"We stayed at Calimera Serra Palace from 10th–17th October with my wife and our 12-year-old twins. We flew from Liverpool with Jet2.
## Positives
**Late-night check-in**
We arrived late at night, but there was some basic food available in the main restaurant, which kept us going until the morning. There is also a 24-hour bar in the lobby, so we could grab a drink to take back to the room.
**Room**
We had a standard family room in the main building with a double bed, a single bed and a fold-up bed. The room was really spacious, cleaned every day, and we received fresh towels daily. It had a large TV, which I was able to plug my Fire Stick into, and the decor was lovely. I was worried that having four of us in one room might feel cramped, but it was absolutely fine.
**Sun loungers**
This is the first holiday in years where I haven't had to get up at 7am to reserve sun loungers, and it was absolute heaven! There are so many loungers around all the pools that you can go down at any time and find somewhere to sit. We always managed to get loungers right by the pool, even when we went down at 10am. This was a massive bonus!
**Indoor pool**
The indoor pool was great, with plenty of loungers and a heated pool for when the weather was poor. You were also allowed to take drinks in, which was a nice touch.
**Outdoor pools**
There are so many different pools to choose from, and they were all great and kept really clean.
**Water slides**
Fantastic! There are loads of different slides for children and adults of all ages, with barely any queues. The lifeguards are really vigilant and always let you know when it's safe to go. I've been to hotels in Turkey where kids were literally clattering down on top of each other, so it was a relief to see how well managed the slides were here. My kids loved them!
**Entertainment**
The evening shows were great, mostly dance or stunt shows, but all of a high standard. Unfortunately, three shows had to be moved indoors to a large conference room because of the weather. This was a shame for the performers, but fair play to the hotel for still putting the shows on and making sure guests had entertainment.
**À la carte restaurants**
We tried both the Italian and Turkish restaurants, and they were brilliant. It's a set menu, but there isn't any information beforehand about what you're getting, so we had no idea what was coming next or how many courses there would be. Every course was delicious! You're entitled to one complimentary à la carte meal per week.
**Beach**
The beach is really nice, with plenty of sun loungers. The beach bar is open for most of the day, although it only serves beer, wine and soft drinks.
The food at the beach bar was fantastic, with freshly barbecued burgers, chicken burgers, KFC-style chicken, chicken shawarma, pizza, plenty of salad, rice and turkey stew. There was a great selection, and it was a lovely place to grab some lunch.
**Nearby supermarket**
The Migros supermarket is only about an eight-minute walk away, which is handy if you need to pick anything up.
**Drinks**
The drinks were the best we've had at any Turkish hotel. The cocktails were freshly made and delicious, although I sometimes had to ask for less alcohol because they were so strong!
You could get Prosecco at the indoor bars and the pool bar. The iced coffees were amazing, especially the Baileys iced coffees with whipped cream. They even made chocolate milkshakes with whipped cream for the kids.
The indoor bar also served frozen melon and peach daiquiris, which were gorgeous!
**Towels**
When you check in, you receive cards for your towels, which you collect from the spa/indoor pool area. You can exchange your used towels for cards each day up until 7pm, then collect fresh towels from 8am onwards the following morning. The system worked well.
**Cleanliness**
The hotel, grounds and even the toilets were kept in excellent condition. Even the toilets down at the beach were spotless. Staff were constantly cleaning and tidying, and it really showed.
**Reps**
The reps were very friendly, especially Okan. They were great at encouraging guests to get involved in activities without being overly pushy, which we appreciated.
## Negatives
**Things closing for the end of the season**
After just two days, things started closing down for the season. The pool bar stopped serving food outside the 4–5pm snack period, meaning we had to go to the beach bar or main restaurant for lunch.
The smaller pool bar beside the largest pool also stopped serving slushies and other alcoholic drinks, leaving only beer, wine and soft drinks. This meant the queues at the main bar became longer.
**Outdoor terrace**
The outdoor terrace was gorgeous, but from our second day, the terrace bar was closed and all the cushions had been removed from the seats. This meant we couldn't really use the terrace at all, even when the weather was sunny. It was such a shame, as it was a lovely area.
**Queues at the bars**
The queues at the bars could be quite long, especially in the evenings. They could definitely do with having more staff serving drinks, as you could end up waiting quite a while.
**Late checkout**
We couldn't get a late checkout, despite our transfer not being until after 7pm. I was surprised by this, as the hotel definitely didn't seem to be at full capacity. Given that late checkout costs around €10 per hour, I would have thought it would have been an opportunity for the hotel to make some extra money while helping guests who had a late transfer.
**Afternoon snacks**
The 4–5pm food at the pool bar was disappointing. They had baked potatoes, but there was no cheese, just sweetcorn, olives and some really watery coleslaw.
On a couple of days, they had amazing little wraps and soft baguettes filled with salad, meat and cheese. However, on other days, the selection was limited and consisted mostly of pastries and some rather unusual cookies. The quality and variety were inconsistent.
**Location**
You're not really within walking distance of other restaurants, shops, bars or much else. However, this didn't bother us, as we were happy spending most of our time at the hotel.
**One particular barman**
There was one barman who I found extremely annoying, both towards his colleagues and the guests. He constantly seemed to be showing off while making drinks, dropping more ice and fruit than he actually managed to get into the glasses!
More concerningly, I also witnessed him being really aggressive towards a female member of staff, barging into her and throwing ice at her. It was uncomfortable to watch and definitely not the standard of behaviour you would expect from a member of the hotel team.
## Overall
Despite the terrible weather, with thunderstorms and rain on most days, we had a fantastic holiday and would definitely return to Calimera Serra Palace.
The pools, slides, food, drinks, entertainment and overall cleanliness were all excellent, and the availability of sun loungers was a real highlight.
My only real regret is that we didn't go a week earlier, when more of the summer facilities were still open, including the adults' beach bar, pool snack bar and outdoor terrace bar. I understand that the hotel has to wind things down at the end of the season, but it did feel as though quite a lot was closing very early into our stay.
Overall, a great family hotel that we would happily visit again. I'd just recommend going a little earlier in the season if you want to experience everything the hotel has to offer!"
