Resort Inspection to Kalkan & Kas

I was recently invited to Kalkan and Kas in Western Turkey to inspect a number of holiday properties. I was pleasantly surprised by the standard of accommodation and prettiness of both resorts. We flew on a charter flight to Dalaman and transferred by mini bus to Kalkan, which took about ninety minutes. In 2012, the transfer will take 10 minutes less because there are new road improvements as I write.

We stayed at the Lykia Residence, in Kalkan, which is an adult only boutique hotel, and the jewel of the resort. I found it had a modern rustic charm, beautifully decorated and spotlessly clean. The staff couldn't do enough for us. A great choice if you want to get a way for a break.

We also looked around a couple of other boutique hotels, the Asfiya and the Oasis. Both of these are more family orientated, but out of the 2, I preferred the Asfiya because there was a good selection of room types and a lovely pool area. From this hotel it took about 10 – 15 minutes to walk to the centre of Kalkan. The Oasis is more central, and I am told they are building a new swimming pool for 2012, which will make a big difference.

There were some really lovely villas in Kalkan too. We looked around 4 of them, ranging from 3-5 bedrooms - again, all spotlessly clean and fresh. The larger villas would be ideal for an extended family, maybe parents, teenagers and their friends. Each floor had a bedroom or 2 with balcony and en suite, so if the teenagers had these, they would be pretty self-contained and if their day was different to their parents, they wouldn't really disturb anyone. Typical of me, my favourite was the most expensive, which was a 5 bedroomed villa complete with indoor pool, sauna, and lovely outdoor pool.

We also visited Kas and looked around the Kas Peninsular Garden Hotel. Again, this is a small boutique hotel, but the special thing about this one is that most of the rooms have their own pool -spotlessly clean and prettily decorated. They have a shuttle service twice a day into Kas Town, which is about 10mins away.

Both Kas and Kalkan have very pretty streets which cry out to be strolled along, filled with bougainvillea and other colourful flowers, and plenty of opportunity for shopping. Leather and silver are particularly good.

We ate out in a couple of the local restaurants in Kalkan, and the food was excellent. I loved the authenticity of both places. No high rise buildings and proper Turkish food. In fact Kalkan doesn't have its own beach, but a few beautiful sandy beaches are fairly close by road. It does have a beach club, which is free to use, so you can swim in the sea and sunbathe on the sunbeds provided. There is a pretty marina, where many of the restaurants are to be found.

There are also places of real historic interest within an easy drive and the town of Fethiye is about 1 hour away.

Both places are excellent for divers and it is possible to take a gulet cruise around the bay too.