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Two years ago, I posted useful tips from experienced tourists on a couple of sites and did not expect to receive hundreds of letters of gratitude from our compatriots who, after reading my story, repeatedly duplicated it on other sites. Thanks everyone! This year I decided to return to this topic again, supplementing my narrative with answers to the most frequently asked questions.
For many years we have been resting in a small company and we want to share our knowledge, experience, observations and we hope that they will be useful to you.
CHOICE OF A TRAVEL COMPANY
It depends on whether your trip will take place or not, how it will go, what impressions you will return with, whether the promises will correspond to reality, whether they will be placed in the hotel you ordered, and much more.
Choose a company that has been providing travel services for more than a year - with a good reputation and a good name, or ask friends who used the services of travel agencies (if you are going on vacation for the first time, and in the future it is better to make friends with the travel agency manager - he and a "last minute trip" "will offer, and help, and prompt, etc. ). We always use the services of the same company, but we don’t name it, because you suspect it of advertising and we don’t think that you will come to Penza from all over the country for vouchers.
COUNTRY SELECT
Now the question is: "Where is it better to go on vacation? " We were in different countries, but we made our choice and for several years we have been going on summer holidays only to Turkey. In our opinion, this is the only country where you can have a good and inexpensive rest. Along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea stretched a chain consisting of resort towns, towns, villages and hotels.
The Turks are very hospitable and treat all tourists well, making no difference between Germans, Dutch, Russians. We do not aim to idealize this country and its people, we just want to share our impressions.
RESORTS
The first time we rested in Belek, at the Cezars hotel. The hotel is excellent: huge territory, large pool, good food and service. Around the hotel there is a fence made of barbed wire and towers, and behind them is a pine forest. Hotels in Belek are designed for tourists who spend their holidays on site. The center of the village can be reached by a minibus without glasses, or by taxi. Belek and Side have the most impudent taxi drivers on the coast, so negotiate the price in advance. There is nothing interesting in the village.
There are also beautiful large hotels in Side, but, like in Belek, there is nowhere to go, except for the Oxide disco and the ruins of the ancient city.
It is not worth making any purchases in these villages - having almost no competitors, sellers bend prices, although there are decent stores with a huge selection and excellent service.
Among our tourists, Kemer is very popular. A very beautiful cozy resort where you can find a hotel of any class, but due to the proximity of the mountains, at the beginning and at the end of the season the weather often changes, it rains. It makes sense to go there during the high season - from the beginning of June to the end of August.
At this time, you need to relax in the resorts of Marmaris and Kusadasi, but rest here will cost more.
ALANYA
We really liked Alanya - a resort on the Mediterranean Sea, 135 km away. from Antalya - a small and very beautiful town with a population of 130 thousand people, where antique and modern buildings coexist, where there are excellent conditions for recreation, especially for youth (you can’t list everything), so from year to year we choose Alanya.
Many sites mistakenly write the name of this city, because Alania is North Ossetia in the Caucasus, and the city of Alanya is in Turkey.
HOTEL SELECTION
There are many hotels, from 2 to 5 stars (there are even 5 + 2 Sungate Port Royal 5 * Sungate Port Royal, if your wallet allows you) - they are located along the entire coast. It all depends on how you want to relax and with whom you came, etc. We stayed at Botanika (Botanik World of Paradise) - a good hotel, but overcrowded; Dolphin de Luxe (Hotel Delfin De Luxe Resort 5 *) - magnificent, but the beach is pebbly; Gren Hill (Green Hill), Kemal Bey (Kemal Bay), Aydı nbey Gold Dreams (Aydı nbey Gold Dreams) - good only in relation to price + quality, but no more; our friends spoke well of the new hotel Utopia. We really liked the hotel Iberostar Club Alantur (Maritim Club Alantur) - only positive emotions and we recommend it to you. If I could sum it up in one word, it would be GREAT!! ! There are 25 km.
from Alanya (towards Antalya), in the town of Incekum, there are three hotels under the general name Pegasos, with a beautiful sandy beach (this is the best beach on the coast). This year we rested in the Pegasos resort (Pegasos resort) - we were very pleased. There are no settlements near these hotels, so the water in the sea is crystal clear. In one word - FAIRY TALE!!!
