"I have never written a review for anything before. But after the week we as a family have had it is only right that I share my experience. Myself and my wife have 5 children so holidays take a while to save and pay for. We spent the best part of 2 years saving for this getaway. We chose vikingen for its 5 star rating,its pools and the food and snacks on offer so that our children had the best experience that they could with the limitations on our spending budget. Now first off, the hotel looked and felt amazing from first impressions upon arriving. We arrived everything looked impressive and we checked in with ease. After getting to our rooms and emptying our cases we went to get a long earned drink after our travels. It was apparent from this first act that the hotel is very popular with all different nationalities and we found that quite a few guests to be rather rude and would constantly push in front of queues. Now as inconvenient as this was we quickly acclimatised and got used to the situation. We then went for food as the restaurant had just opened. This restaurant is a buffet style restaurant and it is complete madness to look and even choose what to eat. The food was ok for myself , my wife and 3 of my older children as we have a better palate. Our 2 youngest whom are on the spectrum struggled and spent the week eating chips and the occasional crispy chicken offering. The first 4 days were quite enjoyable. Alanya is beautiful, the land of legends was a great day out. The kids did especially love the pools and slides. Then came day 4. We visited Side and it was amazing, we spent the whole day walking round and taking in the sites. Now just as we were waiting for our taxi home we went to purchase some souvenirs. As we were paying, our 7 year old daughter came in hysterical saying a cat had bitten her. Now normally this would not bother us we have cats at home but I had read an article a while ago about a women who had been bitten whilst in turkey and come home and went to an emergency room and found that she had contracted rabies luckily this lady got treatment in time. This is a worry to any parent and became our reality. Now the hotel states that there is an on site doctor and that they charge a fee for treatment. We have insurance as we always do and felt assured because of this. We went down to the doctors office on arriving back. On the door it says consultation is free. We were then seen by the nurse who struggled to speak English. She looked at my daughter and looked at the suspected bite area and told us we needed to go to a state hospital for preventative rabies vaccine. She said that we needed this injection as it is a standard medical need for the prevention of the disease, but she couldn't do it at the hotel. She then told us that she would get a car to transfer us to the nearest hospital where my daughter would be taken care of. We asked how much the transfer would cost as we didnt have cash and would need an atm. We were told the transfer to hospital and back was free so not to worry. We were escorted to the hospital via a back entrance and taken to what we thought was a hospital. When we arrived our daughters passport was taken off us and held. We were ushered into a room and a nurse performed a finger prick test supposedly for blood tests and then a doctor came in and said we needed to be transferred to another hospital for the jab and sent us to the front desk. We were then handed bill for £712 and told we needed to pay or our daughter wouldn't get the vaccine. We explained we had insurance and was promptly told they don't accept it there. My wife asked if she could call them from the hospital phone as both our batteries were low as we didnt have time to charge as our daughters health was our priority. Our phones had all our insurance details on it and we needed some battery as our remaining for children were at the hotel with friends and we needed to be able to contact them. The man on the desk said no and that we didnt have time as our transfer was waiting. Only thinking about our little girl and the fact they still had her passport we had to pay the bill out of the remainder of our spending money. We were then taken to another hospital where the driver who still still had our daughters passport made us sit in the waiting room whilst he checked us in. The whole time we were just given things to sign in turkish. Not long after arriving we were taken into a room, where again the driver filled out all the forms and got my wife to sign them. My daughter was given the vaccine and we were taken back. When we arrived at the hotel we were given the paperwork and my daughters passport back. Now after we were back and felt our daughter was safe we noticed irregularities in the process. We checked bank statements and looked up standard procedures on the net, now that we had power for our phones. It turns out that we were never sent to a hospital in the first instance but a private clinic where we were charged for absolutely no care whatsoever, given antibiotics and antiseptic cream which when we arrived home for my daughters second dose and after a proper examination, we found the meds were not needed. We looked up what to do for insurance claims and found that insurers don't pay out if you go to a private clinic. The correct procedure by any hotel doctor on site is to give us options around the care of our daughter. She is supposed to give us a choice between being taken to a clinic or state hospital, which she did not. The so called hospital that turned out to be a clinic is supposed to state that they are private make us aware of fees and also give us the option to refuse the private care , which again they did not treat her or give us a choice. It also is worth noting that after investigation the treatment for rabies is free at state hospitals and there is a small administrative fee. It is also illegal to take possession of a tourists passport. Again none of this was explained. After learning this we approached the reception to get in contact with the nurse to issue us with a complete list of treatments and transfers from the hotel. We were told it would be explained in the morning at around 10. The next morning the nurse did meet with my wife but handed over nothing. We spoke with guest relations and the lady on the desk seemed legitimately horrified. She tried asking the nurse what happened but the nurse kept speaking in Turkish and apparently told the guest relations lady we agreed to everything and again I reiterate we were told nothing other than we were going to a hospital for the vaccine. We spent the last 2 and a half to 3 days arguing and trying to get at least the paperwork from the hotel so we had a complete paper trail from the whole experience. We made a complaint to the hotel and our travel agent and both have stated they have no affiliations with the medical team. On our last day the manager of the clinic wanted to meet with us after my wife made guest relations aware that we had contacted sabim . We recorded the whole conversation. In this meeting he handed over a piece of paper with false procedures they claimed they performed. Gloated he was not scared of sabim the ministry of health who we had already contacted and have been told what had happened is completely illegal. They have since accepted to take on the case. He then tried to take all original documents off us claiming tax reasons, then wanted to swap with a new document with a £250 discount also asking us to sign a contract to make our complaint go away. Again this is all on recording. Essentially bribing us. In the recording he clearly says he is in a partnership with the hotel and many others which the hotel and booking agent have tried to claim is not true. As the meeting went on I became agitated and exited the room. To my surprise I found a lovely lady and her daughter in distress. As I was angry I asked if they spoke English and then went to explain they shouldn't see the onsite doctor as it was a con. Turns out this ladies daughter had just been attacked by a cat and this hotel who claims it isn't partnered with the clinic sent her to see the doctor. I explained that what she should do is get a taxi to state hospital and get the vaccine there because the clinic is a con and refuse insurance. She told me she didnt have any insurance. I took her to the guest relations lady who I thought was genuine and ask if she could give the lady a name of a state hospital as I honestly didnt take in the name of where we eventually ended up. The guest relations lady at first refused saying she didnt want blaming if things went wrong. After some back and forth she eventually gave up a name and the lady took her daughter. I am disgusted that after what happened to us and whilst we were in a meeting the hotel staff chose to carry on this same con with someone whom they state is not affiliated with them.now ohr case is on going and we are currently in a back and fourt with the booking agent at the moment so I won't publicly name them just yet. But we do have several recordings and photos of the medical staff and also fabricated medical records. We even showed the doctors back home what was issued to us and the laughed at the disbelief. If this hotel is not reprimanded and if the travel agent does not take accountability for selling a holiday to vulnerable tourists this matter will not go away. We are not after fame or even fortune. I am disgusted they monetise the health and worry of a 7 year old girl and her grief stricken parents. Now on a positive I happened to bump into the lady I helped just as I was leaving for the airport. She was very grateful and truly happy as intotal with taxi costs it was between £83 and £103 for her daughters care a considerable difference. It was bittersweet because I wish there was someone to warn us of this scam. We had a lovely four days. The remaining 3 were ruined by no expenditure and constant battling with the relevant parties please please be very careful and look into these onsite facilities. I apologise if this is long winded and some grammar and spelling mistakes. But i am in absolute disbelief at the treatment we recieved. I have probably missed some info but please take care. I will add photos and evidence once I have given relevant parties time to respond"
