Hi Sabrina..

If your friend liked Side...another place nearby to Antalya is Cirali which is a great little village. Cirali ( Çıralı ) is a very lovely and unspoilt area...with Olimpos Roman ruins scattered in a pine forest, a secluded 4km non-touristy beach, fertile fields, and the Chimaera, the world's oldest and best-known natural "eternal flame". Also a natural nesting-ground for caretta caretta (loggerhead turtles).

So what makes Cirali so special ?? !!! It is protected by the WWF and limits the amount development in the area....and you won't find any package tours as Cirali does not cater for the mass tourism of package tours..

It is not over crowded with 5 star hotels or loud bars etc. Just a nice place to have a quiet holiday. Most if not all travellers to Cirali book their own flights and acommdations directly with Cirali hotels or pansiyons.

Cirali would be a good base as it's location is good for day trips to visit the many surrounding areas..

my photos ;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/canmom/sets

Cirali is centrally located between Antalya and Kas and you can travel farily easily to visit nearby historical areas.
In Cirali there are ..boat trips, snorkelling, long walks, day trips to nearby Kemer or Kumluca to visit local markets, biking, and of course relaxation...not to mention the historical ruins to explore..plenty to keep ones self busy for a week or two.

Having a car to visit some of the nearby historical places is a good idea..

Yes your correct Antalya area and Bodrum area are generally much more expensive for most things than the Marmaris area.
Try Icmeler which is 8klm from the much bigger resort of Marmaris, Here they have many trips to get you interested in and scenic views of the sea with a backdrop of the mountain that shades the whole of Icmeler, The people of this faboulous Turkish resort is what makes Icmeler a fantastic location, Locals and workers are the friendliest people your likely to meet, Icmeler has an old village which is actually much bigger than the center of the resort where the majority of the hotels are situated, If I were you I would choose an Old village hotel as this will be far more peacefull. Icmeler is also famed for it's many incredible Restauraunts which are situated all over it, Prices are as follows for food, Breakfast English or Turkish £2, Lunch £2 to £3, Evening meal 3 course with good choices £7 to £8 , Drinks 1 pint/bottle Efes £1.20 to £1.50, Short, Vokda, etc etc, more like double's etc, £2.40.

When I first went to Turkey with my best friend we were looking for pretty much the same thing and we went to Bitez, near Bodrum. We had a great time there, the beach is nice, there are loads of lovely restaurants and a few bars, nice accomodation and there were also lots of places to visit. Turkish people are very friendly wherever you go and we made lots of good friends on our trip.

Bodrum is just 15 minutes away by bus for shopping, bars and restaurants and a bit of sightseeing, you can also get a bus all around the peninsula from Bodrum. You can also do lots of day trips.

To be honest you would be happy almost anywhere and what people say about about one place could be said about several others eg Gumbet = Icmeler. I am an Icmelerite so would probably suggest you go there but both offer the same good things and there are many of them. A big advantage Icmeler has for me is that there are 4 flights a week to Dalaman from Leeds/Bradford as opposed to 1 to Bodrum, so usually cheaper.

A good option might be Dalyan. Most people only visit on a day trip but I recently spent a wonderful 2 weeks there. It is a lot smaller than the other 2 I mentioned but still has more good restaurants than you would ever need and plenty of bars. The nearest beach is stunning and though around 10 kms away is easily reachable by water-taxi or Dolmus. The overall scenery is spectacular and dining by the river with a backdrop of the rock tombs in the cliffs and watching the turtles swim by is to be recommended.

Although it has been said Side is more expensive than others areas in Turkey - we still found it much cheaper than in Crete/Portugal/Cyprus.

Last August we would go out in the evening (we were half board), and have 6 alcoholic drinks (ranging from vodka and coke, to B52s, to larger cocktails), and 4 soft drinks. It generally cost us around £15 - it got cheaper through the holiday as we used the same bar (although we did leave a large tip at the end, as had a lot of change and didn't want to weight down the luggage).

Shops were expensive, but very easy to haggle down to very cheap prices - £10 for a pair of jeans for my 14 year old daughter (although she did smile at the young man in the shop!) that are very good D&G fakes, and have survived 10 months of constant wear!

I also got a very large diamond in 18K yellow gold - paid just over £300 for it. Valued at over £1500 here. Basically you just need to shop around for the best deals.

We all loved this resort and can't wait to get back - only 4 days left now!

Which hotels were you looking at?

side is lovely but if you want turkish feel make sure you stay in the old part of town where there are lots of small hotels we stayed at the beach house which has its own website and the owners Ali(turkish) and his wife Penny(Australian) are very friendly. There are ruins eveywhere you walk around the old town it is very atmospheric and the beach is fab too.

I was looking at the Saray Regency in Side, which had pretty good reviews everywhere I looked.