Portofino Hotel

our stay was from 6/9/11 for one week. We arrived at 7.30 in the morning following a long flight. First a shallow greet, no smile no warm welcome. We asked for a cup of tea they said not till 8am. shown our room, my son and his friend were given a double, positive thing they changed it at lunch time. Rooms really small, cramp and tired. We had no clean sheets for a week and no clean towels, once we got them to give us some.
All inclusive is rubbish, the show a fine bar with disco as part of the hotel, this is not true it is privately owned. the all inclusive bar was a cupboard with one beer pump and whatever member of staff was passing was the barman. the wine and vodka was kept in a chest freezer. Soft drinks was bottled cheap coke or lemonade. Food rubbish, no deserts, no choice of breakfast boiled eggs everyday. Staff very unfriendly. On our first day we asked for a drink at the pool bar, only to be told it was not free, they are "external". My son and his mate played pool, which was advertised in brochure as free, half way through a game they snatched the pool cues out of their hands saying it cost 5tl as they did not buy a drink. on the second night, there was no tables for dinner so we sat in the bar area to each our meal at the only available table, only to be told "not part of hotel this for paying customers, move". The third night, my 72 year old mother and son sat in the pool bar, they said as they stayed in the hotel they got drinks cheaper, by 1tl. My son had a beer, when he went to pay they said 4tl, he said no 3tl we guests in hotel, they refused, instead they headbutted him, and punched him in the face. The next day they wanted to threw us out of the hotel. Even speaking to the locals, the bar next door, local people on the beach and who live permanently said the hotel is bad. as there was no other hotels to stay in we had to ask our rep to sort things out, we stayed the week against our better judgement but ended up booking trips and sitting on the beach, eating out and sitting in the bar next door (rudolf and ali, great people at pig in whistle). On our last day our transfer was at 11pm we asked to keep the room on until we went they refused, I asked about food and showers, they said 12 noon you checked out. They would do nothing. Rudolf next door looked after our cases, allowed us to use his shower and fed us, and allowed to sit in his bar to wait for the coach transfer at 11. NEVER STAY AT THIS HOTEL, READ THE REVIEWS AND BELIEVE THEM EVEN THE LOCAL PEOPLE SAY THIS HOTEL IS NOT GOOD.

Me and my partner travelled to turkey on sunday 10th july for 1 week and booked to stay at the portifino hotel. After reading the reviews on the internet i thought OMG what have i gone and done. When arrived at the Portifino hotel we had a warm welcome by the oweners and tyhe hotel looked very modern. As we checked in at reception they requested our passports which is a common thing these days as they required your passport numbers in case you are involved in any trouble while staying in the resort.
After being issued with our room key we were taken to our room which was based on the top floor in the roof (this is where i started to panic) as the hotel assistamnt opened the door i could not believe my eyes everything i read on the internet was so wrong. The room was just fine for me and my partner, ok we were on the top floor but the view was perfect we could see all of the beach. We had free Air con when usually when you stay in turkey you have got to pay for the air con. Our bed sheets and towels were changed everyday aswell.
While staying at the portifino Hotel there was only two problems :-
(1) the food was terrible me and my partner eat out every night. myself i am a fussy person when it comes to food people say i eat with my eyes well to be honest i am glad i do because there was this one thing that looked to me like a dead slug. there was no change in the food what you eat in the day you eat in the night. My partner also found the food terrible and he is the sort of person that will eat anything.
(2) While staying at the Portifino Hotel i realised that there was only myself and my partner and also another couple that were british. The hotel owners also spoke a bit of english but the rest of the guests were polish. This was not such a big deal to us but every morning we woke up there were no sunbeds left and we were up at 8.00am and also when it came to lunch time they were like animals.
If the hotel changed the food and not just cater for the polish then i would stay at this hotel again.
The best point about this hotel is that it is right by the beach and a two minute walk to the centre where all the pubs are located. And also the portifino pool bar is brill if you do stay at this hotel then i would suggest that you make friends with the bar staff as they are so lovely helpful.

I recently went to the Hotel Portofino with a close friend of mine. Initially we were supposed to stay at it's sister hotel (Alinda Hotel) around the corner, but on arrival we were told we were being moved. We are in our early 20's and I am a student so being quite laid back we didn't think much of it. We were however, happy to be moved once we realised that the Alinda Hotel was dirty, the staff were quite perverted and food was awful. At Portofino, we were always treated like royalty; the staff were happy to go the extra mile and make sure we were comfortable. The food, in honesty wasn't that great, but was edible - the weather was so hot it wasn't that important for us to eat - we mainly wanted water. The bar of the hotel was a little over priced but the entertainment made up for it. The walk to town was only a few minutes walk as was the beach. The town was full of life with many bars, restaurants and clubs (we didn't try too many clubs) Icmeler is a nice resort for couples or friends but not necessarily children as there isn't a great deal for them to do if the hotel hasn't provided anything.
The one thing i will say is to make sure you are completely ALL INCLUSIVE with your tour operator as the hotel has two types of all inclusive - the normal where drinks are served all day and the light option which only includes drinks at meal times!
When me and my friend returned to the UK we had some serious holiday blues and therefore booked a further week stay at the Portofino!

My partner and I returned to Icmeler for the second year in a row and booked a last minute deal to stay in the Portofino Hotel in Icmeler.
First Impressions
After a long day of travelling we arrived at the hotel tired and looking forward to beginning our holiday, instead we walked into what I can only describe as a run down dump of a hotel, and were told by the receptionist that our reservation did not exist. The man was not at all helpful about the situation and told us we needed to phone the travel agent we booked through, but refused to let us use the hotel's phone as it was 'too expensive'. After a few phone calls the receptionist then told us that he would sort it out but we had a "cheap room" (our holiday was not cheap I must add compared to other deals available for much better hotels, but we booked it quite last minute), which seemed a little odd as he didn't have our booking yet, however was able to tell us that we had a cheap room!
Hotel Room
Our reservation finally came through and we were shown to our room on the 4th floor which I was absolutely horrified at. The bathroom was the size of a phonebox, the shower was a small tray in the corner of the room with a dirty, worn out shower curtain and was so small that I genuinely struggled not to brush against the horrible curtain when washing (I am 5"6 and a size 10, I'm not exactly huge!), the toilet had some disgusting little water tube which was stuck to the seat and skooshed on you when using the toilet, and if you were using the toilet you were literally sitting in the shower!
Moving on to the bedroom (which was so small and cramped), it had a strange slanted wooden ceiling with paint sloshed all along the edges because of some seriously poor painting and decorating, the walls were cracked and dirty, the carpet was stained and faded (I thought hotels in sunny holiday locations usually had tiled floors?), and the double bed was two single beds pushed together and the mattresses were SOLID! We had no bedsheet to put on top of us at night, and instead were left with a baby sized blanket to share between the two of us, very strange and annoying, I had to pinch another out of the laundry cupboard to give us one each. The television was like something out of the 80's and was absolutely tiny, resting on a little table in the corner of the room and didn't even work as far as I know, half of our sockets did not work so if we wanted to use the aircon we could only plug one other appliance in on the other side of the room, not really ideal when trying to get ready at night using hair dryers and straighteners and charge phones etc but bearable I guess.
Food
I'd love to write a glowing report but in all honesty we were too frightened to eat anything out of the hotel. We had one cup of water the day we arrived when we waited around in the reception for our booking to be sorted, and my boyfriend had a few glasses of fruit juice from a self service machine when we were walking through reception a few times, fantastic value for our all inclusive package! Any time we looked at the food on selection it was old, worn out looking salads covered in flies, pale french fries, boiled eggs and baked beans, and cheese and olives. This is not a meal! We ate out 3 times a day for the full length of our holiday because the hotel was quite honestly just so revolting that we were too scared to eat anything in case we came down with a tummy bug.
Swimming Pool
Finally something to be positive about! The pool was small but spacious enough for a light swim, always very clean and any time we used the pool we managed to get 2 loungers together to relax on (maybe because the rest of the guests didn't want to spend any longer than necessary on the premises?). We only used it a few times at the end of the day to cool down as it was 40-45c during the day and very hot but I have no complaints about the pool.
