"Please think twice before going to this hotel. My family and I are seasoned all inclusive travelers and have been to Turkey several times and have had great experiences. This hotel is not one of them.
I would normally try to see the positives but in this case it has been one of the worst family holidays with my wife and two kids we have ever had.
I thought the hotel looked "quirky" and wanted to give the Russian theme a try, I did not anticipate that the hotel would literally be a home from home to what seemed like every Russian tourist.
First things first, let me get the bad stuff out the way.
The rooms are falling apart, dirty and noisy from slamming doors.
The aircon is non existent in the rooms
The pool was freezing cold
The food in all the main areas was awful, repetitive oily/greasy and always COLD
The bar staff just serve the next person in front of them and mostly seems to go to the Turkish or Russian guests, if you pay them you get better service.
The place looks on the surface really nice but the main lobby area is soul less and tacky, the furniture is dropping apart and a hazard for nails, splinters and rough edges.
When we arrived we had booked two standard rooms, one double and one twin. We were shown to the rooms to find they were in the front separate section of the hotel directly overlooking the building site of the hotel next door. We asked to change, they showed us 3 other rooms, a family room with NO doors between the rooms, and 2 duplex rooms which have one bedroom as you walk in and one upstairs. We eventually chose one of those with a pool view but had to compromise on the fact that four of us now had to share one shower, not ideal when your kids are 15/17 years old. To make things worse the two beds upstairs are single sofa beds, hard and not fit for purpose for two teenage boys but this was better than the other options of looking out onto a building site for two weeks.
The rooms are very small even for the duplex which is supposedly an upgrade from the standard rooms but the compromise is that you have a sink and toilet upstairs and two sofa beds but one bathroom with shower downstairs. The bathroom is really small, max two people can stand at the sink but you cant open the door. The shower over bath is dreadful, its been overpainted white so many times it was a joke, it was pealing paint and mold on the ceiling.
The rooms were shabby and in need of renovation (see pics) the same as much of the hotel, it was a shame that the closer you looked the worse it was, broken chairs, missing handles, broken light switches and lots and lots of scuffs and scratches out of everything painted.
The SOFA beds upstairs that my boys used were old and my eldest developed a rash on his neck arms and chest from either the covers or the sofa bed itself. We googled it and the most likely culprit was either the detergent used or it was a reaction to dust mites, so be warned.
The entertainment was every night 9.30 till 10.30 which was okay but very typical and always based on a Russian or Turkish theme, it was just a bit tacky and typical if thats not too harsh to say.
The beach was packed, mainly due to he fact the pool was freezing, sunbeds were plentiful by the pool which was a nice change but you really had to be brave to get in the water, the sea was about 10dgs warmer than the pool.
In general the atmosphere was quite unsettling, lots of very drunk Russians who walk about like they own the place bumping into you and just being over bearing, twice I had to take a stance with two guests for pushing my son out of the way at the bar and on more than one occasion when getting food they just walk up and reach across you and expect you to move, I don't, and that didn't go down very well with them.
The main restaurant is just awful, you have to ask or cutlery, you wait ages to get your own drinks as the staff are serving tables that have paid but you cant get them to come to you , so when you do go to the bar they are just making drinks for the tables they are serving. The food is genuinely the worst I have experienced on any holiday, chips, nuggets, onion rings, rice and turkey and burgers, all COLD, there appears to be a large selection but most of it is re used and you can see how things have been re-heated or put back out as they have skins that are dry or just looks unappetizing.
The tables in both main and smaller restaurants are sticky and the chairs are all loose and feel like they are going to fall apart. The general state of the place is just shabby, paint everywhere, holes in window frames and it just looks like its been constantly over painted and bodged.
Do not get a taxi from the hotel it is outrageously expensive, and I mean outrageous. Its about £30 to get to Lara (the main strip about 10 mins away) for food or shopping. Get the bus, right outside the hotel, literally on the other side of the road to the front door of the hotel, it costs 74p to get there each and the same back, so for the four of us it was about £3 each way, they run every 15 mins and late into the night. They drop off right outside the hotel as well.
Turkey is amazing, we did a lot of trips out as always. Love the country and the history especially the old town of Kaleici and defiantly worth a days visit.
Just don't go to this hotel."
