A trip to Turkey will be a bargain in 2014

Turkey and all the trimmings.

Turkey will be a bargain this year. Last summer, £1 bought about 3.20 Turkish lira.

But the lira has plummeted buy now, and you’ll get around 3.60 lira for £1. And an all-inclusive holiday is a great way to get even more bang for your buck, with drinks, meals, activities for kids, mums and dads, and nightlife all bundled in.

To help you pick the best deal and the best destination, we’ve done your homework for you. What’s the catch?

You’ll save on snacks and soft drinks for kids (not to mention adult beverages, but do go easy). Most resorts offer activity centres for kids, pools with flumes and water-slides, and family rooms. But there are things to watch out for. Alcoholic drinks include locally branded booze, but you’ll pay through the nose for imports. You’ll usually find a mini-bar stocked with water when you arrive, but beware the first bottle may be on the house, but you may pay over the odds for refills.

Buy your water at the nearest minimarket instead. You’ll probably pay extra for watersports. Some hotels have only unheated outdoor pools refreshing in high summer, but if you’re planning a spring or autumn trip make sure there’s an indoor pool too.

And if you must have sand between your toes, make sure that what’s described as a ‘beach’ isn’t just a waterside jetty packed with sun-loungers.

Marmaris

Marmaris’s Haji Mustafa Sok (better known as ‘Bar Street’) is solid with ‘English’ and ‘Irish’ pubs, curry restaurants, pizza joints and raucous clubs. If you’re looking for heritage and culture, look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for an all-inclusive hotel that’s a cut above the competition, look no further than the rather fabulous

Marti Resort, at glitzier Icmeler, about five miles from Marmaris centre. Rooms are huge, with five-star perks such as walk-in showers, posh toiletries, bathrobes, a mini-bar stocked with free soft drinks and beer, and flat screen TV and DVD player. Beyond, it just gets better two huge lagoon pools, an indoor pool, and a proper sandy beach with loungers, lifeguards and its own caf-bar. Three la carte eateries (Turkish, Chinese and Italian) complement the all-in buffet restaurant. And the fun never stops, with activities ranging from Zumba classes to late night karaoke, belly dancing and open air disco.

Head into Marmaris on Friday morning to browse the local market, or take a boat trip to Sehir Adasi (‘Cleopatra Island’) where the Egyptian Queen is said to have romped with her Roman lover, Mark Anthony.

First Choice offers seven nights all-inclusive at the Marti Resort from around £800 per person, based on two sharing, with flights from Glasgow. (firstchoice.co.uk; tel: 0871 200 7799)

Bodrum

Bodrum hits the spot with the right mix of sightseeing, shopping, sea and sunshine. The Bodrum Holiday Resort is right on the sea, with its own

mini-aqua park with flumes and slides and a ‘beach club’ with loungers, umbrellas and bathing ladders (but no sand). There’s a kids’ club to give mums and dads a break and an exhausting choice of activities, from darts and archery to ping-pong, volleyball and basketball. Double rooms have a double bed, sofa bed and an additional child bed if you need one, family rooms sleep up to four with a double bed, single bed and a sofa bed in the living room. Other facilities include a spa (treatments cost extra), gym, buffet restaurant, two la carte restaurants and a snack bar.

Haggle for suspiciously cheap ‘replika’ (that is, fake) designer shoes, headphones and sunglasses in Bodrum’s old town, less than three miles away. Treasures from ancient shipwrecks in the Museum of Underwater Archaoleogy, inside the medieval Castle of St Peter.

Barrhead Travel (barrheadtravel.co.uk; tel 0871 226 2673) offers seven nights at the Bodrum Holiday Resort from £419 per person based on two sharing, including daily buffet-style breakfast, lunch and dinner and one meal at each of the resort’s two la carte restaurants; snacks (at selected times during the day and from midnight until 6am); and unlimited hot, soft and alcoholic drinks (excluding international alcoholic drinks). Flights from Glasgow to Milas-Bodrum airport, coach transfer time 45 minutes.

Belek

Turkey’s Mediterranean coast has the country’s best beaches and claims more than 300 days of sunshine each year. Belek is a purpose-built resort with a breathtaking sandy beach that stretches as far as the eye can see in either direction. It’s about 10 miles from Antalya airport and only 20 miles from Antalya, Turkey’s fourth biggest city.

The all-inclusive SunConnect Paloma Grida in Belek reopens this summer after a total refit, with a whole menu of new frills including free Wi-Fi.

The price also includes a ConnectTeen lounge, ConnectBar with docking stations for recharging digital devices over a drink, five pools with four brand-new waterslides.

A ConnectTeen lounge and a multi-activity kids’ club should keep the little darlings out of your hair with all sorts of sports and games.

And for a change from the buffet, you can eat (once) at any three of the six la carte restaurants as part of the package.

For a time trip, visit the 2nd Century ruins and colossal amphitheatre of Roman Aspendos, about five miles from Belek. Spend a morning shopping and sightseeing in the historic centre of Antalya, where medieval walls surround a picturesque harbour.

Thomas Cook offers seven all-inclusive nights at the SunConnect Paloma Grida in Belek with flights from Glasgow from £559 per person. (thomascook.com; 0844 412 5970 or visit the nearest Thomas Cook or Co-operative Travel shop.)

Side

Side couldn’t be more different from Belek. The car-free old town, built around a picturesque wee harbour, is cluttered with Greek and Roman relics, shops and restaurants, and it’s a lot less raucous than spots like Bodrum or Marmaris.

The accommodation is quite classy too. The Colours Side, part of the smartline hotel chain, pops its colours with bright pool slides for kids, there’s a Turkish bath, massage and gym for mum and dad, and an array of activities and entertainment for all the family.

There’s a free shuttlebus to take you to Side and the hotel’s own patch of private beach.

Wander around the Roman relics in the old town a huge amphitheatre that seated 24,000 spectators, the Roman baths (now a museum full of elegant statuary), the temples to Athena and Apollo, and the arch of Vespasian shop for cool stuff or take a boat trip to the picturesque Manavgat waterfalls.

Airtours offers seven all-inclusive nights at the three star smartline The Colours Side, flying from Glasgow, £459 per person. (thomascook.com; tel: 0844 412 5970 or visit the nearest Thomas Cook or Co-operative Travel shop.)

Kemer

Kemer is another of those purpose-built resorts that Turkey does quite well. It has a fine beach, lovely clear water and a spectacular setting beneath pine-cloaked mountains. Lively Antalya is about 20 miles away.

The Marti Myra is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser of a resort right on the beach, with more than a dozen bars and restaurants to choose from, seven outdoor pools and an indoor heated pool, and its own aquapark.

This is one all-inclusive resort that you really will find it hard to tear yourselves away from. That said, there’s lots to see and do nearby.

Take a boat trip to Cirali to marvel at the uncanny Chimaera, where eternal flames are fuelled by natural gas seeping from the earth; take the cable car to Tahtali Dag, 2,365 m (7,686 ft) above sea level; or head for Antalya’s old town centre for shopping and sightseeing.

Thomson offers seven nights all-inclusive at the Marti Myra Resort from £894 per person, based on two sharing, with flights from Glasgow airport. (thomson.co.uk; tel: 0871 230 2555).