Club Happy Days

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If you have the time, please read my full review, if not, skip down to the bottom for the key points.
It was me and my girlfriend’s first time in Turkey.
It wasn’t our first choice of destinations and in all honesty it was probably our last choice.
However, we didn’t have a lot of money and as we were booking last minute (in a bid to save money) we weren’t left with much choice within our budget.
We chose Marmaris as it seemed liked a pretty safe bet for first time Turkey goers.
We paid £158 for a week’s self catering at Club Happy Days which included transfers and 20kg of luggage. Not bad I thought.
We arrived at Dalaman airport with no trouble. The flight time from Manchester is about 4 hours. We flew with SAGA airlines. A no thrills airline which had no in-flight meal or entertainment. The legroom was minimal but there were drinks on board which was the main thing! – I’d get yourself a boots meal deal to take on the plane though.
We got our passports stamped for our 90 day visiting visa (make sure you bring £10 individually for this) and then made our way outside to the many stalls to find our rep. Our names were ticked off and we were shown to our minibus and greeted with a smile and a bottle of mineral water from our driver which was a pleasant surprise.
The transfer takes around 2 hours to the resort but it soon flies by.
After being taken to the wrong hotel on the other side of the resort in Ichmela (a bit disconcerting that!) we arrived at our hotel and were friendly greeted by a member of staff whilst another took our bags. We were told to fill in a small form with details such as our names, address etc and then given our key.
We were taken up in a very small lift which says “2 PEOPLE MAX” which is obviously ignored as there were now 3 of us in the lift.
We were on the 5th floor (even though the lift gets off at the 4th?).
The room was to be expected, basic, but comfortable.
The kitchen/living room area consisted of a two ring portable electric hob, kettle, fridge-freezer and plenty of storage space which was filled with pots, pans, glasses, mugs and cutlery. We didn’t go self catering to eat every meal in the apartment (only maybe to have the odd breakfast or lunch) and I’m glad we weren’t as anyone would find that hard without an oven or grill.
The living room consisted of 2 slightly old and stained looking sofas and a small side table. Past that was the balcony which I thought was a very nice size and held a table and four plastic chairs comfortably. The view was great; we overlooked the mountains and could see the path leading on to the main strip of restaurants. If you’re unlucky you will be looking at the other side of the hotel instead.
We had a double bed and single bed in our separate bed room with a wardrobe and other storage space. Air conditioning is paid at around £40 for the week but we didn’t bother and we slept fine with the window open. It’s quite noisy with all the entertainment and music from harbouring hotels and our hotel itself but around the resort the policy is that all hotel entertainment must cease by midnight so it wasn’t a problem for us.
The bathroom had a lot less to be desired. The toilet wasn’t fully fitted to the wall and rocked when sat on. The shower handle in our shower cubicle was broken and water kept leaking onto the floor.
But all in all, we were quite pleased.
Throughout our weeks stay the apartment was cleaned daily and towels and sheets changed often.
The hotel is situated in Armutalan which is about 2km away from Marmaris centre and the beach. We walked this quite often, but if the heat gets to you, you can always flag down a Dolmus which is like a shuttle (mini) bus which does a round trip from Armutalan – Marmaris day and night for around 50p.
Armutalan is a VERY British orientated little resort village. Don’t expect to find anything remotely Turkish here. Anything from fish and chips to 99p English Breakfasts can be found here and even local Turkish dishes seem to taste of bisto gravy and are all served with boiled veg. If you want a home from home then you’ll love it here, if not, then I’d suggest going into Marmaris for most of your stay.
The people are friendly but a little over friendly at times, you won’t be able to go out for a quiet stroll without someone asking you to come for a drink, have dinner, ask if you’ve eaten breakfast or tell you to come to them for the best excursion deals. If you let it bother you then you’ll ruin your holiday, I’d advise you to take it with a pinch of salt, walk on by and don’t get sucked in by their talk or you could be talking to them for a long time!
We frequented a little restaurant/cocktail bar near our hotel quite often and got to know the owner, because of this he never hassled us into his establishment for a drink as he knew we’d be back again. Some of course we didn’t and were asked to come in for breakfast/lunch/dinner almost every day, it is something you get used to though.
Peace and quiet the resort isn’t, and neither is the hotel.
There are two swimming pools. The livelier pool in Block A and the “quiet” pool in Block B.
