Has anyone been to Turkey recently?

[mrsnec]

I used to love Turkey. I have been several times to Bodrum and Gumbet, city breaks to Istanbul and to the Lara area of Antalya a few times.

But it's been a few years since our last trip. DH was disappointed as he found the country as a whole had got a bit more regimented in terms of religion and politics. I have felt a bit more anxious than before too.

I am wondering if it's calmed down a bit and if it's time to give it another go. I have found decent flights to Izmir but I'm not familiar with that area at all.

Has anyone been to that area recently? any recommendations? what are the resorts like and how far are they from the airport?

You're right to worry. We have Turkish friends who tell us some worrying developments. Girls being encouraged not to attend school, a much stricter Islamic regime creeping in.

We enjoyed it when we went before, but there's a lot going on beneath the surface and we probably wouldn't return TBH.

Antalya will be better weatherwise, Izmir can be a bit colder and it is more likely to rain.

Yes Blue that is what I had heard too but I think it is restricted to certain areas. Our previous visit we had seen examples of it and shortly after we returned The Simon Reeve documentary was shown and if we had seen it beforehand we might not have gone.

We have since been to the TRNC (North Cyprus) a few times though and that seems to get more progressive and civilised with every visit!

That said I am easily influenced by what I hear and see on the news etc. The last time DH and I had the chance of a break on our own I wanted to go to Tel Aviv but decided against it and went to Greece instead! I feel more relaxed about Israel now but Turkey still represents such great value for money in comparison which is another reason why I love it.

We stopped visiting Turkey about 7 years ago after our Turkish friends told us they wouldn’t bring young kids if they didn’t already live there.

This year they all started begging us to go again.

We went at easter: Istanbul and the Cappadocia region in central Turkey.

We had an amazing time, felt no restrictions or tensions.

I am however astounded that some people on here object to the call to prayer. That is not a sign off oppression and if you object to it you really shouldn’t be visiting a Muslim country.

We holiday in a domestic tourist destination in Turkey and the consumption of alcohol etc has never been restricted, even during Ramadan these days plenty of Turks were at the beach with an Efes. The only thing is we are remote so we don’t have billboards etc so propaganda always passes me by until I get back to Istanbul. I would think tourism is important to us (I am Turkish) so they wouldn’t curtail things for visitors too significantly and Halal tourism is growing for the domestic sphere and to capitalise tourism from the Arab states - they have always come but now there is a new offer. I think we are all rightly cynical about the politics of Turkey but equally not sure how significantly it would impact a holiday. Though I haven’t been to Bodrum or similar for years.

The political state is worrying though although I would hope people wouldn’t stop coming because of it because it’s the ice cream vendor, the hotel cleaner etc who lose out.

p.s. Erdogan hasn’t introduced the Call to Prayer, it’s been there since the Ottomans.

I am now wondering if it's worth exploring other areas then.

The other airports we can fly to are Gaziantep and Adana. Does anyone know anything about those areas?

I think part of the problem for us was that we forgot how huge Antalya is and the fact that it's a major city more than it is a resort town . It's also very pro Erdogan and is shifting towards Halal tourism. We felt like we could have been in the Middle East.

Gazentiep is on the Syrian border so I’m pretty sure you don’t want to go there!

Antalya has some lovely villages nearby. Id go there. Our very liberal Istanbul friends go all the time and haven’t mentioned restrictions. We stayed in this hotel just outside Antalya eight summers ago and loved it: www.i-escape.com/azur-hotel

Well, it is the Near East. Definitely do not fly to Gazientep, there will not be resorts in Gazientep and it will be more conservative. My gut says no to Adana too but I am less sure about that.

I think Antalya for guaranteed October weather is your best bet. Izmir (IMO) has nicer places, Cesme, Alacati (my dad always talks about it being windy here so perhaps not best for Oct).

Sloane, yes you're right there! I think those flights are for people working in the TRNC that want to go back to the mainland. That hotel looks lovely and similar to the sort of place we stay at in the TRNC.

I think this trip is all about timing.I think I'd prefer Izmir because neither of us has been to the Aegean coast but I need to go a bit earlier in the year. Antalya region if we can't go until October but much further out of the city centre than before.

Gaziantep and Adana are not really tourist places, not beach type of holidays anyway.

You can get to Bodrum from Izmir, it's about 2.5 hours but certaintly doable. I used to do it in the winter when there were no direct flights to Bodrum.

There are some nice resorts around Antalya so you don't have to stay in the city. Side, Kas or Kalkan all look lovely.

Kas is much nicer (& less British) than Kalakn, IMHO.

We might only be able to get away I a short break ie only 3 days so I would be reluctant to do anything more than an hour transfer really. Kusadasi is pushing it but because the flight lands at 9am I'm ok with that.

When I looked at Side I seemed to be bombarded with big resorts, not necessarily a problem but seemed spoilt for choice and I don't want to get it wrong. I am going to look at Kas and Kalkan.

I've been to some of the smaller towns further west from Side, places like Cirali, Patara, even Kas, which is a bigger town. Outside of Fethiye there are some lovely hotels too.

We went to Alanya last year which you fly into Antalya for. The transfer wasn’t too bad as we had a private mini bus which wasn’t very expensive at all. About £90 return. Around 90 minutes transfer time. Might have been two hours. I slept through most of it.

Alanya was lovely. Touristy and full of fake designer goods but had nice parts as well. Beaches and sea were lovely and lots of sun beds for free. Although the usual waiters ah hang around asking you to buy a drink. But that was quite handy.

Some cable cars up to the mountain and kleopatra beach area.

Lots of good boat trips and keep safaris into the mountains.

Marmaris was good as well.

I think as long as I was staying in the heavily tourist parts I’d be happy to go back. We are going to Greece this year but back to marmaris in October.

Thanks for the suggestions. Again I like the look of Alanya but transfer is a bit long seems easy to organise though so it all depends on when and how long for we can get away for.

Frustrating though as I'm ready to book but we have to plan around our business and when friends and family are coming over from the UK and none of them are booking at the moment. They all think Brexit is going to reduce flight prices and are holding out for last minute deals!

I second Alanya - beautiful place. It IS a long transfer but worth it imo

It will be strange the transfer being twice as long as the flight! Antalya is a 45 minute flight for us!