I could really write about Marmaris telling you about every detail and youd still be sitting here until tomorrow morning!! I'll try not to get too excited when im imagining myself lying on the beach or out shopping around and give you a good idea of what a holiday in Marmaris has to offer you.
Market/Suitability ----------------------- Who is it for?? I would recommend MArmaris to anyone. However the resort is not quiet if your looking for peace & tranquility - but at the same time its not really overly lively. To explain - if you want it to be livley - you can have it - if you want to relax and get away from it all - you can. People of all ages can enjoy a holiday in Marmaris as it has so much to offer....
Flight Time ---------------- The nearest airport to Marmaris is Dalaman, from the Uk-estimated flight time is roughly 4 hours.
Transfer Time -------------------- When you arrive into Dalaman airport there is a lengthy transfer which will be around 1hr 30 mins - 2 hours. This is a bit of a nightmare especially if you have restless kids however most companys make a halfway stop - and the coaches are well air conditioned and comfortable. If your transfer is during the daytime its great looking out the window seeing some of the beautiful landscape in Turkey, how everything looks so natural and fresh - it really is breath taking.. so try to think of your transfer as just an extra bonus to your whole holiday experience.
Accommodation ----------------------- Accommodation in Marmaris is varied. You can choose to stay in a basic Bed & Breakfast hotel - there are plenty to choose from... or how about a luxurious All Inclusive complex. If you dont like hotels, there are loads of apartments in resort. Personally I would recommend Self Catering as there are so many restaurants in the resort that you wouldnt want to miss out on trying a few out. Eating out is really in expensive also so I wouldnt pay too much to stay in a hotel - although you may find sometimes you will pay the same price for a Bed & breakfast as you will for self catering. Self catering generally gives you a little more room also as you tend to have separate sleeping area then a kitchen/dining area whereas hotel rooms wont have this separate area for sitting in and you wont have cooking facilities and very seldom will you have a fridge in a hotel room. With the temperatures in Turkey I would recommend you ensure you can have a fridge/mini bar in your room as it gets really hot so water is a necessity.
A lot of the cheaper accommodations units are set a bit further back in the resort in an area called Armutalan.
Although your further back from the centre there are however restarants/markets/shops/chemists etc in the Armutalan area so you will never be stuck - and there is of course regular bus service to take you into the resort and back. If you choose something along the beach you will have some gorgeous views however be careful on the location of this also as some beach front hotels are at the point where the beach discos and bars are so they tend to be noisey at night. Most beach front units are very well maintained and very good standards of accommodation.
Getting Around --------------------- There are local buses run up and down resot - called the dolmus. Dolmus translates as stuffed in - like Tomatoes Dolmasi would be Stuffed Tomatoes - Biber Dolmasi is Stuffed Peppers - So The Domus is like a stuffed bus!! They really do stuff you in so its a great name but not to worry its a great method of getting around. They run reguarly - low season every 10mins mid seaon every 5 mins high season every 3-5 mins. A journey up and down the main road of marmaris would cost roughly around 1 ytl - 1.5 ytl which is about 30p-31p and into Armutalan area would be about the same.
The only thing is that the Dolmus stops around 11 pm - 12 am so if your going out at night till the early hours expect to pay taxi fares roughly around the same prices as we pay back home.
It is also easy enough to walk around Marmaris resort - even in Armutalan you can walk to the central points if you dont mind a good 20-30 minute stroll. From the Marina to beach bar/restaurants area it will take around 15mins to walk.
Daytime Activities ------------------------ During the daytime you will be spoilt for choice. You may decide to stay in your accommodation complex where most units will have pools to lap up the hot summer sun, some units may also have their own entertainments programme - including bingo games, pool games, music, dancing, competitions etc.
In resort you can go to the beach - which is a man made beach and does tend to get crowded in high season. Be careful on where you decide to lay - if you see sun loungers it means you either pay for the sunlounger or it will be free but you will be expected to buy drinks from the resturant facing the loungers...in this case they will serve your drinks to your loungers - and drinks arent that expensive anyway.
