Relax in front of the castle (Hisaronu)

Member Name: drewboy

Product:	Hisaronu
Date:	31/07/05 (3004 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Scenery, plenty to do, weather, food, great base camp .

Disadvantages: Airport, can be expensive, not the real Turkey

Nestled in the hills above Turkey’s most famous beach (the Blue Lagoon at Olu Deniz), Hisaronu offers its visitors an interesting complimentary range of possibilities. Having just returned from a week of glorious sunshine there I think it would be a good idea to let you know just why that simply wasn’t enough time and why I am sure I will be making the 4 hour flight back there at some point in the future.

Weather
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One thing that everyone should be aware of before travelling here is that if you go here in the summer, its gonna be hot. Having just been there in July, the temperature was about 40 degrees at the bottom end, and 45 at the other end of the scale. Here is where Hisaronu’s first advantage comes in. As it is set up in the hills of the area, it is a little cooler than down at sea level but also there is an intermittent breeze at most times through the day and at about 2pm, this is such a welcome thing. You can experience the heat without the breeze by going down to the beach at Olu Deniz where there is no wind at all and trust me, you will be right back on that Dolmus (local bus) up the hill for respite! The sun goes down at about 7.30/8pm and at that point the temperature is very pleasant and walking around in a t-shirt and shorts/jeans is best.

Location
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Set in the south west of the country known as the Turquoise Coast, Hisaronu is in the main tourist area of Turkey. Flying into Dalaman airport, you will find that it takes about an hour and a half transfer time by coach to get there.

It is worth mentioning a few points about the airport itself here though as it is going through major renovations at the moment. Just now it does feel rather small, crowded, dirty and rather lacking in technology. For example, my boarding card for my return flight was actually hand written which is something I have never come across in the past. The toilets quite frankly stank and the waiting areas for boarding were tiny. Also, when returning from your holiday make sure you take food with you as it actually costs about £5 just for a slice of pizza and believe it or not, a Burger King meal actually cost £12. Duty free however IS cheaper than in the resorts so it may be worth holding out for here to buy your cigarettes and alcohol if you can. The renovations are due to be completed by the beginning of 2006 so for next summer this should be a lot better.

The transfer to the resort very much highlights how much money is being poured into the area to try and boost tourism in Turkey. In every resort we passed through there are new buildings being built, new roads and tunnels being built and existing roads being upgraded. We arrived in Hisaronu at about 1am so it was obviously dark but the initial impression was that this village had not escaped the barrage of building work. Luckily, in the light of day we found that this work was not intrusive into our holiday at all however the sheer number or estate agents in such a small place offering holiday apartments for sale was quite surprising.

As a base for the area, you would be hard pushed to find a better location as there are plenty of busses running down to Olu Deniz (2.5 new Turkish lire) and along to Fethiye (3 new Turkish Lire) both taking about 10 to 15 minutes each way.

A very good aspect of the location is that the scenery is nothing short of spectacular here. Rolling green hills leading right down to the water fronts leaving small coves and beaches everywhere are idyllic while the resorts themselves are all set on the few flat areas there are meaning that there is never a very steep hill to walk up.

What can I do there?
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A better question would probably be what CANT you do here! It has to be said that if you come here you truly do have the option to do as little or as much as you want. Following on from the location, the fact that it is set in rolling hills, means that there are various different sports available for the more adventurous traveller.

Walking down the main street in Hisaronu, apart from all the estate agents, there are also various ‘travel agencies’ who basically act as agents for all the various activities. This means that you are usually in a very good position to negotiate a good price. In the list you have the option to try Paragliding from one of the highest paragliding points around the Mediterranean (about £50), whitewater rafting (about £45), either a beginners try dive or more difficult dives in full scuba gear (about £35), a jeep safari through traditional Turkish Villages and then up into the mountains (about £12), various boat cruises around the area (from about £25 depending on the cruise) and loads more. As I said, there are various people all along the main road in the resort who WILL try to stop you and ask you ‘how many days do you have left’ so there is plenty of opportunity to book the trips that you want to do. A good thing about almost all of the trips is that they usually come with transport direct from the hotel you are staying in to where the activity takes place and back again. Also, the majority of them include lunch and a couple of drinks as well, so on the most part, they are pretty good value.

