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I have my first experience with a small child in Turkey.

24 December 2015 • Travel time: with 16 May 2015 on 23 May 2015
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I wonder: who of the "smart people" called the period of stay at home with a small child after birth HOLIDAY? Vacation (in my opinion) is a vacation from work (trips to the sea, cottages, relatives, possession of some accumulated household chores, and finally thoughtless felting on the beach near the nearest pond to the smell of barbecue). And childcare leave is the same job, but more responsible and exhausting. However, the price for it is incomparably bigger and more pleasant - the first conscious smile, the first word, the first independent step of your little one. I hope that parents of young (and not only) children will understand the degree of physical and moral exhaustion of young (by status) parents who are raising a young daughter on their own, without grandparents.

There is always not enough money (as well as hours) to solve household problems.


And so when the question arose whether to start repairs in the living room or spit on everything and go somewhere to rest from vacation (sorry for the pun), the scales clearly leaned in the direction of travel. At the same time, the issues of my wife's gift and birthday celebration were automatically removed (after all, we somehow lived without that new suspended ceiling).

But enough lyrics and philosophical reflections. Let's return to "our sheep", ie to the topic of our story. We approached the issue of planning the next trip very carefully and thoughtfully, because we were going on this trip in an updated lineup - with a little daughter. For her, this is the first big trip (except for the exhausting, almost 10-year-old flight in the womb from Sri Lanka, as I wrote in my previous "opus").

After consulting with our pediatrician about the intention to go abroad to the sea with the mass, we received a verdict: "And why not?

But remember that this is more a holiday for parents than for children, although an extra dose of vitamin "D" from the mild May sun will not hurt the child. However, beware of swimming pools and unsanitary conditions, it is necessary to take water treatments in swimming trunks! ». With the diligence of the "excellent glasses", we carefully "shoveled" the Internet for travel abroad with young children. Most contributors were inclined to conclude that the best countries for such trips are Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria ...

After analyzing all the pros and cons, we chose Turkey - Club Zigana Hotel HV-1, located in the picturesque town of Beldibi near Kemer. But let's get everything in order. Since our daughter was 1 year and 7 months old at the time of the planned trip, she was considered an infant (I just stubbornly associate this word with the famous painting by Velazquez? ).

), so it was possible to save a little on the cost of vouchers - the child's vacation cost 75 conditional (insurance + airport tax). I will not dwell on the issues of paperwork in detail, because without me a lot has been written about the need to enter a child in the passport of at least one parent, the need to pre-order a crib and enter it in the voucher, etc.


So, having settled all the formalities and received the necessary documents from our travel agent by e-mail, we started to set off. First of all, our first aid kit (adjusted for a small tourist) needed significant replenishment and renewal. Buying more or less decent and suitable in size children's swimming trunks at an adequate price was a problem (maybe not the season? ); last year's swimming circle was bitten by its owner (and when did she meet?

); once a beautiful pink children's panama hat with lower ruffles (godmother's gift) on the second day of careful search was found behind a washing machine with traces of a marker or felt-tip pen of poisonous color, etc. , etc. To update the summer wardrobe daughter and beach accessories of the upcoming trip had to spend a couple of days "traveling" Kiev shops in search of the necessary.

As obedient students, following the instructions of our travel agent, on the eve of departure, we found out from the tour operator whether the departure time has changed and clarified just in case the phone number of their representative at the airport. And finally, Boryspil Airport greets us with a framework and strict (only at first glance) "security".

Charged by her parents (that is, from us) with some kind of drive in anticipation of the trip, our daughter with enthusiasm, worthy of Stakhanov, stubbornly and persistently tries to uproot the frames of metal detectors with a case from my mother's glasses. This act was not regarded by the guards as an attempt to commit a terrorist act, and accompanied by their smiles, we enter the waiting room.

