Travel Agent Glenashley

As per most holidays, I look for somewhere I can relax in the sun and chill out. So as an alternative to the Greek Islands (which are fantastic and always one place I can't get enough of), I persuaded my husband to go to Olu Deniz on the south west coast of Turkey. We had been in London prior to this so we flew into Dalaman from London on Thomas Cook Airlines and then took a transfer to our hotel.

The flight was good and the crew extremely helpful. It was full of Brits going on their summer holiday. Olu Deniz was an hours drive away.

We arrived at our hotel which I had booked through Travel Counsellors; The Majestic Hotel, a 3 star by South African Standards. It was clean and basic with a lovely big bathroom and our own little balcony overlooking the pool. The accommodation was on a bed and breakfast basis. Breakfast was a continental style which although never changed at all was still lovely. I would definitely recommend this for families.
Location wise we couldn't have had better, the beaches were a 5 minute walk away and the Blue Lagoon for which it is so well known, a further 10 minutes.

This beach was voted the 3rd best beach in the world last year. The beachfront area is filled with wonderful little restaurants with a wide selection of cuisine to sample. The nights are filled with people socialising in outdoor cafes and restaurants, listening to music before moving on to one of the many night clubs.

For the ladies there is lots of shopping to be done, jewellery, carpets and lots of handbags..

Fethiye is very hot and dry. They average 320 days of sunshine a year. Summer months are July - August. The hottest during our stay was 37 degrees. Siestas are an absolute must in this heat!

From the local beach we did an island cruise; these depart daily from the local beach at 10am and return late afternoon and include a luncheon. This was well worth doing, so much so that we went twice and became friends with the captain of the boat. We cruised to the surrounding islands, a lot of them uninhabited but so tranquil. On route we stopped off to visit Butterfly island which can only be reached by boat and the locals live up in the hillside and are totally self sufficient.

From there we went to Cold Water Bay to do some swimming and snorkelling off the boat. The water is so wonderfully clear!! Once again you can only get there by boat. There is a wonderful restaurant up on the hillside which is frequented by the local sailing boats. So if you feel like a walk up the hill it will definitely be worth it.

Then onto St.Nicholas Island to view the ruins. .

This is the paragliding Mecca in Europe. There are plenty of other actives such as parasailing, quad biking safaris, gorges, the turtle island, banana boats, visits to the carpet making shops, turkish delight factories and many others.

The next little village from Olu Deniz is Fethiye, this is well worth visiting, hop onto the dolmus, which is the local transport here. The local taxis operate every 5 minutes from the stops and we found them to be very safe and very cheap.

Turkey and in particular Olu Deniz and the surrounding area is definitely worth visiting.