If you decide to relax in Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast, we want to give you some tips that will undoubtedly come in handy.
MONEY
It is better to take dollars with you on a trip (you can buy for $ 10 what they sell for 10 euros, etc. ); you can take a little euro for payments at the hotel reception. Do not change the currency for local money (Turkish lira) at the Antalya airport, at the hotel reception, in small shops - the exchange rate is very unfavorable. It is better to do this in Alanya, in the official exchanger, under the sign CHANGE OFFICE.
Practically, in any store they accept currency without restrictions, so it makes sense to change a small amount in order to pay for small purchases and for travel from the hotel to the city, etc. In large centers you can pay with our rubles, but the exchange rate differs from the central bank by 2-3 rubles. If you are a fan of ATMs - do not withdraw money after the bank closes, especially on the eve of departure; If the ATM swallows the card, you will leave without it. To return it, you must present your passport. We got into such a story, so we want to warn you. Turkish ATMs have a feature - if you carry out a transaction for a long time, the ATM "starts to think" that you have forgotten the card and swallows it so that it does not get to another.
TOURS
You land at the Antalya airport and buy a stamp for $20, which is pasted into your passport (it gives you the right to stay in the country for 2 months), then you are met by the guides of the host travel agency, seated on buses and taken to the hotel. On the way, the guide begins to colorfully talk about excursions that cost him 2.3, and sometimes 4 times more expensive than you can order in other travel agencies. The guide explains this by saying that if we do not go with their company and something happens to us, the insurance will be invalid and begins to tell terrible stories (more like scenes from horror films) that happened to tourists who decided to go with another company and low prices. Of course, the guide can be understood - he wants to sell for $ 60 what you can buy for $ 15, but his words about the invalidity of insurance are complete nonsense.
It is enough to carefully read the terms of the insurance and make sure that it is valid throughout Turkey, for the entire duration of the holiday. All the conditions are discussed there, but nothing is said about the fact that the host travel agency is the guarantor of insurance. In addition, the guides suggest that other companies are attracted by low prices, and then you will have to pay separately for gasoline, for lunch, for the return trip, for the air conditioner working in the bus - this is a blatant lie. The program of excursions for hotel guides and other agencies is almost the same, and the agency employee always warns about what is included in the price and what is for a fee. There were cases when tourists who bought excursions from a hotel guide and those who took the same tour from another agency, but much cheaper, traveled on the same bus. To our surprise, there were many tourists who believed the guide and bought excursions very expensively. They decided - "the more expensive, the more reliable. "
In addition to low prices, our friend has other advantages that hotel guides do not have. Let's start with the fact that excursions can be ordered by phone, or by sending an SMS and paying on the spot when you are picked up at the hotel. At any time, you could refuse or reschedule to another day, and the guides at the hotel have excursions on certain days and they take money in advance, on the first day and it is impossible to return them. Our friend has a Turkish name, he speaks good Russian and is better known as Zakhar. His phone number (mobile) +905324546496 (full dial) - call anytime or send SMS - ku, he will call you back. Zakhar is a proven and reliable friend - that's why we recommend you. If the guide sees that you are not going on excursions with their company, he will have an attack of rabies (at least get vaccinated). He begins to threaten that he will not take him to the airport, that you yourself will get there, etc.
We were also told this, but they took us like nice little ones - where would they go, because the transfer was paid for.
CAR RENTAL
If you want to rent a car, then use the services of a company with a Russian-speaking employee - in this case, no one will be able to refer to the fact that they misunderstood each other. Do not leave your passport as collateral (this document is not the best subject for collateral), but say that another company gave you without it, so stock up on a couple of photocopies. Take the car only with full insurance (headlights, wheels, windshield); sometimes you have to pay extra for this and it is called - "Full Casco". Don't forget - "the miser pays twice". You wanted to ride a motor scooter - then your license should be category "A" and be sure to wear a helmet, because the times have passed when our tourists presented Turkish "traffic cops" under the guise of a driver's license - Komsomol and party tickets.
