Hi Denyse, we are going out to Altinkum in a months time and will be able to give you an idea. We are talking about The Times here and in truth from our past experiences, Turkey is as cheap or expensive as YOU want it to be. We have always eaten for very reasonable prices but then again, we only have a main course, it is very rare we have a starter as most restaurants provide some form of complimentary nibble before your meal is ready. It is also very rare for us to have a sweet, we don't have alcohol with our meals either, though I have been known to have the odd Efes but not very often. The best deals we've found are Set Menu Deals whereby you get 3 course for say 17 tl plus the complimentary nibbles which is excellent value. The National Press like to scaremonger, I would take the article with a pinch of salt.

Les

£58 for dinner for two!!! Where on earth did they go lol!!!!

There are 3 of us and rarely went over £20 for meals last year!

AS cruisecontroller said the article was in the Times and they do have a very select type of people reading so don't think they can really be compared with us normal tourists going to marmaris - and i'm not being rude there!!

x

denyse,

I would agree with Cruisecontroller. Like most places, you can make it as cheap or as expensive as you like. If you want to eat at the sea front overlooking the marina for example, you'll pay a premium for it. If you go 0.5 km up the road or a couple of streets inland, you'll often find the same quality for a fraction of the cost. You'd still struggle to find somewhere at £58 a couple though! In my experience of Turkey, costs are still below the average of most tourist areas and are likely to remain so. But you need to shop around like anything else.

Darren

Haven't noticed any significant increases in the 2 years I've been going, just the usual seasonal fluctuations. That £58 for dinner for 2 is ridiculous, I seriously believe you'd struggle to find somewhere charging those prices and if people are prepared to pay it then more fool them!

It's easy to spend £60 on a 3 course meal for 2 in a restaurant in the UK including wine - especially if you want a bottle each

Or you could pop over to Paris for some real Euro value and pay £7 for a pint of beer.

I agree that this story sounds like scare mongering or someone going into a posh Turkish restaurant/5 star hotel and/or ordering imported drinks/expensive wine to bump in the bill.

In my experience (including two trips to Turkey last year) 25 Lira will generally buy a good meal (maybe less if you're having a casserole or suchlike) and a couple of Efes will be 3 to 4 Lira each - call that 50 Lira for food for 2 and 16 Lira for 2 drinks each comes to 66 Lira = £27 (depending on the exchange rate). And that's less than half the figure allegedly quoted in the Times!

Thanks for your replies - I must admit I was a little surprised by this report, hence asking if anyone had heard any rumours about price increases for this coming season - have been going to Turkey for quite a number of years and no way have paid those sort of prices and have always eaten very well. In any case wouldn't put me off going to Turkey, would just have to get my hubby to work harder and take more spending money!!

I don't think anyone can say what the prices are likely to be for the next season as they don't normally set the prices until just before the beginning of the season.

I too agree that it can be as cheap or expensive to eat out as you make it, depending on where and what you eat. Quotes of £58 must be at some extremely expensive restaurant, I have never seen any prices like that in normal restaurants

We went B&B for 2 weeks last October to Icmeler and spend around £550 in total!
We had lunch everyday in one of the beachfront restaurants/cafes and had set menus or 3 course meals every night.
Some of these meals were in the Loveboat and the Kerem,the 2 most expensive restaurants in Icmeler.
I dont drink alcohol these days and my husband only drinks the local brew Efes.
I dont know where the meal cost £58 but I would bet it also included a couple bottles of expensive wine.

£58 = around 120 liras
We usually pay somewhere near this for a meal for two , but it always includes a bottle or two of wine, brandies etc plus a couple of beers/g+t's.

That sounds more like my night out del!!!!

Wine is very expensive in turkey so that definitely puts up the cost of a meal, especially if you want a decent one.

I am going to Turkey in May for 2 weeks HB and it works out at £22 a day !
That includes the flight,transfers,hotel,breakfast and evening meal,with Thomas Cook.

Our AI hotel cost us just over £8 per person per day.

You can't have a night out for less than that.

OMG Marn that really is cheap. Does that price include you flight etc.

£8 a day / £22 a day

How come I am paying £150 a day

Wish it did.

With the flight, the holiday works out at about £20 pp per day.
It's not in high season though.

We got the same hotel deal 2 years ago with Travel Republic. This year it's with OTB.

We booked the flight seperately. I checked the same flights the other day, and they are more than £50 pp dearer. So I'am well pleased.

Marn.

In October 6 of us went out for a meal to celebrate our son's 16th birthday,the restaurant was in Armatulan,we paid about £70 for 6 meals of the day,8 big bottles of efes,6 bottles of soft drink and a birthday cake from a local bakery.Service was fantastic and we all enjoyed our meal,I couldn't believe the price,such terrific value.T.

Hi.

We are having our very first trip to Turkey in July staying in the Armutalan area,would you mind telling me what kind of food you got for this price and/or what was the name of the restaurant ? The reason I ask is that we still dont know how much to take to Turkey for a 3 weeks stay you see.

Is it close to the Golden Orange 2 apartments ?

Hi,think it was Brothers,but not sure,I will try to find out for you when my son comes home,his girlfriend and her parents stayed at Antique Palace and went there every morning for breakfast,it was the end of season so they were not very busy,we had garlic bread as a starter,2 lasagnas,2 kormas ,2 more dishes that I can't remember,apple pie and ice cream and icecreams for dessert and a delicious banana birthday cake that was covered in cream.Drinks as posted and I left 170tl which I think was quite a bit more than the bill.None of the portions were huge but we all had enough.Pm me if you'd like any more information and I will tell you the agency we used for trips.We're going to Icmeler in August and will definitely use the agency again and return to the restaurant.The reason we didn't have breakfast at the restaurant was because we stayed about half an hours walk from there in the Grand Pasa which was all inclusive.T.