Dalyan River, Marmaris

...have accidentally placed this in Dalyan Rivers instead of Dalyan mudbaths and am trying to get it changed.

On a recent trip to Turkey, I decided to go on lots of excursions to see as much of the country and the culture as I could. It was brilliant. One of my favourites was the Dalyan 3 in 1 which included a visit to the mud bath.

The 3 in 1 was a visit to a carpet factory (that was actually an extra), a wallow in the ...
...time on the beach at Dalyan with lunch included in the middle somewhere. The whole day lasted 11 hours and was excellent, OK, it did take an hour and a half to get there but it was well worth it. I am only mentioning the other activities of the day briefly so that I can discuss whether I think it is worth visiting the mud baths as part of an organised trip or on their own. It cost £25 each or thereabouts for the whole day and for this to be 11 hours ... more

I have accidentally placed this in Dalyan Rivers instead of Dalyan mudbaths and am trying to get it changed.

On a recent trip to Turkey, I decided to go on lots of excursions to see as much of the country and the culture as I could. It was brilliant. One of my favourites was the Dalyan 3 in 1 which included a visit to the mud bath.

The 3 in 1 was a visit to a carpet factory (that was actually an extra), a wallow in the mudbaths, a trip by boat down the Dalyan River (which I will be reviewing shortly) and time on the beach at Dalyan with lunch included in the middle somewhere. The whole day lasted 11 hours and was excellent, OK, it did take an hour and a half to get there but it was well worth it. I am only mentioning the other activities of the day briefly so that I can discuss whether I think it is worth visiting the mud baths as part of an organised trip or on their own. It cost £25 each or thereabouts for the whole day and for this to be 11 hours long and to include lunch, is not bad at all. It was about half price for children.

Dalyan Mud Baths.
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We entered the mud baths at Dalyan, Turkey after visiting the carpet factory and seeing them being made and then being taken for a short boat trip on a fresh water river which was both relaxing and beautiful. From what I remember the admission price was 4 lira though ours was included in the price paid for the whole trip. This is only around £2 (approximately) so is cheap. The price is for the mud bath and sulphur pools. The smell of sulphur is evident all around, though not too unpleasant.

I had been warned by a friend that the mud ruins your bikini so I wore one that I was not too bothered about the same with my clothes. I didn`t know if they would get dirty. I saw some men at the hotel on my first day with mud on their legs, they obviously hadn`t stayed under the shower long enough.

There are tables and chairs where you can sit and where we left our clothes. There are `changing rooms` near these. These are rush screens in the open air.

Stage 1.
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Strip off to your bikini or trunks, shorts depending on sex. Walk over to the mud bath. Flip flops or sandals may be worn to the edge but must then be removed. There are stones all around so you need to be careful. Once you are at the edge of the pool (it is manufactured like a swimming pool with rocks around the outside) you can lower yourself gently into the mud being careful not to stand on stones at the bottom. It is only about 2 foot deep so it is not too daunting. The mud is suprisingly green in colour rather than brown. Though we only had to walk a short distance without flip flops, my feet were very sensitive as there were quite a few stones. This made me a little bit wary of stepping in too quickly. Once I was in though, I was able to move away from the edge and lie down and completely imerse myself (except for my face though I did cover it). Whilst I was a bit reluctant at first, that was the whole point in me being there. It is mud, not thick mud but it has bits in it. There was some grass on the top and small stones and just bits. It did make me wonder what else was in there. Anyway, I lay on my front and my back. The mud makes you really bouyant, in fact my son couldn`t get up as his legs kept floating to the surface. It was relaxing. We were advised that the mud is very good for your skin, but also for the condition of your hair. I got it all over my hair to receive maximum benefits.

For our group there was a man taking photos which we were able to purchase later on in the day. These were of the river cruise aswell. Whilst I am not very photogenic and I don`t particularly like my photo being taken (hence the absence of one on Ciao), I thought in this instance, it was a good idea. It is something that you would like to remember and it is impossible to take one of each other without ruining the camera.

Stage 2.
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Everyone was standing around the pool and the grounds like statues. This was the sight that first greeted us and it looked rather strange. Lots of slightly green statues, plastered in mud. We stood near the pool rather than going futher afield on the stones. The temperature being around 40 degrees, it did not take long for the mud to dry. We stood on the stones then decided to move over on to some much smoother ground. It soon became evident why the ground was stony. Where it was smooth and sandy, it was really hot. People were standing on it, but there were more on the stones and I actually moved back on to the stones to cool my feet. It wasn`t exactly unbearable but the choice between uncomfortable stones and hot sandy smooth ground, the stones won. There was a little stream which my son and husband stood in. I didn`t because I didn`t want to wash any off my feet. The sensation of the mud drying is quite strange. It does make you feel like a statue and you can feel it cracking when you move. It does not restrict your movement though, it is a bit like a face mask but all over.

Stage 3.
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The next stage is to wash off all the mud in the showers before you are permitted to enter the sulphur pool. We were informed that we had to wash off every scrap of mud. We were allowed to put our flip flops back on to walk over to the showers. The showers were another eye opener. They were all next to each other in a rectangular shape rows of about 4 by 10. Everyone was standing next to each other. They were not showers in the normal sense, they were power showers but with one strand of water, a bit like a vertical hose pipe. They were cold. The cold was not a problem in the heat. It takes a little while to get the mud off. You have to get it out of your hair first otherwise obviously it will drip down your back. It seemed to take ages. The mud was in my ears. Very difficult to remove. You also realise that there is mud and small stones in your bikini bottoms. The only way of getting it out is by washing the inside with the power shower, it doesn`t work just washing on the outside. How would you get stones out that way? Anyway I did manage to remove it all, I think I did a good job. It did make me think twice another time about lying down and getting it in my ears and hair. What do I mean? that is all the fun of it.

Stage 4.
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The next stage is to take a dip in the sulphur pool. At 39 degrees you are advised to stay in a maximum of 15 minutes. You are asked to keep children with you so that you can catch them if necessary. People with heart conditions or high blood pressure are also advised against the sulphur pool. You can walk over with your flip flops on but you must remove them agian before getting in to the pool. It is fairly deep, it came up to my neck more or less. When you first get in, you step on a ledge so you are only in shallow water, the next bit is in to the deep part. It was very pleasant. I was enjoying it but I didn`t stay in for the 15 minutes, partly because it was hot and partly because of the time constraints as we were being collected. It was nice though, a bit like a bath though you were upright.

Stage 5.
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The next stage was to get out of the sulphur pool and to stand in front of a man holding a cold hose pipe. He pointed the hose pipe at each person in turn. He hosed their front then they had to turn around for their back to be hosed. It only took a few seconds but felt a bit weird, almost like sheep being dipped. This was the final stage to wash off the sulphur.

Results.
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Some say that it will make you look younger. People were saying 5 years younger so my son kept saying I will be 3 and you will be **, OK, don`t shout it out. The rep said that the claims to make you look younger are not true, but it will make your skin feel smooth. That is exactly the word that I would have used, smooth, that is exactly how my skin felt. With regards to my hair I can`t really say as later on I swam in the sea so the salt water made it feel dry until I washed it again. It had felt sleek and soft, as if I had used conditioner until I went in the sea. My skin felt soft and smooth for the rest of the day. With daily sun exposure I was applying factor 40 and aftersun so I cannot really tell if the result would have lasted for long. Moisturisation is an ongoing requirement for the skin so it couldn`t really be expected to replace this with one mudbath, though I don`t moisturise my body every day.

Excursion versus going on own.
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I prefer going on excursions when on holiday as you get to see things, even though it may be tourist orientated. By being taken there, you will not encouter any problems with parking or getting lost. Whilst our visit was part of a whole day, it may have been cheaper to have visited just the mudbaths, but I think better to combine several things whilst in the area. I really did think the day was good value for money.

With regards to taking photos, this was part of the excursion (though the photos were extra). We would have come away without photos had we been on our own.

The only disadvantage is, we only had 1 hour at the mudbaths as we had a lot to fit in to the day. This was long enough but I would have stayed longer in the sulphur pool. Not being able to see the time in there, I was anxious to get out in case we missed the rep taking us to the boat for the next part of the trip. I would rather not have felt that I had to rush, but I don`t think I would have gone just to the mudbath.

The trip was very well organised and I was pleased that we chose this option. There were other mud bath trips organised by people outside of the hotel. They apparently take you to different mud baths, `the real ones` for a cheaper price though you can`t be picked up outside ofyour hotel. These ones may be manufactured but the mud is still mud and it was great. There are so many people touting for your business in Turkey.

I would certainly visit the mudbaths again if in Turkey in the future. I would go as part of a trip as I did this time to visit several things in the same area, it is all so beautiful. 

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