Crystal Sunset - Pearl Collection

"We spent one week at the Crystal Sunset Pearl Collection hotel in Side (August 2026), Turkey. Although it is rated 5 stars, we were unfortunately disappointed. First, almost everyone was smoking almost everywhere. There was no smoke-free zone by the pool, so families with children had to sit next to smokers. It wasn't just a few isolated cases—around 80% of the guests were smoking, including hotel staff. People were even smoking in the dining area, despite clear "No Smoking" signs. We went to guest services to ask if there was a smoke-free or family zone, but they told us nothing was available. Second, 98% of the hotel staff did not speak English; only the reception and guest services teams could communicate in English, which made day-to-day interaction tough. Additionally, the hotel is not directly on the beach—you have to walk about 10 minutes or take a shuttle bus. The beach itself isn't nice; it is small, and there are big rocks both on the shore and in the water. The beach bar is also very limited. By comparison, neighboring hotels have lovely, renovated sandy beaches where the rocks have been removed. On a positive note, the food was good (though repetitive), the air conditioning worked very well, and there is a nice market close to the hotel. Overall, we expected much more from a hotel with this rating. Not recommended"

"Having just returned from 8 days, 4 adults, 3 children - ages 7, 5 and 2 I thought it would be useful to give an honest review and also some tips. Food: The main restaurant isnt terrible like people go on, unless your particularly fussy there's something for everyone. Its a buffet, quite standard wherever you go in my opinion. They do theme nights. The snack harbour town lunch restaurant- great choices for kids to fill up on, snacks, chicken wings, pastas, pizza, burger, chicken burger ( top tip, ask for burger no bun for chicken tenders!) Jacket potatoes, donuts, waffles, wedges, chips. The al la carte- now this is where the hotel is exceptionally let down. In my view, there is no point going. We did Chinese and Turkish. Neither were any good. Chinese took 1hr to feed my children, gave the adults food, 3 courses before even giving kids anything. We left these and went to main restaurant anyway. Honestly huge let down. Rooms: We had a large family room, 2 single beds, a travel cot then a bathroom in the middle then a large king-size room. Size wise was good, kids had a tv and mini bar, we also had a tv & mini bar. On first look, the rooms are great - but they do need modernising. The skirting boards are battered, bathrooms need a deep deep clean to get rid of limescale. Beds are okay, but pillows are hard. Swimming: We had no code brown when there and kids loved the pools. The slides are great, big pool is fab and kids splash slides are perfect. My issues with these are that the kids splash slide has no staff, my children are young but there were older kids going on, climbing up while little ones going down - stampeeding down slides together. No staff on hand and I raised with guest relations who honestly seemed like they didnt care! This area should be manned. My son really hurt himself on these slides because some older child climbed up the slide when he was going down, he had 3 big bruises and bumps on his head. Nobody offered first aid, just was told its manned. I asked where they said king cobra slide lol. That doesn't have sight of the slides. The bigger slides, its not clear until you arrive but they are 10+ - you can sign a waiver for 7-10 to go on at check in. My 4 year old was tall enough (120cm) and was given a lifeguard check, he was allowed on 1 blue big slide as it was slow but suddenly 3 days into using it he was stopped. When questioned I was told health and safety and he had been allowed on "to make him happy". To me, thats not safe. I'd much rather he wasn't allowed on full stop than be allowed then not allowed, how do you explain to a 4 year old your suddenly not allowed on?! I did of course and he got over it but it made no sense to me. Guest relations: hit and miss, some very helpful, some gave standard one line responses. Tips for hotel - harbour town restaurant for lunch, pasta, fried chicken, Burgers, chicken Burgers- if you want chicken breast tender ask for the chicken burger no bun. Meat is beef doner or chicken doner - breakfast ask the person by the omlettes for a fresh omelette, it was no problem. - Ice cream like a magnum up till 4pm at the coffee shop near harbour restaurant. Slightly hidden we found on day 4, not the ice cream counter its over where you get the coffees. 12-4pm. - Golden Fizz across the road for football & food, if you WhatsApp them they'll give you a table next to screens. Overall, I would say its a 4* hotel not a 5*. The hotel needs modernising, the food isnt terrible in my view - please don't let reviews put you off, its buffet all inclusive with different theme nights. We had a great time but its not a hotel I would be rushing back too."

