A few years ago, my wife came across a deal that looked too good to miss, a week in Marmaris for silly money.
We'd done all the usual places, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia, but never been to Turkey, so thought, why not?
Christ knows what airport we flew into, but it was a fairly long coach ride to Marmaris.
No big deal, all part of the holiday, but when we arrived, the first shock was to be told at reception, do NOT flush used toilet tissue down the toilet, put it in a bin next to the toilet bowl, the maid would collect and empty it daily, ewww.
No idea if this is true for all of Turkey, but we were told that the sewage pipes were narrower than other places, and were blocked easily.
Bars and restaurants were okay, and the Turkish lira was worth peanuts at the time compared to the pound, but the downside was that the resort's eating and drinking areas were running alive with pushy touts, plucking your sleeve, urging you to come in, and you'll get a free bottle of wine with your dinner.
All that importuning doesn't sit well with me, and I started off by politely saying, "No thanks", then I moved on to just ignoring them, but they seemed to take that as a challenge, and upped their game by trying German, or what sounded like some Scandinavian languages.
Eventually we just crossed the road as they approached, but one evening one of them called after my wife, "Come back darling, I'll buy you a drink."
She'd had enough, and snapped back, "**** off and leave me alone."
He called back, "You **** off, it's my country, go back to yours."
I turned to say something, but my wife sank her nails in my arm, he'd been joined by two others.
I wasn't mug enough to mix it with three guys a bit younger than me over a swear word, so we just walked on.
I'd probably try Istanbul sometime, but personally I'd give the resorts a miss, but try it by all means, for all I know it's the garden spot of the Middle East now.
But you cant have it all.