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Author Topic: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!  (Read 7601 times)

Offline JenJen

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Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« on: September 20, 2009, 06:46:00 PM »
We got back yesterday from a wonderful 2 week holiday in Kalkan, 2 years after our first visit.  We were really excited to be going back but at the same time we were worried in case it didn’t live up to our high expectations based on our last holiday there!

Accommodation

Stayed in the Kelebek Apartments which we were very pleasantly surprised to find are only 2 minutes up from the Samira where we stayed last time.   We were put in a two bed apartment which was huge with fully equipped kitchen and two balconies.

The pool is pretty small but big enough for the number of people there.  It never got too busy and on a couple of afternoons we had the whole pool area to ourselves.  It gets the sun all day so was a nice place to chill out when getting back from a day out.

Eating out

Once again, I’ve never, ever eaten as well as I did in Kalkan!   I’m not used to having so many vegetarian dishes to choose from so it took me ages to decide what to have every night!  Here are some of the places we tried:

Ilban

We visited here last time we were in Kalkan when they were still in the old location.  I think I preferred the old restaurant as it had more atmosphere, although the new one up near the Samira has stunning views and is much smarter.  I had the Feta and Aubergine Pasta which was one of my favourite meals of the holiday.

Doy Doy

This was a new one for us and we were very impressed – I had the Vegetable Curry (a million miles away from any curry I’ve had before and absolutely amazing) and Glyn had the Parmesan Chicken and still hasn’t stopped raving about it!  All beautifully cooked and served in a lovely setting, topped off by a complimentary Amaretto.  Didn’t even notice the service charge on the bill which I’ve since read about on here.  We’d had a few glasses of wine by then, oops, so in effect tipped twice but it was so lovely I can live with that!

Baharat

Newly opened this year.  Our lovely friend Hamza who we’ve kept in touch with from 2 years ago when he worked at Utopia now works here as his cousin is one of the owners.  Glyn had his only steak of the holiday here and it was cooked perfectly.  I had the Vegetable Casserole which was delicious.  The bread you get at the start of the meal is amazing too – freshly made by a sweet lady outside the front and served warm straight from the oven with butter and olives mmmmmm.  Great service and very friendly staff – our only regret is that we didn’t eat here at sunset one day as when we went up to say bye to everyone on our last night the sun was just starting to go down and the views were incredible!

Korsan Meze

This was another one we had visited previously and we came here on my birthday this time with our friends who were over from Kas.  I just love the surroundings, it’s such a beautiful restaurant and the staff are all so friendly and attentive.  My friend and I had the Vegetable Kebab (still including chargrilled apricots I was delighted to see!) and the lads had the Black Sea Lamb, the house speciality which is cooked in bread.  Have been told this was one of the best meals of the holiday for both of them!

The complimentary starters here deserve special mention too – bread, cheese, apricots, walnuts etc….beautiful.

Fez

Newly opened this year.  We again went here with our friends as us veggies were excited to see Haloumi Kebabs on the menu.  The lads had Sultan’s Delight and the Fez Burger.  Everything was delicious and the staff are lovely.  Lovely views across Kalkan.  The owner, Orhan, lives and works in England during the winter but has a 5 year lease on Fez so we will definitely be back here next year.  Very glamorous toilets too!

Ibo

This might be a bit controversial compared to glowing reports I’ve seen on here but we were disappointed with this one.   The food was OK – Glyn had chicken and I had the feta and apple potato cakes which were nice and light but the rice was horrible and was all stodgey and congealed in the middle.  It was very busy but we had to wait over 20 minutes for our drinks after already ordering them twice then when the waiter finally re-appeared to take our food order he spent the whole time speaking over our heads to other people in the restaurant so we each had to repeat our order several times.  Disappointed but I’d probably still return as I’m assuming this was just a blip seeing how much everyone else loves it here!  Didn’t see the famous toilets either as we just wanted to get out after our meal!

