Yel Holiday Resort

Me and 3 of my pals went to Yel Holiday Village in Sept 2005. The apartments are kept very clean; maids were in everyday with fresh towels and even leave petals with your towels on your bed. Was a very pleasant place to stay.
3 of us fell ill on the last few days of our holiday which we do not know the reason for. The buffet nights at the hotel were ok but some of the food looked very questionable.
Overall Yel Holiday Village was lovely and had a beautiful back drop of mountains and gorgeous scenery. The staff are very friendly, joining in on some fun in the pool etc. I think this place is ideal for families as there is a flume for kids. Not good for people with walking difficulties however as there is a 5min walk up a steep hill from any mini buses you get from the town. The hotel is without a doubt very lovely however I would not recommend Turkey as a country to anyone, the beaches are all stony and is not proper sand, very sore on the feet and is also a long distance from this resort, however there was a shuttle bus which ran to the beach in the morning.

This place is absolutely amazing. Beautiful views, fantastic staff & brilliant up keeping.
The pool is fab for any ages, & the slide can be for both the big kids & the actual kids.
The rooms are always kept very tidy (& as I'm an 18 year old girl, the poor maids had to keep on top of my mess, thanks!) and the bar is very well kept.
I have to say that what made my holiday was the staff though, Diego & his team don't half make leaving so hard, & also Mister Smiley & his two boys, Mike & Junior, made the scorching weather bearable, with their silly dances, crazy sayings, & practical jokes.
Also the restaurant staff such as Diego, Burhan, Deniz, and Hector (for the whole week that he was actually there!) & Ersin kept on top of all of the food our party ordered. Also the two Mehmets & their cooking was lovely, once I got used to it.
The entertainment staff (Brusk & Eko) were the party makers, pool polo & water-ball were always a hoot when they joined in!
All of the maids were very friendly & knew exactly what they were doing.
Hisaronu is a very nice place to shop in the day, as well as at night. If you like shopping with hardly any hassle, try the daytime, if you're up for the small talk to get you into shops, try at night, but all the shops are brilliant, with very friendly shopkeepers.
The bars in Hisaronu are wonderful, dancing on bars, singing karaoke & drunken people everywhere is how it should be when you're on holiday.
Personally, I enjoyed eating in the Yalcins restaurant, they know how to keep a customer busy and happy with a pool table, a few drinks, a huge menu and a bit of music and a very small belly dancers costume. (If anyone knows the website - if it has one - Let me know?)
Excursions. These are what made my holiday. If you are planning on booking any excursions, book with Focus, on the main street in Hisaronu. The Jeep Safari trip is brilliant with (Mad Dog) Leonardo. Crazy-Crazy. Anything he can find, he will throw on you.
Also the Turtle beach trip is wonderful, especially with the smelly mud-bath! Other trips such as rafting and Turkish baths are a to-do when in Fethiye as they are enjoyable.
Overall, this holiday must have been the best holiday I have ever had. 20 out of 10 for Yel.
Abby 21/06/2007 - 6/07/07