"Ok firstly we’ve been to Turkey serval times, this hotel is absolutely inadequate to be rated a 5*. And I say that in regards to every single aspect of the hotel, the staff, the cleanliness and the food. We paid 5k for a week here, I’ve had 10x better service from a 4 star in Egypt for a quarter of the price. Upon arrival, despite being told an extra child on our booking would be 400euro over the phone, when we got there they said no it’s now 700. We were also given the wrong room, it wasn’t big enough for 2 adults 3 children, they are 9,11,13 one sofa bed and one long chair that wasn’t suitable for the length of a child. The following day we were told an hour till our room was ready, then told the room had gone to someone else and we needed to wait another 2. Minor issues- The tv in our room didn’t work and the bed was so uncomfortable I was waking everyday aching in places I didn’t know you could ache. We had a tea towel material sheet on our king bed that was just bigger than single bed size so didn’t cover us both and the blanket my daughter bought from home, just went missing from our room and despite asking cleaning team was never to be seen again. The food selection is very much the same in the snack bar and restaurants every night, the only à la carte we tried was the Chinese and the food was ok but service awful. In fact I found every member of staff rude and unhelpful not that of service from a 5*. Pool entertainment was shocking, not once in a full week did any animation team greet my children or inform them of any activities. The pool sides are the best thing about this hotel, however unless 11 there’s only 2 they can go on, my 9 year old is a very strong swimmer and this was torture for her. Moving on to what I feel is the most significant, the cleanliness in this hotel is disgraceful! In the mornings when going to get a sunbed the glasses from the day before were still left, a there is a major wasp issue purely because how many drinks are left for hours/overnight. Tables not wiped down, 8am one morning they were cleaning the empty cups and around the sun loungers, this is something that is usually done when the pool closes, not as it’s opening so it’s been left festering all night! It’s was disgusting, we went down for breakfast once morning at 7:45 was only us and 3 families in the restaurant and the eggs and beans were cold, fresh food should be hot! We never ate breakfast again. The restaurant over the road to the right is lovely staff lovely food they bring a lovely fresh Turkish break to start and it’s beautiful! Sadly Multiple days people had done number 2 in the pool which isn’t the fault of the hotel, however on last full day someone had done it in the pool, they’d sectioned the majority of the pool off an kept a fraction open, and left the faeces in the pool for 2 hours!!! I had time stamped photos on my phone, as it was right by my sun lounger, I had to notify the lifeguard myself that the person sent the clean the pool had totally missed it, an it was then another 45 minutes before he came back to clean it by this point as you can see in the photos it had disintegrated into the water, that by the way still had children an families swimming in just a meter away, other families had complained and reported, and when we went back to our room I asked to complain to reception who sent me to guest services and the response was “yes we are aware other families have told us” no apologies nothing! The following day my daughter who had been in the pool prior to the faeces being spotted started being violently sick, I asked to speak to the manager as we were due to fly home that evening and we were due to vacate the room by 11am but not flying until the evening, so they printed a disclosure form to sign and say that we were accepting a 4pm check out as compensation. I ripped the paper up, and the manager then became very defensive, he told me I was a liar (despite other families also reporting the same issue) and said the photos were taken from different pools as on the same day someone had left faeces in 3 pools, unfortunately for him photos with time and place don’t lie and he then said stay in the room until you leave but was still adamant the faeces had been removed and I was wrong. Which was wild. I am reporting the hotel to the ministry of tourism. As I explained to the manager, someone leaving faeces in a pool is in no way the hotels fault. However the efficiency in which it is removed and dealt with absolutely is! And despite multiple reports instead of owning up to the mistakes he called me a liar and was incredibly rude and defensive. We all have an upset stomach multiple times throughout the duration of our stay and in total- again not the hotels fault but there was 5 different occasions where a pool was closed for faeces in the pool in one week which is absolutely disgusting, as there is only one big free flowing pool this interrupted our days massively. Especially on our last day where it was the main pool, indoor pool and the pool at the bottom of the 4 slides."