Disappointed by Turkey hotel

The problem with mass tourism is that you get mass tourists from various nationalities in popular summer destinations on the continent. Specially if they are all inclusive.

I'm sorry you've found in Turkey what many Swedish, Germans and Dutch nationals find when they go an "exclusive" hotel in Spain full of British people. The reality is that booking an AI holiday is rarely going to give you what you expect unless you want to get shitfaced with alcohol or don't care if the hotel is full of other European nationalities.

I'm a Spaniard and would never recommend paying the money you've paid, specially as you were all adults. Find a good apartment, not necessarily Airbnb, with a functional kitchen, get information of local supermarkets, restaurants, low cost places to eat and bars. Then go to the website of the town/city you are visiting and check what's on the days you are staying (most websites have the option of several languages), and enjoy what's on, specially in the evenings, for free.

I'm a Spaniard and there is no way in hell I'd ever go to an AI resort in the Balearics, Catalunya, Costa del Sol or Costa Blanca in summer in Spain. Too many British, German, Dutch, etc etc. No thanks.

F me 6k???
Jesus wept that's daylight robbery. You've been better off in puglia or sicily fot that money. Look at Simpson travel next time. 6k for a shit bathroom is unbelievable.
There's a reason why I never trust a package hol.

In my experience hotels frequented by mostly Germans tend to be much nicer all round. Can you not use Google translate to help with the language barrier?

I am so sorry you are not enjoying your hotel.
Chalk this up to experience @Missmydog20 next time come on here and ask before you book, there are bound to be others who can give you honest answers about the hotel you are thinking about going to . Good luck next time .

Side is one of my favourite places to go! We go to Turkey quite often. I’m sorry to hear of your experience.

If you are going into Side, go late afternoon and find a spot near the harbour to watch the sunset. It’s stunningly beautiful.

There are lots of lovely bars and restaurants, the shops are open all evening and you could maybe have a look at some excursions they run from the harbour? We’ve done a few boat trips and really enjoyed them all.

to be honest, £244 a day per person, including flights, all inclusive, is not going to get you a very high standard of hotel, in this part of the world, in high season.

Turkey is also in the middle of a financial crisis and has seen incredibly high inflation in recent years meaning the costs of things locally have shot up, so it also represents much less good value than it used to, unfortunately.

We were at the Barut Hemera, absolutely loved it, great food/drinks/staff/entertainment.

You need to research your hotel though …

i love Turkey we have had some lovely holidays there …

I'm afraid I find it hard to have sympathy for people who go on holiday to countries with poor human rights records and then moan that they're having a shit time. Your spending money is supporting a government that gives its own people a pretty shit time.

And it's really not hard to order a drink in German: it's "Ich mochte ein name of drink bitte", and "bitte" is pronounced bitter.

I think unlucky too, sorry OP, we went at May half term and had a great holiday at a gorgeous hotel which we’ll definitely go back to.

Oh and I have no desire to hold the high ground. What possibly made you think that.

Not about affordability though is it. The commenter stated you couldn’t find luxury in Turkey. They were just wrong.

I feel for you! Recently went on a solo day trip to the great barrier reef in Australia and all the other other passengers were french. Nice people but all the conversations were in french, which I don't speak, so I felt quite left out. I put it down to experience.

Sausage and pretzels and sauerkraut? Oh I hope they have the pretzel tree that they hang them off. Love those.

We have been to Egypt on AI. Clientele were predominately Russians with a scattering of other nationalities.

entertainment was primarily dancing and acrobatics type shows where words were not really necessary. Plus a karaoke night which was fascinating as a series of Russians belted out sad Russian songs.

WiFi was a bit dodgy in the room but fine with in the lobby. We wouldn’t have been able to watch videos on it though and in fact had to go to the beach bar to book tickets for something.

drinks - sounds like just different standards. We found requests for orange got orange squash, etc.

not much point complaining about the drinks. But if the staff really don’t understand English and the entertainment is in German that’s worth mentioning.

Tbf I would rather be surrounded by a load of Germans than a load of Brits 😅
Funnily enough my colleague went to Turkey recently to a 5 star hotel and wasn't impressed either.

This very issue was on RIP off Britain this week, but a Spanish hotel, all signs in German, all reps were German, all instruction packs for use round the hotel in German. I think you should have done more research, sorry.

Turkey was the worst hotel I stayed in, I have heard some people went and stayed at really nice resorts, I must have been unlucky I’m usually really good at choosing the best all inclusive resorts. I wouldn’t go back to turkey based on this.

you can say yok, after something if you don't want it. so if they give you coke zero, say coke zero yok - normal coke lutfen (lootfen) which means normal coke please. bir tane (beer tarnay) means one, so you can say that so that you don't get two. although they might be bringing you two to save their legs in the heat. water is su (sue), so you can say normal su instead of getting fizzy.

hope that helps a tiny bit

Unlucky. We’ve been to 3 AI hotels in Turkey (Fethiye & Ozlu Koyu) and all were great.

mix of nationalities, always sunbeds available (sometimes need to go down to the beach for a good spot if it was afternoon) food was varied (Turkish, Italian, Spanish night etc..) and then other places to eat (beach bar for pizza/pasta/burgers) and staff were wonderful. I always feel like we’ve got more than enough for our money. So don’t give up on Turkey just yet

Couldn't you use Google translate for still water (Stilles Wasser) and one, two, three (eins, zwei, drei)?