Makumba Summer Gardens

2 readers found this review helpful

arrived to find the handyman asleep on our bed.no bedding supplied for our son. room stunk of sour mould. beds broken, so slept on a slope all week.pillows full of stains, sheets stunk and very rough like sand paper. bathroom awful and full of mould. broken shower. cleaning standards not very good. clean towels were just thrown on bed every few days. our apartment was underground with a great view of peoples feet as they walked by. we booked 10 months in advance so expected better.
My mobile, sunglasses and a few other items went missing from our apartment and three other familys had things go missing. no break in though so obviously someone with a key. no proof, so reception were not interested.
Breakfast is exactly the same every day with not much choice to start with. dinner is slightly better.
Bar staff have poor service skills and barely raise a smile unless your a teenage girl. i could be at the bar for 10 minutes before i even got noticed!
bar also expensive. £5 ish for spirits.
pool is ok but very very slippy around the edge....be warned! gardens are average.
Bitez is a small bay which has a narrow ,dirty, stoney beach. sea is full af seaweed and not that clear.
nice sunloungers and beanbags though.
All there is though is restaurants and annoying turks trying to get you to eat there. you cant even enjoy a stroll let alone hold a conversation. it decomes very annoying and extremely boring by the third night.
i do like quiet resorts but this is by far the most boring.
Bodrum is nice, waterpark is great. went there twice.
most people will try to rip you off. dont think we had one bill that was right all week. they must make it up as they go along. I dont mind haggling over the price of a used car, but a cocktail?..... come on!
one more thing, turkey is getting very expensive for food, drink and fake goods. most are cheaper over here now. Trouble is, i dont think they realise this.

2 readers found this review helpful

We have just returned from our first visit to the Summer Gardens in Bitez and would recommend them to anyone. The best part about it is the closeness to the beach - just across the road, down a path and onto the beach - brilliant!!! The apartments are clean, the pool is big with a good baby pool with slide, and there are plenty og sunbeds (some may be a bit too close for comfort but we could always get one). Bitez itself is a lovely resort with lots of lovely restaurants. The three MUSTS to visit are Blanca (where you must try the roast beef dinner on a Sunday - amazing, but make sure you don't eat anything all day before you go!!), White Point where Daniel is always at the front to greet you but, best of all in our opinion, Almera, where the food is absolutely gorgeous. There is a free starter plus free dessert (the nicest plate of fruit you have ever seen)and the staff are the nicest people you would ever wish to meet. If you are in Bitez this is the place to visit. Give it a go and I am sure you won't be disappointed.

1 reader found this review helpful

We stayed at Summer Garden end of July beg of Aug, Great entertainment, great staff, in the restaurtant there was a great choice on menu with 20% off bill most nights. The pool got really busy when English hols began and had to put towels on beds at 9am. The snacks at pool bar were great and cheap. I have booked up for next year but for early July. I did notice compared to last year the prices have went up but I MUST stress that Turkey is much cheaper than a Euro resort...

1 reader found this review helpful

we went to summer garden after arriving at another complex to find a mix up with rooms so we had to find other accomodation.
when we arrived the receptionist was warm and welcoming and went out of her way to ensure we were happy with the accomodation, explaining where to go for food, the entertainment, air conditioning etc.. the room was basic but very clean with towels changed daily. the entertainment was "ok" but this was not peak season so we didnt expect anything else.the staff all around was really pleasant and loved to talk and make you feel wanted, nothing was too much trouble for them. the food was nice, not one bad meal and the restaurant manager and riko was really friendly and made us feel like we had known them for years. the price of drinks was average (turkish prices are a lot more expensive than they use to be ). the only bad experience we had was that we won a sunset photo in the raffle, we had an hour and half photo shoot on the beach then had to go back 9.30 at night to see the pics,the photographer tried to charge us around £300 in our money for the pics which we declined but we did negotiate a price for the disk so we could print our own off, this took until 11.15pm and we were not happy as this was our last night and we spent it frustrated and really fed up with looking at pics as he took so many..
overall we had a fantastic stay at summer garden and would recommend it to anyone

5 readers found this review helpful

I have just returned from the Summer Gardens and can say that this is a lovely place to stay, the gardens are gorgeous. To be honest we didn't have many dealings with the staff so can't comment too much on them. On arrival and when we had an issue they were only too pleased to help. Drinks everywhere are expensive, not jus Bitez and the prices were comparable with Bodrum. Food selections and prices varied from place to place. Quite frankly I thought it was cheaper than a week in Greece and spent far less. The pool area was lovely and they do have a second pool if you wanted a quieter area away from the children. Cats can be a pest jumping into your room if you are on a lower floor. The beds do need replacing as I found them extremely soft but luckily we had a living room with sofa beds which were more comfortable. Room allocation is pot luck we didn't have much of a view but not sure I would like to have been round the pool either. Close to the resort and a handy shop!!

