Ölü Deniz (Turkey)

We went in May this year for 2 weeks and stayed at the Montebello hotel at the top of the resort, although as it's a small resort we were still only a 5-10 min walk from the beach.

We paid £295 from Manchester for B and B which was a bargain for the quality of the resort. It is quite small and you won't find many loud clubs, although if you want that you can go to the resort of Hisaronu which is about a mile up the mountainside (70p on a bus). That resort is more touristy, with no shortage of full-english fry-ups and British named restaurants and bars (English Rose, Delboy's etc). It's a bit tacky for my liking but good for nightly entertainment.

In Oludeniz itself there is an excellent choice of restaurants so avoid going all inclusive especially as they are very reasonably priced. It cost us around £8 each for 2-3 courses plus a glass of wine/pint of beer each. Also all restaurants give you free bread and usually a coffee after dinner on the house and some may give you some fruit for desert. As the service is so good you will not find tipping staff a chore as it can be in some countries where service is usually very poor! I recommend the Olive Grove, The Secret Garden (free pool table and cheap internet access) and the restaurant on the main street that's part of the Asena Beach hotel (you can't miss it as it has a cabinet outside displaying their choice of food with a chef next to it cooking it on a BBQ). This was the best - traditional Turkish food and you could see whatn they had and watch it being cooked (they also did the best bread by far and had some nice deserts). Avoid restaurants which have their menu priced in pounds as the exchange rate may not be as good as what you got in the UK and the meals end up dearer than you expect.

If you go to the beach you have to pay to get in the lagoon and then pay for sunloungers on top of this. If you want a sandier, less crowded beach, go to the entrance of the lagoon and follow the track next to it that bears off to the right (it may now be a road). This takes you to a few different beaches. We went to Suara beach as it was nice, clean, had a good value restaurant and cost about £2 for a sunlounger and umbrella for the whole day). They offer a free bus service from the resort if you don't want to walk down, although it's only about a 10 minute walk from the lagoon entrance.

All along the beach front you will find companies offerring many activities and trips. If you decide to do a few trips with the same company you can ask them to give you a discount. We booked scuba diving, a jeep safari trip and paragliding with Eagles on the front and got a good discount off the full price. Paragliding is a must even if you are scared of that kind of thing. I was petrified, I don't enjoy flying and hate fair rides etc but once you take off it's like floating and not scary at all. You can even get a video of your trip and some photos of you landing to show-off with back home!

Take a trip to Sakilent Gorge, or even beter still if you have a car go yourself and walk through the freezing cold water. Local kids are happy to guide you around the very deep parts for a small tip (about £1).

Take a bus from Oludeniz to Fethiye on a Tuesday and visit the local market - don't forget to haggle. Have a pancake at the market made using the Turkish method of dough instead of batter. You will see groups of old ladies makingnthe dough, rolling it out, cooking it and filling the pancake. Honey and banana filling is a must!

While you are in Fethiye go to the supermarket and stock up on bottled water - although it appears cheap in Oludeniz compared to the UK, it's extremely cheap in Fethiye!

If you aren't interested in doing expensive activities like paragliding (£90) then you can do boat trips for £10 and other things. To be honest if your budget is tight, you can get away with buying a loaf of bread (20p) and filling it with bananas and honey to take to the beach for lunch, along with some fruit and then if you have something like a Turkish pizza or kebab for tea (not like English kebabs - these are actually tasty and not dripping with grease) you can spend less than £5 per person. However, even if you eat out all the time you will still spend very little and find you have money left over at the end. If you do find yourself short of cash howver, most shops in the resort change pounds at a better exchange rate available in the UK!

We went in mid May and the tourist season had just started so it was nice and quiet and the temperature at that time was still in the 80s - 90s.

The only downside is the constant pestering by people trying to get you to take trips with them or eat in their restaurants - say you are going home or you've already eaten if you are not interested.

If you are like me and get biten very easily make sure you get excellent insect repellent. I had the basic level jungle formula and it didn't work - get the tropical strength level containing DEET. My boyfriend di not get biten once however so some of you may be OK.

All in all it was a wonderful, relaxing holiday and the Turksih people are so friendly you will feel part of the community after a week!