In conclusion, the hotel was run down and tired looking, our room was just the same and I actually felt like crying when we arrived and saw how bad it was (particularly the bathroom), and to top it off the hotel tried to talk us into paying extra to upgrade to a 'better room', i.e. one with more space and a nice clean tiled floor with a normal ceiling, not some grubby cramped shoebox excuse for a room, which I believe we should have had all along instead of the shoebox. The only positive points I struggle to make about the hotel is the nice (basic but clean) swimming pool and the free use of WiFi in the reception area, however trying to obtain the password was like pulling teeth, and all bars in the area give you free WiFi anyway so it wasn't exactly something special, and didn't even stretch to our room, so we had to sit in the reception to use it. Please DO NOT book this hotel, you will be sorely disappointed and it seriously cannot be any more than a 1* hotel. Avoid at all costs - I wouldn't return to this hotel if the room was free, it was simply awful but we tried not to let it ruin our holiday and spent as little time in our room as possible to try and forget about it.

I was there in June 2011, a modest hotel, for less demanding, secreted food, tiny pool, generally clean and very close to the beach and boardwalk, you may want to use but very little money,Icmeler is a beautiful holiday resort
Jacek;
jacek_222@interia.pl

My fiance and I recieved a trip to this hotel as a gift from my mum as she knew we'd both been very stressed recently, so we were so excited to get away! However, I came back more stressed than I've been in years, feeling physically sick, with my anxiety playing up and took several days of relaxing at home to feel peaceful and happy again!
On the holiday, I was sick every single day from stress, and was constantly starving from not keeping food down. In case you're wondering, I was fine by our 2nd day of being home. Definitely the holiday.
I think it was a combination of lack of sleep, the constant 'on edge' feeling, which I'll explain more and maybe they put something in the food, like a spice that doesn't agree with me, I don't know. But I'm fine now, which is all that matters really.
I'm going to write about the hotel and the area, because sometimes places aren't what you think and I'd hate for anyone else to waste their money on something they won't be happy with.
MAJOR POINT FOR WOMEN - IMPORTANT - PLEASE READ - COULD SAVE YOU.
I'm putting this first as I think its the most important part of my review with regards to safety in the area for women.
I only used the bathroom in three places. The hotel room (obviously), the downstairs toilets by the hotel's pool bar and one other restaurant by the beach.
The hotel room bathroom had no lock.
The pool bar bathroom had no lock FOR WOMEN. The Men's had one.
The same in the restaurant we visited - NO LOCK IN THE WOMEN'S, locks in the mens.
This is either a huge coincidence, or something very dangerous is going on in the area. Please be careful. If you're near the hotel, I'd highly recommend using your hotel bathroom where you can lock the main door with your room key, even if the bathroom doesn't have one!
Now for the rest...
Arrival and staff:
We arrived at about 5am after a coach journey we weren't sure we'd get through alive (100mph in a 25mph zone?!) and were greeted by a man who seemed pretty unhappy and barely spoke English. Originally we thought he might just be tired, but his attitude was the same the entire week. I handed him the reservation and he took us to our room, but he demanded our passports. I gave them to him, thinking it was a routine check, but he left. We got them back around 12 hours later. Being without a passport in a foreign country is scary!
Some of the staff seem hostile. Some nights we didn't feel comfortable being in the same building.
Some of them of course are friendly enough though. Its not fair to generalise!
There is a major lack of communication between them though. If you have a problem, you might have to ask more than one person. For example, one day we wanted to use the pool, but there were sunbeds placed around it as if to say 'back off'. We asked one staff member if it was open and he said it was, and that we should move the sunbeds and go in, however when we were back at the pool, a technician was there adjusting the chlorine levels!
One thing that did almost made me cry was the fact they were using two young girls as cleaners. I don't mean teenagers, they were literally about 8 or 9. I think that's disgusting, they should be having fun playing with toys or swimming at the beach or something at that age, not cleaning hotels! This wasn't every day (I guess because they had to go to school?) and two women were used the rest of the time. One of them stole my pencil (not a special one in particular, but it annoyed me all the same). It was a mechanical one, I'm wondering if they don't often find those. Makes me wonder what else they'd have taken if we hadn't locked our valuables in the suitcases. The room didn't have a safe, like many hotels do.
