Surmeli Efes

My husband and I were so impressed by this hotel that we have booked two weeks in June this year. This time we are going All Inclusive.
We found the food very good. The staff were very polite. The hotel was clean although a little shabby. The location of the hotel was excellent for us.
I think that if you are looking for a quiet holiday with a mixture of sun bathing and exploring the local towns and historical places of interest, Sumeli Efes Hotel is the place to go.

It was my best holiday!
Everything was excellent! And I adore ANIMATION TEAM!!!!!!
It wasn’t tired it was really the best!
Better than Greece, better than Italy, better than Croatia and the Dominican Republic!
Thank you Surmeli, thank you Animation team! Thanks for everybody!

As you leave the airplane at Bodrum you are hit by the scorching mid day heat. Most people say that it is a 40 minute drive from Bodrum airport to the hotel but it isn’t... more like 2 hours 30 minutes. after all this you get into the hotel lobby and are gob smacked it is beautiful the lobby is big and elegant. unfortunately when you see your room you can see a BIG difference the room consists of 2 beds a television a bathroom and a balcony.
Although the rooms are not as elegant and spacious as the lobby the are liveable.
The hotel has 4 pools 3 outside 1 inside a sauna a Jacuzzi and a massage parlour, everything you would expect from a 5* hotel.
My main issue with the hotel was the food. The hotel have not catered for Brits and certainly not for kids. in the main restaurant they have set times to come for daily meals. They have breakfast, which consists of frankfurter sausages done every way you can imagine..., which is fine for Germans. they have cereals and bread that’s about it. lunch, they have spaghetti which is undercooked and salads. and for dinner they have nothing at all. its all disgusting and most foods labelled as meats are in fact goat.
Also if it says you have a "sea view" don’t let this lead you into thinking that you can watch the sunset on the horizon at night because if you are on floors 1-4 you cannot see much, only if you lean out of your balcony and crane your neck will you see the smallest bit of sea ever.
The staff were friendly and helpful but I have heard many bad reviews of the staff .
Overall unless you are Turkish German or Russian do not go to this hotel its really a waste of money and really depressing
5* no way 3*- more like it.

This was an amazing holiday!!!
The weather was great (35-40oC) I have read some comments about the staff and I have to say that while my stay I did not have ANY problems with any of them! ok ok their English is not great however it is understandable and friendly. the barmen are VERY good looking ....:-p So I recommend that to all the women! The drinks were all free to us as we had an all inclusive deal, however you had to pay for ice creams. the barmen were very entertaining and often did cocktail tricks and would amuse the guests. The hotel gets cleaned about 15+ times a day-so it is very clean!
The food is pretty much the same everyday which isn’t amazing however there is plenty to choose from. it usually consists of lots of different pastas, salads, LOTS of cakes ect.
The restaurant staff were AMAZING we had a waiter called "Isa" and he literally RAN to get our drinks and was always pleasant, it wasn’t only Isa who was great, the other staff were just as hard working!
There were a group of people who worked every day to organise activities for the younger children, which is great to not have to worry about them. they also held a show every night of the week. on our first night they held a beach party, which was great fun and included a lot of games! The other nights they had bingo and beauty competitions and others. They had a disco every night, which was always seen to by the security staff.
Over all this was an amazing holiday and I would recommend this to anyone, I was really sad to leave!

Unfortunately we read these reviews after our trip to this hotel. It’s clear that a matter of choice, personal expectations and experience come into these ratings and perhaps the time of year. That said I can only make a review based on our experience not on that of others, here are the details of the letter I wrote to our tour operator (if they could be described as such.) I would certainly not recommend this hotel to anyone, unless they picked up an A.I. deal for £250 PPPW.
Refreshments:
No fresh fruit juice at any time of the day at any bar or restaurant, all juices were water diluted squash (staff often added additional water to the drink dispenser rather then adding more concentrate).
Any cocktail was therefore made up of alcohol and a selection of water diluted squash. At breakfast it was not even possible to get a glass of orange juice, everything was squash.
No drinks or service available anywhere in the resort before 10:30 with the exception of the main restaurant, no self service coffee or refreshments are available. In fact the outside bars would not even provide ash trays until after 10:30.
Food:
Quality of food was possibly the worst we have seen. Salad selection was reasonable though of limited and repetitive choice. Main Course consisted daily of stews (or meals of that nature) boiled potatoes, rice and baked chillies and onions (baked chillies available breakfast lunch and dinner) but no other fresh vegetables.
Most meals were at best luke warm many in fact cold as the warming system employed at the hotel resembled something from the Victorian age and was quite incapable of keeping anything hot. In the hotels defence every evening they had a barbeque providing a hot meal and this was the best source of something hot.
The scrambled eggs at breakfast had to be seen to be believed!
A general summary of the food is that it was “done on the cheap” everything available was low grade.
Also the Animation Team had an incredibly rude habit of interrupting guests while they were eating, to develop interest in the days or the evenings events.
Poolside:

The condition of the towels was laughable. The small towels were roughly the size of a large hand towel of reasonable condition, but far too small for pool use. The large towels were acceptable in size but there condition was desperate, being full of holes, frayed and faded.
No ice cream was available and what was available was at an exorbitant price nearly £2.00 each.
Poolside ladies toilets were often unclean to a level that was quite disgusting and I don’t need to describe here for what reasons, you can use your imagination.
Rooms:
Room quality was acceptable, though the hallway was never lit during the day and it needed to be. Unlit it resembled a carpeted dungeon.
Reception:
Few staff spoke English, communication with those that did was at best such hard work as to make it not worth the effort. Whilst I understand that this is not a popular English resort any 5 star hotel worth its salt would insist on multi lingual staff at this end of the business. One amusing fact was that the hotel guest relation managers of which there were two didn’t speak a word of English, rendering them of no use what so ever. On arriving at the hotel and producing our voucher, we were advised that we were not booked in until the following day. Even producing the voucher with the date clearly stated produced no acknowledgement. On requesting that the rep was contacted, we were told the call had to be made from our room, which was laughable as we could not get into it! Finally reception conceded and telephoned the rep, which they were unable to get hold of! We were finally booked in after about half an hour which is not acceptable after a long journey.
Staff:
Service throughout the hotel was without doubt of 2 or 3 star grades. Unsmiling and semi interested seems to be the standard training offered to these people.
Bars were at peak times beset by huge backlogs, often with no more than one person working the bar while others watched. The frustration this caused with all guests was clearly visible.
The waiter service for refreshments at meal times seems to be flawed by the quality of personnel and the training they might be given. Clean tables, fresh napkins and cutlery and timely arrival of drinks was not a common sight for anyone other than the early arrivals.
The sensation that the hotel and staff propagate is that guests are here to dance to the tune of the hotel, one guest even went as far as to describe the hotel as “Fawlty Towers”.
Both of us have travelled extensively and our conclusion and the conclusion of all the other guests we spoke to was that there is absolutely no way that this hotel is 5 star rated.

I had searched this web site previously and found just 3 reviews. Of these 2 were very bad and 1 was excellent. With this I went with an open mind, as what type of holiday is good for 1 person, may not be ok for another.
There were 4 adults in our party. We took the All Inc. option. We arrived at the hotel at 10.30 am Monday 11th October after travelling all night. First impressions of the reception and hotel were very good, but as we were so tired and hungry we took our cases to the rooms and then headed for breakfast. The rooms were a little disappointing. There was no way they were up to 5* standards. They were clean but a very tired looking 3*+ was about right. They were cleaned daily and the maids were excellent. We went to breakfast and this received mixed reaction from the party. They had a selection of cereals, jams, bread, cheese and salads. Unfortunately on the hot selection it was Hard-boiled eggs, hot dog type sausages and scrambled eggs. This did not vary for 14 days. For our group that was fine as we did not eat a cooked B/fast, but if you went expecting an English option you would have been disappointed.
The evening meals were very similar with excellent soups and salads and they had a good choice of desserts, but the hot options were disappointing. Many people with children had to buy their food out ,as there was very little for young British taste buds. If you were used to a varied European diet the food was OK.
Looking around the facilities there were many daytime activities advertised for around the 2 beautiful pools. Unfortunately the reality was that there was water polo and volleyball only on offer and nothing for any children who happened to be on holiday. 2 free Tennis courts were available which our group used each day.
The evening entertainment was non-existent. It was actually day 10 before any evening entertainment was organised after much complaining and this consisted of the animation team (who never seemed to be around except if they wanted to do something) playing games. This was certainly not the entertainment expected of a 5* hotel. We spent most evenings playing cards in the bar area. The only drinks allowed on the A/I were Vodka, Raki, Gin, wine and beer. No other local produced drinks were made available to us.
The hotel is about 8K from Kusadasi and if you wanted to do anything other than play cards you had to take the last Dolmush (mini bus) at 9.00 pm and pay for a taxi back. If you were lucky and had spent a lot in a bar the owner of the bar would run you back to your hotel. As we had gone on 10th October many of the evening entertainments in Kusadsi were closing down.
The worse thing for us was that we checked out of the hotel at 12.00 mid day Sunday but were not being picked up until 2.00 am (14 hrs later) Monday. We decided to keep on 1 room between the 4 of us at the cost of 70.00. We were then told that 2 of us could not have a meal or a drink, even though we had not had 14 night in our rooms. When ever I have been on an A/L before you have been allowed to eat and drink until you coach collects you.
Saving grace was the weather was beautiful.
Overall views were for an October holiday:-
Not suitable for children.
Not a 5* more like 3*+.
Pool area’s very clean and well laid out.
Watch what you pay for A/L if you get a bargain fine, if not pay for HB and go out for drinks and entertainment.
If you and your family are not choosy about trying different foods fine. If not choose a hotel nearer the town.
A mixed reaction from our group.