There are plenty of water sports on the beach also - bananna boats - jet ski - speed boats - pedalos - you name it. Generally its a lot cheaper to do water sports in Turkey than for example it would cost on a Spanish resort.
If you like shopping - youll love Marmaris - you can go to the Bizzare where its undercover - good to cool down from the hot sun - and grab yourself some bargains. They sell all your normal touristy gimics, but also lots of traditional Turkish gifts - but the best buys of all are the clothes. Turkey is well known for its 'fake designer goods' but trust me they are good fakes.... the quality is normally very good and price is even better. You can go shopping and get deals like 8 t-shirts for £10 - 5 ladies designer tagged tops for £10 - beach towels 4 for £10 - designer handags 4 for £10 .... notice the prices are in Pounds... the great thing about shopping is that you can spend your own English pounds there - prices will be advertised in Pound and Turkish currency of Lira. I would advise to shop with the Pound as you will get a better deal. There are also loads of shops around the resort and a weekly market also if you want to try your haggling skills.
Excursions are a must - I would recommend you try at the start of your holiday a Turkish bath - where they take you to a traditional Turkish Hamam and give you the full traditional Turkish bath - which involves sweating it out in a sauna - jumping into a freezing cold natural pool of water - or just a shower - then sitting in the hamam where its like a marble dome - really nice and hot inside with running taps of water - whilst you wait for the best bit - a great big scrub down - you will be surprised how much filth is removed from your skin and its complete heaven lying there being pampered. This is the best thing to do before catching a sun tan as your skin will be fresh expoliated and youll feel like a new born baby :o)
Jeep Safari - this is fantastic for a family day out - they will take you out for a full day on a jeep safari - over some rough track - visiting interesting local Turkish areas outside of the Marmaris resort to let you see the real Turkey. Normally this is a really good day out as the tour people always have a good laugh with everyone - dancing and entertaining you all day long - kids love having water fights from the back of the jeeps - and they will have as much fun as the adults in the party too. Youll be servered fresh cooked lunch and you can get the whole family away on a jeep safari really cheap - sometimes if you purchase from local excursion booths they offer free children etc so you could pay for eg £8 per adult and kids go free!!
Boat trip - Boat trips are great if you like swimming in the sea - relaxing - or sunbatheing. Generally this is a good family day out also as everyone can be self entertained. They make stops ie at local fish farm - at secluded beaches - at good swimming points - at other near by resorts - so its a good way to see other things. On board they will cook a bbq for everyone also - normally some freshly caught fish from that day - or some turkish burgers - with salad - pasta - bread. Some of the boats also do drinks included so you wont need to spend a penny the whole day. Again boat trips may be roughly around the same price as a jeep safari - if you buy a few excursions from the same excursion booth they will give you special offers.
Water Park - The marmaris water park is such a great day out. There are areas for sunbatheing for mum & dad if you dont want to join in the fun of the many flumes. There are loads of lifeguards around - at least 1 per flume - you will feel perfectly safe for the kids to run around till their hearts are content. This is a big hit with families with younger and older children. They have serveral water slides - big ones - small one - fast ones - slow ones - and even a wave machine. This ones not to be missed!
Night Time Entertainment -------------------------------------
To start the night off you need to go try some of the local cusine - there are LOADS of resturants to choose from. Along the beach front , main road and Armutalan area resturants will be mainly British orientated. You will even find fast food places - including Mcdonalds. There are also Chineese and Indian resturants along these areas for us to enjoy as they know how much us Brittish like our Currys and rice :) I cannot emphasise how nice the food is - restaurants are always spotless and each one you will feel guilty to pass by as the people are so nice that you wont want to say no to spending some time in their restuarant. Watch out for deals on boards outside the restarants - you can get for example 4 course meals for £5 - or full English Breakfast for 99p. Drinks buy one get one free - pints of beer 40p.... If you like fish resturants, international or want to try Turkish cusine go to the marina harbour area where the food there tends to be a little bit more epensive but very nice indeed. Turkish food is delicious. You really must try some traditional meals before you come home.