Pay special attention to parking - incorrectly parked cars are immediately picked up by a tow truck and taken to a penalty area. You can not park the car on the main streets and in places where it can create even the slightest interference with other road users. Park in designated areas where the OTO PARK sign is posted.
PURCHASES
On the 2nd day of rest, guides take you on a sightseeing tour, the cost of which is symbolic - 5 or 10 $. After giving a little information about the history of the city, taking you to the fortress and cave "Damlatash" or to the waterfall, the guide begins to praise the shopping centers to which you will be taken. According to him, only to tourists their firms make "the biggest discounts" and offer "the highest quality goods" (the guides of other firms say about the same).
We never buy anything on the territory of the hotel and near it, at various exhibitions and sales of leather products in the evening at the hotel, in shops and shopping centers, where the guides of the host company bring, as for several years we managed to make friends in different shops in Alanya. In recent years, traveling markets have appeared - this is a tent market that opens near the hotel on certain days of the week. Tourists are sure that if there is a bazaar, then it is cheaper and crowds go through this “market-tent”. We were convinced of the opposite - quality items were more expensive than in Alanya, there was no choice, and the prices of products similar to Chinese consumer goods were the same as in our markets. The culture of servicing bazaar traders left much to be desired. We laughed for a long time when the underwear seller offered us to buy a villa, and a woman from the far south of the CIS promised to take us to the cheapest and best (according to her) leather store.
Try not to deal with such an audience.
If you are interested in shopping, it is better to go to Alanya, where there are more shops (only over three hundred leather ones, about the same number of jewelry stores, if not more - they work from 10 am to 12 am), and there is a choice, and prices are lower and you can bargain. If you decide to bargain, then you must follow the unwritten rule: if you name your price, you must buy, but if you are not ready to buy, do not name your price. There are no ready-made templates on the topic: how to bargain, because in different stores this happens in different ways. You can not bargain in supermarkets, pharmacies, wine and tobacco shops (in Turkey, the state monopoly on alcohol and tobacco products) and in stores where prices are fixed. You can get to Alanya by regular minibuses (dolmush in Turkish) - they come to the central square, located near the clothing market, and on Fridays there is a real oriental bazaar.
In the hotels where we stay, the food is very good, but there is no such choice of seafood as in the restaurant. Even in a small establishment, there is such a large selection of dishes that it takes time to study the menu. There are a lot of types of kebabs (kebabs), there are purely Turkish dishes: osmanly, imam bayildy, dolma, etc. , seafood dishes: squid, shrimp, octopus, various exotic fish. We really liked the chuprah (a fish that looks like a piranha) baked in earthenware.
If you decide to visit a Turkish restaurant, then we think that our tips will come in handy. You should not go there if it is located on the first line, i. e. on the embankment. As a rule, these restaurants are much more expensive. Before you sit down, preview the menu. Never take mixed dishes, because you will be given a piece, two from five dishes, and they will take the bill for five full ones. Feel free to ask for the cost of the order.
If you want to call Russia, you can do it from any payphone. It is cheaper to call by card (they are 30.50, 100 units). Weave is enough for about twenty minutes of conversation with Russia, and on Sunday even longer. To make a call, you dial the Russian code (007), then the area code and the number of the called subscriber - for example, 007495*******; you don't need to dial an eight. Calling someone in a hotel room is expensive, but if they call you, then all incoming calls are free. Other cards are also sold in Turkey - for example, the Holiday Card (cost about $12), which allows you to talk to Russia for 58 minutes if you call on a cable. We use such cards, but for calling home.
TAXI
If you decide to take a taxi, it is advisable to specify the amount in advance, and not pay by taximeter (Turkish meter). We noticed that the more expensive the resort, the more impudent the taxi drivers. The fare is about 1 euro per kilometer.
This price is due to the fact that gasoline is expensive - almost 2 euros per liter, and cars, compared with our prices, are twice as expensive. You should not take a taxi for shopping, because they take you to the most expensive stores.
We hope you find our tips helpful! If you want to ask something - write! We will try to answer everyone. If you are in Alanya - say hello to Zakhar from Penza, from Gena, Volodya, Stas, Seryoga! We wish you a good holiday!
GENA, City of PENZA
Travel date: 08/2008
Russo-tourist GENA.
