"The Only review of Asteria Family Resort Side you will ever need.
This is a comprehensive unbiased honest review of the Asteria Family Resort in Side. I hope to help all travellers considering spending their hard earned money at this resort, and this will especially apply to Brits and Western Europeans.
Where to start? Well lets say before we get into it, we did have a great holiday, despite the content of this review, Holidays are what you make them and who you make them with and we travelled as large family group in 4 rooms determined to enjoy the sunshine whilst everyone back in Britain wrapped up for the autumn chill.
I have been to Turkey numerous times, including to the Antalya area, and around the coast at the Bodrum and Didim areas, in fact everyone in our group had been to Turkey before, my in laws having been to almost every major resort in the country so Turkey is not Alien to us and clearly we have enjoyed the country enough to return again and again.
Our mission was to get away in the sun without breaking the bank, so we looked at resorts slightly cheaper than we would normally book. We read the reviews and took our chances, this is what we found!
Arrival
We arrived at 2am in the morning, a few late night stragglers were propping the lobby bar up but otherwise the resort was quiet. The booking in was a little painful, our rooms had not yet been allocated, (why when they know you are coming I have no idea?) so we loitered around the reception trying to avoid any interaction with our tired and grumpy teenagers whilst the others dealt with the night Manager. Eventually after a lot of poor communication we were ferried to our rooms. Unfortunately my 13 year old had to wait an hour for his put-you-up bed to arrive, not ideal after ten hours of travelling. Again – they knew we were coming!!
The Rooms
Initial thoughts on the room were that room number sign looked like it had been there since the 60’s and the room was a little disappointing but it was late so we went straight to bed. On awakening we could take stock of our home for ten nights. Dated would be the ideal description, old furniture, rotting doorframe, stained sealant and filled-in cracked tiles in the bathroom, single glazing, the frames of which has had several coats of paint, as has the timber on the balcony which looked like it would collapse if you leant against it. Probably the worst room I have stopped in since my younger days of 2 star self catering in Corfu. It did have a safe, and hair dryer, but no iron and the room was otherwise clean. On the balcony we only had one chair, and this was an old wooden chair that wouldn’t have looked out of place in a 1970’s school dining hall, plus one small plastic coffee table, the type you might find around the pool areas. Our maid worked long hard shifts and each day we had fresh linen, fresh towels and the room smelt amazing, so despite the need for some serious investment, it was kept very clean and there were no hygiene issues at all. So we can safely say that these rooms are miles away from the 5 stars depicted on the Hotel’s welcome sign, they are not four star either, they might pass as three star due to the cleanliness, but two star might be more apt. The beds were comfortable though and the wifi excellent.
The Resort
The resort is huge, and not without a degree of charm, rooms are in 2 story blocks of, the blocks seem to have been built to look like resorts you might find in the Caribbean, with pastel colours and white picket timber balconies and sunshades. I suspect when new they would look quit pretty and they still do from a distance, but obviously as we have mentioned already, on closer inspection the cracks are more than visible.
The layout is however very well designed, with all the blocks in a kind of charming village setting, with winding paths and landscaped gardens. The gardens whilst not terrible were no where near as well kept as other resorts we have been two, lacking flowers and the grass looking a bit neglected, the gardeners are hard at work in the heat all day but not in the numbers we have seen at other hotels. The gardens also contain cats, lots and lots of cats, if you like cats then you’re in for a treat provided of course you don’t mind risking a flea bite or two, as I doubt they will have been treated for worms and fleas! But everyone seemed to enjoy their presence nevertheless.
The main throughfare stretches from the lobby to the beach and everything can be accessed along this route with lanes going off in every direction, its a good ten minute + walk from the top of the resort where the lobby is located to the beach area.
The layout is great and gives everyone change to get some steps in whilst navigating from one place to another.
Pools were all nicely laid out, the sun beds new and are comfortable, the pool areas fairly clean, the slides are OK, the Spa is OK, I had a nice massage but be aware the Wandering Spa Salesman seems to quote different prices to each guest, with some people paying £30 for a massage whilst others manage to get multi treatment sessions for £40, so don’t take the first price, its highly negotiable. There is stuff for kids, a mini fair, some plastic electric carts for kids that are ten euro for five minutes, needless to say there was never anyone on them. The golf range is rubbish, the mini golf can keep you entertained for 20 minutes, if that is you can find a putter and a ball, which seem to appear and disappear at random times of the day, despite there never being any staff supervising these areas. Ther is also 2 table tennis tables and 4 tennis courts.
The Beach is ok, sandy at the top, stoney towards the sea and there are a lot of rocks in the surf, so be careful when entering the sea form the beach. Your best bet is to walk down the pier (where the sunbeds go very quickly) and you can climb the steps into the sea or jump or dive off the pier which is great fun. The sea itself is clear and warm even in October. Plenty of beds but it does seem to be very popular so get there early. Water sports are available at extra cost.
There is an onsite shop, in fact there was at some point many onsite shops as there is a shopping centre but only the market and a clothes shop remain, another indication of bad management. The hotel shop is a absolute rip-off a small toddlers plastic ball is 11 Euro! A mini football 15 euro, we bough the same ball across the street for 4 euro! The crisps are 4 euro, over the road they are 1, or 1.50 euro depending on the brand. So don’t bother even going in there.
The Food
Ahh the big one and deserved of the time I am going to give it. In a nutshell its Groundhog day, very repetitive, very, very repetitive. Tbf its all very fresh and there is very little processed food so for a couple of days its great but then you soon latch on to the fact that this is it for the duration, there will be very little if any variation.
