After working hard for months with almost no other break other than the gym, food, and sleep and sitting in front of the computer all day,  I needed a change of scenery so badly. I made a booking of 4 nights in Marmaris and 3 nights in Bodrum. The hotels were in central locations, so I could discover the beauty in the surrounding area and see if I can live there all year- winter and summer. This was in early May of 2016 and the temps were around 30 to 35 degrees in both Bodrum and Marmaris. I thought this could also be an opportunity for going sunbathing and swimming. And there is the obvious fact that the room rates are much lower than the peak summer months.

Booking a Single Room for One vs a Double Room for Two
When you’re traveling by yourself like I often do, you usually need to pay the full room rate for two people on your own or 20 to 30 percent less. So you’re not sharing the cost with another person but you have the advantage of having the room to yourself. As you occupy the room anyway, this is not a plus or minus to the hotel except for the meals eaten by one person rather than two people. And in some rare cases, you can pay half the price of the full room rate. You need to research well on different websites to find those deals. Since I have a foreign passport as well as Turkish, I tend to have access to the special rates offered to the non-Turk nationals.

Booking.com, Paypal and Turkey Operations
I used Booking.com for my hotel booking in Marmaris. It was a total of four nights at the 3-star boutique hotel Supreme. This has been on the news and social media lately, it is no longer possible to book Turkish hotels from Turkey because of the way the website creates an unfair competition to local travel agents. It is the largest hotel booking website for Turks and others in Turkey and people tend to get great rates. But if you’re traveling from outside Turkey this is not the case for you and there are many other websites and travel agents to book your holidays with anyway.

Driving near Marmaris- Sceneries

This is just one of those weird things that are happening in Turkey lately. I do not have a lot of detail but these websites only bring healthy competition to the market by helping people book their hotels at much more reasonable rates. Paypal also stopped operations in Turkey some time ago, again due to some local court case. Again that is a website that is a great help for both the online merchants and consumers worldwide and makes things much easier for people in need of payment method for online and overseas transactions. I get the feeling this protectionism is a result of the current conservative government’s policies.

From Istanbul to Dalaman
Let’s get back to my holiday in Marmaris and Bodrum, after a little rant over Booking.com and Paypal. I bought a cheap return flight ticket to something like 120 liras, only five days in advance. It was by Turkish Airlines to Dalaman Airport and back from Bodrum Milas Airport by Pegasus. As I’ve already mentioned and you would also be aware if you go on holidays outside of the peak season- one or two months before and after, you will often get much better prices for both your hotel accommodation and flights. So I flew to Dalaman for Marmaris from Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen early in the morning.

Transfer from Dalaman to Marmaris with Havaş
As the plane was descending towards Dalaman Airport, the mountains, lakes, the bays and the sea looked amazing. It was so beautiful that it felt like a dream. Mugla province is probably my favorite part of Turkey. We arrived at Dalaman on time and there weren’t many people inside the terminal. This is a much older airport than many other local airports in Turkey, so it looks a little older too and slightly run down. I don’t know what it’s like these days, but it was old back then. I took the Havas bus from Dalaman Airport to Marmaris and we got there in about 1.5 hours through some beautiful winding roads, enjoying the scenery. This service still costs 15 liras at the time of this post and takes you to the Marmaris Bus Terminal just outside the city center.

Marmaris Architecture
The main reasons why Marmaris is not growing (in a bad way) as much as the other Turkish resorts are that the nearest airport is 1.5 hours away. And Marmaris is located roughly 35km off the main highway that connects Fethiye, Dalaman, and Bodrum. But as you’re driving down the hill towards the town center, Marmaris welcomes you like a fairytale town. You will not find the architecture of some of the European destinations, but there is still that Muğla and Marmaris architectural style I like.