A Mall married a series if chain restaurants/hot night spots and formed one huge complex called The…read moreMarina in Mersin. There is even a tiny amusement park for the little ones. The Mall appears quite modern and will such you into its buying vortex ti the right of the Marina. The large restaurants and cafes occupy the areas closest to the harbor itself. Perfect for catching a cool breeze.

It took us a while to find what we were looking for in the marina, but what we found while looking…read morefor our actual destination was interesting. The northern part of the marina (north past Hilton) is mainly street side/parallel parking. Once you park you can start walking up and down the marina in hopes of finding which ever boat restaurant you might want to try. I would say there are at least 20+ restaurants that you can choose from. Most of the boats looked like they offered your normal Turkish tantuni and seafood options. We didn't choose a restaurant in this location, but we walked around past for a good 30 minutes to see what all was available. From the most that I could tell you had the boat restaurants (along with a few side vendors) and then the entrance to the amusement park. It was already close to 8:00 pm when we made it to the amusement park so we didn't check it out. I have heard friends say it's fun for the kids so I think we will check it out on our next visit. As you keep walking past the amusement park you will come into a large entrance that houses a Hookah bar, a few restaurants, and the entrance to the Aqua Park (water park). I was hoping to visit the water park, but we ran out of time on this particular trip. Once again, this is another stop on our next visit here. Once we headed south past the Hilton we came up on the large parking lot and mall section of the marina that we were looking for. This is the place to go to shop, eat, and relax. The nice part about this section is the parking lot...no attempts to park parallel or fight over spots like you do at the mall and other venues. We loved this side of the marina. We were looking for a couple of different restaurants but chose Wo-Wo's Brassiere...see my review for that later. =) You have several restaurants that you can eat inside or sit by the water and relax. I would say you have at least 30+ stores/shops to look through on your stop. The store options are: clothing, home, shoes, and toys. Plus, there are a couple of coffee shops and ice cream/sweet shops. As you leave you can even pick up some grocery items at Migros (a Turkish version of Walmart). This is definitely a spot we will come visit again when we have more time to shop, eat, and stroll through.

Very nice mall. Optimum mall has a lot of the standard smaller stores in the US like Nike, Puma,…read moreStarbucks, Lego store and H&M. It also has a lot of stores not familiar to me. I was even more surprised to see Popeyes, Arby's and (not a surprise) McDonalds. This place does have free parking under the mall. Before entering the mall you do have to go through a metal detector and your purse gets scanned. Make sure you look at the ceiling to observe the beautiful art work. On the top floor, where the food court is, there is a an outdoor patio with a beautiful view of the Mosque across the street.

This is a really nice mall. It is several stories tall with a mixture clothing, cosmetic, jewelry,…read moreetc. My favorite places to go though were the home stores.....They were very successful in getting me to open up my pocketbook! There is a food court, not necessarily a sit down restaurant - but you can find some good food. It is just down the street from the Grand Sheraton, and there is a nice park across the street. It is also in close proximity to downtown and all is very walkable when you want to walk off that ice cream you just had. It is definitely a place I would go back to.