A representative of the tour operator was a nice young man (seems to be Eugene), who after listening to our request to help get the best seats on the plane, clearly explained that according to flight safety rules the location of passengers with children near the 1st row and emergency exit door is prohibited , but even before the start of registration he approached the reception desk and "stuck" behind us places in the 3rd row, which left us having to stand in line for registration - for which he has great "respect".

It is worth noting that the customs officers, seeing the mass on their hands, were loyal to the excess of mineral water near hand luggage and did not look very meticulously at our luggage.


While waiting for landing, we visited a pretty decent (unlike Antalya) room of mother and child, wandered on the "dutik", 10 times rode on a moving track and finally our plane (ekibanisty - with an embroidered shirt on the tail) served on landing. After reading the forums, before the flight our doll was instilled with Rinazolin (0.25 mg / ml) - to keep the ears closed, prepared a bottle of your favorite compote, a couple of books and a dad's phone with a carefully loaded 5th season of Luntik. On the plane, in addition to us, there were a dozen or two families with children of all ages - from babies aged several months to teenagers with unconditional attributes of modern youth - an unapproachable look, a hood on his head and headphones in his ears.

And finally the runway was left behind - we're in the air. Our little girl stubbornly tries to get rid of children's seat belts, sitting in her mother's arms, not particularly concerned about the scenery behind the porthole. Let me remind you that passengers under the age of 2, ie infants (again, this Velazquez climbs into the head), travel without a separate seat, ie in the arms of parents. A 6-month-old soloist, spitting out his nipple deliciously, winding up an aria, which was instantly picked up by all the members of our Boeing's improvised children's ensemble. Our mass also joined this action with their sopranos, but not for long, because the proposed compote, and later Luntik on the phone, flavored with mother's milk did their job. And by the time the food was served, our daughter was already peacefully sniffing, counting the pink elephants in her dream.

Before landing, we stirred up our motherland, buried our noses again and pushed Luntik, and from her - Turkey!

After receiving the luggage and settling all customs formalities, we go to the table with the sign of our tour operator. Friendly but tired girls distribute us between the buses for further transfer to hotels.

A little lyrics. We read a lot in the reviews that the Turks are very indifferent to young children, and especially to girls, so from: it's true! An hour and a half (while the formal hustle and bustle associated with the arrival lasted) before boarding the bus of 5 Turks, seeing our child, winking, tried to ruffle her blond hairs and made her some of their Turkish "all-pussy". And looking ahead, I will say that during the whole hour of our Sunday vacation, a dozen Turks almost seriously asked if we needed a son-in-law, because such a nice boy grows up in their house!

But back to Antalya airport.


It is worth noting that there was some disagreement in the work of local guides of our tour operator and we sat on the bus for more than an hour, although the rest of the tourists have long since left, and to our questions: The girl-guide evasively replied that we would go now, and if you want to drink, the driver has a wonderful mineral water in the refrigerator for only $ 2 for a small bottle. As a result of these drunkenness, we arrived at our hotel exhausted and tired late in the evening.

At the check-in we hoped that we would be settled first (given the small child), but the receptionists, like most of our fellow tourists, had to sneeze until our daughter started demonstrating her vocal skills, turning on her soprano (switching in places to ultrasound) at all decibels. My wife and I had no idea about the power and range of our baby's voice!

Under such vocal accompaniment, we filled out the proposed papers and tried to agree that as a compliment from the hotel on my wife's birthday (which was supposed to be in 2 days) we were allowed a late eviction on the day of departure, but already slightly intoxicated by such singing administrator saying that he did not solve these issues and picked up our suitcases himself pulled them to the room for settlement.

We got to the room at the beginning of the twelfth night. The next morning, on our way to breakfast, we finally saw where we were. The hotel itself is located in a former reserve and has a large, cozy and clean area. However, a "spoon of tar" in the form of the smell of sewage in the area near the reception was still present. Or maybe the sewer did not stink? However, locals said that such a problem exists in all hotels in the Kemer area.

Leather wood is numbered, some buildings were built in such a way that a tree grows among the stairs to the second floor.