Breakfast – Lots of bread to choose from, toaster conveyor, but sometimes not butter, not sure if they just forget to put it out but when we asked, butter appeared, what amazed me is why no one had asked before! There are cereals, an egg station with omelettes, fried eggs, boiled eggs, pancakes, waffles toasties, chips, pastries (not very good) and loads of ‘continental’ such as cold meats (not Ham obviously, or bacon) salad, jams, cheeses, yogurts, and several silver trays of hot, well lord knows what, obviously food more familiar to the large Russian and Eastern European contingent.
Lunch – Main Restaurant - The same every day with little or no variation. Salads lots if it, grilled fish (whole fish not filleted) pasta, mashed potato, chips, rice, a beef stew, chicken stew, soup, maybe some grilled turkey , Turkish pizza, pickled everything, and some more hot silver trays of unidentified foodstuff. Desert – Obviously there is Baclava, not as good as other hotels I have stopped in and far better in the A-La-Carte, lots of slices of coloured cakes, all of which taste identical, the chocolate cakes are OK, but most of the deserts just taste the same despite looking vastly different.
Pool and Beach restaurants - offered nuggets, chips, ice cream, pizza, sandwiches, chicken kebab wraps and burgers.
Dinner - Main Restaurant, pretty much same as lunch but with an added grill that might have chicken kebabs or Donar meat, there is often roasted chicken which was nice and fresh of the spit-roast, but generally lunch and dinner apart from the added meat are essentially the same.
Whatever restaurant you are in and whatever mealtime it is, make sure you are there way before the stated closing time. If lunch finishes as 2:30 you can be sure that by 2:15 the staff have started to clear the decks. The silver trays of hot food that are running low are tipped into the ones that are fuller and then removed, food pots tend not to be replenished 30 minutes or so before the end of service, and with 5 minutes to go, everything starts to be removed. One thing I saw which did make me laugh was a German gentleman, who had picked up his soup bowl at around 2:25pm had placed it next to the soup station which is next to the bread, he turned to grab some bread, in the meantime the kitchen staff removed the soup tureens and placed them on the trolly to push back into the kitchen, as the gentlemen turned back to the soup station he was met with empty holes where the soup was seconds earlier, he then proceeded to follow the trolley in disbelief and then ladle his soup from the tureen as it was being pushed along by the kitchen porter, much to his disgust. But that’s the kind of service you can expect.
Drinks- There are water fridges everywhere so you will never go thirsty. The soft bar drinks are Pepsi, Fanta and sprite, plus juices, there is Turkish tea and delicious coffee. The beer is Efes but doesn’t seem to be the same strength as the Efes bought in cans and bottles from the shops, there are plenty of cocktails, white, red and rose wine, the red wine is not too bad. For some reason the beers are served in half pint glasses and then often only filled 2/3 of the way up the glass, so get two. In the Lobby bar if you tip the barman, or always offer a friendly smile and use good manners you might become one of the chosen few who get a pint glass, there are very few of them, so becoming a guest who gets a full pint of beer each time they visit the bar like we fortunately did makes the experience that little bit better!
Staff – So this brings us onto the staff. Like in any aspect of life there are doers and shirkers, there are those who serve with a smile and those who serve with contempt and whilst there is some great people working here, there are some right miserable @%%$&)$!@. Many of the staff don’t seem to want to be there, some bar staff in the restaurant look horrified when you actually ask them to pour a drink, and it is often slapped down in front of you, no smile, no communication at all. I have seen bar staff shout at a guest because he had the audacity to order a drink 8 minutes before the bar was due to close, waving his arms shouting Lobby Bar, Lobby Bar! Clearly wanting the guest to go to a bar that was open longer. I saw bar staff tutting at guests, one Russian guest then proceeded to order cocktails from this man, wait for him to begrudgingly make it and then the guest walked off and told him to keep it, good on you I thought!
There are some great staff though, each bar has that one or two guys who engage with everyone, remember your order, bring nuts over and are always helpful and funnily enough, they’re the ones who get all the tips! The animation team seemed OK, the spa team friendly and welcoming.
The maids all seem friendly, as were the maintenance staff and the gardeners, it appeared that the blue collar pay grades tended to be the most helpful.
Outside the resort
If you are like to take a stroll out of an evening, maybe watch some sport, enjoy a drink at bar or you are looking for something better to eat, don’t bother going to this part of Side, because there is nothing to offer.
Across from the entrance are a couple of mini mart shops and a little Kebab shop that looked questionable at best. To the right is large Bazaar, un ugly, faded red and white building that contained the usual fake clothing, souvenirs, inflatables etc. If you continue walking 5 minutes down the road you come to half a mile or so of shops and Bazaars and a few pharmacies, again no bars just the same fake bags, clothes, sunglasses and perfume in most of the outlets.
The taxi drivers jump on you as soon as you walk out the resort, we did take a taxi into Side at a cost of 8 Euro return per person, well worth a trip into the tourist centre in Side, with its ancient ruins and charming high street. The shops do contain the same fake goods, but served with a lot more gloss and glamour than in the Bazaars, you could almost be fooled into thinking you are in a genuine designer fashion boutique or high end jewellers. But if course its all counterfeit. There are some genuinely great restaurants and cafes in Side, we had a fabulous lunch, and just outside the main area you can find McDonald’s and a Burger King if you just cant wait until you get home! There are also plenty of bars, some of which show Premier League football.
Conclusion
Despite the food and grumpy staff, for what we paid we couldn’t really complain to much, the food whilst repetitive was fresh and none of us had any stomach issues. This resort is obviously the runt of the group of hotels Asteria operate, it will surely at some point be refurbished, otherwise I can only see it getting downgraded. I would suspect that the management at this resort are to blame for the staff’s indifference, many of them seem extremely unmotivated, so I am guessing they are probably undervalued.
We won’t be going back."