The hotel is fabulous, it has everything u need. We arrived in the evening to an amazing reception, lovely staff and gorgeous clean rooms.
We had dinner that night and we were very impressed and had no trouble with finding a table. Everything was clean and tidy with helpful waiters. The cutlery was fine and so was the state of the tables. Me, my brother, cousin, mum, dad had the best holiday ever! My mum and dad had wonderful nights on their own without worrying about us as the hotel security was up to scratch.
We made a whole bunch of friends from, Holland, France and England. we spent a lot of our nights after having dinner, drinking at the bar playing cards with our mates and then heading off to the nights shows and occasional beach parties (which are a lot of fun) then to the disco till 2.30am and spending the rest of the late night talking near the pool or on the beach before heading off to bed. the mornings would always consist of late breakfast (with, bread, cereal, every type of cheese, pastry goods, etc) laying by the pool and definitely joining in the water sports such as the competitions the Animation team would put on, then joining in water polo. we would spend nearly everyday at the hotel without needing to go out of the hotel area, but we did visit Kusadasi a few times which was very easy thanks to the dolmus.
My whole family had a brilliant time and I’m going back there next year with friends and family.
Oh and by the way just thought id let you know that are friends from Holland are coming to London in a week.
I love Surmeli Efes and I would definitely recommend it to anyone, even with younger kids they have a ‘Kids disco’ where they do lots of activities for children.
Bye.

I can not believe what people have given to the hotel 2 out of ten. Rubbish!!!!
I thought that is was a wonderful hotel which my whole family enjoyed.
The food was great and the children’s clubs were ace. I loved the beach and the swimming pool.
This hotel is definitely 10 out of 10.

A party of 7 of us arrived at the hotel after a long journey, to be met by a receptionist who could not speak any English. We were put into the garden rooms which were spacious and very clean, pool area was clean, and food very enjoyable. Staff were pleasant via hand signals!
After a lovely stay I recommended the hotel to my brother and his family, they went 6 days after I came back, big mistake! They were put into a filthy room in the main hotel; they paid for 4 adults, one double bed and 2 mattresses thrown on the floor! The fridge was disgusting, air conditioning broke, ashtrays spilt everywhere, all 4 are non smokers, bathroom rusted, sink hanging off the wall, floor filthy. This is supposed to be 5* all-inclusive! For them it was the holiday from hell, 2 weeks of this at the hottest time of year. Just be warned.

Reception area and pools are very good; the rooms are basic and disappointing. The food is poor 3 star, you have to lay your own table and find your own Knives and forks (dining is a self service canteen experience). The entertainment is the worst, most boring nonsense ever experienced in 25 years of travelling the world, the highlight of the week was a Belgium gargling competition followed by a quiz on the hotel.
The drinks are very expensive, small and of poor quality.
The hotel is completely isolated, with no bars at all within walking distance and being 30mins Dolmus ride to Kusadasi.
You often have to wait up to 1 hour for a dolmus.