"We travelled from Scotland via Manchester, England during the October School holidays to Papillon Ayscha.
We have stayed at many hotels in Turkey already, most recently Liberty Signa in April.
We were unlucky to get rain half the week, but the hotel was quite good with the wet-weather programme.
A few negative points to get out of the way first and then I'll move onto the many positives:
- The breakfast buffet isn't up to much. Eggs were often cold, especially since they are served from the outside food court and you have to walk quite a bit from the egg station over to the bread, so if you want eggs on toast then most likely either your toast or eggs will be cold by the time you sit down. There wasn't really any variety in the buffet day to day, so the same old thing every morning. A lot of the food including omelettes were unseasoned and tasteless. No personalised omlettes, only a mass produced omlette cut into pieces for everyone. The pancakes and waffles were good though. There was no alternative a-la-carte restaurant for breakfast either.
- Lunch and Dinner buffets were better but again lacking variety and the same problem with it being quite spaced out and cold food by the time you sit down. There also isn't enough indoor seating so for those who don't like to dine outside in the colder months will need to wait for a table inside. We never had to wait more than 5 mins though, although there's no staff coordination so its a bit of a free-for-all to scramble to a free table as soon as you see a family leaving, meaning you also need to wait for the staff to prepare the table for you. This wasn't a long wait though. Overall the food was not a patch on our earlier visit to Turkey this year (Liberty Signa in Fethiye). The main reason for this was lack of variety in the buffet, no a-la-carte breakfast option and no fresh pasta station in the buffet.
- Bar service was mostly slow and rarely with a smile. The Martini bar is predictably the best, but again the bar staff do not seem to enjoy their job and seem rushed and harassed, probably due to lack of staff which I will get onto. The pool bar was also always only 1 or 2 staff max serving, even at busy times which meant a bit of a wait. The beach bar was the slowest service, often having to wait 10 mins to get your drink, as again, there was only 1 person serving. Lounger service with QR code ordering was possible but again it was hit an miss, twice when we ordered our drinks never arrived so we stopped bothering. In other hotels we have been to they have fridges next to the bars where you can help yourself to soft drinks, water and beer. Most of the time this is what we are drinking during the day so why not have this to avoid queuing at bars?
- Overall the drinks were not very good. They do have a cocktail menu but they are all made using cocktail mixes which always end up very sour. They do look good though. The quality of spirits however were good, with known brands such as Smirnoff and Gordons used without having to ask. It was nice to not get a cheapo-bulk spirit when getting a cocktail or a spirit with mixer. The exception was again in the martini bar when on a couple of nights I asked for an espresso martini and it was fantastic, very well made.
- Snack options were limited. Ice cream during the day was just Algida ice-lollies. The ice cream at the buffet was OK but it was quite gummy and unpleasant texture-wise.
- The indoor pool is not serviced by any sort of bar service so on those rainy days you had to sneak cans from the mini bar into the poolside. They should have a self-service fridge of cans and plastic bottles (obviously no glass for safety reasons.
- There was a lack of drinks service at any bar. I.e. no waiters to take your orders. Meaning when relaxing at night after dinner you still had to go up and wait in a queue for drinks.
- The mattresses in the rooms were absolutely horrible. They were far too soft like a cheap foam, no support whatsoever. I slept terribly as I have back problems and need a supportive/firm mattress.
Now for the positives:
- The main pool and slide pools were fantastic. Not warm as such but they were heated to 27-28c and therefore you could stay in them without getting shivers. They also weren't too warm for the weather (outside temp was 22-25C on the week we went) meaning that you didn't feel extra cold when leaving the pool. I think the temperature was just right. One complaint though was that after the stormy weather they didn't have any staff cleaning the pools in the morning so there were a lot of pine needles and debris in the pools which wasn't nice to see when swimming. The water slides were good also (nothing too exhilarating but not boring either), but the times of these were a bit unpredictable, sometimes opening up to 30 mins after the stated time, especially after lunch.
- The indoor pool was a great size with plenty of loungers and was a god-send on the rainy days, giving the kids something to do. The spa area though was pretty small, and the turkish bath was always crowded with kids, which I don't mind as I have my own kids, but some parents just let their children play and splash in all the sinks and let their kids drop the metal dishes on the floor. Not exactly a place to relax. The steam room was never hot enough so not even worth sitting in. Not enough steam. The sauna was pretty small and was always croweded with mainly Russian guests who seem to have competition on who can pour the most water on the coals. Not considerate of other guests who aren't used to such high temperatures whatsoever.
- The a-la-carte restaurants were well worth the extra charge (if you have kids under 6 as they eat free). The cover charge for adults is very reasonable at 10-15 euros per head. We ate at the Far-eastern and the Turkish restaurants. Both absolutely delicious. The sushi in particular was very good and fresh, and the turkish Mese plentiful and delicious. I ate far too much both of those nights!
- It was nice to have fresh Gosleme at the beach, although the meat for the Gosleme seemed to be of quite poor quality and was full of gristle.
- The Lobby and the Martini bar were absolutely stunning in terms of decor, very high end feeling.
- We very much enjoyed the live music at the martini bar, all the bands and duos were very skilled musicians. The sound quality was also excellent.
- All the desserts in the buffet, in the a-la-cartes and at the patisserie were very good.
- The rooms were very clean and the bathrooms were modern and the showers were very powerful. The turquoise-green decor was a bit dated though.
- The entertainment was very good at night time. The Beijing acrobats show in particular was fantastic.
All in all, a nice experience. It would have been better if the weather was better but that's not the hotel's fault. I've subtracted 1 star as it didn't feel like a true 5 star based on the negative points I've shared above.
We would consider returning if some of these were addressed."
