hi did thomas cook phone your friend.? I am due to fly tom.. staying in gumbet to... has anyone any news on whether gumbet is a building site... would like to know... husband not to keen to go anyway...

I am going to Gumbet on Monday and informed the travel agent I wanted to go to our booked hotel which is in the centre of the resort and NOT to move us to the 5star hotel that April passengers were moved to.
The pavements seem finished and theres the road surface to put down but the Dolmus are running despite this.
If you look at the post Photos of Beirut on Trip Advisor there are some photos taken earlier this week.
I emailed these to Thomas Cook.
Have your friends been moved to another hotel/resort?

Well, Gumbet isn't "all dug up" but there have been a lot of building works going on and they aren't complete yet. They are still resurfacing the roads and laying the kerbs but it is improving day by day. It is only the main 2 streets that are affected and it depends where your accomodation is as to how much it will affect your stay.

I really don't know why on earth Thomas Cook have left it until the day before to let people know about the building works, it has been going on for months and Thomas Cook knew this. At least if you had been informed a few weeks ago you would have time to decide what to do, it is all rather late now.

If it was me I would still go but then I know the town and the surrounding area well enough not to worry. There is plenty to do and see around Gumbet and Bodrum so if you do decide to go you will could still have a good holiday.

they have now decided to go first time to turkey might put them off for life

Which hotel are they staying at Chrissy?

Have a look at the photos posted today on Trip Advisor,the tarmac is finally down and the bars at the lower end of bar street look ready to open.!
The photos are on the post "Photos of Beirut "

they are staying in the asarlik beach

Asarlik Beach is not by the major building works so it shouldn't be too bad. And looking at the photos Jay Trip is talking about you can see how much better it is looking today!

I'm sure they will have a good holiday.

The whole of the Bodrum Peninsular is being 'dug up'. They are laying new water pipes, which means that lots of roads are impassable. The centre of Gumbet is a mess, and once they have got the pipes layed the cobbles have to be replaced, which I think will take a while to do.
We have just arrived back from Ortakent, and it was the same there. It was quite breezy, and the dust was blowing everywhere.
Apart from that, the sun is shining and the Turks are as welcoming as ever.
Love it.

I'm sitting here in Gumbet - the sun is shining and it's hot. Yes, there is a lot of work going on at the moment - it's no good saying there's not - but they are working hard. There is now tarmac on the road past the Parkim Ayaz and Sami, etc and they are working their way up past X Bar today. From the Windmill down past Chinatown to Cheers and onwards, it is still a building site - holes, diggers, concrete, etc, etc. They say everything will be finished by 15 May but I think it will be more like the end of May as there's a lot of work to do.

Having said all that, it's going to look so good when finished. The beach is looking good and is getting better by the day. More shops and bars are opening daily - a lot of them were waiting for the dust to settle along Bar St. Everybody is pretty upbeat about the work but acknowledge that the council were far too late in starting it.

The Hotel Baba has been split into two - complete with wall through the swimming pool LOL!! The left-hand side as you look at it from the beach (which is retaining the Baba name) is further on and is looking good.

We went a drive to Turgetries yesterday - the roads coming back through Akyarlar, Karaincir, etc have been dig up and are pretty bad but driveable with care. The market in Turgetries has been split into two, with the clothes and gifts moving to the opposite side.

There is still lots of fun and good times to be had in Gumbet - we're having a ball but I wanted to tell the truth so that people arriving shortly weren't too shocked or disappointed.

Jak xx

Thanks for the update Jakki. I do hope it is finished soon but from th sound of it 15th may does seem a little optimistic but you never know.