Gentle Mediterranean Sea and its own, closed to outsiders beach, although one of the ladders to enter the sea is shaky and in need of repair, but there is a children's "frog" with alluvial sand, where we mostly swam with our little one. There are 2 children's pools, a wonderful playground covered with artificial grass ...There is already a lot written about the hotel on the Internet and there is much more to tell, but let's leave the laudatory rhetoric to tour operators who sell tours here.


In our opinion, in general the hotel is quite decent and corresponds to the statement of the HV-1 category, but there are a number of questions mainly to the hotel staff and guides (and maybe to the policy of the hotel management in general? ). So, after breakfast, my girls delegated me to meet the guide.

However, the stories about the sights of Turkey and "meager" (only for us as for our own) prices for tours do not seem to have impressed any of the tourists present, because everyone was attracted by the gentle and warm sea, and who layered ultra-exclusive alcohol in bars.

After this meeting, I approached the guides and "started my flute": "People are good, sorry, we are not local people…" my wife's birth allowed us (without additional investment on our part) to vacate the room on the day of departure at 14.00, and not at 12.00, as it is established, as our mass at this time should sleep.

However, they openly "froze" and said that in general these issues are within the competence of the administrators, and offered to approach the day before departure, they say let's see what can be done, just in case to ask if just in case I was not interested in a wonderful day trip to Israel in Jerusalem only for 230 y. at. ?

I replied that I would think about it and we said goodbye - we parted ways.

Of course, I really wanted to make a pilgrimage to the holy places, but such a trip is very exhausting for adults (not to mention a small child) and in one day you will not have time to go wherever you want, and thoughts of painted and peeled our a seductive wallpaper in the living room that needed to be replaced (as well as a suspended ceiling…) lowered us to earth from dreamy thoughts about the Promised Land and kept us from unplanned expenses.

I will say at once that all our efforts to resolve the issue of late eviction have failed. Every hour of stay in the room over the deadline, the Turks estimated at 30 conditional. Moreover, on the day of departure we had a rather unpleasant incident with the administration: we, as decent tourists, packed our bags in advance and took them to the room near the reception for storage until departure.


About half past ten we searched for a maid who was serving our room, handed her a dollar, and (as usual) tried to hand her the room. She did not understand a word of English or Russian, let alone Ukrainian. She gestured that she had the key to our room.

"Then she took their tourist memo and began to read aloud to them meticulously (as befits a true lawyer). In this memo it is written that the tourist is obliged to vacate the room before 12.00! But nowhere is a word written that he must hand over the key by 12.00! They did not find any counterarguments to this. After clapping their mouths like a fish (apparently swallowing some of their Turkish mothers), they agreed that they were wrong.

In the end, everything went well for us, but the unpleasant residue remained. It turned out as in that anecdote about two native Odessans:

- Abram, after your visit to our Sofochka's birthday, we didn't get a silver spoon!

- And what do you have to tell me? That we accidentally took your spoon? Oh, don't make fun of me! So we have our family silver ... !

- Yes, no, we found a spoon, but the unpleasant residue remained!

By the way, our mother was congratulated on her birthday after all - they brought a bottle of wine, fruit and a greeting card near the room - a trifle, but nice! We usually spent whole days on the beach, swimming by the sea and sunbathing, sipping non-alcoholic Mojito or milkshakes, prudently occupying a couple of sunbeds under the canopy, and a couple in the sun (well, there were no problems - always free). When our little one got bored, we went to the playground, where she played with pleasure, rode on a swing, went down the slides…

During our vacation in Turkey we celebrated the birthday of Ataturk - the first president of Turkey. To this day, the hotel is decorated with Turkish flags, balloons and a gala evening on the street by the pool with a festive concert. Every night there was a children's disco, which we loved to visit.

The wife wondered: "And who taught her to shake so loudly? ", Watching our little one dance to the hits of some" Crazy Frog ".


