My Meric Hotel

Enjoy Your Meal...

We were looking for somewhere to spend an early break to take advantage of the double Bank Holidays in the UK for the royal wedding, and Turunc popped up on our radar and seemed to fit the bill perfectly. Having never been to Turkey before, the drive into town is breathtaking; five miles of tight and twisty switchback road climbing up and over the Mountains onto the coastline, with sheer unprotected drops just a few foot to the side (nervous drivers will have a fit, but enthusiastic drivers will love it! ). We chose the My Meric hotel as, although it has quite a lot of bad reviews, it seemed to be the best compromise between that and price and we ended up booking 12 days for about £190 - that's about £8 per person day with all meals and drink included - try getting that in the UK! Due to the price, we went with low expectations, but needn't have worried as it was excellent value for money. The rooms were great and the food was good, and yes as people have correctly pointed out it was Turkish - but guess what, it’s Turkey! (really can't understand the mentality of people who want English food abroad). There was plenty of variety of Meze/salads (although the same variety was there most of the time, if you get what I mean), plenty of delicious Feta (completely different to the rubbish we get back in the UK). Some of the meat used in the mains was clearly goat - I don't think most of the people there realised that though, not sure how well that would have gone down! The only real letdown in the restaurant was the staff who, although friendly enough, clearly favoured the people who were constantly tipping. We had intended to leave a larger single tip at the end of the holiday - rather than lots of small ones - but the Head Waiter clearly took against us for some reason and was borderline rude/ignorant as the holiday progressed (probably because we hadn't tipped) so unfortunately we didn't feel satisfied enough with the service to leave them anything, which was a shame. Whilst all the people who tipped were fawned upon and constantly asked if they wanted drinks, we weren't asked one single solitary time in all our stay (12 days) whether we wanted a drink or not. Not once. I think the hotel needs to impress upon its staff that tips are supposed to be a reward for good service, not a payment to ensure it. That said, all the junior waiters were never anything but courteous, especially the younger lad (Sem).

The hotel room itself was, again, excellent for the money – the best comparison is probably something along the lines of one of the better Travelodges, but with a bigger room. It was clean, although the single thin bedsheet was a little less than expected (and neither those nor the towels were changed at all for the first week until we actually took them and dumped them on the floor next to the door). There were great views or both mountains and sea from our room on the sixth floor – which were slightly marred by the fact that you couldn’t see them when you sitting down due to the high-ish wall surrouding the balcony. (in fairness, some of the higher up rooms do not have this problem though). One unfortunate problem was that there is a chimney on the far right of the hotel pumping fumes out at times, which gets a bit annoying, but it was never anything other than a minor inconvenience when taking the price into account.

The town itself was quiet. Not quiet enough though to be honest, but a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of nearby Marmaris and Icmeler. Don’t believe too much of the hype, it’s still full of tourist traps shops full of rubbish, and it’s impossible to walk past any shop or restaurant without people trying to drag you inside. I would also say avoid the market like the plague, again it’s just a pure tourist trap full of rubbish and fake clothes. The worst part of the trip was the town Mosque, which puts out an awful wailing voice calling people to prayer at various times during the day. The first of which is at 5am! Having never been to Turkey before we weren’t expecting that. It is their culture though, and has to be respected, and you do get used to it.

The surrounding mountains near the hotel do have places to walk if you are up to the task (a lot of dried up steep and rocky flood beds), and are full of tortoises, lizards and small snakes, but be aware we also found black scorpions up there so choose your footing with care! Also watch out for the processionary caterpillars which inhabit the Pine trees - if you see the silky cocoons steer well clear as their hairs can cause some seriously nasty allergic reactions if you touch them or breathe them in.

All in all, a great stay. The hotel was more than adequate for the price.

Unique Quality: There weren't many facilities at the Hotel itself, but for the price you can't really expect them. We went looking for value for money rather than fancy frills, and got exactly that.

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Budget Travel, Photography
• Written June 1, 2011

My Meric Hotel

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