"Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a relaxing five-star family holiday became an extremely stressful experience and ultimately resulted in us ending our holiday early and flying home.
There were numerous issues from the beginning that simply did not feel consistent with a five-star hotel, but these were overshadowed by a serious safety incident and then gastrointestinal illness affecting all four members of our family. One of our children became so unwell that he required hospitalisation, resulting in medical expenses of approximately €2,500. After arriving home, our other son began projectile vomiting and developed diarrhoea and a fever of 39.7°C. By the end, we were frightened to eat at the hotel and simply wanted to get our children home.
POSITIVES
• The children's toiletries were a lovely touch.
• Allergies were taken seriously in the main restaurant. Once we located a floor manager, they were able to arrange appropriate food, including making pancakes specifically for our child with a dairy allergy. It would have been helpful to have more allergy-friendly options elsewhere around the resort, however. For example, if we were at the beach and he wanted something such as sorbet, we had to return to the main hotel or he simply had to miss out.
• Water, drinks and snacks were readily available, including fridges throughout the resort.
• The café offering flavoured coffees and sweet treats was a nice facility.
• There were lots of lifeguards, which was reassuring with children.
• The main pool was very busy but thankfully large enough to accommodate everyone, and the water temperature in August was pleasant.
• The children's entertainment was mixed in quality, although the juggling show was particularly good.
• The ping-pong area was well maintained and frequently available. There is also a bowling alley and arcade-style area, although these are at additional cost.
• The beach itself was lovely.
• Finally, Ahmet at dinner deserves a special mention. He was warm, smiled at us and made an effort to provide genuine service. Unfortunately, this stood out because proactive service elsewhere was noticeably lacking.
NEGATIVES
- The room was cramped for a family of four. The beds did not feel remotely five-star in comfort. Even our six-year-old, who does not usually complain about beds, repeatedly said that the sofa bed was extremely hard.
- The air-conditioning would not go below 20°C. In the August heat, and particularly while pregnant, I found the room uncomfortably warm. I would expect much better climate control from a five-star resort.
- There were some bizarre design choices in the room. A light switch was positioned on the headboard directly behind the pillow, meaning simply moving around in bed could switch the lights on and wake the children.
- Much of the hotel feels dated and tired. The carpets, furnishings and general appearance gave an older, heavily-used feel. This may partly be a matter of personal taste or local style, but we are accustomed to cleaner, more modern five-star hotels and this simply did not have that feel.
- The buffet restaurant was chaotic. Tables frequently had no cutlery, the table linen looked old, there were very long queues at dinner, and the overall environment felt in need of modernisation.
- The QR ordering system in the coffee shop caused unnecessary frustration. You could scan the code, place an order and have it appear to be accepted, but staff did not tell us that the system wasn't actually working. We sat waiting for an order that was never coming.
- The water slides had surprisingly restricted opening hours, operating for only two periods during the day. This wasn't made clear to us before the holiday.
- The pool area needed considerably more attention. Numerous sunbed shades were broken, making it unnecessarily difficult to find shade. Tables could be dirty and there was very little assistance from staff around the pool.
- We experienced a serious and frightening safety incident involving first aid. Our son cut his foot and, rather than a member of staff providing appropriate first aid, my husband was handed a bottle of iodine antiseptic and instructed to treat the wound himself. When he opened the bottle, it appeared to have been stored incorrectly and exploded, narrowly missing our son's eyes and covering my husband's hands. The reaction also permanently damaged and destroyed my husband's wedding ring, which he had worn for the past ten years. The potential consequences had the bottle exploded into our child's face or eyes do not bear thinking about. We found the handling of this incident both unsafe and completely unacceptable.
- The most serious issue was gastrointestinal illness affecting our entire family. All four members of our family developed gastrointestinal symptoms during or immediately following the holiday. My own illness was relatively mild, but our children and my husband were significantly affected. One of our sons became unwell from around day five and ultimately became sufficiently ill to require hospitalisation. He consequently lost a significant part of his holiday.
- The response when our disabled child became ill was particularly upsetting. Our son uses a wheelchair. When he vomited and we alerted staff, there appeared to be very little concern. It was only once we requested medical assistance and ultimately had to leave the hotel by ambulance that the seriousness of the situation seemed to register.
- We were charged €175 for a doctor whom we never actually saw. We requested the hotel doctor when our son became ill, but the doctor did not come to examine or even meet him. We were told that an ambulance had been called and that the hospital would deal with him. Despite this, we received a €175 bill for the doctor.
- The hospitalisation then resulted in approximately €2,500 of medical expenses. Combined with our son's ongoing illness and the enormous stress surrounding everything that had happened, we eventually reached the point where we decided to end our holiday early.
- Trying to leave early became another ordeal. Jet2 required a fit-to-fly certificate for our son. Despite the hotel supposedly having access to a 24-hour doctor, the doctor was not at the hotel that day. We were therefore told we needed to return to the hospital. We were already halfway there when we received a call saying the certificate could instead be emailed and that we could turn around. This consumed roughly the final two hours our children could have spent enjoying what remained of their holiday.
- The taxi arrangements also made us uncomfortable. Uber vehicles were not permitted to collect guests directly from the hotel entrance, while taxis given access to the hotel would not use their meters and were substantially more expensive. As tourists unfamiliar with the area, this left us feeling that we had very little choice.
- The illness continued after we left the holiday. Within approximately an hour of arriving home, our other son developed the same frightening pattern of projectile vomiting, followed by diarrhoea and a fever that reached 39.7°C. He subsequently required medical assessment as well. At that point, every member of our family had experienced gastrointestinal symptoms during or immediately following the trip.
- What particularly concerned us was the apparent lack of investigation by the hotel. Despite being aware that our child had become seriously ill and required hospitalisation, nobody asked us what we had eaten, which restaurants or food areas we had used, or where we had been. We saw no indication that anyone was attempting to establish whether there might be a common source or a wider problem. Given the severity of our child's illness, we found this extremely concerning.
There were good facilities here and some genuinely positive aspects, particularly the beach, large pool and the care taken with our child's allergy in the main restaurant. However, those positives simply cannot outweigh what happened to our family.
We booked what was advertised as a five-star family holiday. Instead, all four of us experienced gastrointestinal illness, one child was hospitalised, our other child became seriously unwell, we experienced a frightening first-aid safety incident, incurred thousands of euros in medical expenses and spent a substantial portion of the holiday dealing with illness and stress.
Ultimately, things became bad enough that we chose to abandon the remainder of a holiday we had paid for and fly home early. I think that speaks for itself."
