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Kalkan Discussion => Holiday Reports and Reviews => Topic started by: MrsC1701 on October 09, 2012, 04:36:03 PM

Title: Our first-time Kalkan experience - Sept/Oct 2012
Post by: MrsC1701 on October 09, 2012, 04:36:03 PM
Well, we’ve just returned from a long-awaited and absolutely blissful first trip to Kalkan.

We spent 4 days in Istanbul first and loved it – it was culturally and architecturally breathtaking and a brilliant introduction to Turkey. However after 4 days of busy, bustling streets, crowded trams and sweaty sightseeing, we were ready for chill-out time in Kalkan – and it certainly delivered.

We stayed in Villa Limyros, an Agni Travel villa up the hill behind the Emir complex. It wasn’t luxury accommodation but it was clean and comfortable and a pleasant downhill stroll into town (and a less than pleasant uphill clamber back, but we still managed to do it every day twice a day and looked on it as a good calorie burner!)

Weather was up and down, always lovely and warm but a bit of cloud here and there and an epic thunderstorm last Friday – nothing that impacted our holiday negatively though.

Our intention had been to balance eating out and cooking at home – oops, that didn’t go so well! With so much choice with eating out we couldn’t resist! A quick run down of where we ate:
Lunches: Merkez, Fener, Café Leon, Palm Beach Club, Villa Mahal Beach club, Patara café and White Table.
Dinners: Café Zula, Begonvil, Hunckar Ocakbasi, Meydan Adana, Small House, Moonlight Terrace and Korsan Fish Terrace.

I can honestly say we did not have a single bad meal in Kalkan. Every meal was excellent quality, even my husband who is a fussy chef did not have a single complaint. If we’re talking favourites though, we loved Fener for an iced coffee or simple lunch during the day and for evening meals, Small House was a brilliant, authentic Turkish experience (the owner and his wife are the loveliest people ever and the meze plate was the best thing we ate while in Turkey!) and Korsan Fish Terrace on our last night was absolutely amazing too, the fish was superb. We LOVED Turkish food - mezes, menemen, casseroles, kebabs and shish (the Iskender at Hunckar was out of this world), pides, gozleme, the lot. Wish we had a good Turkish restaurant near us at home!

We loved Patara Beach, it was beautiful and unspoilt and the little beach café served up very reasonable calamari and Efes! Also had great days out at Palm Beach Club and the Villa Mahal (although we found the latter a little overpriced, but not surprising as it is part of a luxury hotel). Best day of our holiday by far was a day out on Yildiz 3 with Adem. It was absolutely fantastic, the boat was great, the people were great and the food was delicious. We also really liked the town beach, the pebbles didn’t bother us and the water was gorgeous.

I’d read that Kalkan is expensive; we didn’t think that was the case at all though. Having just come from Istanbul where we paid 12TL for an Efes, the prices were a pleasant surprise!

To sum it up, Kalkan is a very special place – the people are so friendly and welcoming and there is an ambience about the town that I have never experienced elsewhere. Will we go back? One day, yes but we have a long list of places on our to-visit list so I don’t think we’ll go back straight away but hopefully in the not-too-distant future. I hope Kalkan never changes or adapts too much more for the masses, we think it’s just perfect the way it is.
Title: Re: Our first-time Kalkan experience - Sept/Oct 2012
Post by: kalkan4eva on October 09, 2012, 06:33:31 PM
great report, MrsC1701...so glad you enjoyed your stay in Kalkan :)
Title: Re: Our first-time Kalkan experience - Sept/Oct 2012
Post by: HolmfirthNicky on October 09, 2012, 07:33:33 PM
Great report MrsC1701, Istanbul is on our bucket list!!
Title: Re: Our first-time Kalkan experience - Sept/Oct 2012
Post by: Lizilu20 on October 09, 2012, 09:00:13 PM
Lovely report. It's great to read a report about Kalkan through a first timers eyes. It reminds me of why we fell in love with the place and the people. Roll on next year - it can't come soon enough !!  :)
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