On Holiday and hate it!

[Ilovemycatalot]

Was just after some moral support am on holiday with my daughter in a shit all inclusive in turkey horrible place and horrible hotel. We are here until Monday 😭honestly been in tears and just want to come home. Any words of wisdom to keep us going. They want £650 for an earlier flight home that I just can’t afford.

Same we’ve been to Turkey loads of times with and without kids. We’ve met tons of nice kind friendly Turkish locals and stayed in many different hotels and never had a bad experience.

Do hotels in England with a high percentage of overseas visitors have ‘a good grasp’ of French? Spanish? Chinese or Italian? No. Then why is it expected that everywhere else in the world staff should speak English? What happened to learning some basics of the language before going abroad?

I don't know if you are aware of this, but most French, Spanish, Chinese and Italian people would also expect to use English if they go on holiday to Turkey. Few of them will learn Turkish either.

It isn't efficient for everyone to learn the language of every country on earth "just in case," hence the general global use of English a lingua franca.

As for "learning some basics"--look, the dirty little secret of language-learning is that you actually have to learn quite a lot in order for it to be any use whatsoever. Learning how to say "Hello!" "Can I have a menu?" "Where is the toilet?" is all very well, but even locals with little English probably understand these things in English in most countries these daysplus, it's generally easier to just look for the pile of menus or the toilet sign.

Now, being able to say "Excuse me, but my shower is doing this super-annoying thing where I can get the water to run boiling hot or freezing cold but I can't get it to a medium temperature" etc, but you have to do quite a lot of study in order to talk at that kind of level, and you can't do this for every language you might ever have to learn.

Well aren't you a fucking peach 🙄. People tend to book what they can afford, that still should entitle them to a decent holiday with decent food

Here we go again entitled

Entitled this
Entitled that

You are entitled to what you pay for. Nothing more nothing less.

Can you easily get the tram along the coast into Antalya?….visit the historic harbour, the little bazaar, the park, the aquarium for example? Maybe a trip to an authentic hammam, boat trips, the Roman ruins, waterfall?

If men approach you, you can choose to say nothing and just keep walking, or if you are sitting, a flat hand gesture without speaking, you don’t have to interact, for example ignore and just carry on talking to your daughter as though they aren’t there. (Is the way I deal with it)

Sounds like hard work op. It’s why I never go to that type of place for more than a week. The worst one we had was Lanzarote - it was cold and about as relaxing as New Street Station. But the biggest issue was being stuck there for 2 weeks. The longest 2 weeks of my life. But it will end….

OP I really feel for you. We had similar a few years back we went to marmaris in dalaman and we will never holiday in turkey again. When the transfer bus pulled up we sat thinking please say this isn’t us .. it was and we could see everyone else’s relief knowing it wasn’t theirs. At that time we went with goldtrail who went bust when we where out there and no reps available it the rooms where dirty, there was cigarette trays everywhere and flies round the food we found a place for 15£ per night and moved there and it was an attic room with no air con but we where just so overjoyed being away from that first hotel which was comparing to Spain more like 1 or 2 star. It was very scary even walking down the street as the men where all over us and loved one on DD ginger hair and the others all blonde and very forceful getting us into shops etc. how many days have you got left?

Oh no was just about to book a week In Antalya
can you say what hotel it is ?

I am sorry you are staying somewhere so awful

We have been to Belek 4 times - 2 different hotels and have never had any problems at all - always been great and staff always lovely

@AmbushedByCake1 adore Cirali! What a beautiful place - stayed in a treehouse there with wild chickens and use of bicycles, cycled to the beach every day. Antalya old town is lovely too.

Glad your parents can help OP, hope you can leave soon if it will make you feel much better.

Yes this kind of thread is so frustrating! Name the hotel or company it’s not outing at all ? Just helps other people

Well if she's booked the hotel through booking.com she would still be in the same hotel ...... but with less come back than booking it through a travel agent ......

Ive been all inclusive to Turkey about 7 times and i loved it , people are friendly welcoming.
Foods not brilliant but can make do, huge breakfast which if all inclusive theres tons to choose from, sneak a bag and take bits for lunch take yourselves out for the day. Come back later take a couple of drinks up to your room read on your balcony.

@sweetsalted she has booked through a UK travel operator . You would expect them to have an English speaking rep in the resort .

Depends on what you book for really. 4 in Antalya sounds pretty grim to be honest as most of the hotels there are 5 stars and even then you need to pick the best one and not the cheapest. I've had excellent holidays in Turkey and have picked family resorts and have never been disappointed. Also the food is subjective especially when there is plenty of choices. I've never been to a country before where there is millions of cheese selections for breakfast and olives and pastries. People travel to Turkey for the food and service you don't get in european countries. You've picked a shitty hotel not a country. Ive stayed in shit hotels in my student years as I couldn't afford 5 star holidays but never faulted the country and I've left holidays early due to how shit the hotel was but i always came back the following year for example Spain and paid more for a better accommodation. Also when there is alcohol and lads, it doesn't matter which country you are in you will still get looked at or harassed. Change your hotel either go to a family run b&b or go to another real 5 star hotel and that will 100% change your experience.

Fancy going to another country and they don't speak English!

@Brideandpredjudice whose attitude is atrocious?

We visited Turkey a few years ago. I would never go back even for a free holiday. It was dreadful, my son got an ear infection in the hotel pool as did a lot of other guests.
At breakfast we were given olives. My son made faces on them with cocktail sticks! We were giving the same olives back days later!
Young men were grabbing at my two daughters as they walked passed they were 16 and 18 years old
The waiters in the hotel were saying how poor they were and could we give them some money.
Two young girls were so frightened that the tagged along with us the entire holiday as they feel unsafe.
We got a bus into a busy town one evening and when we got a bus back to the hotel we where followed by 4 rather ‘dodgy’ looking men. As we turned into our hotel they turned round and went the way we had come.

@rocketlove - You've picked a shitty hotel not a country...
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Agreed
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@Nottogetapenny sounds awful. Don't think I'll ever go to Turkey.

It was in Antalya and a 4 star hotel!

For what it's worth, I'd spend the £650 on moving hotels. You'll get your sunshine holiday in a lovely country and when you get back, approach Hays with the photos etc and appeal then. But don't spend the next week anxious, as it's not good for either you or your daughter. And £650 to go home early is a complete waste of money, whether it's yours or your parents.

Nottogetapenny wow that sounds awful, I would never visit there I’ve heard a few single mums friends saying they plan to go there as it’s cheap but I think they are mad to Consider it!

English is not my first language but I’d generally expect people in tourist resorts to have reasonable English as then I can communicate with them. I can’t speak Turkish and would be astonished if a Turkish hotel worker spoke my language. My expectation/ hope would be we both have enough English to understand each other.

And I was with my husband!