Akin

I love it here – it’s great for a cheap lunch of pizza or salad or a full on evening meal and the staff are very friendly and funny.  We went here on our first night, and were pleased to see some of the same guys from our last holiday.  The salads with the special pomegranate dressing are amazing. We returned on our last night for an early meal before leaving for the airport and were given the “best table in the house” on the edge of the terrace where we watched the sunset over Kalkan for the last time this year (and tried not to cry).

Other places

Merkez

Great for a cheap breakfast/lunch and for people watching.  Meant to try the peanut butter and chocolate milkshake which sounded too good to be true but I was always too full!  I’ll save it for next time!  Glyn was impressed with 3.5 TL for a large Efes too.

Ali Baba

Had a couple of cheap snacks here, lovely food at great prices and great staff.

Beach café

Disappointed to see the old beach café has gone!  I did see the friendly surfy-type guy who used to serve us manning the toilets though….what happened to the café?  The new little kiosk place only seems to serve toasties which were tasty but it was nice having more choice right on the beach.

Parc Kalkan

Not a huge menu but we had a lazy lunch here the day after my birthday.  Very chilled place in the daytime but didn’t visit at night, although we did see that they had live music some evenings.

Omars

Another lazy lunch here when our friends stayed over after a night out.  Such good value and so much choice.  Lovely family run restaurant and in a great location to stop off at after the Thursday market. (Again, just 3.5 TL for a large Efes here)

Bars

Yacht Point

Great cocktails for 10TL during Happy Hour which went on from late afternoon to 9.30pm in nice surroundings but far too much popcorn eaten each time we went which ruined your appetite for your evening meal!

Kleo

Ahhh, our first stop off of the holiday!  I couldn’t wait to sit at one of the outside tables listening to the waves crashing onto the beach below….can’t think about it without feeling emotional!  We came back here several times for pre-dinner drinks.  The cocktails were great but beware, some of them are very potent!  Also nice for a quick cool-down drink on the way back from the beach or harbour.

Ottoman

We didn’t eat here this time but went for post-dinner drinks on my birthday.  Beautifully decorated in the Ottoman style (obviously!) and great for lounging around on the cushions after a heavy meal!  We took a Nargile with strawberry tobacco which was much nicer than a cherry one we had in Kas and left us feeling a bit sick  :(

Utopia

This was our regular haunt for much of our last holiday and again on this one!  We finished up here at around midnight on my birthday night just before it started raining and sat outside under an umbrella watching the lightning flashing all over the bay….lovely.   Pamuk the cat is still there and has got 4 adorable little kittens at the moment attracting lots of visitors.  They were 4 weeks old when we arrived but had doubled in size by the time we came home.  We’ve been assured that this will be Pamuk’s last litter so I’m hoping that’s true.  Gorgeous and entertaining though the kittens are, you do worry about their welfare once they get a bit bigger and move on. 

The football being shown here was a new addition this time and Nihat showed the Liverpool match specially for Glyn on an indoor screen as the Arsenal one was on outside at the same time.  We could have watched it outdoors elsewhere as a few places showed it but at least here I could play with the kittens if I got bored of football!

We had many great evenings here with some wonderful people and it remains our favourite Kalkan bar.  Beautiful views, especially just before sunset. Regards to Nihat, Bob and Ozzy for making us feel so welcome.

Out and about

Kas

We spent a couple of evenings in Kas visiting our friends who were there for the first half of our holiday.  It was worth the visit for the dolmus trip there alone!  The views along the coast road are absolutely breathtaking, mountains on one side and turquoise sea on the other.  We got the dolmus from the bus station which goes frequently and only cost 4TL – bargain.  Kas is lovely, especially the square around the harbour which is a great place for sitting with a cold Efes and watching the world go by.  Déjà Vu bar slightly up from the harbour was a fantastic place to watch the sunset too.  We only really spent time in the central touristy parts of Kas and compared with Kalkan there were more shops but seemed to be far fewer restaurants and bars.  Had a nice meal at Eris, but a better (and far cheaper) one at somewhere called ….Garden Café or something.  Full of all different nationalities including lots of Turkish families – always a good sign!

We did find drinks more expensive here than in Kalkan though – 5 – 6 TL for a large Efes in the bars we visited.  A taxi home from Kas to Kalkan is 50 TL (£20) which was reasonable and enabled us to stay out later as the last dolmus was around 9:45pm. 