It should be noted that our daughter from the category of children who do not sit still for a second and will find a puddle of mud in the middle of the desert and be sure to enter it. So from the second day of staying at the hotel, our mass planted bruises on his forehead, slipping on a wet path from watering (by the way, it really becomes very slippery after the morning watering and we also almost fell several times, showing masterful pirouettes and miracles of balancing) .

In addition, such generous watering causes significant humidity throughout the hotel, especially in the rooms, which are located on the 1st floor.

There are many cozy places in the hotel with hammocks, benches, park sculptures of all kinds of deer, bears, kangaroos… Say hello to all these bears and feed the wooden turtles with prudently plucked flowers and grass! For adult vacationers also created all the conditions for recreation: several swimming pools (one with artificial waves), 3 water slides, several bars, beautiful booths, sauna, there are refrigerators with soft drinks and more.

We had no complaints about the food, as well as the quality and range of products.

However, I was unpleasantly surprised by the policy of the hotel management regarding the ban on taking any food out of the restaurant.

It would be understandable not to allow vacationers to take out bottles of alcohol to get to the right condition somewhere outside the restaurant, because there are bars for this. But when the formidable "security" on the way out of the restaurant takes away the kefir (by the way very tasty) from the grandfather with obvious signs of a problematic gastrointestinal tract, or a banana in a child - it's too much! Fortunately, no one has ever touched us, but witnessing such a picture, I could not help but intervene: "And this, in your opinion, ultra-exclusive? , to which this "security" unequivocally replied: "Yes! ». And according to tourists who come to this hotel for more than a year, the situation in this regard is only getting worse every year.


I was amazed by tourists who sat in bars from morning till night, tasting strong drinks and trying to sober up a bit, during "travels" between bars in the position of the letter "L" (leaning their heads against each other), because "travel" in the position of the letter "I" (ie independently) they were not able. It is difficult to evaluate the work of the animators, because we have been to the pools where they hung out only a few times, and only for a photo shoot, or to get on the Internet.

Given the circumstances - a fairly short period of our trip and the presence of a lot (for repairs in the living room generally silent), we deliberately refused to go on excursions, so the hotel only went twice - of course to the nearest local bazaar (first time) - "shoot", the second - to skimp).

After reading the recommendations of the "tourism guru" on the Internet that you should go to the Egyptian bazaars with an attractive blonde beauty in a mini skirt, and the Turkish - with a baby in his arms - and you will be happy in the form of crazy discounts, we did: just in case, they put a couple of large Ashani packages in their backpacks (for almost free purchases and gifts for the masses from Turkish traders). Yeah, it wasn't here (maybe we didn't go to that market? ). Prices are not much different from Kyiv and in general, the impression is that when you get to Troieschyna Bazaar: about a third of sellers are our former CIS compatriots, and the courtesy of local sellers usually ends when you try to bring down the price of their goods. Although there were local sellers who were happy not only to buy something, but just to talk to them.

As a result of such "shopping" all our purchases (souvenirs, Turkish sweets and fashionable pink ponchos for our baby) fit in a backpack, and a bonus in the form of a piece of rahat lukum our doll immediately "crunched" on the way back to the hotel.


And now a little from our own experience of organizing the nutrition of our baby - maybe someone will find something useful for themselves: Food for the baby. There is a children's table: potatoes (mashed and greased); pasta (and on the adult table you could find hard varieties); stewed and boiled vegetables; usually a couple of types of liquid dishes (soups); boiled meat or fish; yogurts (for lunch - packaged and for bottling); cheeses (hard and cottage cheese, by the way, not tasty, our little girl did not want to eat); cookies. Early milk was always on the adult table or in bags, or in a coffee machine, or in milk porridge (rice, oatmeal). Butter (both cream and vegetable) and bakery products have always been in large quantities.

And now we offer general recommendations based on our own experience of beach holidays abroad with a small child:

1. In our opinion, Turkey is a good alternative to the Black Sea resorts, especially if you plan to go on such a trip with a small child: no problems with acclimatization, flight a little more than 2 hours, one time zone, no language problems - much staff understands and partially speaks Russian.

