Well, what can I say? We visited Kalkan for the first time in late July as a family of four with two older teenagers who are somewhat hard to please and had a fantastic time! The older of our two (daughter aged 19) loved it, in particular the shopping and restaurants and the younger (son aged 17) tried to appear indifferent and disinterested but actually rather enjoyed himself.....
We researched a little before choosing Kalkan and used this forum which was very helpful. To summarise we decided upon the Elvina Apartments which are just up from the top end of the Kalamar Road near to the Elixir Hotel, they were in short fantastic; yes, you had to negotiate the steep hill down and if feeling brave navigate it back up of an evening but with the very reasonable price and availability of taxis there really wasn't a need to have to do that too often! Going back to the Elvina apartments, my Husband said not to boast too much about them but seeing we've now booked our repeat visit for next year and secured the apartment we wanted I will.... They were, yes, a little bit up the hill but as a 'youngish (ahem)' family it wasn't too much of a problem and boy the views from our apartment were worth it! The apartments totalled 16 in all and were arranged across 4 townhouse style blocks each with 4 apartments - 3 duplex and one single storey, we had a 'penthouse' apartment which was absolutely lovely, immaculately clean, not over furnished and for some maybe, a little minimal but for us they were perfect; the services of the cleaners and site staff were great, there if you needed them but not in the way if you didn't. We arrived very late and were greeted immediately and our cases taken from us and led to our apartment where we were given a whistle stop tour (again, judged just perfectly) and shown our welcome pack and water.
The next morning we awoke and I dramatically threw back the curtains to take in the anticipated views only to be greeted by grey cloud...... Urgh, how did that happen? I actually laughed aloud which in turn woke my husband, who groaned and promptly went back to sleep thinking it was yet again another of my dodgy jokes.... eventually he did open one eye, blinked and grunted; however we eventually got on with our new lives in Kalkan and slowly but surely it brightened up and it was, to be fair the only grey day we encountered!
We quickly found our feet that first morning and took a gentle 10 minute amble into the old town from the apartment and realised just what a gem we had chosen. Our holiday essentially was centred around, relaxing (46m pool at the Elvina - yes thank you), Kalamar Beach Club - 9.5tl pp, including taxi pick ups and drop offs + sun beds, umbrellas and free pedalos and kayaks, eating (recommendations, totally unbiased to follow) and shopping, again recommendations to follow! Anyway, in terms of eating here goes:
BREAKFASTS:Olive Tree Cafe (old town) - good, reasonably priced.
Aqua Cafe (near to a parts) - very good, personable service, very well priced.
Cafe Eve - a bit pricey, very quiet and breakfast order misunderstood but upon realising the lovely Swiss chef raced out and apologised profusely and we were then plied with a free fruit plate!
Omar's Cafe - busy, not our thing, service very poor - food ok.
LUNCH:Due to over indulgence at breakfast on one too may occasions we only ate at the Kalamar Beach Club on the few times we visited, the food was of a good standard, reasonably priced given the location and the views were to die for!
RESTAURANTS FOR EVENING MEALS:Baharat (Old Town) - Fabulous, couldn't fault the food, service good - price wise in terms of our spend highish but justified.
Chillies (Kalamar Rd) - Mixed reviews, I didn't enjoy it, neither did my daughter, however the 'boys' did. Food not the best but they tried hard.
Olive Garden (Roof top restaurant, it has an alternative name but not sure what it is!) - a big disappointment, pricey, service very slow and to boot a live bug ran out of my daughter's starter when she cut into it.... We wouldn't return sadly.
Mussaka (port) - very busy, service a little slow consequently but the food was lovely
Cafe Vita (Kalamar Rd - high end near to the Elixir) - we went for the £10ph BBQ night, it was a bit 'squashy' but the service was good given the very busy nature of the evening. The range of starters was excellent and the BBQ in my Son's opinion was the best meal he had there.
Cafe Aqua (Kalamar Rd - again high end near to the Elixir) - Lovely, excellent service, unpretentious, food good and most definitely home cooked, very reasonable in terms of price.
Fenners Cafe (port) - ok, very reasonable given the location.
Sofra (old town) - lovely, very good service, very good food at the pricier end of the range.
Sade (old town - fantastic, small (you'll need to book), excellent service, food lovely, great place to eat - pricier end of the range.
Fotos Pizza (top of old town) - cheap cheerful and it's Pizza albeit a bit tasteless but hey the view are nice!
SUPERMARKETS:All within an easy walk downhill from the Elvina Apartments (and a Taxi ride back up!) -
Migros, new but well stocked.
BIM (just up the hill from Migros) - excellent for basics and quite literally half the price for water etc, however doesn't sell alcohol!
Yali (big store near to Migros and BIM) - a bit 'higgledy piggledy" but the best place price wise to buy Wine! Yali (small store upper end of Kalamar Rd near to the Elixir and Elvina), same prices as store in town, well stocked and convenient for fresh bread etc. Beware of some of the small 'Supermarkets' just at the beginning of the walk down into the old town, they make up their prices! There is a 'Tesco' -
Kipa just before you enter the old town, this is good for certain items and fairly priced - particularly for Effes according to my Husband!
SHOPPING:The Thursday Market is an experience and it is good fun to haggle, however we were in particular interested in the lovely leather on offer and my Husband bought a belt in the market (which was apparently a bargain, only to leave the lovely leather shop 'Misty Mae' with a long face a day later after my Son had bought a much nicer, better quality belt for the same price); the motto here being, yes go to the market but ultimately the shops in town are invariably better in terms of quality and do offer very competitive prices. If, as two of us were are looking for handbags, my daughter and I highly recommend
Misty Mae, BSG and
Indeed (I think), the quality and service were fantastic!
Misty Mae (for us) was a particular favourite
BOAT:We went out for a day cruise and had set our hearts on Yildiz II which 'Antler' had recommended but we met up with friends who arranged a day cruise on the
Neptune - 'she' was a well loved boat and the Captain and his lovely Canadian wife Tracey gave us the most fantastic day at sea with the most amazing food and hospitality and we were very grateful to Tracey who happily made some lovely restaurant recommendations to us - which were indeed fantastic (see above)...
TO SUMMARISE:We loved Kalkan, we're going back next year and couldn't recommend it highly enough. People have mentioned it's pricey, we absolutely didn't find this to be the case and in all aspects found it to be really really good value; we've travelled quite widely and in comparison found Kalkan to be high up in terms of value. We booked the Elvina apartment this year with the Turquoise Collection and have again booked to stay there next year (in terms of value for money we couldn't fault the apartments - we paid less for two weeks in a lovely apartment than we had for one week in a Villa in Greece); we had a Penthouse apartment and the stairs were at times crucifying so we have consequently booked one of their infinity pool apartments for next year; the service was good and they were very helpful and informative. They offered flights and transfers from the Airport but we chose to arrange these ourselves as we are 'tight'! We booked our airport transfers direct with
ABI TOURS who have an office in Kalkan Old Town - we paid £130 for a return minibus and it was excellent in terms of punctuality and service.
Anyway I've perhaps put enough information - I do like to talk(!) but as we found this forum very helpful we thought it good to share.....
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