We have just come back from a 2 week stay at The Yel Holiday Resort which is situated in Ovacik about 3 miles from the bustling resort of Hisaronu. We had to pay extra for a family room, which we did not want and it turned out to be the smallest room we have ever stayed in!
The room and shower area were kept very clean by the hard working maids who cleared both every day, with sheets and towels changed 3 times a week.
The pool area was very nice with spectacular views over the surrounding areas and there was a separate children’s pool as well as a circular slide that went into the main pool. The pool staff were constantly wanting you to ‘do something’ with organised darts, water polo and table tennis and seemed to think if you were relaxing on a sun bed reading you must not be enjoying yourself!
They would join in with anyone throwing a football in the pool and think nothing of kicking the ball very hard back into the pool splashing anyone who was unfortunate to be relaxing or sleeping in the way!
We went in the quiet season and the hotel was only about a third full with a few families/groups, a few older couples and a lot of very overweight women in their 40s with the obligatory tattoos.
The port of Fethiye is a ten minute bus (dolmus) ride away with the lively resort of Hisaronu about the same distance the opposite way. The best resort is Olu Deniz, which is 3 miles passed Hisaronu and all resorts can be reached via taxi for £4 - £6 or local bus (dolmus) for about £1.50 to Hisaronu and £2 to Olu Deniz or Fethiye.
The buses run every 5 minutes and can be stopped by putting you hand out anywhere and will stop where ever you want. To get to the main road you had to walk down a deserted (and dark at night) road down a steep hill. You can walk into Hisaronu, which we did a few times on a night and it takes about half an hour but you have to run the gauntlet of all the bars and restaurants who all want the very limited business at this quiet time of the year.
Hisaronu is the noisiest resort of the 3 and has been described as a sunny and clean Blackpool and I can see the resemblance, but it does have a few very good restaurants and we had excellent meals at The Lemon Tree and our favourite, The Aciktim Restaurant, which had the best steak and service in the area.
We would spend most nights at Olu Deniz and always end up at the Tequila Bar for a drink and a great night of music (rock, blues) and hilarious waiters who were great fun and always looked after you.
For the best views of the bay and the fantastic sunset, the Buzz Beach Bar is a must but it is starting to get a bit expensive. We repeated the great value 12 Island boat trip that we did on a previous visit and it is a must for any visitor. We went with Carole and Tay-fun who operate out of Hisaronu with English reps on the boat who offered hotel pick up, 8 hours cruising and swimming around the 12 islands, chicken of fish dinner and drop off back at your hotel, all for £10 per head, fantastic value.
We also booked their sunset night cruise which included a steak meal and an hour of 60s rock and roll cabaret from the great Kenny and then dancing on deck back to the port of Fethiye for midnight. By booking both of these trips we were entitled to a free cruise to the Sunday market at Goceck with 4 hour cruising and 2½ hour stop and the market/shops of Goceck. I had a Turkish shave 3 times during our stay and chose the barber at the bottom of our hotel road in the AY Market. For £3 you would get a cut throat shave, a head, neck, back and arm massage from a great guy who would insist my wife should take photos and drink apple tea during the half hour duration.
The other part of the AY Market was a shop where you could buy food, drink, papers and again was very friendly as well as very cheap.
We flew back to Durham Tees Valley on Tuesday 24th June on the Thomson flight. We decided to book our seats so we could be near the front of the plane, big mistake. The 3 stewardess constantly got together (behind drawn curtain) and spent most of the flight laughing; with one of them have a very loud and annoying screech. The lights were turned off so we could sleep on the 4hr flight, some chance!
We like Turkey and will go back but next time we will book our seats at the back of the plane.

On booking a (find out when you get there) holiday with Thomson in June 2006 and with it being our 1st trip to Turkey, both my friend and I couldn't believe our luck when we were allocated the Yel Hotel as our destination. From the second we arrived in Turkey we had the most amazing holiday. All the staff are wonderful, couldn't do enough for you, even fresh flowers arranged on your bed.
The hotel was kept very clean with a lovely pool area and bar, there was evening entertainment most evenings which was very amusing (especially the staff dance which was brilliant) and the food was also good. The Ovacik area is very nice, set a little way up the hill you have a great view of the surrounding area and only a short dolmus ride to Hisaronu where there is good night life and restaurants.
My friend and I are both more (pool) people but if you like to hit the beach they are lovely also. There are plenty of trips to do if you are more energetic but a trip to a Turkish bath is a must I have never felt so relaxed and chilled out in my life, so chilled out was we that we missed our stop on the dolmus ride back.
All I can say is we give it the big thumbs up, so much so we returned for another 10 day stay in September 2006 and will probably be going back in 2007 as well. You'll Love it!

Absolutely Fantastic. The best hotel I’ve ever stayed in. The staff can’t do enough for you. They are so friendly and welcome you into the hotel. Great food loads of dishes to choose from. The staff take your suitcases down for you and back up when your stay is over. It was so amazing I cried over and over when I left. They love blonde children and can talk extremely good English.
I would recommend this to anybody and everybody. Apart from disabled and the very young who rely on a buggy/pushchair as there are lots of stairs and all of the rooms are in different blocks so there are no lifts. The pool is amazing perfect for every age. There is a shallow end and a deep end so perfect for anyone. Waterslide is fantastic. Only open twice a day though because a member of staff has to stand up there whilst you go down.
Rooms have television hairdryer etc. So you only need to pack the bare necessities! Rooms have en-suite bathroom although in turkey they believe that you should wash yourself in clean running water so there are no plugs but they recommend wrapping a 50 pence piece in plastic if you want to wash, obscure I know! Very cheap taxis/dolmus buses into the local town 8-10 Turkish lira for a taxi, that’s about 3-4quid!
Cheap as chips they like to say. All round very attentive staff. Very clean hotel. Its an amazing hotel so I wish you a fantastic time. Emma x
P.s I also found out that it’s cheaper to book directly with the hotel and just pay for your flights x