Club Orient Apartments

entertaining staff

by turkey_lover about R.T.J' s Bar

R.T.J' s bar is the best because they are friendly and will do any thing for you. with good looking bar staff you can't go wrong here. i recommend you go there you will certainly enjoy your self! you can where absoultly anything, white is a good option because it lights up.

Beach Lovers!....

by MrOscar

Marmaris is nice but unfortunately is not the best beach... If you like to spend more time on the beach I recommend to go Icmeler Beach. Its very easy just pick the Orange MiniBus (Dolmush) till the last stop where is exactly where the beautiful Beach starts!... Its also nice to walk around icmeler which is smaller than Marmaris. On the way back you can pick Dolmush for coming back to Marmaris.

A day trip to Marmaris

by sjvessey

"Turkish delight"

Marmaris is one of those places which is completely unlike what you expected it to be. I came here on a day-trip from nearby Rhodes, which takes only a couple of hours by boat, and the contrast between the two places is interesting.

The town of Marmaris barely existed 20 or 30 years ago. Then the tourists started to arrive, and the town grew with them. For many people, Marmaris is the face of Turkey, providing them with a cheap alternative to the Greek islands that offers a similar mixture of beaches, cool blue water and guaranteed sun. For lazing around on the sand, or lying by the hotel pool, Marmaris seems ideal. In the harbour, boats at anchor offer the promise of sailing or diving expeditions on the glittering waters of the Mediterrean. And for the discerning shopper, it offers a wide variety of cheap, low-quality fakes, discount jewelry and extremely low-cost cigarettes. But if you're coming for an experience of Turkey, you probably won't find it here. Marmaris is, ultimately, a place designed to extract as many banknotes as possible from your wallet before you leave.

"First impressions count"

Turkey is desperate to join the EU. And when you step off the boat from Rhodes, you feel you have walked into a public relations exercise designed to make you realise how wonderful Turkey is. A free coach is thoughtfully provided by the local tourist board, to drive you into town. Naturally, a tour guide comes with the coach, an enthusiastic man who reminds you as often as he can that holidays in Marmaris are much cheaper than going to Spain or Greece. Of course, there's a catch. The free coach, you are told, is going to make a few stop-offs. But no-one gets off, because after all, it's free.

So, after a cursory trip to a scenic viewpoint outside of town, you are driven to a jewelers, where you spend 45 minutes hanging around waiting while people blow three or four hundred pounds on thick gold chains that most people wouldn't be seen dead in outside the east end of London. This is the start of the attempt to part you with as much cash as possible.

"They are the predator, you are the prey"

But finally, you are driven into the town itself, near the bazaar. The meeting point, you are told, will not be where you were dropped off. That would be too easy. No, the meeting point is actually going to be a carpet shop inside the bazaar. If you'd just follow the guide, he'll show you exactly where it is...

Now call me naive, but for a country that's supposedly trying to create a good impression with people from the political union it so desperately wants to be a member of, they seem to have badly misjudged the sour taste this blatent hijacking of people's holiday time leaves in your mouth.

And once off the bus, you are left in no doubt where you stand. There is little respite from merchants employing aggressive sales tactics, people who have reached the point of not even pretending they care about anything other than taking your money. Where else in the world have you ever heard a shop-keeper use the line "How can I help you spend your money today?" as his opening gambit? Or even worse, "How can I rip you off today?"

As the saying goes, it was ok for a day-trip, but I don't think I could stand spending a week there.