3 readers found this review helpful

Well i went here for 2 weeks with my best mate and her mum and dad. We didn't get there until early hours on tuesday morning and still the staff was as welcoming as ever helped with all our luggage and everything. The staff was so polite and lovely, had some great fun with them all made us laugh so much. Tayfun and Koray are pretty amazing lads ;). Am deffinately going to come back very soon as i miss it already and it is such a great place.
Miss all of the staff :D xx
Thanks for a great holiday.

2 readers found this review helpful

a group of 12 visited this hotel and all 12 of us did not enjoy our stay . there were a few good points about this hotel for example: it was kept clean, new towels were issued to our rooms every day and it was locatated close to the beach.
however there were some majour bad points aswell for example: the food was very plain , it was the same everyday and did not taste very nice. another bad point was some of the staff at the hotel were extremely rude and unhelpfull - especcially one of the reception ladys; whom would sit on the reception doing nothing all day and when asked a simple question like: "can we have the air con' turned on in our room please?" she would reply with great anger and say "i am busy" or somthing along those lines. she always seemed angry and pissed off ; therfore made our stay depressing because we coul not leave the hotel without being given a dirty look or an awkward eye .

3 readers found this review helpful

I really enjoyed the Makumba Summer Gardens. Just returned and i thought it was brilliant drinks not badly priced, awesome staff, nice atmosphere, beach close by and nice tidy roons. My only problem i would say is no tv in rooms as not a lot else to do at hotel when pool shuts. One of the best holidays i have had and i loved every minute. Beach about 5 mins walk away and good super market shop next door. I reccomend going to the hotel resturant or a resturant on the beach called Hare. Antonio the manager of the bar n resturant at the hotel is a friendly person always smiling and will have a laugh with you. BRILLIANT

2 readers found this review helpful

The accommodation was in desperate need of upgrading but any problems are sorted straight away. The room was clean and towels and beds are changed daily although the towels and bedding are rough and the pillow is so flat its not worth using.
Our air conditioning was actually very good.
Beware the cats they spray all over your towels if you're on the lower floors. Make sure you take a line to hang them on (the towels not the cats)
The resort of Bitez is expensive where food and drink are concerned but the food is really tasty and the drinks are not watered down.
You havent much of a s.catering option with only a 2 ring electric hob and a sandwich toaster to cook on.
The majority of the waiters are lovely but you will find your treading on egg shells with some.
However, the reception staff, the maid, Taz, Hassan & Hussein, Antonio and Riko are superb at their jobs they made our holiday brilliant and we were sorry to say goodbye.
If the manager spent more time in the hotel instead of the shop sorting the problems out it could be a great place.
We encountered some sarcastic comments from the beach front restaurants when we didnt try their cuisine and some of the shops are a bit OTT when trying to sell you stuff.
This is a quiet relaxing resort with plenty of restaurants. The bar stays open until the last person leaves and noise is minimal after 12. The pool is lovely and there are always sunbeds available.
Dont read too much into the bad points we were apprehensive about this hotel but we enjoyed our stay its not the best in Turkey but if you expect basic not luxury you wont be disappointed.

2 readers found this review helpful

This was my second stay at the Makumba. The first was two years ago when I absolutely loved the place. It was tatty but clean with very friendly staff. This time, under new management it has really gone downhill. Our first room overlooked a wall and was next to staff accommodation and near the bar. the music at the bar was not turned off until well after midnight and the staff woke us up each morning (at around 5.30am) with Turkish pop music from their radio alarms. The air conditioning did not work properly so it was impossible to sleep without the door open to get a little bit of breeze!
It took three days and our rep stepping in before our room was changed. We had a great view of the pool and air conditioning that worked - needed as we were even closer to the bar! We were told that these were the rooms allocated to Thomas Cook so had to put up with it - later found this was a lie!
The large pool is a nice size but so many sun beds surround it that it is hard to see a patch of ground to walk on. The music was so loud that it was hard to talk or relax there - I love background music but this was intrusive and meant that we spent as little time round the main pool as possible. On top of this, inflatables seemed to be the fashion and so it was impossible to use the pool without finding a lilo or blow up crocodile on top of you!
Drinks were very expensive and coke etc. was often flat. I used to buy drinks from the mini market next door which is very reasonably priced. Bar staff were nice if you were buying alcohol but if not, they ignored you and made you feel very awkward.
Bitez is lovely though. A wonderful friendly beach front with everything you need. The boat trips from the BBC are wonderful. Yes, there is the occassional bad boat but I don't think they will use that captain the following year if there are too many complaints! I loved the Bambu bar - past the mosque as the staff were very funny and helpful and the food good.
The Makumba is good if you are a family who likes making havoc, creating and living among noise and the highlight of your holiday is getting drunk and enjoying a very bad attempt at Turkish Night. It is such a pity that such a great place has gone so downmarket. Look out for Bingo and Kareoke next year - or maybe the staff are getting confused and think all holiday makers want a Gumbet-like atmosphere!