I never liked the idea of going on holiday to a beach destination and party every night, get drunk to bed and lay down on the beach burning your skin until it's dinner time and after that party time again. Not my kind of holiday, so I never went on holiday with my friends. What made me change my mind for holiday? My friend did. Hard to believe, but that's a true story. Normally my friend and I do get on very well. Not just a little, but a lot! She is 2 years younger and totally the opposite of me. So what do I do? I go on holiday with my friend to the beach destination Altinkum in Turkey.

Yet again the weather in Altinkum fools us again, after a week of sunshine and getting out the shorts and sandals the Agean decided to tell us that the time was not quite right to test the waters. We spent a quiet night sitting on the terrace fortified with Efes and cigerettes watching the lightening over Bodrum and after about four Efes the result was brilliant.

If a quiet and peaceful holiday is what you are looking for with your family or friends, look no further than Altinkum Didim, the perfect Turkish paradise along the south Aegean Coast. Unlike some of its more well-known counterparts such as Kusadasi and Bodrum, Gumbet, Altinkum tends to be much less boisterous, and one can afford to have the perfect getaway here, without the excess busy seen in other places like the Bodrum, Kusadasi.

We are now at the end of another year and what a year it has been, 2008 saw Britain spend most of the year struggling it's way through the ongoing credit crunch, this meant for many people redundancy, loss of earnings and in general financially hard times..

Ive just come home from a brilliant holiday in Didim Altinkum after never being to Turkey before. All family have said that they have had one of the best holidays ever, so much so that we are planning to return next year. The beaches were lovely, the restaurants were great value for money and the atmosphere was very friendly and lively. Having young children and being great animal lovers we also got very attached to the 'street dogs'. They began to recognise us and look forward to having their lunch and some affection.

Hi, I have just returned from hol in altinkum with my family. It is a beautiful place and we would definately want to return to the lovely villa where we stayed except for the level of litter everywhere, which really surprised us as the previous three times we have been to Turkey, all on the Med side, we have always remarked how clean it is.  It's such a shame that Altinkum's beautiful sands are spoiled by being covered with rubbish.

On 4th October 2008, World Animal Day, at 14:00 GMT, people from all around the world will come together to tell Turkey to stop animal cruelty. They will gather in front of Turkish diplomatic missions around the world and send a strong warning to Turkey to terminate the killing of its stray animals. Turkey is one of the worst offenders of animal rights in the world, and the peoples of the world will let it be known on this day that they will no longer tolerate this.

1,5 years ago I went to the Greek isle of Crete and was amazed about the attitude of the Greek people towards dogs and cats. So different from most people in Western Europe... We took one Greek dog home with us to Holland and we still are very happy with him (as he is with us!).As I could not understand the warmhearted Greek people with their attitude towards dogs, I wrote an open letter to some Greek newspapers. Besides both newspapers placed my letter, even one of the editors  - a doglover himself - consented in a monthly column in his Crete Gazette. The Greek people react very enthousiastic about the stories.