2 weeks to go.

[Ashby8]

Arriving in two weeks and staying at Hotel Asur. Loved reading the remarks from the Forum and will spend the next few days planning restuarant visits, tours,walks etc. First time in Turkey and husband puzzelled about different types of efes - can anyone explain.We usually drink wine in the evening - can we buy any cheaper stuff at the supermarket near Hotel Asur. Any advice re trips etc - the 12 islands look good, and trip accross lake. We hope the do some walking - including going to the ruins. Also to the mud baths - is the quieter one? better. Wet weather and gales here this weekend so lots of time for planning and research. Booked holiday last July so getting excited:Cool:

[m1cksut]

Arriving in two weeks and staying at Hotel Asur. Loved reading the remarks from the Forum and will spend the next few days planning restuarant visits, tours,walks etc. First time in Turkey and husband puzzelled about different types of efes - can anyone explain.We usually drink wine in the evening - can we buy any cheaper stuff at the supermarket near Hotel Asur. Any advice re trips etc - the 12 islands look good, and trip accross lake. We hope the do some walking - including going to the ruins. Also to the mud baths - is the quieter one? better. Wet weather and gales here this weekend so lots of time for planning and research. Booked holiday last July so getting excited:Cool:

first time in turkey? you'll either love it or hate it.
if you like friendly people, good food, great scenery, history, wildlife, beer, and relaxation, you will love it.
if all you want to do is moan about how hot it is/ how the food is all different, not like at home/ how you cant get a good cup of tea/english newspaper/etc i think you may not be all that happy.
i think you will love it, as for the efes, it is really quite a widely brewed range of beers, not all of it is brewed in turkey, some, in fact is brewed in russia, there is efes pilsener (the standard lager) which, on your first taste, may carry undertones of formaldehyde, but from then on you will love it and which even i, an inveterate dark beer drinker will swallow with alacrity; efes dark, which is much sweeter and a little stronger at 6per cent abv, although it seems from memory that there is efes dark and dark efes, a small but important difference i think, as one of them is not as strong.
then there is the other efes lager, which i must admit i am not familiar with, and cannot remember the name of.

[Dalyansteve]

Everything else has been covered somewhere in the forum except MUD BATHS, so my best advice for newcomers is do the Monday Koycegiz (pronounced koygees or sometimes refered to as goats cheese) Market boat trip with lunch included and you will end up at the Roman bath and hot spring in Sultaniye, Ignore any other mud bath offerings, this is the best. Do not wear any metal objects that are not gold or platinum they will turn a funny colour. Yes it does smell, its the sulpher, yes the spring is quite hot and don,t spend more than 20 minutes in the water it is mildly radioactive. There is a big notice telling you of the list of minerals etc in the water. This place is visited by people from all over Turkey for its theraputic benefits. Some of the boats do a moonlight or starlight cruise at night, I would recomend Blue Bead for this, again ending up at Sultaniye and it is quite nice floating in the lake in the dark.