"Mixed feelings about this hotel, here are some of the positives. The hotel is lovely, extremely clean, spacious and cool. Lots of indoor and outdoor seating areas, with comfy seating and you can be as private or social as you want. The rooms are fairly large with good wardrobe space, mini bar, safe, toiletries etc. Fairly comfy beds and air con. The only issue was there was a single and double bed in our room, it would have been nice for the double to have had bedside table each side, just a minor inconvenience. Towels changed daily apart from a couple of days where they forgot to leave any, but this was rectified within minutes of asking reception. Rooms are cleaned daily and you have tea/coffee making facilities and a fridge. Bottled water is provided daily. The bathroom has a good sized walk in shower, the water pressure is abit hit and miss but is ok. Never had a problem with temperature etc. The Tv is outdated, very little channel selection and choice, it is not a smart tv. No usb chargers in the room, which again, these days should be a common feature. The outdoor area is vast, a lovely pool and a smaller kids pool. Plenty of sunbeds, although you’d think there was a shortage most days as people were out there with their towels reserving their ‘space’ from the crack of dawn! how sad…anyways, there are plenty and the sun amazingly moves throughout the day so you’ll always get some sun at some point! Plenty of umbrellas too…the cabanas on the pier are good fun to hire and provide a couple of comfy day beds and loungers, with voile netting and direct access into the sea. (Shower also available). Some of them also have a jacuzzi.
The private beach is fairly small but adequate and again has sun loungers and parasols, sadly you get those people that seem to think they’re entitled to bag their bed during the dawn chorus and then choose not to use it until late in the day…it was great to see families paddling on the shoreline.
There is a small water sports centre, which offers parasailing rides, banana boat ride and jet skis.
Snack bars and bars are around throughout the day and night and the entertainment team provide daily activities to suit all and do a great job getting everyone involved.
There are a couple shops within the hotel, selling their ‘genuine’ goods, prices pretty much the same as the street vendors. Hairdresser, tattooist, beauty salon offering manicures etc.
The hotel staff are amazing. They are friendly, courteous, always on hand offering drinks, cleaning and providing help when needed. The hotel should be very proud of their employees.
The spa is very good and I would highly recommend treating yourself to one of their packages. We spent a good 2.5hrs being scrubbed, washed, massaged, mudpacked and oiled and it was worth every penny. The girls were fab, probably one of the best massages I’ve ever had.
Now, sadly a few negatives….
The rooms do need an update. Upon arrival we were shown 2 rooms, one with partial sea ire and one with a better sea view. The concierge was very happy to give us the better sea view room at a reduced rate, if we didn’t mention it to anyone and amazingly he’d accept any currency so long as it was cash. Even more amazing was that every guest was given this option…
The hotel is fairly noisy. It is sandwiched in between 2 very lively hotels, which have very loud dance music blasting out most afternoons and evenings. It did always finish no later than 11pm, but after a week of listening to ‘jump jump’ I was ready to throw the dj off the jetty. The hotel itself also played loud dance music most afternoons, which is great during activities, but when you just want to relax and enjoy the pool and beach, it gets tiresome. The clientele wasn’t particularly young, there was a good mix of families, couples and older people, but it just seems to be that nearly all taxi/shuttle/excursion buses seem to think we’re all there to party.
There is a very large Russian and German clientele at this hotel. Infact we only bumped into some Brit’s during the second week.
The excursions we were sold by our rep weren’t quite what they said in the tin, but were fine and for the price were pretty good value for money.
Everyone wants to continually sell you an extra
, you book an excursion, you’ll end up paying extra for photos, taken to comfort stops where they then try to flog you every souvenir going, spend a lot of time watching someone’s granny making flat bread and wasting 3-4hrs before eventually arriving to the main event for a quick 30minutes boat trip, 5 minute swim and then another comfort stop where they’ll provide more paid photo ops. It became abit boring being given the hardsell constantly. I would also say the reps need to double check the photos they are using to sell the excursions, a lot of artistic license and what’s included.
The food…this could have been fantastic, but sadly wasn’t. The first couple or days, the buffet looks amazing..there is a lot of variety, but you soon realise there’s only so many ways to present the same salad! The outside grill was the best bet, not only because it was served hot but for freshly grilled seabass or breem. Chicken kebabs etc and was always served hot normally with flatbreads etc. unfortunately the same can’t be said for the cooked food inside the Buffett. At best it was luke warm, pasta was very watery, the meat was not great quality and it also very dry. To be honest there was nothing we thought was worth going back for and as the holiday went on, it became more disappointing and the dishes being served just weren’t overly appealing. Obviously that’s our opinion but many others also commented the same. The cooked meats and cheeses had a good selection and there was always lots of fresh (unripe) fruit. Breakfast you could have cooked eggs every which way, omelette were hit and miss, there was a huge variety of breads, yoghurts, fruit, cereal etc. The weekly Turkish night was good, with live music and dancing in the restaurant and the staff really made a fab effort. The food was also very good on this night, with the outside grill being the star attraction again.
Overall, we enjoyed our stay, it wasn’t the quiet, relaxing holiday we were hoping for but it was still good and there were many excellent positives. Unfortunately this hotel is not somewhere we would return too, it just wasn’t best suited to what we were looking for but is obviously very popular with a many people!"