Palm Beach Club

We decided to try out a few of the beach clubs to see which we liked best.  Well, we only made it as far as Palm Beach and went back 3 times!  It was so perfect that, for what we wanted, I don’t think it could have been improved on!  There was a choice of sunloungers including on the terraces, in grassed areas, on the little pebble beach or on the wooden decking platform.  We spent our days on the decking and managed not to drop anything through the gaps in to the sea (although my I-pod came close one time).  I did see someone drop a wad of lira down but he managed to get most of it back!  The sea is FREEZING due to the cold springs in the area but you soon get used to it and it was certainly very refreshing!  The café was reasonably priced, the food was great and the staff were all lovely, especially Dimitri who I immediately recognised from descriptions on here! 

17 TL for two of us for the day which when snacks and drinks were added on usually came to around 60 TL.  Not bad for a day in paradise!


Patara Beach

As stunning as ever…..plus we managed to drag ourselves off our loungers and explore the ruins this time round!  5TL now to get in and 10TL for 2 loungers and an umbrella but well worth it.

The new road makes it much quicker to get there, only around 10-15 minutes now but I do miss the views from the old route!

Kalkan Beach

Still only 7 TL for sun loungers and parasol which is very reasonable.  Still a nightmare getting in and out of the sea when the waves are big though!  Unless you stay right at the end where the slope into the sea is less steep near Kleo, expect to struggle!  We came here lots last time but having discovered Palm Beach Club we preferred to pay a bit more for comfort!

Shopping

Picked up some great bargains from the market – wall hangings, table runners and pashminas.  All were cheaper than identical goods in the shops but we bought a few lanterns at the shop (forgotten the name) with all the lanterns outside…the bigger of the 2 which are near each other.  They looked to be slightly better quality than the similar ones in the market and were only slightly more expensive at 50TL for 3 of the medium ones.

Overall

We’ve never returned to the same holiday destination before but we needn’t have worried about Kalkan letting us down!  It definitely seemed busier than when we were there 2 years ago and there are a few new places but it’s retained its charm and character.  As always, it’s the people that really make a place and we met some wonderful new people we’ll be staying in touch with and caught up with several we met last time.  I honestly do not think it’s as expensive as some people say, or at least it doesn’t have to be.  We had a very different holiday this time – we were on a tight budget last time compared to this year – we agreed that although it was nice being able to eat wherever we wanted, drink cocktails every night and experience new places, we could have easily spent a lot less and still had a fantastic time.  There is such a wide choice of cheaper places, such as Omar’s, Odak, Oz Adana, etc that you don’t have to spend a fortune if you don’t want to.  We did only ever have one course though as the quantity and quality of the food meant we couldn’t ever manage anything more!  We had either Efes or wine with our meals and paid between £8 - £14 for a bottle of wine depending on where we ate and what we fancied.

A lot of the negative comments on here regarding the cats and dogs, expensive food, noise etc etc just do not apply to our experiences of Kalkan.  I’m sure it depends on where you stay but all the dogs we encountered were very friendly and not at all aggressive.  If you have young kids or are nervous of dogs, I would suggest staying closer to the town if possible as from comments on here, it seems the dog problem is worse further out of town?   After visiting Kas, we definitely noticed some of the dogs there were more aggressive and there also seemed to be more stray cats so I guess this is indicative of the great work Kapsa do in Kalkan.  As for noise, yes some of the bars do seem to play louder music than last time and until later at night too but there always quieter places away from these bars if this bothers you. 

I did get woken a few times by the call to prayer as we were very near the mosque but I always love hearing that at any time of day or night!  We also had noisy cockerels on either side of our apartment but again, I think all these things just add to the atmosphere and it’s not like we had to get up for work in the morning  :)

An amazing holiday and we’ll definitely be back next year, hopefully for 3 weeks!  We might actually get to visit Meis and Saklikent this time!  We planned to do both this holiday but after a busy first week with our friends and some miserable weather for a few days, we just wanted to make the most of relaxing in the sun towards the end of our time in Kalkan.