2. The Kemer area is quite a good choice for a holiday with children, but you should choose a hotel where there are children's "frogs" with alluvial sand on the beach, as pebbles are not very comfortable for children.

In general, we did not feel that we had visited abroad, as the local climate and landscape are very similar to the southern coast of Crimea or Caucasian resorts, and Russian-speaking vacationers and staff generally introduced a "deja vu" to the camp - I've seen it somewhere.

3. The second half of May (beginning of the holiday season) - the ideal time for such a holiday - is quite warm sea (21-25 degrees) and gentle (not scorching sun). New (even with labels) hotel linen. Cleaned and without any viruses there, which were written about on the Internet pools, not yet smashed sunbeds.

4. Don't forget the first aid kit, creams or other mosquito repellents and baby sunscreen. We only needed wound-healing remedies from the first-aid kit, because our doc mercilessly bit the mosquito bites.

If your baby still sucks on his mother's milk, pamper him with it during takeoff and landing on the plane - this is probably the best remedy for clogged ears and a calming effect.

6. Bring a cane stroller (cane stroller)! You can even take it with you to the cabin as hand luggage. We didn't take it with us, which we were very sorry about. We saw that in some hotels there is a trolley rental, but in ours we did not find.

7. Plan a trip for at least 10-12 days, at least 7-8 days were not enough for us.


8. Who has doubts: to go or not - of course to go! ! ! ! ! This will be useful not only for parents, but especially for your child.

After all, we believe that in order not to raise a complete yogi from a child, parents should not completely put an end to some of their needs and desires for the sake of their child and the child should gradually adapt to the needs of parents (family), learn to respect them and reckon with them. And for mothers, such a trip will give the opportunity not only to relax morally and physically from kitchen and household worries, but also to devote more hours and attention to the child.

9. Go on vacation only in a positive mood! This is almost the main guarantee of a successful trip! ! ! ! !

Some lyrics again: And now, when the calendar is constantly showing the approach of the New Year, and outside the window - the cold and dampness - the sun and +12 and begin to bloom buds on bushes and trees, sometimes it seems that the meteorological center is already hesitant to determine the time of year: whether it is autumn, winter, and maybe spring - we remember this trip with special nostalgia and periodically organize evenings of memories, once again looking at photos and videos from this trip. And mentally (somewhere in our dreams) we are already paving new routes for our future travels to various parts of our planet…

In general, my daughter and I were very pleased with this trip, and still not pasted painted wallpaper in the living room and some minor unpleasant moments do not depress our memories.

This story may seem a bit boring and critical to some, but we deliberately described in detail the unpleasant moments that took place during this trip, because none of us is safe from the influence of the "human factor". However, if at least someone is protected from our spoiled mood by our warnings and experience, it means that my and your time was spent in vain. If anyone has any questions - write, we will be happy to answer. Have a good trip! ! ! ! !


П. S. Sitting with my wife, we select a photo to illustrate this story. Our masses saw this, stood in the pose of the "leader of the peoples" (with outstretched hand in front of the TV) and demandingly declares: "Dad, cut di-di and mom Tuti! ». I translate: “Dad, include my daughter and mother in Turkey! ». I went to turn on the TV…

Translated automatically from Ukrainian. View original
To add or remove photos in a story, go to album of this story
Вид на пляж та готель з пірса.
Мальовничі види території.
Вихід на пляж.
Басейни, гірки, бари.
Басейни, гірки, бари 2.
Вид на басейн із хвилями.
Територія 1.
Територія 2.
Територія 3.
Територія 4.
Територія 5.
Територія 6.
Територія 7.
Вид з номеру - наче декорації до фільму
Аватар 2. Балкон із рушником - наш номер.
Ось воно - дійсно бережливе ставлення до природи.
Пронумеровані дерева.
Повз таких оленів і дорослим важко спокійно пройти.
Наша масява
Черговий
Комплімент від готелю на День народження нашій мамі.
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