TURKEY

We were never meant to go to Turkey on this trip - we had actually meant to go to Bulgaria for 2 weeks but as the war in Ukraine broke out our holiday got cancelled so we chose Turkey. This was the first holiday we had planned after Covid so we wanted to go somewhere All Inclusive with a water park and a place where we could finally just relax and not give a shit about anything else going on - so we chose Aqua Fantasy in Izmir 

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Why All Inclusive​ - We are very partial to an All Inclusive Resort - I know that some people feel "trapped" but I don't really get why as it's not like once you are in you can't leave. The idea of not having to do ANYTHING makes me happy, just pure chill out, eat and drink what and when you like, swim all day (and all night if you want) and just hang out with the people you love playing cards and sipping cocktails we are here for it. 

We always pick somewhere that has something for Jax too like a water park, play parks, kids clubs (more on this in a bit), arcades etc. We will also show him hotels we have in mind and let him help us choose a place and we settled on Aqua Fantasy for Turkey mostly because of the waterpark that is attached to it (and the swim up bar for us).

The hotel was actually really good, I am not sure we had a bad thing to say about it. It was huge, the food was vast and different every day, the drinks were nice and the pool was huge. Jax loved being in the pool every day and the confidence in his swimming went through the roof. The hotel shops are the same as every other hotel shop and they are pretty spenny - you will see SO many people with inflatables but DO NOT buy one as they are astronomical just wait until the evening as plenty of people who are leaving the next day leave them around the pool so you can get one of those - we got a donut, a lilo, a tyre and a duck rubber ring ha!

The hotel was set right on the sandy beach so there was a beach bar and beach restaurant too (the beach restaurant is where we had lunch every day because the chicken kebab was life). There is a jetty off the beach which is really nice, we spent some time here jumping in the sea off the end and also feeding the fishes. 

The hotel had so much on offer including a little Crazy Golf course and entertainment every night which we thought was fab. They also had a kids club which looked great - we will never force Jax to go into a kids club, we don't go away to get rid of him (I know some people like putting their kids into a club and that is fine, its just not for us). We asked Jax if he wanted to go in, he said yes, but we got a call after 30 minutes as he didn't want to stay and that was totally fine, maybe when he is bigger he will want to try again but that is totally up to him.

 

What we got up to​ - So we knew we didn't want to stay in the hotel for 2 weeks as we do like to get out and about and explore so we got the bus a few times to Kusadasi - the bus picks you up right outside the hotel grounds (which is like a 5 minute walk) and is basically a man that sits at the side of the road with a radio and when you turn up he calls someone on said radio and a minibus turns up to collect you - this costs around 30 Lira (£1) per person and Jax was free. A taxi was around 600 lira (£20) which people were paying because they wouldn't walk to get the bus which was crazy as we loved the bus, it was absolutely fine, air conditioned and dropped you right in town (exactly where a taxi would take you). 

How random is this but walking through the town we saw some friends of ours we knew from back home, had no idea they were there with their kids so we stopped for a couple of beers with them. 

The town is good, just your usual average town but filled with knock off designer gear. Don't get me wrong there were some bargains to be had on the genuine fake designer stuff and we got a fair bit of stuff but don't forget to haggle, never pay what they ask and don't be afraid to just walk off if you don't get the price you want to pay, they will chase you down and eventually agree with you, if they don't there are plenty of other shops selling the same stuff. Our general rule is the same as Morocco, see what they want, take 3/4 off the price and increase to half and no higher. 

The food in Turkey is really cheap too so we had lunch out a couple of times - yes I know we were All Inclusive at the hotel but it is nice to eat out and support local businesses when you are abroad especially after Covid and the devastation to these places it caused. 

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We booked a couple of trips through Get Your Guide - Full Day Jeep Safari to National Park - this trip was great we had a right laugh. The jeep collected us from outside the Hotel and drove us to meet the other jeeps, we picked up our water guns and drove towards the National Park. Once we got into the National Park (which you can only enter with permission) we stopped, got some music on and had a huge water fight between the jeeps - it was so much fun and so refreshing getting soaked as the sun was blazing. We carried on driving and reached Echo Canyon - where we stopped for lots of photos. We also had lunch included and then headed off to Zeus Cave where we got to swim in the crystal clear but OH SO FREEZING waters, before heading off again to our last stop at Long Beach where we had a few beers and some ice creams. They try and sell you the photos that they took of you at Echo Canyon which we bought as we though fuck it we may as well, they were pretty good, just for our memories. They send them to you via email or give you a USB.  This tour cost us £38 + extra for the photos and beers.

Full Day Boat Cruise - this was a very good day. VERY HOT so make sure you take your sun cream, hat and something to cover up in if you plan on staying out in the sun for the trip. Again we got picked up just outside our hotel grounds and taken to the port to board the boat. We set sail along the coast line of Kusadasi. One the way to our first stop we saw wild dolphins which was absolutely incredible to see and getting to show Jax something like this in the wild was just pure magic, he loved it. The boat stopped at 3 different places so you could get off and snorkel at each place for an hour each time. They had music playing on the boat too and lots of people jumping off the side so it was a whole vibe. Funny story for you (maybe not to Oli but Jax still talks about it over a year later) - Oli jumped off the side of the boat and after realised his (fake) RayBans were still on his head so he lost them, but instead of just accepting this he was determined to find them (at the bottom of the sea) so he found a pair of goggles and dived up and down trying to find them, he thought he saw them and grabbed them only to get pricked and turns out he tried to grab a sea urchin - so we spent the next week trying to get the needles out of his fingers honestly wtf haha. After some lunch on the boat and a few beers (you had to pay for the beers and ice creams) we had a bunch of photos taken (again which we bought) and then left to set sail back to the dock - Jax fell asleep and we just chilled listening to the music. This tour cost us £38 + photos and beers etc

Ephesus UNESCO - we decided against doing a tour here as they were quite spenny and really we didn't want to drag Jax round for hours on a guided tour listening to someone when he just won't be interested. Instead we got the bus there from outside of our hotel which again cost around 30 Lira (for Oli & I, Jax was free) and we paid around 400 Lira (£12 per adult) kids are FREE under 8 years old - we queued for about 5 minutes to get the tickets and they accept all debit / credit cards too. This UNESCO site was pretty spectacular, instead of having a guide as I said above we let Jax guide us, he took us around the amphitheater and described what shapes all the different rocks were and he even told us little stories about the history (of course none of it was accurate but we had fun listening to him tell stories that pop into his mind of the things around him). There is quite a bit to see here, lots of ruins, with lots of history, there are even reenactment shows put on. We were here for half a day max, it was great to go here just to say we had been especially as it was so close, but we wouldn't come back again, it was so busy once inside, lots of tour groups. 

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Would We Go Back​ - Absolutely but not to Aqua Fantasy - not for any real reason other than Oli and I have this rule that we would never go back to the same hotel more than once - it would have to be a very special hotel for us so that is the only reason why - the reason we say this is because when we went to Egypt in like 2013 the hotel had these name plaque nailed to the trees and we found out that if you go back 10 times you get your name put up and we were like fuck that, that is not for us, and from that day we decided we'd never want to go back to the same hotel more than once - the world is SO big why would you only want to go to the same place over and over again - it blows my mind... anyway I digress, so yes we  would go back to Turkey, we'd love to go to Istanbul and Cappadocia - not All Inclusive either we would do our own thing in places like that as you will get so much more from cities like that arranging everything yourself.