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Turkey - Side - Hotel Defne Ana (Aug 2008)
In summer 2008 we again visited the Turkish Riviera. We had chosen the hotel Defne Ana as this year's domicile. The Defne hotel chain offers excellent food. Also, you will not find (so far) unpopular hotel guests like Russians whose fellow countrymen, for example, often fill their tables with food to the extent and then leave half of it.
After a punctual flight taking 3 ¼ hours we landed in Antalya at 11:40 local time. When opening the airplane doors, there it was again – the beloved climate beyond 30° temperature and a moderate breeze!
| Exact one hour bus ride later we arrived at the hotel. Check-in was sensational quick (we were the only passengers from the bus), and hush! to our room. Dimension and cleanliness of our room were very good: |   |
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... and 15 min later we ran through the sand!
Which was also available for the next 14 days. We spent our leisure to a large extent on our sunloungers. The guiding concept of this vacation was 'Nothing But Leisure', we had no cultural or sportive pretensions at all. We were kicking it!
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| We made one exception from the rule: we had the only sportive exercise each morning by walking along the beach: 1 hour of power-walking (with sand-filled bottles instead of barbells) per day saved us from getting fat (nearly). |   |
The dessert buffet was great but definitely characterized by bananas – most of the cakes, gateaux, and desserts were made with bananas in it. Originally a very nice and healthy food but anyone who dislikes bananas (or who even is allergic of them, like bumble bee) gets the short end of the stick. On the other hand: anyone who likes bananas (like the Wolf) has the upper hand! He took thirds...
At night we roamed through the shopping quarter of Kumkoy (a Side district) and had a look on the "original and genuine" brands at various clothing stores. This brand piracy is convictable of course – who wants to pay 12 Euro for a shirt with the famous crocodile if you get the same one in Germany already for Euro 69,95 (and, thus, secure a workplace in the Third World)?!?
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When we were not out for shopping at night we made ourselves comfortable at one of the tables at the beachbar. The ambience is quite rustic but gives a rather homy athmosphere at night - we felt as snug as a bug in a rug. |
Two weeks of beach vacation are more than enough to recreate. Coherent, we were not unhappy to get our plane back home (this time with half an hour delay at the start and baboonish applause from the passengers after successful landing in Dusseldorf). Returning some time to this region is completely agreeable to us. The price-performance ratio is good! You can't have everything, of course, but overall seen, we recommend this region for recreational purposes...
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Side - Hotel map of Side. Please click it:
| Side: | Side - district of Kumkoy: |
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