Rooms:
The rooms were not bad at all. Air conditioning worked very well. Bathroom was clean but very slippery - I've seen this on other reviews, must just be the way they're built. The balcony was a nice place to sit, but don't bother paying extra for the 'sea view' like we did, its NOT on the seafront! Our view was a restaurant garden and a big tree. My fiance is 6'1 and he could only just see a glimpse of the water.
One downside - we booked a double and got a twin. Apparently they're the same thing to the staff. We thought maybe they were all twin, but we saw a double bed through a door that had been left open.
All Inclusive or not issues:
There are so many reviews on the hotel's 'all inclusive' policy and they all differ, so I'm hoping me posting a recent update will be of use to someone...
Drinks:
On the first day we were told the 'bar' is all inclusive. We went to the bar, they said no. Turns out, the 'bar' is the hotel reception - very strange. Drinks are all inclusive from 10am to 11pm provided you order them from the front desk. Choice is limited - beer, wine, vodka or raki. There is no service for tea, coffee or juice - you get it yourself from a machine. One evening we were going to have a cup of tea, but the water in the machine was cold. The coffee one is a little different, so its always hot.
Food:
After reading the reviews (too late to switch hotels), we really didn't want to eat here, and we didn't, but I can give some information on how it works.
At dinner time (I think 7 until 9), you sit in the restaurant area and they assume you want to eat (happened to us when we were just having a drink). Some reviews say there is a buffet - this must have changed because there is no choice. They tell you what you're going to eat. There is a board but most days they don't bother. They bring whatever they feel like to your table, and tough luck if you don't like it. Luckily, there are a few nice enough restaurants around the area with a range of food styles and prices, although going all inclusive then having to pay for all our meals elsewhere was not what we had in mind.
Same goes for lunch and breakfast.
Noise:
Some hotel sites are advertising the area as the 'quiet alternative' to Marmaris. I actually want to find whoever started that rumour and wedge earphones so far into their ears they can't be removed, then turn on the loudest, most obscene music I can find.
On average we got around 5 hours sleep per night due to the ridiculous amount of clubs and bars that play loud music that comes into the hotel. We actually took to going for walks up the beach and sitting by the sea until 2am to drown out the noise.
I'm also not sure about the safety here. Walking around after dark was a little scary. I was constantly thinking I was going to get mugged by some drunkard from one of the clubs or hit by a 100mph bus (that isn't an exaggeration, so many people in the area insane drivers. One of the first things we saw on the trip to the hotel was an overturned, completely wrecked car. The thing is, he hadn't even hit anything - he was just going so stupidly fast he must have flipped.
If you're not into nightlife, noise, or being on edge constantly, don't even bother with Icmeler or Marmaris - go to Gumbet or Bodrum. There's nightlife there if you want it, but I found them both to be a lot quieter, pleasant and safe!
Daytime:
The area itself is pretty to look at. Not so much the town, but when you're on the beach, you can look out to lots of islands, all covered with greenery. No-one seems to play loud music regularly during the day.
Hassle:
One concern a lot of people have about places like Turkey is the hassle. Its normal to the Turkish people and they don't realise they're doing anything wrong, however it is worse in some places than others. As I mentioned above, I've been to Gumbet and Bodrum and the hassle was tolerable. The people here, however, are just plain rude and agressive.
You will constantly be asked if you want to rent sunbeds (you pay to use the beach here - 2.50 lira each for a sunbed/lounger for the day - no space for towels on the sand), even though they can clearly see you're walking down the street. The sunbed vendors also fight over customers. One guy threw a rock at another because a family didn't choose his sunbeds. They're all exactly the same - a sunbed is a sunbed!
The also interrupt you whilst you're on the beach, asking if you want a massage on a table in front of everyone from a topless man with a bottle of oil. I think not. A lot of women seemed to be getting them, and the man seemed to enjoy slapping their bums (clothed) and thighs whilst getting them all oily. Not sure how impressed their husbands/boyfriend were. So inappropriate to see that kind of thing on a beach though, especially as there were families around with small children!