If after your meal you just want a nice walk - a walk along the harbour to the beach front is lovely - all the nice lights - the aroma and atmosphere is just fantastic.
Many accommodation units run their own evening entertainment including traditional Turkish belly dancing nights - karaoke - etc so you can end the evening in your hotel then your closer to bed.
If you want to be out and dance the night away or sing till your hearts content then stay out in resort - youll find somewhere youll just fall in love with...
There are 2 main spots for nightlife in Marmaris. The beach front and bar street area which is by the Marina in Marmaris.
Beach front offers British entertainment - karaoke bars - R&b clubs - Irish/English/Scottish bars - and a couple of big nightclubs are on the beach front. Its good to stay around this area if you want to mix with other British holiday makers and for popular music and dance places.
Bar street offers a wide variety of more 'serious & mature' nightclubs - calm and relaxed bars - with live music - traditional turkish music and dancing - international bars and clubs ie dutch... it has a completly different atmosphere on bar street - definetly worth a look one night if you decide not to go every night. Bar street will start to get busy from midnight and will continue until about 4am so its non stop action but lots of fun.
Turkish People ---------------------- You will find that the Turkish people are really friendly and really go out their way to make you feel welcome. Tourism is such an important part to making money to their economy - without tourism Turkish economy would go really downhill. Therefore the people know how important it is to keep everyone happy and they really do their best to make sure you have a really enjoyable holiday and you wont believe how much they appreciate us being there in their country. You hear lots of different stories about Turkish people - some bad - some good - In the resot of Marmaris there are a lot of young boys working away from home - who work round the clock every day earning very little money - who eventually have to send most of this home to look after their families - a typical shift in Marmaris resort will be from 9am - 12am for a shop - 9am -2am for a restuarant/bar and your working till all hours if your in a night club...and yet they will always have time to keep us entertained and happy during our holiday.
Weather ------------ May & October is the best time to go to Turkey for cooler weather. It will be nice during the daytime - there may be some chance of rain but it will clear up quickly however night time can be a little chilly. Its good to travel at this time as the resort isnt so busy and you can get the best bargains in October as the season closes.
June & September is good if you want good weather but not intense heat. It should be comfortable to lie in - and at night time you shouldnt be cold. September is when prices start to drop down in resort in order to push stock sales before end of season.
July & August is HOT HOT HOT - perfect if thats what you want but you must be really careful. Temperatures can go beyond 40 degrees - it is really uncomfortable and too hot too lie in at this - however - this is when the resort is buzzing of life - its at its full peak - really busy and plenty events going on.
How to get there ---------------------- You can book a holiday to Turkey now through any of the main tour operators. See my review on Goldtrail holidays who are Turkey specialists - I recommend them for good value cheap holidays. There are many companies who also offer flight only then you could book your accommodation separate online or in resort.
Conclusion ------------------ Turkey is becomming more and more popular - Marmaris has always been one of the more popular resorts to visit. Even if youve been before its worth it to go back again. People go back there year after year and never get bored. They will go back to see all their friends they made and to pick up some more bargains for back home.
The only thing I would say about Marmaris is that over the years it has become a bit 'spoilt' with tourism. Its difficult to get a feel or the real Turkey in Marmaris as everything is set up for tourism. However with all the excurions etc the resort has to offer there is no excuse for not enjoying your holiday even if you use Marmaris just as a base to explore... you could go visit Ephesus - Bodrum - Fethiye - Olu Deniz - go to Rhodes for the day - Kos - Istanbul for a weekend - the list is endless - I guess you need to go there and try it all out for yourself....
Iyi Yolcuklar (have a good journey)
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Jul 30th, 2006
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