Hillside Beach Club

"There is no question that Hillside Beach Club has a beautiful setting: the private bay, clear and calm sea and lovely surrounding wooded hills. The beaches, pools, sports facilities and general landscaping are all impressive. We were a family of four, with a 15 and 13 year old staying in late October. Our judgement is clearly coloured by some very bad luck with the weather: we had continuous heavy rain during much of our short stay. That said, the rain also highlighted a number of shortcomings that would be less obvious during a typical sunny Hillside holiday. And ultimately, for a resort positioned at the luxury end of the market, we felt there were too many areas where the experience fell well short of 5-star standards. Rooms The room design and standard was one of the biggest disappointments. We started our stay in one of the older, unrenovated blocks. The room itself was functional, but it did not feel like 5-star accommodation - closer to 3 or maybe 4 star if you’re generous - particularly given the price point. The biggest problem during the rain was the veranda, which is the only communal space in the apartment and it doesn’t have a full roof. There is essentially no protection from the weather, and the drainage is poor enough that we sometimes had more than 1cm of standing water. You then have to wade through this to get to the bathroom or other bedroom. The bathroom was fully flooded every night and the second bedroom became close. If it is raining the children cannot get to the bathroom without rain coming in above their walkway. The veranda became unusable and the experience felt more like camping in the rain than staying at a luxury beach resort. The bathroom is also surprisingly small and offers limited privacy with no full door. The children's bedroom is also very small. It just about works for two children - two single beds packed right next to each other, but the configuration becomes impractical for three: one child would effectively need to sleep on a very thin cushion on the window sill. This is something families should be aware of when booking. Another issue with the older rooms is the heating/air-conditioning system. At certain times of year the resort centrally determines whether the system provides heating or air conditioning, rather than allowing guests to choose. We found the room hot at night but discovered that air conditioning was not available. This is particularly frustrating when the outside temperature can vary significantly. There are some genuinely well-designed elements—the wardrobe and hanging/storage space, for example, are good—but overall the room did not match what we would expect from a 5-star resort. We moved to a refurbished room on the second day and it was somewhat better but every comment apart from the AC still applies. Rain — a major weakness This is perhaps the biggest caveat to our review. Hillside is clearly designed around outdoor living and good weather. That is understandable for a Mediterranean beach resort, but there is surprisingly little provision for sustained bad weather. With several days of continuous rain, many of the resort's facilities became much less useful. There aren't enough genuinely comfortable, enclosed spaces where families can spend substantial amounts of time when it is raining. Even some of the restaurants struggled. The roof at Pasha was leaking heavily during our stay and the beach restaurant had to close Food and restaurants The buffet food is genuinely very good. There is a huge amount of choice and the quality is generally high. But when you are eating three meals a day in the same room with broadly the same menu, even a very good buffet starts to feel repetitive surprisingly quickly. For such a large resort, Hillside is sadly lacking in dining options - just the buffet plus two relatively small others, one of which was mostly closed while we were there. We were tired of the huge, loud, crowded buffet after two meals. We were also disappointed by the restaurant booking system. We were only staying for three nights and tried to make a restaurant reservation at the earliest opportunity. We were told that the restaurants were fully booked for every evening of our stay. That seems particularly poor for short-stay guests. If reservations are genuinely that difficult to obtain, the system needs to give some consideration to guests who are only staying for a few nights. We did get in to Pasha off the waitlist but the process was annoying. Hillside is not really all-inclusive in the conventional sense. Accommodation is on a full-board-plus basis: breakfast, lunch and dinner at the main restaurant include drinks such as house wine, draught beer, mineral water and soft drinks. At the other restaurants and bars, however, drinks are charged separately. The atmosphere There is clearly a very enthusiastic culture at Hillside, and many guests absolutely love it. For us, however, the “organised fun” was not really to our taste. For example, costumed staff members organising loud bingo and darts competitions in the very limited common seating areas. There can be an almost cult-like enthusiasm among some guests for the Hillside experience, which may be exactly what attracts people back year after year, but it can feel cheesy and intense if you are not naturally inclined towards organised resort activities. This is very much a matter of personal taste rather than a criticism of the staff, who were generally friendly and helpful, albeit with less English than we would have expected. The resort is also very energetic in the evenings, with entertainment, ‘pub nights’ and parties. There is loud music every night until midnight which can be heard throughout the resort. That will be a positive for some people, although families with young children or anyone looking for an early night should bear in mind that the peace and quiet of the accommodation will certainly be affected by the evening entertainment. Digital The Hillside app is a good idea but rather poorly executed. It is very good at facilitating purchases and charging you for extras, but much less effective as a straightforward source of information about the resort. The search function is particularly poor, making it unnecessarily difficult to find basic information about restaurants, facilities and activities. Wi-Fi was decent throughout the resort. We found the Wi-Fi security requirement unnecessarily intrusive. Each guest has to enter the last four digits of their passport number to access the Wi-Fi. It felt unnecessarily “Big Brother” for something as mundane as connecting to hotel Wi-Fi. Overall Hillside Beach Club has an exceptional location, excellent food, good facilities and clearly a large number of extremely loyal repeat guests. But we came away feeling that the resort's reputation and pricing create expectations that some aspects of the experience don't meet. The rooms—particularly the older ones—don't feel 5-star, the bathroom and children's-room configurations are cramped, the veranda drainage is poor, the resort is surprisingly ill-equipped for rain, and the restaurant selection and reservation system is limited and frustrating. It’s also full-board-plus, not all-inclusive. If you get beautiful weather, love organised activities and resort entertainment, are happy to eat almost exclusively in the buffet, and spend most of your time outdoors, Hillside could be fantastic. If the weather turns bad, however, some of the weaknesses become much more apparent. For us, unfortunately, the combination of poor weather and some of these shortcomings meant that Hillside did not live up to our expectations."

"Another great holiday. We visited with six-year-old and 15-year-old for another break over October half term and had a thoroughly fantastic time. Love the entertainment shows - to a great high standard as usual. great choice in all the restaurants. we were blessed with great weather as well, which made things even better. Special mention to Kadir, Mertkan and Ummu in the Restaurant as well as kids club staff like Anri, Osman and Asli who were totally awesome. We are looking forward to our next trip if we’re lucky enough…"

"Was recommended this place by a friend, but it’s gone dramatically downhill, with enough rules to ruin any holiday. As just one example, one can’t paddleboard in the swimming area, but one can kayak; one can’t swim where the paddleboards go (God forbid you fall off!); and you can’t get on a paddleboard if you’re under 14 - however well you can swim. Say goodbye to freedom and adventure: say hello to pointless rules aimed at making sure the family stays apart in their short-lived organised activities, and never has fun together."