"We stayed here for 7 nights at the end of April. We won’t be returning. There were positives… but many more negatives unfortunately. A few of the points here aren’t directly the hotels fault, therefore haven’t been considered as part of the review score. We just wanted to give a full overview of the holiday.
On our arrival. We were offered an upgrade to a swim up room. This was the best decision we made all holiday. The space to sunbathe and to have a less chaotic place to cool down in the water was a big positive. Unfortunately, and as we discovered throughout, there is clearly a desire to extort as much money from you as possible. Initially, we were told 450 euros for the upgrade (just under £400 when converted). 15 minutes later after deciding to upgrade, It then transpired that it’s definitely £450 gbp apparently and he stuck to his guns.. It was 1am and we didn’t have the energy to argue this one out, so we paid for the upgrade at the increased rate. Unfortunately, we had a conversation with a guest who told us that they paid £400 for an upgraded room from their standard room (they initially had the same room type), again just greed. Another example of this in the hotel is that we showed a picture of a nail style to the guy in the salon, so our daughter could have her nails done. We were quoted 50euros, so we agreed and paid upfront. When we got to the appointment, we were told that it was an extra 10euros for the type she chose (even though we showed a picture for the quote) Again, begrudgingly we paid the extra 10 euros to avoid any distress.
The room overall was okay to be fair. The decor and cleanliness was nice. We loved the swim up pool and appreciated the hotel accommodating our request for a third sun lounger to accommodate our older daughter sunbathing with us on the downstairs balcony (there were 3 of us). We were blessed with full sun all week and managed to compartmentalise this in order to have a nice relaxed week. The negatives for our room though were 1) bed is rock solid! Very uncomfortable 2) Paper thin walls (You could hear every conversation/argument) 3) Our air conditioning unit failed twice. We watched the maintenance guy on the first repair, and he just removed the tape from the inside pipe and just put it back in without any tape as part of a clear botched effort. Predictably, it failed again and our room flooded once again the following day. This added an inconvenience, as we had to stay in on both days until the issue was fixed and the water was cleaned up. No apology was received which we found disappointing. 4) The doors are really heavy and bang VERY loudly. The hotel needs to do something about this, as the noise of the doors shutting woke us up constantly. The cleaners were very good and we appreciated them and tipped accordingly. We had a male cleaner most of the time. He was excellent and made sure to keep restocking the drinks for us as well as doing a great job making up our room.
Atmosphere - Honestly, it was full of embarrassing Brits who give us Brits a bad name. This did feel like Benidorm and did attract some absolute idiots. Our neighbours were constantly arguing, swearing and were very loud (swearing at their young kids too). We were woken up every night by them. Alcohol just doesn’t mix well with some. Our last night there was a big kick off between the same neighbours which went on for hours. It didn’t calm down until gone 1am. If anything, we went away humbled as to what we have as a family. Compared to the volatility and chaos that some families endure, we are very lucky. We know it’s not the hotels fault, just making aware the type of people this place attracts. We’ve stayed at Haydarpasha down the road twice and honestly, it’s well worth the extra cost (they offer a full all inclusive and attract a normal crowd).
The public pool was crammed with people and getting 3 sun beds in a row was near impossible unless you went down early to reserve. I’m not sure if the overcrowding was because of the ability for other eftalia hotels to access via the island. The island was a money pit. Crammed with the intention to get as much money from guests as possible. We were quoted €12 euros for roll up Oreo ice cream in a small tub. We politely declined.
All inclusive - More like “Some inclusive”. Beer was okay, free cocktails were dreadful. Both cocktail options (Blue Lagoon & Cosmopolitan) weren’t drinkable. The “nicer” cocktails were circa €12 each. Very expensive. Food was average. Very repetitive but wasn’t bad. Waffles were available every day in the main restaurant - twice a day. Maybe they could have offered something else? The à la carte grill option. The service given by the staff was good. The atmosphere was a change from the chaotic nature of the main restaurant, so we appreciated the calmer environment. The food was average and basically was no different to the main restaurant food. Definitely wasn’t à la carte.
FYI…Outside of hotel. Restaurants are expensive. We went to a grill place 10 minutes down the road. 3x main meals (no steak), 3 fantas and 3 single ice cream cones = £80. Tourist prices unfortunately. Same for breakfast. We had 3x full English and 3x fantas = £45. All the outside vendors sell laser pens. You will start to hate them because of it. We had numerous green lasers directed into our eyes as we’ve been sat on the balcony. We believe that the hotel should ban these as these are dangerous. I had blurry vision for a short period after one instance. The kids here (many of them are feral) don’t give a damn where they’re shining the laser and the parents couldn’t give a damn too.
Shop prices are very high as to be expected in the resort. That’s not a criticism as it’s the same in any resort you go to. Just a bit of advice… take a short walk to the nearby Migros supermarket. You’re getting the same snacks, drinks etc. for a fraction of the price.
The hotel is very clean. They make an extra effort to maintain this. We were impressed by this. Unfortunately, this papered over the cracks of a sub-standard resort."
