We 'chanced' Turkey for the first time by choosing All Inclusive. And look at us now! Erm, anyway...yes I did my usual 500 hours of research, found an all inclusive that had won awards for it's food and thought yes, that's where we are going. The reason was obvious - at least if the food is good you wouldn't have to eat in a Turkish restaurant - can you imagine having to do that! You would die within days of salmonella or starvation, one or the other.
Actually, it was very good but gave us the intro we needed. Mrs Scunner told me to cancel the AI booking immediately and lose the deposit - yes the same lady who moved there for 5 years and loved it
Ignorance is the problem - ours included - people think poor hygiene, endless deserts, bushy beards, curly shoes and flowing gowns - they really do!!! The worst one I ever heard was a friend who had become part of a divorcee lady's club - the deal is each has a turn to choose the holiday destination and the rest must go along with it. Apparently it worked well until one lady used her turn to plump for Turkey. Well no way - it wasn't happening (and didn't happen). The reason? One of the ladies explained that there was no way they could go there..."the men w**k in the street"!
In answer to the AI/overall booking situation, I do think half term flight bargains are something slowly disappearing for Turkey. I suppose it's down to the flight distance. I get dozens of 'bargain' deals from the companies that advertise on this website - and few are for Turkey and those that are seem to be almost all Marmaris. Having said that, as a father of two girls who love AI (and that makes me happy) I do find that if you put all your dates etc in to an AI search, Turkey does remarkably well in terms of quality/value for money. It's just we are ABT for our main summer holiday right now
People say AI is killing tourist areas - I wholly disagree. If people are looking for a good AI deal to anywhere, better they come to Letoonia than somewhere in Egypt. If they spend 1 lira outside the complex gates it is 1 lira more than if they had gone to Sharm. And possibly, they might be like us - venture out looking for the real Turkey and get hooked