For many years we have been resting in a small company and we want to share our knowledge, experience, observations and we hope that they will be useful to you.
CHOICE OF A TRAVEL COMPANY
It depends on whether your trip will take place or not, how it will go, what impressions you will return with, whether the promises will correspond to reality, whether they will be placed in the hotel you ordered, and much more.
Choose a company that has been providing travel services for more than a year - with a good reputation and a good name, or ask friends who used the services of travel agencies (if you are going on vacation for the first time, and in the future it is better to make friends with the travel agency manager - he and a "last minute trip" "will offer, and help, and prompt, etc. ). We always use the services of the same company, but we don’t name it, because you suspect it of advertising and we don’t think that you will come to Penza from all over the country for vouchers.
COUNTRY SELECT
Now the question is: "Where is it better to go on vacation? " We were in different countries, but we made our choice and for several years we have been going on summer holidays only to Turkey. In our opinion, this is the only country where you can have a good and inexpensive rest. Along the entire coast of the Mediterranean Sea stretched a chain consisting of resort towns, towns, villages and hotels.
The Turks are very hospitable and treat all tourists well, making no difference between Germans, Dutch, Russians. We do not aim to idealize this country and its people, we just want to share our impressions.
RESORTS
The first time we rested in Belek, at the Cezars hotel. The hotel is excellent: huge territory, large pool, good food and service. Around the hotel there is a fence made of barbed wire and towers, and behind them is a pine forest. Hotels in Belek are designed for tourists who spend their holidays on site. The center of the village can be reached by a minibus without glasses, or by taxi. Belek and Side have the most impudent taxi drivers on the coast, so negotiate the price in advance. There is nothing interesting in the village.
There are also beautiful large hotels in Side, but, like in Belek, there is nowhere to go, except for the Oxide disco and the ruins of the ancient city.
It is not worth making any purchases in these villages - having almost no competitors, sellers bend prices, although there are decent stores with a huge selection and excellent service.
Among our tourists, Kemer is very popular. A very beautiful cozy resort where you can find a hotel of any class, but due to the proximity of the mountains, at the beginning and at the end of the season the weather often changes, it rains. It makes sense to go there during the high season - from the beginning of June to the end of August.
At this time, you need to relax in the resorts of Marmaris and Kusadasi, but rest here will cost more.
ALANYA
We really liked Alanya - a resort on the Mediterranean Sea, 135 km away. from Antalya - a small and very beautiful town with a population of 130 thousand people, where antique and modern buildings coexist, where there are excellent conditions for recreation, especially for youth (you can’t list everything), so from year to year we choose Alanya.
Many sites mistakenly write the name of this city, because Alania is North Ossetia in the Caucasus, and the city of Alanya is in Turkey.
HOTEL SELECTION
There are many hotels, from 2 to 5 stars (there are even 5 + 2 Sungate Port Royal 5 * Sungate Port Royal, if your wallet allows you) - they are located along the entire coast. It all depends on how you want to relax and with whom you came, etc. We stayed at Botanika (Botanik World of Paradise) - a good hotel, but overcrowded; Dolphin de Luxe (Hotel Delfin De Luxe Resort 5 *) - magnificent, but the beach is pebbly; Gren Hill (Green Hill), Kemal Bey (Kemal Bay), Aydı nbey Gold Dreams (Aydı nbey Gold Dreams) - good only in relation to price + quality, but no more; our friends spoke well of the new hotel Utopia. We really liked the hotel Iberostar Club Alantur (Maritim Club Alantur) - only positive emotions and we recommend it to you. If I could sum it up in one word, it would be GREAT!! ! There are 25 km.
from Alanya (towards Antalya), in the town of Incekum, there are three hotels under the general name Pegasos, with a beautiful sandy beach (this is the best beach on the coast). This year we rested in the Pegasos resort (Pegasos resort) - we were very pleased. There are no settlements near these hotels, so the water in the sea is crystal clear. In one word - FAIRY TALE!!!
If you decide to relax in Turkey, on the Mediterranean coast, we want to give you some tips that will undoubtedly come in handy.
MONEY
It is better to take dollars with you on a trip (you can buy for $ 10 what they sell for 10 euros, etc. ); you can take a little euro for payments at the hotel reception. Do not change the currency for local money (Turkish lira) at the Antalya airport, at the hotel reception, in small shops - the exchange rate is very unfavorable. It is better to do this in Alanya, in the official exchanger, under the sign CHANGE OFFICE.
Practically, in any store they accept currency without restrictions, so it makes sense to change a small amount in order to pay for small purchases and for travel from the hotel to the city, etc. In large centers you can pay with our rubles, but the exchange rate differs from the central bank by 2-3 rubles. If you are a fan of ATMs - do not withdraw money after the bank closes, especially on the eve of departure; If the ATM swallows the card, you will leave without it. To return it, you must present your passport. We got into such a story, so we want to warn you. Turkish ATMs have a feature - if you carry out a transaction for a long time, the ATM "starts to think" that you have forgotten the card and swallows it so that it does not get to another.
TOURS
You land at the Antalya airport and buy a stamp for $20, which is pasted into your passport (it gives you the right to stay in the country for 2 months), then you are met by the guides of the host travel agency, seated on buses and taken to the hotel. On the way, the guide begins to colorfully talk about excursions that cost him 2.3, and sometimes 4 times more expensive than you can order in other travel agencies. The guide explains this by saying that if we do not go with their company and something happens to us, the insurance will be invalid and begins to tell terrible stories (more like scenes from horror films) that happened to tourists who decided to go with another company and low prices. Of course, the guide can be understood - he wants to sell for $ 60 what you can buy for $ 15, but his words about the invalidity of insurance are complete nonsense.
It is enough to carefully read the terms of the insurance and make sure that it is valid throughout Turkey, for the entire duration of the holiday. All the conditions are discussed there, but nothing is said about the fact that the host travel agency is the guarantor of insurance. In addition, the guides suggest that other companies are attracted by low prices, and then you will have to pay separately for gasoline, for lunch, for the return trip, for the air conditioner working in the bus - this is a blatant lie. The program of excursions for hotel guides and other agencies is almost the same, and the agency employee always warns about what is included in the price and what is for a fee. There were cases when tourists who bought excursions from a hotel guide and those who took the same tour from another agency, but much cheaper, traveled on the same bus. To our surprise, there were many tourists who believed the guide and bought excursions very expensively. They decided - "the more expensive, the more reliable. "
In addition to low prices, our friend has other advantages that hotel guides do not have. Let's start with the fact that excursions can be ordered by phone, or by sending an SMS and paying on the spot when you are picked up at the hotel. At any time, you could refuse or reschedule to another day, and the guides at the hotel have excursions on certain days and they take money in advance, on the first day and it is impossible to return them. Our friend has a Turkish name, he speaks good Russian and is better known as Zakhar. His phone number (mobile) +905324546496 (full dial) - call anytime or send SMS - ku, he will call you back. Zakhar is a proven and reliable friend - that's why we recommend you. If the guide sees that you are not going on excursions with their company, he will have an attack of rabies (at least get vaccinated). He begins to threaten that he will not take him to the airport, that you yourself will get there, etc.
We were also told this, but they took us like nice little ones - where would they go, because the transfer was paid for.
CAR RENTAL
If you want to rent a car, then use the services of a company with a Russian-speaking employee - in this case, no one will be able to refer to the fact that they misunderstood each other. Do not leave your passport as collateral (this document is not the best subject for collateral), but say that another company gave you without it, so stock up on a couple of photocopies. Take the car only with full insurance (headlights, wheels, windshield); sometimes you have to pay extra for this and it is called - "Full Casco". Don't forget - "the miser pays twice". You wanted to ride a motor scooter - then your license should be category "A" and be sure to wear a helmet, because the times have passed when our tourists presented Turkish "traffic cops" under the guise of a driver's license - Komsomol and party tickets.
Pay special attention to parking - incorrectly parked cars are immediately picked up by a tow truck and taken to a penalty area. You can not park the car on the main streets and in places where it can create even the slightest interference with other road users. Park in designated areas where the OTO PARK sign is posted.