We never ventured into the livelier pool with the “water slide” (a slightly larger version of something you’d find at your local park) as the quiet pool was lively enough. The same mix CD got played for the entire week. The staff were walking round every 5 minutes to see if anyone needed anything (wanted to buy anything more like) and chatting to everyone, which also involved shouting “ICE CREAM” and “SHISH KEBAB” every now and again, pouring ice water and ice cubes on unsuspecting people’s bodies and the occasional flirting with girls. Random members of staff like the photographer would walk around and see if anyone would like their picture taken, then the hairdressers would walk around asking if anyone would like a haircut or massage, after a bit, some would walk around trying to flog copied CDs. No, quiet, this was not!
We tried to go as early as possible when it actually was quiet (ish) and then leave when all the mayhem got to boiling point – it wasn’t just the staff and the mixture of reggae and euro dance music, a whole Scottish contingent seemed to take over the hotel from our 2nd day! There’s a strict 1 hour maximum towel leaving policy. Any sun lounger with a towel left on it for more than one our would have the towel removed. Also, no food or drinks aloud to be brought into the pool area (we snuck in a couple of bottles of water though and ate a large breakfast beforehand) – although of course you can buy from their bar! A little note, be wary of the menus, we bought some food and drinks from the poolside bar and when the bill came it was 10TL more than it should of been, we showed him the menu and prices and the manager came back and told us that it was an old menu, instead of honouring the old menu’s price which we had ordered from we were told we had to pay the full price. That peeved me off a little bit.
But what really got on our nerves was the shop keeper.
The hotel has a little corner shop built into the hotel which sells little bits like bread, water, beer etc which is convenient but at inflated hotel prices of course.
One night we came back from a night out, we had previously stopped off at a much cheaper local shop to buy some previsions. As we walked pass the Club Happy Days shop, the worker came out, shouted at and then moaned at us for not using the shop at the hotel. We felt a little intimidated by that. It’s certainly not something you’d expect as guests at a hotel.
We also felt a little uncomfortable about not eating at their restaurant which they wanted us to. They offer a half board deal for £70pp which we didn’t take them up on as we like to eat out at different restaurants but that didn’t stop them from trying to offer us a curry night(!) or roast beef dinner(!) on a Sunday.
After a couple of days I think they just gave up. If you’re not spending money (or that much money) they seem less interested in you which suited us fine.
For the second half of the holiday we mainly stayed in Marmaris centre, visiting the marina and the castle and going to the beach and the water park, in the evening we’d venture back out to Marmaris or get a takeaway kebab and have a few beers on the balcony.
I feel slightly disheartened as I had assumed that Armutalan was a quiet little spot which you then ventured into the busier Marmaris, but in truth, it felt like the opposite.
The hotel was ok but where it was situated was not. There were far too many Brits and the locals and staff seemed so used to it all that I began to feel sorry for them with the clientele that they have to put up with every season.
I would certainly go back to Turkey again, possibly Marmaris possibly not, but definitely not Armutalan and therefore not Happy Days.
Key points
Room – Clean, Large balcony, kitchenette included fridge-freezer, kettle and two small portable hobs but didn’t have an oven or grill so was not designed for proper self caterers, suspect bathroom, comfortable beds, sheets and towels changed often.
Hotel – Noisy, expensive bar and menu prices compared to restaurants and bars in the area. Has a local shop (but beware of rude worker who hates it if you buy provisions from outside the shop), staff make it quite clear from day one that they want you to eat and drink at their hotel , internet access (although not an internet cafe as they put it), 24 hour reception. Has 2 pools but both a quite noisy – one especially with live DJ etc.
Resort – Very British orientated. Nothing Turkish. Locals can be overbearing. 25-30min walk to Marmaris or 50p Dolmus (shuttle bus) ride to the centre. 2 hour transfer time from airport.
Prices – We found that the prices were cheaper then in the centre of Marmaris (a beer was 4.5 – 6TL). Usually a beer in Armutalan would be about 4-4.5TL, cheapest we found was 3TL for the local Turkish beer called EFES which is really nice, note that most shops sell beer at the same price as you would find at the restaurants. Most places do cocktails at 2for1 at 10-12TL but we found as cheap as 8TL. Eating out is really cheap. For starters, main courses and a couple of drinks we paid anywhere between 35-50TL in total!