lynd

Hello Everyone

My name is Lynda I am a brand new member and just feeling my way around the system. Your articles make fascinating reading.
I am married to Glyn and we have just taken possession of a holiday apartment in Ovacik with a long term view to retiring in Turkey. We are thirsty for information about the area, we are hoping to spend Christmas in the apartment and would love to know what Ovacik is like at that time of the year - weather, restaurants, dolmus etc;etc;

Love
Lynda

lorraine

Hi Lynda and Glyn and welcome to the forum.

Winter up the mountain can be cold especially at night, brisk during the day but is lovely. This year is going to be the first tester for the area as there are a few more flights arriving. due to Dalaman accepting international flights this winter, but usually Hisaronu starts to wind down come mid October, bars and Restaurants were not open at all come last November with the few exceptions, there was a few bars that tried opening on different nights and 2or 3 decided to open fridays and Saturdays throughout the winter. there were 3 cafes open during the day in Olu Deniz, otherwise Olu Deniz closes completely, this is when the building work and repairs start.

The dolmus tended to finish running at 6-6.30pm this year it may be different with more flights, you may find it better to hire a car.

Winter on the whole the holiday resort close down completely, Fethiye however, is a working town and tends to have more places open, Paspatur closes except for the few bars and clubs, the shops that we see in the season close. Do hire a car and explore

merlin

Welcome to Turkish Living and I iterate what Lorraine has replied....

Christmas ie. 25 December is a non-event in Turkey. Saying that, where I live in Kusadasi a couple of restaurants cater for the ex-pats and put on a Christmas lunch, at a price!

Turkey celebrates Christmas on the eve of 1 January, our New Years eve and thats when the real festivities take place.

As Lorraine has already suggested, hire a car and explore Fethiye, but do not drink and drive - Jandarma road checks are notorious on the road from Ovacik to Fethiye and during the time I was living there, they had never been introduced to the "welcoming tourist into turkey" course.

Having said that, Ovacik in the winter will provide you with a good acid test if you plan to retire there in the future and whether its the right environment for your style of living.

Merv!

lynd

Brill thanks very much for the information

Rimms

We have been up there a couple of times through the winter as we originally intended to buy a place at Olive Grove in Ovacik, and to be honest it was pretty miserable. Really cold and parts of the area seem prone to flooding. Fethiye remains relatively warm during the day, but cold at night. More places are staying open in Calis if last winter was anything to go by.

Rimms

lynd

Thanks very much Rimms
Not too worried about flooding as apartment is up the side of a mountain, do appreciate your feed back though.

Love Lynda and Glyn

madturkishcow

Jandarma road checks in Ovacik during the winter!!!!
Ooh no never in the two years I lived there.The summer months and recent terroists attacks yes, they are there but they didnt even check out my car for bombs at dalaman airport two weeks ago.

Ovacik in the winter is dead apart from the Morning star bar! nice one Appo it can be very wet and muddy, especially up the side of the mountain I would suggest that you purchase a pair of wellies to clump around in as the mud is an awful brown goo which gets into places that have never seen the light of day! Do not be surprized if your road gets washed away, they sweep the debris up regularly and re-lay it when more settled weather comes along. Be prepared to wade through huge puddles and rivers along even the main roads and always carry an umberella...........just in case
After all that,enjoy living there it is a wonderful village.
jen

KayaKoyuOldBoy

If you're down Kaya Koyu way at any time and you want a bit of a walk, get in touch and I'll take you around the rest of the village. The "Ghost Village" is just a very small part of Kaya.

(Don't let Madturkishcow know this, but the Jandarma are regularly at the top of the hill from Fethiye carrying out checks in summer AND winter. Just make sure that you've got your vehicle documents and passport with you and you shouldn't have any problems with them. With any luck they'll get her the next time she skateboards through there. )

madturkishcow

LOL Kaya,
Me skateboard..............nah they have to be pretty quick to catch me and looking upwards! My latest mode of transport is a turbo charged,diesel driven, de-luxe top of the range magic carpet.Well, things have improved up there and im sorry to say that since moving to esenkoy I have kinda lost touch.I will say though, before this carpet whisks me off to the pub, that in 17 years apart from when renewing my visa,no one has ever bothered to look at my passport and resident permit, apart from at the airport.......
A walk kayakoy? gawd last march vicky and I went to the kaya and being girlies,one of us blonde,but ok im the oldest so it was my idea decided to follow the galatasaray sign posts..............................we had a fantastic 45 minutes and i saw the biggest lizard i have ever seen in my whole life.......were you out and about in march kaya? he was huge and lumbered across the path in front of me.Luckily vicky never saw it (too busy trying to keep her flip flops on!) but it was the best walk I have done in the area.Never did get round to doing it again last year, but i have now started to look out for places mentioned in birds without wings........not accurate, but a lot of fun looking.

jen