PURCHASES
On the 2nd day of rest, guides take you on a sightseeing tour, the cost of which is symbolic - 5 or 10 $. After giving a little information about the history of the city, taking you to the fortress and cave "Damlatash" or to the waterfall, the guide begins to praise the shopping centers to which you will be taken. According to him, only to tourists their firms make "the biggest discounts" and offer "the highest quality goods" (the guides of other firms say about the same).
We never buy anything on the territory of the hotel and near it, at various exhibitions and sales of leather products in the evening at the hotel, in shops and shopping centers, where the guides of the host company bring, as for several years we managed to make friends in different shops in Alanya. In recent years, traveling markets have appeared - this is a tent market that opens near the hotel on certain days of the week. Tourists are sure that if there is a bazaar, then it is cheaper and crowds go through this “market-tent”. We were convinced of the opposite - quality items were more expensive than in Alanya, there was no choice, and the prices of products similar to Chinese consumer goods were the same as in our markets. The culture of servicing bazaar traders left much to be desired. We laughed for a long time when the underwear seller offered us to buy a villa, and a woman from the far south of the CIS promised to take us to the cheapest and best (according to her) leather store.
Try not to deal with such an audience.
If you are interested in shopping, it is better to go to Alanya, where there are more shops (only over three hundred leather ones, about the same number of jewelry stores, if not more - they work from 10 am to 12 am), and there is a choice, and prices are lower and you can bargain. If you decide to bargain, then you must follow the unwritten rule: if you name your price, you must buy, but if you are not ready to buy, do not name your price. There are no ready-made templates on the topic: how to bargain, because in different stores this happens in different ways. You can not bargain in supermarkets, pharmacies, wine and tobacco shops (in Turkey, the state monopoly on alcohol and tobacco products) and in stores where prices are fixed. You can get to Alanya by regular minibuses (dolmush in Turkish) - they come to the central square, located near the clothing market, and on Fridays there is a real oriental bazaar.
In the hotels where we stay, the food is very good, but there is no such choice of seafood as in the restaurant. Even in a small establishment, there is such a large selection of dishes that it takes time to study the menu. There are a lot of types of kebabs (kebabs), there are purely Turkish dishes: osmanly, imam bayildy, dolma, etc. , seafood dishes: squid, shrimp, octopus, various exotic fish. We really liked the chuprah (a fish that looks like a piranha) baked in earthenware.
If you decide to visit a Turkish restaurant, then we think that our tips will come in handy. You should not go there if it is located on the first line, i. e. on the embankment. As a rule, these restaurants are much more expensive. Before you sit down, preview the menu. Never take mixed dishes, because you will be given a piece, two from five dishes, and they will take the bill for five full ones. Feel free to ask for the cost of the order.
If you want to call Russia, you can do it from any payphone. It is cheaper to call by card (they are 30.50, 100 units). Weave is enough for about twenty minutes of conversation with Russia, and on Sunday even longer. To make a call, you dial the Russian code (007), then the area code and the number of the called subscriber - for example, 007495*******; you don't need to dial an eight. Calling someone in a hotel room is expensive, but if they call you, then all incoming calls are free. Other cards are also sold in Turkey - for example, the Holiday Card (cost about $12), which allows you to talk to Russia for 58 minutes if you call on a cable. We use such cards, but for calling home.
TAXI
If you decide to take a taxi, it is advisable to specify the amount in advance, and not pay by taximeter (Turkish meter). We noticed that the more expensive the resort, the more impudent the taxi drivers. The fare is about 1 euro per kilometer.
This price is due to the fact that gasoline is expensive - almost 2 euros per liter, and cars, compared with our prices, are twice as expensive. You should not take a taxi for shopping, because they take you to the most expensive stores.
We hope you find our tips helpful! If you want to ask something - write! We will try to answer everyone. If you are in Alanya - say hello to Zakhar from Penza, from Gena, Volodya, Stas, Seryoga! We wish you a good holiday!
GENA, City of PENZA
Travel date: 08/2008
Russo-tourist GENA.
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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OTHER REVIEWS ABOUT THE HOTEL
- The hotel does not match the photo.
- The only positive is the weather...
- I do not recommend, -4 * pulls
- Excellent hotel with good service
- Service sucks
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