This is a ridiculously long report I know, but after seeing so many negative reports on various sites, I just wanted to sing Kalkan’s praises!  We love the place and can’t wait to go back.  We chose Kalkan in 2007 after discovering this site and I’ve seen comments on here from people who’ve booked to go for the first time and are worried by things they’ve heard.  Our friends who stayed in Kas had never been to Turkey before but are fully converted and are coming to Kalkan with us next year as they fell in love with it too.  Nowhere is perfect but Kalkan comes closer than anywhere else we’ve been!

 Off to look at flights for 2010 now….  ;D  ;D  ;D


Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=4418.0
« Last Edit: September 20, 2009, 06:47:37 PM by JenJen »

Offline felicity

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2009, 06:54:23 PM »
Great report - thanks!  Brings back so many lovely memories!!  :D
Villa Kirmizi Lale - www.villakirmizilale.co.uk

Offline Rachey

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2009, 07:06:58 PM »
Fab report!  You sum up Kalkan so well.  Like you, we've never been to the same place twice, until we discovered Kalkan - also through stumbling upon enjoykalkan!   :laugh:

Offline Enjoy Kalkan

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #3 on: September 20, 2009, 07:23:13 PM »
Fantastic report thanks for sharing it with us, so glad that EK helped you discover Kalkan, after all thats why it was created  :)

Offline antler

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #4 on: September 20, 2009, 08:03:55 PM »
JenJen,
That report was fabulous. Well done and thank you! There are so many sides to Kalkan, it seems, and you can create your own paradise, as you confirmed. Your choice and range of restuarants was incredible. I never had a bad meal in Omar's Kitchen, and the "Split Belly" - stuffed aubergine - I'm told was superb and it looked enough to feed the family for just a few lire. Amazing.

Good luck with your flights for next year - we booked ours yesterday, having returned on Sept 2nd.

Antler

Offline JenJen

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #5 on: September 20, 2009, 08:30:02 PM »
Thanks for your comments everyone  :)

Antler, you left just before we arrived in Kalkan - I read your last holiday reports just after we arrived, sitting on the balcony using my I-pod Touch and they really helped me get excited about being back in Kalkan!

Have started looking into next year's holiday, just both need to check we're OK to get 3 weeks off next summer then we'll be booking....makes coming home that little bit easier!

Offline lorilou

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #6 on: September 21, 2009, 06:52:58 PM »
Hi JenJen
brilliant guide to Kalkan - thank you for taking the time to write and post it.  We'll definitely take up some of your ideas on eating places, and now added Kas into our list of places to go...

You mentioned tapping away at your itouch whilst sitting on your balcony - how did you get connected? Was your accommodation on wi fi - or did you have some kind of dongle gismo? (oooerrr hope the moderators dont misread that)?!

Need to get on line and taking my iphone but don't want to get stung by o2's horrendous roaming charges if there's a better way!

Counting the days now, hope you find those flights for '10 ...
L



if you can walk you can dance

Offline Blue Lizard

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #7 on: September 21, 2009, 07:16:56 PM »
Yes a great report..thanks for taking the time.....nice to see some familiar names and places ! :-*
People Of Britain.. When your missus asks "Does my bum look big in this? Never say "Dunno your blocking the light."... just sayin ????

 ta ta for now
Lizard

Offline JenJen

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2009, 07:42:53 PM »
Hi Lorilou,  yes - The Kelebek had free wi-fi so I didn't pay too much attention to other places which offered it I'm afraid!  I did see an awful lot of people using laptops though in various Kalkan bars and cafes and we were told many places offer free wi-fi to customers....trying to remember specific places but can't at the moment sorry!  You'll certainly have no trouble finding free access, just ask around when you get there!

Offline lorilou

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Re: Very long report of our 2nd Kalkan holiday!
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2009, 10:34:50 AM »
Thanks JenJen, will do it that way.

Really looking forward to our holiday now. it's great to get first hand 'glowing' reports from fellow travelers ... specially when you've never been to the area.

So thanks to all who've contributed.

LoriLou


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