MARMARIS TURKEY

[oughtidiver]

I AM OFF TO WARMER WATERS IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS MARMARIS THAT IS. WE HOPE TO TAKE THE ADVANCED DIVERS COURSE WHEN THERE.  ANYONE RECOMMEND A CLUB OR HAVE ANY TIPS.  WE ARE TAKING MOST OF OUR OWN GEAR SO ANY TIPS ON WEIGHT AND PACKING WILL BE A GREAT HELP.  CHEERS  devil:

[parahandy]

<font color='#0000FF'>The divings nothing to demanding, warm water &amp; excellent vis.
Don't expect to see shoals of fish however there are fish about large groupers and quite a lot of Eels. Nothing very inspiring in the way of wrecks. You may also come across the occasional bit of amphora. &nbsp;

In the main its a market geared up to try dives for tourists
There's loads of dive boats now established there, these all tend to moor up immediately opposite the bazar in the old part of town. An exploratory walk down there in the evening will allow you to sus them out and perhaps haggle prices.  From experience the smaller operators tend to take you to the better sites.  As regards courses European Diving Centre are one of the biggest operators go out of Marmaris,(a PADI Dive Centre), there are a few others operating under the padi flag.
Enjoy

[Digger]

Can echo these comments. EDC are the biggest outfit bya &nbsp;long way, and I'd do the course with them, and then do diving with a smaller company who will have maybe a few less customers out on the boat, which EDC fill as tight as they can.

I used to work for a tiny centre in Oludeniz, Blue World Diving, and have spent a lot of time with a girl who has worked for EDC, Divers Delight, amongst others (the names have gone). Basically, she said that when she was there, Divers Delight were cowboys, and have had some safety issues (beware as some of this is second hand) so you probably want to avoid. EDC as mentioned before play by the rules, but run all courses at max ratios but have good instructors and a nice CD, hence reccommending them to do the AOW. I would reccomend Blue World, but you may never get your card. It's happened to others. Nice guys, but PADI don't like them too much right now, due to some irregularity in their courses, like a CMAS 1* instructor teaching them.

In turkey everyone, and i mean everyone, haggles. Get their price, and halve it. That's what you're aiming for. We were charging £20 per dive, all in, but some of the guys were selling down to £12. They don't get their commission, but they make a sale. Push hard and you'll get a good deal. And don't bother haggling woth the sales boys. Either speak to the middle-range guys who know what the bottom price is, or go right to the top and speak to managers. The sales boys won't like it, but you'll save 10% by cutting their commission out of things.

One last thing. Stay well away from the paragliding on the beach. Your insurance doesn't cover it, and whatever papers they show you, they don't have any either. About 3 or 4 people die every year doing it, and broken ankles, twisted joints etc are a daily occurance. See the guys who pack the parachutes on the beah playing around doing ground training? In a few weeks they'll be taking paying customers up. And down. Hopefully slowly. Just a warning as it's dead popular, but is being cracked down on by the authorities, as it's no good for tourism to have people dying every few months.

[Digger]

An interesting fact. The guys on the beach etc. selling ice cream will walk along shouting &quot;ice-a-cream&quot;, which in turkish means I'm screwing you. Obviously not spelt like that, but there we go. Made me giggle.

And cushion is turkey for weights. strangely.

[Digger]

And wreck diving is illegal in turkey, along with diving below 30m. They'll confiscate you kit, and you could get fined some stupid amount or slapped in jail. The deep specialty is a bit of a joke out there, but there you go.

And there's a sunken city at Oludeniz, but it's illegal to dive there, too. I don't know about snokelling, but boats are not allowed inside the exclusion zone, so you might have trouble getting to the site.

Good sites to sign up for are Alpha Kule, a cavern which comes out in an area which is breath-taking. Lit by a hole in the roof, it's the daddy, and the entrance is only at 5m. EDC do Aladdins Cavern, too, which is apparently very good, max depth 30mish, and an experience not to be missed, by all accounts.

Another one is the haloclines you get around a lot of the coastline there. Freshwater springs under the sea that have a shimmer to them underwater. You can swim through layers of different water, and feel the cold of the freshwater that's been underground for however long. They also attract fish, for some reason. They're not desperately rare, but worth the sticker in your logbook.

I'm just a walking advert for this place, aren't I? It is a really great place. Honest. You'll love it.