Toddler friendly holidays to Turkey, Lycian Explorer
| country: | Turkey |
| location: | Lycian Coast |
| departures: | 2010: 31 May, 28 Jun, 25 Oct 2011: 30 May, 27 Jun |
| price: | From £835 - £915 (8 days) per adult and from £655 - £735 per child including flights from the UK. From £555 - £615 per adult and from £375 - £435 per child excluding flights. Minimum age 2 yrs |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
the amazing things you'll be doing
Dalyan & Kas
From the quayside of pretty Dalyan, we meander by riverboat through reedbeds rich in birdlife, and then pause to explore the dramatic ruins of ancient Caunus with its rock-cut tombs (400 BC) before reaching Iztuzu Beach - a great place for swimming away from the crowds. We then move onto Kas and stay at a conveniently located hotel for a number of nights. Kas is a great place to relax with restaurants, bars and low-key cafes spilling out onto cobbled streets. We travel by local boat across to the other side of the bay to spend the day at Limanagzi Beach which is a sheltered bay not far from the hotel.
Sunken City & Ancient Ruins
Using Kas as a base, we journey by boat to the underwater and partially submerged ruins of Kekova Island before returning to spend the afternoon at our hotel. We travel to Oludeniz the following day, visiting the ruins at Xanthos on the way famed as the capital of the Lycian Federation and one of the most important archaeological sites in the region. Continuing on, we stop at the village of Minare where we have a lunch in a village house before continuing to Oludeniz where we stay for the remaining part of our holiday.
Deserted Towns
Travelling to Kayakoy, we discover a deserted settlement which was finally abandoned by its Greek inhabitants in 1923 when they were dispelled from the lands of the newly declared Turkish Republic. Covering a fairly extensive area, this ghost town of some 2,000 houses presents an emotive setting. We return to the hotel to relax in the afternoon or alternatively there is the option to walk across the forested hillside close to the town with tremendous views of the Oludeniz lagoon, beautifully set against the backdrop of wild mountains and dense forest.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Join tour in Dalaman. |
| Day 2: | Boat trip to Caunus; PM free. |
| Day 3: | Drive to Kas visiting the ruins and beach at Patara. |
| Day 4: | Boat trip to Limanagzi Beach. |
| Day 5: | Drive to Kekova; boat trip of the sunken city; PM free in Kas. |
| Day 6: | Drive to Oludeniz via Xanthos; lunch in local village house returning to Oludeniz for PM. |
| Day 7: | Visit Kayakoy; free time at hotel in Oludeniz. |
| Day 8: | Transfer Dalaman. |
small group family holiday - toddler
This is a 'small group family adventure' specifically for families with toddlers. They are designed with very young children in mind so they tend to be at a slower pace with child friendly accommodation. The minimum age for these tours is two, with no upper age limit, so you can bring kids of all ages along, in fact, older kids will love these tours as much as the younger ones! Typically you will join several other families and travel in a group of approx. 16 people. The trips are great value and a great way for you and your children to meet new people! While itineraries are pre-planned there is also some flexibility and you'll have plenty of time to yourselves. award winner
This tourism business won an Award in our 2008 Virgin Holidays Responsible Tourism Awards - organised by responsibletravel.com in association with The Daily Telegraph, World Travel Market, Geographical Magazine, of the Royal Geographical Society and BBC World News.Since 2004, the Awards has recognised individuals, companies and organisations in travel making a big commitment to the culture and economies of local communities and helping to conserve biodiversity.
how this holiday makes a difference
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Community
Learning about the country we are travelling to is really important on our tours and Turkey is just brimming with history and culture! One of the reasons we prefer to use local tour leaders where possible is they can give a real insight into the local culture; anything from learning about the education system, to making sure we don’t fall foul of any taboos! Secondly it is our policy to generate business and employment opportunities in the countries we travel to by employing local people. All our leaders in Turkey are locals and we’ve personally trained them all too so they are comfortable in their work and you get great service. As well as respecting local people, we also like to be an economic benefit to them. We do this by using locally owned hotels, spreading our business to a variety of local restaurants (which is a great way to sample delicious Turkish food!) and employing local guides where we can. Environment Add to that that all our tours work to a strict Responsible Tourism Policy and you can be sure that even we’ve considered every aspect of our operation in Turkey and are confident it is best practice. As well as the above, we support a variety of charities and projects worldwide which support vulnerable communities and habitats including Friends of Conservation, Hope Worldwide and Send A Cow. We are also actively engaged with UK travel industry bodies which promote best practice in responsible tourism, such as Tourism Concern, The Travel Foundation and AITO. Our commitment to responsible tourism is not limited to our overseas operation and we have measures to ensure our UK office operates according to our responsible tourism policy. Carbon offsets for all flights booked with us are included in the tour cost. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |