Dalyan for everyone

Sarah Beattie discovers the perfect family holiday spot on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast They say start with what you know. Ten years ago we’d stayed briefly in the village of Dalyan at either end of a research trip. (We’d eaten our way along the coast to Adana then across the middle to Afyon.) We remembered it as a magical place. Was it folly to go back? A quick look at the net convinced us Dalyan was still essentially unspoilt. More internet trawling found a villa, five relatively cheap flights from Liverpool and an astounding £45 ticket from Manchester to Dalaman for Gabe. The flights arrived within an hour of each other so we met there and shared a taxi to Dalyan. As the people carrier pulled up outside Villa Ley Ley, the kids looked at each other and said, “Is this it? Is this all ours?” Mags thought approvingly that it was a bit “OC” (those without teenagers note, this refers to glamorous Californian soap). Standing foursquare in its pretty but still newish garden, the villa looked the part, fronted by a glinting pool and enclosed by a whitewashed wall. But it was rustically situated too, just on the edge of the town, near the river. The roads were unmade – fire trucks occasionally passed idly by, dampening down the dust. The villa takes its name from the storks that live just outside the garden. continue