80%
I caught a pretty bad stomach bug here. The toilets are next to the kitchen and the street which the pension is on smells like a dead carcass. Otherwise, not a bad place. Emre at the travel desk is a champion.
Joshua, from Australia ~ Jul 26 2007
66%
Turkmen is one of the biggest hostels in Olympos and the accomodation is really okay in comparison with some of the other places. You are quite close to the beach and the prices of food and drinks are a bit cheaper than in some of the other places.
Their dinnerbuffets are impressive, although it could have a bit more variation in it (felt like we ate the same thing every day...) On the other hand, you can buy some tasty snacks for no money, and use the buffet as a salad on the side.
One thing we found particularly annoying was the fact that the waiters are a bit too anxious to take away your dishes (sometimes we had to 'fight' with them to keep our plates coz we were still busy eating out of them...). That, together with the loud, tasteless turkish popmusic they play at dinnertime, rushed us to finish our meals as fast as possible, which made us think about moving to a smaller, more relaxed hostel...
On the other hand, he treehouses are a bit more comfortable than the ones in some other hostels (you sleep in a bed and not just on a matras on the floor and you get clean sheets and blankets). We were ok with the showers and the toilets, although the smell that came out of there was a pest :-)) (think they had a huge problem with the sewers or something, yuk!!!)
The staff was friendly and helpfull (special thanks to Fatih, who is a super nice guy!!!) but not everybody is able to speak English and sometimes it's a bit of a hustle to explain stuff to them...) But don't worry, they will always find someone who does understand..
We had the impression that Turkmen is more directed towards Turkish people, escaping the bigger cities (often friends and families on holiday together) than towards backpackers. (if you really want to hook up with the real backpackers, you better go to Kadir's...) but we didn't really mind because it was a great way to get in touch with very sweet Turkish people, which doesn't often happen when you are travelling through Turkey and sleeping in hostels... and if you still want to meet other travellers, you can always go to the parties in the Bull's bar in Kadir's hostel...
Other comments? We generally liked it, were impressed by all the activities they organised (we did the 4 day cruise to Fethiye and believe us, this is HEAVEN!!!) and feel like we had nothing to complain about for real.
Would we go back there? We would certainly go back to Olympos, go and say hello to the nice people at Turkmen's, but maybe we would choose a smaller, more laidback hostel with a more intimate atmosphere. Rather a bit more primitive but more relaxed, but hey, that's just us...
Oh yes, one more thing, maybe we sound ridiculous, but with all that birdflue stuff going on, maybe they should be a bit more carefull. They have chickens running all over the place and there are lots of small children playing with them...
eva, from Belgium ~ Jul 12 2006
