Has Calis Changed - or is it Us?

[Ray1951]

Having spent three weeks in Calis last month I have to say that I like many others felt that there was a different atmosphere about the place and this is something friends who have business's over there have said that many people have said the same.  I had a great holiday and met up with friends whom I had met in Calis but hadn't seen for years so the company was fantastic but dispite this, and for the first time in 15 years I was looking forward to going home and when I got home I wasn't immediately thinking about booking for later in the year or even next year.  We all get older and things do change. I have lived in Calis too, I haven't always just been a tourist.  I will always love Calis but I think it's time for a change.  All this at a time when the rate of exchange is in favour of tourists but I cannot put my finger on the reason why people feel differently about the place.  Many people are facing difficult times in the UK and tourism is down but there is certainly a different feel to my beloved Calis.

[Colwyn]

I suppose the answer depends on the dates between which you are making the comparisons. I first went to Calis in 1997 and I know there are some on CBF whose memories of the place go way. way back far beyond this (they can probably remember working camels there!). Calis certainly changed a lot between 1997 and 2004 - perhaps more than it changed between 2004 and today. In 1997 the very small resort stopped just after what became the Dolphin Roundabout with only a handful of buildings beyond there before you were in open countryside. From the "outskirts" it was fields until you got to the little hamlet where Anil Sailor is (I never knew the name of this place) and then fields again until you got to the "big" village of Gunlukbasi, with its weekly market (which on CBF was renamed the Calis market a few years later I think, but I imagine it took local Turks a lot longer to think of it this way).

The foreign tourists in Calis Plaj (it was called that then) were about 50/50 German/English* and most of the hotel staff, waiters and bartenders spoke German as their their first foreign language. But in July and August there were a lot of holidaymakers from the big Turkish cities as well which livened the place a up. There wasn't too much choice as whether to eat on Calis prom or not - there wasn't much else.

But, whatever else changes, the sunsets don't. They are reliably the best I've seen around the world.


*P.S.  I include Welsh, Scottish and N.Irish as "English" since we are all called Ingiliz by nearly all Turks - then and now. But I suppose that is better than being called "Franks" which we would have been called 100 years ago.

[laffa]

I often wonder if we fell upon Calis today, would we feel the same as we did all those years ago, for us It was  the people that made us fall in love with Calis, and how unique the setting was, after our first week there we couldn't wait to get back, and we felt the same, so in the past 25/6 years we have been going for 4/5 times a year, but the last 2 years have only been once, when we first went the 2nd language was German and the prices were in Lira or german, all of the shop goods were left out overnight, including drinks in the bars, I remember buying a leather suit for £16.00 and they even took it to Fethiye to be altered, we've met some brilliant people over the years who still go back, but have noticed lots of them have stopped coming, of course it has changed, it has moved with the times, with a few mistakes thrown in, its not a case of anyone getting older, just how it is, maybe it is us set in our ways, its not the Calis we met and fell in love with, but its still Calis,

[echogirl1]

I have only been holidaying in Calis for the past 7 years, and of course there have been lots of changes in this time, BUT some of the changes are for the better, the new walkway into Fethiye, flat and easy walking with a good few new places for fuel stops along the way, the new block paving over a lot of the area especially around the Sunday market.  The new area around by the water taxis may be slightly soulless but us is far easier for the not so able-bodied to get on the boats now.  I hate all the negativity because the reason this forum is so helpful to new members is that we all profess to love the area, and whether we like it or not there will always be changes, some good and some not so good.  Just my opinion.   

[Jacqui Harvey]

O.K. Let us look at where we live?   Has it changed over the years... Of course, all places change nothing stays the same, it is progress. 
I returned to Liverpool and could hardly recognise the place, but, things move on.  Calis will keep changing.
We love Calis, we sometimes reminisce about how it use to be, but, we still love coming out and there are now new places to go to and see. We always go into Fethiye and love the changes there.
So, to the people who want to live in the past and want Calis to be the same, no where is the same, everything changes, so, embrace the changes and go with them. 
When we go to our place in Calis, nothing has changed, we love to chill out by the pool, speak to our lovely neighbours the lady that comes along with her sheep and goats.  If we go into town there are new places, so what, it's still Calis and we still love it.
I went to the Isle of Man for holidays with my parents and then with my friends, for year's everyone in Liverpool did.  I loved it there. Have not been for years but we are planning to go when Phil retires, because I would love to see it again. However, I am betting I will not know the place, but I will have to realise that nothing stays the same. 

[Highlander]

Can someone give me a reason as to why they think restaurants feel the need to blast out music at a ridiculous decibel level.

[echogirl1]

I only holiday in May/June or September/October so have never had the problems with loud noise, unless its after I've retired to my bed, I suppose the restaurants and bars try to show how lively and jolly they are so that people will come in.  Unfortunately the age group that mainly holiday in resorts like Calis are not happy with the noise levels that some places feel are necessary to attract customers.  It would be sensible for them to accept that most people who holiday in the area appreciate more in the way of background music while they are dining.  A prime example is Kings Garden where the singer played only ballads until most people had finished their meals before upping the tempo for the people who liked to have a dance.  Calis is not a resort for Stag/Hen parties no matter how much some bars etc think they are (thank God)

[Highlander]

I agree with those sentiments echogirl1. One place turns the volume up and next door feels the need to respond.......

It's like the road sign I read on the way to Skye this week. It invited me "to allow vehicles behind to overtake". Hang on - if I let the vehicle behind overtake, then he is in front of me. And if he complies with the sign then he should let me overtaken. Then I am in front of him and.........................................

Perhaps I need to up the medication

[stoop]

"Calis is not a resort for Stag/Hen parties no matter how much some bars etc think they are"

But the stag and hen parties still come!

We have noticed a change in the type of people that go to Calis - especially this year, still love it but the main changes have been the people not the place.

[Scunner]

God help any all male parties who come to Calis looking for action - the locals have that all sewn up