Personally, I had a go at Scuba Driving and would highly recommend this. For the money you pay you get two dives with all the equipment included. I would suggest making sure that the organisers are PADI qualified however and also that you do get English speaking guides as another person in my complex had a nightmare time as he couldn’t really communicate very well which is not what you want as it really is quite complicated. It’s well worth it though as I was able to dive to about 10 meters and you get to feed the fish down there. My trip was with a company called ‘Pro-Diving’ and I would highly recommend them as they took very good care of us. We sailed at about 9am and arrived at the dive site and then went through everything that we need to know and then went for our first dive. It was in a lovely cove with fantastically clear water that was just the right temperature. A good thing if you have mates who don’t want to dive is that they can come on the boat trip for £12 and snorkel on the surface so that people don’t feel left out!! All in all, it was a very long day with us not returning to the hotel until about 7pm at night so I would advise packing at least something to eat as you only get lunch provided with everything else needing to be paid for.

The other trip that I tried was the Paragliding. This is only for a couple of hours as you basically get driven to the jump site, given basic training, then you are off! Is a tandem dive with an experienced person taking all the controls so there really wasn’t much for them to tell you to be honest. This is the best way to see the famous blue lagoon as you ride the air currents for about half an hour from the top until you land on the beach at Olu Deniz at the bottom. A good one here is that you can take your own photo’s so you are not hit with those tempting action shots at the bottom where you are charged a fortune for them.

As I was only there a week, I left it at just the two trips but I was told that the Jeep Safari is well worth trying as you get to see some of the real Turkey as well as an ancient ruin whereas I had to make do with the ones that are built into the hills in Fethiye. So that left me with basically relaxing around the pool for most of the week apart from the day I mentioned farther back where we went to the beach. Other than that every Monday there is a market where you can go and haggle for loads of designer rip off clothes and other trinkets. There are a few good buys (I got a marble chess set for about £8) but most of the fun is in the haggling and banter with the traders. They are very much aware of the fact that it is mostly a British resort as there are people shouting ‘cheap as chips’ and ‘cheaper than ASDA’ all over the place and I actually say one of them do the famous slap the bum move with an ASDA top on!

At night time, the resort comes alive so to speak but for me it was far too reminiscent of somewhere like Benidorm where its basically run for the tourists with flashing lights and loud music (that’s about 4 years out of date!) everywhere. Best thing is to go out for dinner just before the sun goes down at around about 7pm where it is still a bit quiet or head down to Olu Deniz where it is a bit more relaxed. There is plenty of choice for what to eat with various country food offered. One thing that amused me was the Turkish interpretation of Chinese all you can eat. Here, rather than a buffet they have a set menu where you can choose two dishes (a starter and a main course with either rice or noodles) but while you can eat as much as you want you have to finish that course before they will take another order from you. Very effective as by the end of the second course you are very unlikely to be able to manage another! It is about £8 though and you do get a bottle of wine between two in most places. Other than that you can go to restaurants where main courses are usually about £10-£15 and the quality really is good, if not a bit expensive. Drinks wise, I mostly either stuck with wine which is usually about £8-£10 for a house bottle or the local beer, Effes, which is usually about £1.50 to £2 for a large bottle.

Money
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As you can see from above, its really not as cheap as it used to be, or at least what I was lead to believe so the businesses in the area are obviously cashing in on the increase in tourist traffic in recent years. Its not too bad though as you can get some meals a bit cheaper and when it comes to it, you can get a proper Turkish Kebab for about £3 and they are not to be missed!

One really annoying thing for me though is that a lot of the prices are quoted in both Turkish Lire AND UK pounds which I just found confusing. Also, that is hard to trust as the Turkish currency is quite volatile and changes on nearly an hourly basis so I just tried to stick to Lire.

I spent about £200 for the whole week that I was there however I really didn’t go on any big nights out and mostly eat food during the day at the pool bar in my hotel. If you want to have more fun on the activities you would obviously need to take more but there are cash machines all over the place so getting money out if you run out is simple. Most places do accept credit cards however so that is always an option but make sure you know your PIN as they use that system over there and are not too happy about you signing for payment.

Conclusion
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So to conclude, I very much enjoyed my week in Hisaronu if not for the place itself, but for the options that it gave me for the immediate area. Its simply not as cheap as you may expect but then what is these days?! The scenery is fantastic, the food is good, the activities on offer are endless and you are pretty much guaranteed good weather.

What more do you really want from a holiday??


Happy holidays,

drew




P.s - a good place to get info on Hisaronu is http://hisaronu.co.uk/

Summary: A great place to make your holiday want you want it to be.