isn't cheap if you pay for AI and then have to pay to get into town to try to find somewhere else with edible food.

Compared with Bulgaria turkey is paradise.

fifi25 · 06/03/2011 01:31

After i had been robbed we had to walk with 3 kids from sunny beach to Elenite. I refused to get in a taxi (in case it wasnt a taxi )with mil waiting at other end. On the walk we got talking to a lovely man who had lived and worked in London. He said it was very unsafe, go back to Elenite resort and dont come out till you fly home which obviously scared me even more. We lived on chrisps and chocolate from the shop. I came back and had lost so much weight due to lack of food.
Bulgarians dontiloke the Turks and i dont think they like the English much either

cantspel · 06/03/2011 01:47

Bulgarians still haven't forgiven the turks for the Ottoman empire and the english are just walking cash machines for them to rip off or rob.
They also have some pretty disgusting ways of dealing with their own people. There care of the disabled is awful with some pretty terrible institutions hidden away in the western mountains where they are hidden away and abused. If i knew half the things i know now about the country i would never have gone there.

fifi25 · 06/03/2011 10:35

Yes the Bulgarian rep was telling us all about it. I said do Bulgarans like the Turks and he said no they slaughtered our ppl. I can very well imagine what the care of their disabled are after seeing the kids club with my kids. I only put them in once and they let my 6 yr old walk from the Royal Park to the Royal bay by herself after they had grabbed her arm and marked it for telling them she wanted her mam and having a it of a screaming fit. Not good

FellatioNelson · 06/03/2011 11:46

I have been to Turkey twice, but not in the last five years. Both times it was to Olu Deniz, and also visited Hisaronu (sp?) and Fetiye. Olu Deniz very beautiful - not sophisticated, but charming. Fetiye a nice bustling port with good shops and plenty of restaurants, Hisaronu a bit quiet and cut off, and a treck to the beach. Town is small and uninspiring.

We always found the Turks extremely warm and friendly, and they seemed to genuinely like the British, unlike plenty of other countries you could choose to holiday! I don't know about any possible instability but prviding you pick your resort carefully I would say it's a fab choice. It's horses for course though - I'm the fussiest/sniffiest person in the world about about what is or isn't naff/chav so I'm not the best person to ask!

Re: Bulgaria, I have never been, but based on what I have heard it's a mystery to my why anyone goes AT ALL. I really cannot think of anywhere less appealing. You must be pretty desperate for some sun if going there is a better option than just staying at home and saving your money.

fifi25 · 06/03/2011 12:27

Fellatio - false enconomy, i know someone whos been 8 times in a row and loves it, I know people who have bought holiday homes there. I also know many who hated it. I know people who love and hate Turkey. I have 3 kids and it was the only place i could spread the kids out with enough free child places between 22 relatives. I cant afford to be choosy. If i want to go abroad its got to be somewhere cheap. Thats why after the Bulgarian disaster i am quite happy to stay at home and save my money

Underachieving · 06/03/2011 12:42

I'm working with a British woman who has just come back to the UK after living in Bulgaria for 8 months at the moment. She is heavily traumatised by her experiences, most of which I think are incredibly unlikely to have happened in the UK, such as when she was strapped naked by the hands and feet to a bed to be given a smear test, without lubricant or any gentility and as she puts it "f*ed with the speculum". She said to me when she got back "do you know what I miss the most" "I was walking into a shop today and a man held the door for me, I hadn't realised how much I missed that, in Bulgaria they like to time it to slam in your face". A local sport in Varna is shooting mindlessly into the packs of stray dogs everywhere. Or kicking them to death, or running them over, no one minds. Animals are not considered to deserve the same level of respect we would give to rubbish out for collection here. Childrens homes are no better than the Romanian ones in the 90's, I am told there was a British doumentary on it.

So perhaps all the comparrisons to London are a little misguided. Bulgaria is certainly not without it's dark side.

FellatioNelson · 06/03/2011 13:08

I think it sounds like a deeply depressing and unpleasant place. Unfortunately there are many parts of the world where animals are treated like that though. What can you expect when they don;t even trat vulnerable people with any respect or compassion? You just wouldn't expect it so geographically close to home.

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