Sun, sea, sujuk, and being spoilt rotten: The Turkish Riviera is an off-season paradise

It had been two years since my partner and I had a proper holiday, with packed-out wedding seasons and visits to family taking up the majority of our annual leave. We’d also recently moved house and have been dealing with all sorts of stressful yet tedious life admin, so it’s safe to say we needed a break.

Essentially, an invite to Liberty Signa in Fethiye, Muğla, the hotel group’s newestoffering promising ‘exclusive elegance’ on an all inclusive basis, couldn’t have come at a better time.

And having spent a long weekend being spoilt rotten in paradise, I can’t recommend the Turkish Riviera highly enough if you’re in the same boat.

Turkey has been touted as a top off-season destination for Brits this year for a few reasons. Not only is the weather pretty much guaranteed (temperatures are typically upwards of 20°C even in the colder months), the exchange rate means your trip won’t break the bank, and it’s less than five hours’ away on the plane.

However, Fethiye specifically is the place to go for all the country’s beauty without the crowds in tourist hotspots like Marmaris or Antalya.

The area is in the southeast of the country, on the Turquoise Coast known for itsblue, Mediterranean waters.

Turtles lay their eggs on the sand between May and December, faint calls to prayer from ornate tiled mosques intermittently cut through the sound of lapping waves, and you can pick fresh limes straight from the trees.

It really is idyllic.

To get a feel for the culture, a trip to Fethiye Market is well worth a visit. There’s an area for clothing and crafts, but the morning we visited we stuck to the covered area dedicated to local produce.

From the freshest fruit and veg you’ve ever tasted to honey encasing huge chunks of comb and spices in every shade of warm terracotta, it was a true feast for the eyes. It’s not expensive, but be prepared to haggle, and have your phone handy to check the exchange rate as everything is in lira.

If you like a little adrenaline, you can try parasailing high above the ocean, go scuba diving or white water rafting, or hit up Fethiye Surf Center for a range of watersports right on the beach.

For history and nature buffs, there are numerous day trips to nearby sites to choose from, including the lush Butterfly Valley, the ancient city of Kadyanda, Saklikent Gorge and St Nicholas Island.

Liberty Signa in a nutshell

• The five-star luxury all-inclusive hotel is located on the Fethiye coast, around 35 minutes from Dalaman airport.
• Rooms all feature air conditioning, a safety deposit box, an LED TV, minibar, and capsule coffee machine.
• All drinks, snacks, minibar and meals are included in the price of the accommodation.
• The hotel has a private beach directly out front, three large outdoor freshwater pools, an aqua park, and two indoor pools including one in the spa.
• Liberty Signa is open from March to November.

Hammam is a must too – there’s one at the hotel, or you can make like a local at one of the many traditional bathhouses in the area.

This ritual starts off with preparing by cleansing the body and de-stressing on warmed marble in a humidified room called a hararet. Next, you lay down and a tellak (hammam attendant) envelops you in foam, before scrubbing away your dead skin with a special glove and making you feel like a shiny penny.

Realistically though, you don’t need to do any more than you fancy when you’re staying at Liberty Signa. Relaxation isn’t just guilt-free, it’s encouraged, and laying by the pool while a waiter on rollerblades brings you cocktails is de rigeur here.

We spent our days sipping strawberry daiquiris at the swim-up bar, taking dips in the sea between trips to get gelato, or enjoying some shade with an iced coffee (and a cake, naturally) at Bon Bon Pastry Shop.

In the evening, we’d head up to the room to watch breathtaking sunsets from our balcony’s private infinity tub, strolling down to Grano Irish pub for a glass of prosecco before a leisurely dinner and a boogie at the beach bar.

Restaurants and bars at Liberty Signa

• – buffet serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a wide array of options for all tastes and dietary requirements.
• – à la carte restaurant offering international cuisine, open 24 hours a day.
• – snack bar and coffee shop, serving French-inspired cakes and barista-made drinks.
• – the à la carte menu here – available at dinner and lunch – features authentic food from across the country. Reservation required.
• – à la carte Indian offering dinner service, with classics like bhajis and curries. Reservation required.
• – à la carte Italian cuisine for dinner time, with a menu featuring dishes like beef carpaccio, homemade gnocci, and tiramisu. Reservation required.
• – poolside à la carte restaurant serving international cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
• – Liberty Signa’s à la carte fish restaurant is open for lunch and dinner. Expect dishes like pan fried jumbo prawns with lime and garlic butter or grilled grouper with asparagus, capers and tomato concasse. Reservation required.
• – à la carte option guests can book, with Asian Fusion menu featuring sushi, tempura and more. Charged extra, and reservations required.

• – Irish pub with indoor and outdoor seating showing sports, open between 1.00pm and 1.00am.
• – there are three different options around the pools, including a swim-up bar in the adults-only pool.
• – located in the gardens, open between 8.30pm and 1am.
• – located in the spa area, offering guests fresh fruit juices an aromatic waters.
• – open 24 hours a day.

The vast majority of things are included as part of your ‘All Inclusive Plus’ package: the well-stocked mini bar, use of the spa, access to the waterpark, and the Libby and Berty kids club.

Staff can’t do enough for you either, seeming genuinely elated to be able to make your wishes come true. Bartenders will come up with bespoke concoctions to suit your tastes, and at one point, I casually mentioned I love sujuk – a Turkish sausage – only for the executive chef, Ömer Canbay, to acquire one and have it waiting for me in my room when I went back up.

Think of the things that annoy you about an all inclusive holiday, and Liberty Signa has solved them. You’re picked up in a luxury minibus that goes straight to the hotel, so you don’t have to sit on a coach going round the resort (where you’re inevitably always the last stop).

There are more than enough sunbeds for everyone, meaning guests aren’t inclined to stake their claim with towels at dawn. The 24-hour Timeless restaurant means you don’t have to adhere to strict timings – just grab something whenever you’re peckish.

In general, the sheer number of food and drink options available around the hotel also stops it ever feeling samey; by the end of the trip, there were still things we hadn’t tried.

There’s a French patisserie, Italian, and Indian curries described by one reviewer online as Bradford-level good (high praise indeed). The jewel in the crown, though, is the Turkish cuisine – and it’s taken seriously here.

Indulge in favourites like dolma, kofta, lahmacun, and pide, done to perfection, along with regional specialities such as ekşili tavuk and yuvalama (surprisingly delicious yoghurt-based soups) and every type of kebab you could imagine.

It’s not your standard all inclusive fare that’s for sure, and you’ll get a true taste of the country whether you’re at the Turkish restaurant, Tatre, or the main buffet spot, Myra.

All this is punctuated by extra touches – cold towels and a welcome drink during the speedy check-in service, singers in the evening, and fancy glassware rather than the usual basic stuff – that really make a break at Liberty Signa a cut above the rest.

As our cars left to go to the airport, staff threw Hammam water over them; a Turkish tradition meaning ‘we hope you come back’. And we certainly will.

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