Is it as good as my friend Burcu is saying?
Where should one stay, eat, go?
I have been recommended Kekova Island and Saklikent Canyon- are these any good?
Is there anywhere better to go in Antalya?

Hi

I've been to Kaş loads of times , it's fantastic for scuba diving. Get my phone number off monkey dick and I can give you some info cheap places etc.

Clive

[quote user="ch" post="44855"]it's fantastic for scuba diving.[/quote]

There's a contradiction, yet to find anywhere worth diving in Turkey; have dived from Fethiye, Kalkan & Kas all sucked by comparison to the rest of my diving. It would be good if they opened up the restricted areas..... for instance diving outside of Canakkale would I imagine be fantastic.

It is the best diving in Turkey, of course it can't compare to the Red Sea, barrier reef etc.

place and not too turistic yet. U can actually rest during the day and party over nights (almost like greek islands, or maybe I am over reacting???). If u go just for swimming take a boat from "liman" and get over to the other side of the bay. I loved the last stop, very simple, nice beach, good for snorkeling and it has a small restaurant also. In the town they dont have beaches so its not a place for family with kids!

Enjoy ur holiday!

Kekova & Saklikent canyon are both jewels on Turkey's crown.

Saklikent is so refreshing in the summer after the sun starts to wear you down. The water is freezing & everywhere is deliciously shady.

[quote user="ch" post="44872"]It is the best diving in Turkey, of course it can't compare to the Red Sea, barrier reef etc.[/quote]

will be my territory from July I think. Im gonna have my second home in Port Sudan!

The best open sea diving that I've been involved with was whilst sailing through the Pemba Channel from Tanzania to Kenya, a whole week without another boat around.

Best technical diving was cave diving in Mexico at the Yucatan penisinular.

So by comparison I tend not to dive in Turkey, as I'm always disappointed, especially as the level of people involved with the dives, always suck! The worst that I've encountered was European Divers out of Fethiye.

(Apologies JC, for hi-jacking the thread, maybe it needs to be split)

I agree with Burbaco about Kekova. I went sea kayaking there which I booked out of Kas via Bouganville Travel. Nice folks and the travel arrangement (went there overland in comfortable air conditioned Benz mini-buses) was pretty good overall. Kayak guides were pros and highly skilled. Two are British. Lunch was simple but fresh and tasty.

http://www.bougainville-turkey.com/ana/ ... lor=E7FFE0

I stayed at Medusa Hotel in Kas, a family run operation with simple, decent rooms overlooking the sea. It really was below my expectations since it looked much nicer on their website but still, not very disappointing. BTW, there is no lift so bags have to be carried upstairs.

GB, I heard the same from the diver friends in Turkey. They don't think it is any good compared to many other foreign divind destinations. They go to the Red Sea /the Gulf of Aqaba.

FYI, my sister is a master diver. She hasn't been to Turkey but is partial to diving in the Philippine Islands (off Bohol and Palawan including a cave inland) and Sharm Al-Shiekh. She was living in the Gulf state of Bahrain for more than a decade but kept coming back to Asia to dive.

[quote user="AlSF" post="45000"]FYI, my sister is a master diver.[/quote]

I got to Rescue Diver with PADI and then the organisation held no further interest, so I carried on my diving education with IANTD and the NSSCDS, where I got to Technical Diver (uses Tri-mix and at times Heliox) and Stage Diving respectively.

Whilst the longest dive involved being in a cave for 2 days with lots of cylinders, and the end result was a2 hour recompression. I hasten to add that I've also been treated for the bends 3 times, so I've now virtually given up. Glad to have done it but new responsibilities mean that it is not something I'm comfortable with being involved with now.

I have only been to Saklikent, but it was one of my fave things I did in Turkey. Just make sure you have some good shoes like Merrells so you don't slip on the rocks.

Saklikent : simply awesome, quite daunting to begin with, as you have to enter the gorge via a waist high water crossing
Ptarra beach : miles of beautiful beach, although if you're looking to snorkel; don't bother, as there is nothing to see.
Kekova? : sunken city, not much to see but a pleasant way to spend the day
Olympos ; (if you have a car) , beautiful spot, with buried (in brush / bush) amphi-theatre close by
Xanthos ; a well preserved ruin

I had a change to bungy jump and that's once in a lifetime experience over the Shotover River in Queenstown, NZ...but I passed up. I was supposed to be young and stupid then but still I thought it would be more terrifying than thrilling then. That's why I am NOT a diver. I think that there are many more men who dive than there are women. I don't know why. Anyway, my sister went on further (she used to dive with Heliox too) and prepared to become a PADI certified-instructor but along the way she met and married a non-diver. Happy to report that they are expecting their first child and I think she may have given up diving for good.

I on the other hand, am happier on a sundeck (with partial shade) over land (but by water) or on board a boat (yacht is better). As for pools, I don't even like chlorinated water.

I swam in Kekova and it was glorious! I also tipped the kayak over since I was doing it tandem with my ex-bf. I guess I moved a little bit away from the direction he was going and before I knew it, we were in the water and gone were my sunscreen, my lipscreen and we were soaking wet! The most experienced of the guides shouted detailed instructions to get us back right side up and we did it in no time. Well, someone had to do it to "baptise" the novice group that we were. I tell you, it was amazing, exhilirating and I would do it again when I get a chance. I think it's way better than bumping around in the mountains in one of those jeeps.

I wonder if anybody has done whitewater rafting in Turkey? I did it in Canada and New Zealand and both were unforgettable rides.

These nutters that pump all sorts of stuff into there body while diving need their bumps feeling. It's supposed to be fun and an uplifting experience, not a phsical challenge about whether you die or not

The dives that I've been on where we were on tri-mix and heliox were in fact the safest that I've ever been on. The most dangerous that I've been on have been on air where the people carrying out them have been diving way outside of their capabilities or have been poorly trained.

Take for an example a series of dives that were carried out, from Fethiye. The dives were carried out under the auspice of the "European Divers" group ; Dive 1 was a 30m dive and dive 2 was a 23m dive. In itself this sounds fine, although apart from myself and the dive master no one else had a dive computer, and the DM had not checked to see whether the rest of the group had any form of watch / timer or depth guage, as the equipment provided by the EDG did not have these. For the record only 3 out of a group of 8 had these.

Therefore the DM is taking care of time / depth for the whole group, a liitle questionable, yes but then in the afternoon the DM that was used previously disappears and another takes his place. So the profile for the rest of the group is completely screwed! and it's a wonder that there were no instances of DCS.

Other examples to consider are people on air going to 50m+ and then returning with no air, on the whole the reason for Technical diving is either to extend the depth range or increase the factor of safety .e.g diving wrecks that are otherwise out of range. If I were to go diving now, then I'd be on Nitrox, with another cyclinder of a 50% mix for decompression.

So yes, you do get the ocassional nutter out there in the Technical world but there are more unsafe / gung ho divers casually diving on air.

(mods, this is so far off topic, that it needs to be split!)