Turgutreis ? did the earth move? (Turgutreis)

Member Name: Plymyphil

Product:	Turgutreis
Date:	01/09/04 (7056 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Food, Weather, Hospitality

Disadvantages: None

Turgutreis is set on the Bodrum peninsula of Turkey, with a wonderful sandy beach on to the Aegean Sea. The Greek island of Kos is clearly visible across the water and yet, you are culturally a million miles away from Greece

Welcome to Turgutreis. This is a two part review. I have chosen to review the resort and the apartments I used separately as the experience was so very different.

Turgutreis is a military town. This has clear benefits to tourism as the incidences of petty crime are almost nil. The town is safe and even walking around the markets there is a feeling of security.
Buildings in Turgutreis are almost exclusively low rise meaning the view to the water is unimpeded from many places in the town.
To the tourist, the town has three main areas:
1: The beach
2: The square beside the mosque and the seaside restaurants.
3: The backstreet and market shopping.

The beach itself is a slim sandy beach not overly long and yet never too crowded even when I visited in August. The beaches are operated by the restaurant behind and all sunbeds are free. The standard of service on the beach is superb with all restaurants employing staff to work the beach. Turning up to the beach one is greeted by friendly faces keen to find the sunbeds and parasols of your choosing and locate them to the patch of sand you most want to lie on. There is an etiquette here. These beach boys will work hard to make your day pleasant and genuinely do care. (My two year old daughter desperately needed to be kept out of the sun at the hottest times of the day ? solution, they set up and filled a paddling pool for her beneath a parasol so she was totally shaded and didn?t need to run in and out of the water ? nothing really is too much trouble). The etiquette is that you will buy your drinks from the restaurant serving you ? simple manners really. I found that the service was not at all pushy and the drinks, being so reasonably priced were quite pleasa
nt on the beach. (Prices are about £1.40 for a beer, £0.40 for a water.)

The square in the centre of town is stunning and comes alive at night. On one side are the boats with their captain constantly encouraging custom. The prices of the boat rides really are superb. A whole day out on the water calling in on little islands to swim in the sea and snorkel with fishes costs £10.00 for an adult. Best of all ? kids, as almost everywhere in Turkey, go free. This price is a full day trip with lunch included. Lunch seems to be the same on every boat ? chicken, pasta and salad. On Thomas boat the chicken is breast meat which according to some stories was a bonus compared to other boats operating.
On the other side of the square is the mosque and the run of restaurants along the front. All these eateries are superb but when visiting it becomes easy to get hooked into one place due to the excellent standard of service. For us it was La Villa. A superb restaurant with a balcony from which the sunset really was stunning.

The backstreets and Saturday market are buzzing with places to eat and drink cheaply and bargains to be had. The rule here is always haggle ? do it politely and you will be well received. Most places settle on a price about three quarters of the list price but you may get cheaper if you?re lucky. Clothes (fake designer) and leatherwear are particularly good bargains. Eating out and needing to give your guts a rest from the rich Turkish fare ? then Can Restaurant offers a really superb range of English food alongside their Turkish food.

So, did the earth move in Turgutreis. Well, yes it did ? on a number of occasions. Three earthquakes around the 5.5-6 mark on the richter scale. That is enough to shake cupboard doors open, rattle goods in shop windows and leave those lying on sunbeds gripping the sides as they look around nervously. Apparently earthquakes of this magnitude are almost unheard of in this resort so to experience three
in a couple of weeks really was special ? I think.

Summary: