Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum
Calis Beach Forum => Calis Beach Questions and Information => Topic started by: LoveHolidays on August 26, 2014, 16:16:23 PM
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I read this forum with interest before our first holiday to Calis Beach in early Aug.
I was going to add to the earlier review about 'Review of Calis Beach I don't Understand' but as it seemed to have gone 'off topic' somewhat, thought I'd start a new one here, with my views of our holiday.
Firstly, I should say that I appreciate everyone has their own opinions on what makes a good holiday, and what I am about to say is not meant to offend - its just my feelings of the place...
The location was chosen for us, as other members of our group have come to, and return to Calis Beach year after year and love the place. We stayed at the Sunset Beach Club, and I have to say the complex was lovely, and our villa clean and spacious. The views of the mountains are stunning, as are the beautiful sunsets.
However, we were overall disappointed with Calis Beach itself. We normally base ourselves around the beach, but this was a big let down. It was very dirty, with fag ends, litter, and plastic bottles everywhere, and even worse; broken glass. The small areas with sand and loungers on were kept tidy by the hotels, but once off that, it was pretty dire. There seemed to be an area of beach just up from our complex that was used each night by hundreds of locals having bonfires and bbqs. It was very sad to see that this was an area flagged as being where the endangered turtles come to nest. Walking that part of the beach on the first morning was also pretty depressing, as they seemed to have left pretty much all their litter there as well.
The main 'prom' seemed tidy enough, but once you ventured down the side streets, again it seemed filthy, with bags of rubbish on the sides of the roads split open and left to fester in the heat.
We like to stay in locations abroad that give a true reflection of the country we are in; and I am afraid that our impression of Calis Beach was just to 'British' for us. Every eatery seemed to do the 'All Day English Breakfasts' and we spotted numerous places offering Fish and Chips, Cottage Pie, Meat Pies etc. In the evenings, the neon flashing lights, places (bars and restaurants alike) belting out English music and the shops selling all the same fake goods just made the place seem tacky.
Having said that we were determined to enjoy ourselves, so based our days mostly around the pool at our villa, and picked our restaurants carefully. We did a few trips on the water taxi to Fethiye, and did prefer the water front here to eat at than at Calis Beach. I must also say that, compared to places within the Euro, you certainly do get value for money with the TL, as overall we spent about 25% less than we would if spending the euro.
So it is each to his own; but I am afraid that I will not be returning to Calis Beach any time soon...
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Fair enough, you are allowed to not like it :)
It is a little rough around the edges, it used to be part of the charm, but the rubbish left lying and the fact it seems the beach gets cleaned once (at the beginning of the season) is frustrating in the extreme - and is an annual frustration.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, we aren't here just for the positive ones.
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A fair and honest review. When you compare Loveholidays' with Flightyrachel's review, it is hard to believe they are reviewing the same place. Just shows that we all like different things, and a good job too! Thank you for your frankness.
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Such a shame it wasn't to your liking but a fair review I think.
Agree that the rubbish left about is such a mess and I recall seeing the BBQs on that part of the beach when we were at Sunset a few years ago so that hasn't changed unfortunately.
We try and look beyond the building rubble etc because we love Calis and the fact that it does cater for us as tourists without being totally Benidorm/Magaluf ;D
We own up to enjoying a full english sometimes as well as typical fare like fish and chips. Over couple of weeks it's rather nice to have something familiar.
I'm not sure where to suggest for a true reflection of Turkish life but it certainly wouldn't be a popular holiday destination like Calis or any other seaside resorts. Just wondering, what made you choose Calis if, as I suspect, you were looking for more traditional?
It's good that people take the trouble to feed back on their visit - thanks.
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I think it's a pretty fair reflection of Calis Beach these days. We tend not to venture there too much and stay away from the promenade much more than we used to. We just aren't into neon lights and the rest. If we venture past Guven's it's usually to meet someone or to watch the footy at Dawn Beach. I think we ate on the prom (Nil Bar) once this time and that was only because we were meeting someone. Brothers got a shout as we were recommended it (seems for the red wine rather than the food but it was an OK evening for the price).
This might sound really snobby (especially coming from a Leeds lad who was brought up in Harehills) but, like many, we do enjoy people watching. However we did notice in June that the standard of holiday maker is declining somewhat. I'm not sure the 'left turner' joke would actually stand up in a court of law these days ;)
After owning our place 11 years we still love it - we just do things a little differently these days :)
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I know that bit of beach outside sunset because we camped there one night in winter, this or last winter I forget now. It was the same as described then.
The argument at the time for this disgustingly filthy beach in one of the many topics was that the beach doesn't and won't ever get cleaned in winter.
So now we are well into the summer season what is the reason?
Thanks for your feedback LoveHolidays.
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Loveholidays was staying at Koca Calis. We had a run around there in June an thought the beach by the Sunset Beach Club looked really rough and full of rubbish. We also drove up and down the road around the club area and there seemed to be rubbish dumped everywhere and bins overflowing. The whole area did not look good.
To be honesty we have never used any beaches in the area as we don't like sitting on the beach, but if we did we would probably go to the Surf Cafe or the Sat Beach Club. We have been to both to eat and the beaches there do look well looked after.
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However we did notice in June that the standard of holiday maker is declining somewhat. I'm not sure the 'left turner' joke would actually stand up in a court of law these days ;)
As a "left-turner" I can tell you the standard of holidaymaker is going to take a further nose-dive in September.
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and will hit rock bottom shortly after we arrive ;D
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And shortly after that things will improve when we arrive, innit.! :)
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The post by Love holidays was spot on. And until the authorities or users get a grip nothing will ever change. It is useless for posters to say that some people do care and do their best and that this is why they love Çalış. The whole place is a toilet and needs something doing about it. NO, I am not going to offer my services to pick somebody elses' crap from the beach and hedgerows.
I rarely go to Çalış and if the general populace don't care then neither do I.
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What I can't understand about the beach area over near Sunset where the Turkish families have their BBQs when they leave the rubbish behind they are the ones who come back time and time again to use the area so they are only ruining it for themselves they are the ones who have to sit on the beach surrounded with the rubbish and broken glass , think the only way it will improve is if another complex like Jiva for example is built and takes over the beach with loungers
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I must say our first visit to Calis was enjoyable. In that heat it is difficult to control smells from the outside rubbish. I wouldn't say Calis was tacky compared to Marmaris. I found it a lot quieter and more relaxed. Having visited Ankara many times to see family and having to rely on my husband to translate for me it is nice to see and hear a little bit of home when abroad. I love Turkish food but again sometimes to eat English is nice and also Calis has Indian, Italian Turkish food also. But I will agree on the beach as this definately needs TLC soner rather than later. I will be returning to Calis :)
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Agree with stoop on this one. We have had our place 9 years. We have been there and done that. As stoop says we are in gunlucbasi and we seem to stay local now a days. There are many more places opening local with good food and drink at good prices.
Agree that the beach has always been a problem but if that's what you prefer can understand the criticism as for me always prefer the pool can't be doing with having to clean all the sand out of my orifices before I can relax have a beer and watch the sun set.
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Agree with you Ian, we have the best of both worlds in Gunlukbasi, we love the peace and quiet, but can also jump on the dolly if we fancy a wilder night up town. ;D ;D
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We have just returned from a 2 week holiday we have to agree with the first post.we returned to Calis after visiting last year, loving it's laid back way of life , being made to feel special by a great team of waiters on the beach at The Carretta, meeting Lee and Mishka a great couple, having some hit and miss meals.Enjoying the walk along the prom seeing the sunset
what a difference a year makes , beach filthy at The Carretta no smiley waiters, we we're told they were on holiday ! Hated the walk along the prom , magicians,robots in light up suits , families all being sucked in by free this or that, but actually paying more for the food in the first place , more people selling light up things than I've ever seen in one stretch of walking space.
We did enjoy meeting up with friends from last year especially seeing them doing so well,(Lee,s bar) Finding some fantastic real turkish kitchen at The Sinni and paying less for our food than last year Fantastic!
We stayed at The Kaan , great hotel,absolutely spotless and were made very welcome.
Would we come back next year ? Sorry to say no , I really think the beach needs attention , especially if they expect you to pay for the sunbeds etc. The restaurants along the front need to think about why most people walk to the prom to eat , to sit somewhere with great scenery , it's free, eat good food , not fish and chips!
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Hello! I am going to do my own review but saw my name mentioned so popped in! Actually, I didn't like the litter at all! But it seemed to me to be a cultural thing? I saw nice Turkish families walking along, and they'd just chuck a bottle onto the ground or a can into the canal without any guilt. The actual big bins got emptied regularly, but that only works if people put things in them I guess! It was really sad to see plastic bottles on the pretty coves where the boats stop on the 12 Island cruises. I felt like getting a carrier bag and staging an intervention! I'm not sure how you change the mindset.
The prom is what it is, I guess. Not really for me, and it seemed to me to be always full of Northerners! (But I'm from Essex so most people are Northern to me). My 10, 14 and 16 year olds really enjoyed walking up and down it, and I felt they were safe to do so. The restaurants didn't appeal, I thought it was such a shame that they all had identical menus! I felt they were missing a trick, would have loved a bit of genuine regional cooking. But they were packed every night so they must know their market and are obviously appealing to a lot of visitors. Seafronts in general are a bit cheesy and tacky, aren't they, I was born in Southend on Sea, so I should know!
The Sunset Beach end of the beach is particularly grim, but a little further up, outside Guven's and Caretta it's much, much better. Never saw any litter or dog poo or anything else scary there at all!
I think maybe we thought of Calis as more of a base to branch out from, and for this it was perfect! Chilling at the pool or on the Guven's beach as great, but for more excitement we'd hop on the dolmus or the water taxi and head further afield.
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Sadly the mentality that we had pre the big "Keep Britain Tidy" campaign in the UK is about where it is in Turkey today. I remember going on a boat trip in 2003 and the captain anchored up on the far side of Red Island to start a BBQ. It felt like we had discovered the island - well it did till we swam ashore and saw the light blue bags, filled with rubbish and abandoned. Cans, bottles, paper strewn around. On a similar subject I couldn't possibly count the number of plastic bottles I've seen launched from inside moving cars.
It will take time and the will to help bring change, just like it did in the UK. If it's any consolation (and I'm sure it isn't) - Tunisia is far worse. Hotels and grounds absolutely spotless, beach spotless, sea full of 2 litre Pepsi fish. Motorways lined for miles on end with carrier bag trees. Piles of rubbish in places that appear as yet undiscovered by humans.
You do have to ask why so much is being spent on things like upside down bridges and canals, but a man with a sack and a grabber stick can't be employed on the beach.
One of the problems/difficulties may be that many of us have reasons to want to come to Calis and we live with or even don't particularly see the bad areas where rubbish has been dumped and left. I do wonder what us 'old timers' might make of the place if we could wipe it out of our memory and could have the chance to turn up for the first time. Not a lot, perhaps.
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Off topic I admit but I have a request of flightyrachel - please continue to post on CBF .
I so enjoy reading your posts ;)
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We adore Calis but on a long weekend in Kas in June we couldn't help noticing how much cleaner than Calis it was.
Not that we would chose Kas above Calis for our retirement (we'd go stir crazy !!!!)
But there were many litter picking Belediyese guys pulling wheelie bins cleaning up the place.
(Still didn't stop the 'cultural' littering though !!!)
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at The Carretta no smiley waiters, we we're told they were on holiday !
That's sub text for no longer work here!
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If you walk along the seafront in Fethiye you will notice one thing missing(RUBBISH) and that's because the Belediye care about it. So why do they not care about Calis? You hardly ever see workers picking rubbish up,trimming and tiding area's owned by the Belediye,you don't even see the road sweeper in Calis anymore last year I saw it daily driving around. Nine years I have lived here and this year it has to be the worst I have ever seen it,yes some roads are new,most are not,paths are a joke,waste ground full of piled up rubble and rubbish,poor workmanship on the canal work,new railings fitted but not with any quality finish they even welded them together but did not paint the welds so will be rusty soon.Don't get me wrong I still love this place but sometimes you just wish things would not take so long to do and when they do something please do it properly so it will last more than one season. :(
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We holidayed in Calis at the beginning of June, just after the beach clear up, and were impressed with how much better the area was. New disguised bin stores, block paving and a general air of cleanliness. From reading the comments on here I take it the situation has worsened and the old ways are taking over again. I love Calis, I love the water taxi, the sunsets, the people, and the flat walk along the prom, and now almost all the way into Fethiye. I do not think of Calis as a beach resort at all. At its best the beach is pebbly and uneven, the sea is unpredictable with its sudden deep troughs, and certainly not the sort of beach you would want to spend time on. Having said that I am not a beach person, and love to be beside the pool with modern comforts yards away. Anyone seeking a beach holiday would be better off going to Spain. As to the sameness of the restaurants, we ate out every day for 12 days and never had a duplicate meal, from some good fish, through kebabs, Indian, Chinese and even some authentic Turkish dishes!! I have never seen the prom in peak holiday season, but its only one street, there are plenty of quieter places to go. Its nice to read different reviews on the Forum, but lately I feel a lot of negativity on here, which does not make me feel good about the place we all (or most of us) profess to love!! :(
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I think you are absolutely right echogirl, I love your description! But you can see why people might go to somewhere called Calis Beach and expect the focal point to be the beach. If you approach the place as you describe, then it is a fabulous base for a holiday. Maybe a bit more honesty about the shortcomings of the actual beach, would lead to less grouching and more enjoyment? I picked up a lot of mixed messages about the beach before we arrived, and I was expecting a bit more sand ( mainly cos I didn't realise that turtles laid their eggs in gravelly beaches, I thought they needed proper sand!) I have struck a blow for this approach by posting on Trip Advisor saying that the beach isn't the best in the world, but everything else is great! :)
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Is it called Calis Beach or is this just tourism blurb
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We have had our apartment in Calis for ten years and many things have changed, unfortunately the rubbish problem is not one of them. I was optimistic that as the Fethiye to Calis route was closer to completion, the "upmarket" feel of "new" Fethiye harbour would stretch into Calis. I was horrified to see the Neon lights everywhere when we went in May. We "joked" about the fact that the neon sign salesman
had made a killing that day, but really it just upset me. I think this has been a big factor on taking the charm away as have the tacky toy salesman. You hear many people say that they have revisited an old favorite holiday destination that has been lost to developement and tacky tourism, so why can't we ensure that Calis doesn't meet this same fate...as many feel Hisaranu has? Many people live in Calis and own properties in Calis, so why can't they have more input and impact on these changes? We still love Calis, the people, the scenery, the peace. Some small changes would make a massive difference, starting with undoing some of the more recent ones.
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Is Calis now run by Fethiye Council? Might that change things in the near future with regard to cleaning?
We bought 11 years ago and not much has changed on the rubbish front I'm afraid. What has changed though is the space that the local families have available to hold their barbecues (and leave their rubbish). All the new hotels and apartments Koca Calis way have taken over parts of the beach that were once public. It's improved the area somewhat as the bars also look after their own patches to some extent.
Telmessos end used to see lots of locals on a weekend and they maid a real mess (disgusting in places but I won't go into the detail) but over the last year or so they appear to have moved on from there. I know a block was put on them driving up the beach road so maybe they got the message?
It's such a shame, as even though the "sand" is mostly pebble, the scenery is lovely and it could be such a nice spot if kept clean.
We live in hope but dismay when we see freshly cleaned out gullies filled in with builders rubbish within a few days.
It really is a mentality thing I think and maybe someone should start a "Keep Calis Tidy" campaign or would that be seen as us Brits imposing our ways on the Locals?
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I too agree with the OP's summary. I always say to people that if you want a stunning, sandy beach in a resort that is ultra clean with authentic, classy restaurants then Calis isn't for you. If however you are looking for a fun place that can be as loud or as quiet as you want with breathtaking sunsets and lovely, friendly people who serve a huge variety of different, decent grub then you'll love it.
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if you want a stunning, sandy beach in a resort that is ultra clean with authentic, classy restaurants
So where is this place? :D
I'm struggling to think of an example in Turkey (possibly anywhere else too)
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http://www.barcelo.com/BarceloHotels/en_GB/hotels/Dominican-Republic/Punta-Cana-Beach-Bavaro/hotel-barcelo-bavaro-palace-deluxe/general-description.aspx
This is the one that probably ticks all the boxes along with Cancun and Varadero (Cuba)
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A Barcelo five star beachfront all inclusive hotel is the authentic Dominican Republic? :D
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If you walk along the seafront in Fethiye you will notice one thing missing(RUBBISH) and that's because the Belediye care about it. So why do they not care about Calis?
I've never seen Fethiye seafront rubbish free!
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So where is this place? :D
I'm struggling to think of an example in Turkey (possibly anywhere else too)
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The Maldives is that place
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Shall I switch 'Reply with quote' off ;)
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We have friends of friends visiting this weekend who have never been here before and on Sunday are taking them around to show what is where etc. the sad thing is, we will have to ask them to excuse the rubbish which is everywhere, even the beautiful and in my opinion world class Kordon leading down to Fethiye is filthy both on land and in the water. It's such a shame.
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Shall I switch 'Reply with quote' off ;)
Why ;)
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[/quote author=bewva link=topic=56335.msg377393#msg377393 date=1409939712]
Why ;)
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Dunno