A lot of the workers in the area also seem to have a hard time keeping their opinions to themselves. Apparently I'm an 'alcoholic woman' for ordering one lager and my fiance 'looks like a girl' because he has shoulder length hair. They also tended to laugh at him in the evenings when I pulled out the money to pay for dinner. We tend to split meals etc, but as I'm a woman and usually carry a handbag, its more convenient for me to hang on to it, rather than risk the money falling out of his pocket. The waiters think this is ridiculous and a lot of them did question us out loud. Women don't seem to work, except as cleaners! One waiter even stated that the man is expected to be 'the boss'. Turkey - please wake up, its 2011, not the 50s.
Activities:
You will get endless amounts of hassle from people asking you to go on their boat trips. I'm sorry to bring the places up once again, but the ones I went on in Bodrum were lovely, peaceful, worth the money, and a good day out.
We bought our boat trip from the stand at the beach entrance closest to the the hotel (that should make sense once you're there!). It was a nightmare. Whilst the English waitress/host person (from Bristol, or so she said) who thought she'd become Turkish, putting on a Turkish accent in all seriousness was hilarious to begin with, after 7 hours of her offering drinks every 20 minutes and talking to everyone on the boat in a patronizing, demeaning manner, I wanted to throw her overboard. Especially when she charged us our 19 lira bill, then when I handed her a 20, she said 'and I can keep the change as a tip' and walked off. I'm not confrontational, but one angry German man wasn't taking it when she tried it on him and demanded it back. Had to respect him for it!
The boats also don't connect very well. We ended up stuck for almost an hour, in the middle of nowhere, not even at a designated stop, because another tour was where our boat had planned on going. Terrible communication!
If you get the chance though, if you try a boat trip, don't be scared when they give you the chance to swim in the sea. Its warm once you're in and an amazing feeling to swim in deep, clear sea surrounded by beautiful cliffs and greenery.
One thing I would REALLY recommend though, would be taking a pedalo out. After all the stress on land, it was lovely to have peace quiet and the sea, at our own pace.
There's also the pool at the hotel. Its a good size and very clean. Nothing wrong with it, except being fairly close to the road.
I'm not sure I have much else to comment on...
I would say my favourite parts of the holiday would be the pedalos (we took 3 out!) and the tortoises that live at the hotel. Look in the flowerbeds. There are two, a big one and a smaller one, and they are so beautiful. We named the big one Speedy and the small one Cheeseburger haha. They're friendly, to the point they even try to climb up you when you're giving them attention and I have several pictures of us picking them up, cuddling them etc. Just lovely, and they brightened each day after all the stress I mentioned above!
A few other points -
This has happened to me in some countries but not others - the local network will charge you to receive calls on your mobile, so be warned.
Most of the travel companies that offer a bus service will wait until AFTER you get there to tell you that you'll need to phone them 48 hours before they're due to pick you up to go back to the airport. Apparently they like to change their schedules. Don't trust them. Ours told us 2:20 but turned up at 1:10 and we had to rush.
Weird smells on the beach. Its not bad in the day, but at night the smell on the beach will range from egg/drains to gas leaking to the smell of the zoo. No idea what caused any of it.
Buy your food before you go to the airport. At the airport, we had a packet of crisps and a coke each. It came to around £9. There was also a McDonalds, KFC and Pizza Hut... Have you been to a McDonalds in the UK? If not - you can get a meal consisting of 6 chicken nuggets, a medium portion of fries and a regular sized soft drink for £3.99. At this airport however, we noticed that 6 chicken nuggets ALONE cost 16 lira, which currently converts to £6.16!
To top it all off, the airport was as disorganised as the boats, and our plane was an hour late leaving.
Never been so happy to be home! Although I do want a pet tortoise now...

I would love to write a glowing report about the Portofino, but I cannot!
We arrived there at 11pm on the 12th May 2011........it was shut!
They sent us to another little hotel about half a mile from the sea not the 50 Mtrs that we had booked for.
They it will be open tomorrow or maybe in 2 days which was confirmed the following day......they never came for us as it, yes you can guess, wasn't open. It eventually did open for our second week but we decided against giving them a forth or was that a fifth chance to let us down.
I strongly recommend you NOT to book this hotel. Maybe in a year or two under (hopefully) new management they will turn it around but if I was you I should leave it for now.
This was our 20th trip to Turkey, it's a good job it wasn't our first, otherwise we should never be returning!
KEEP WELL CLEAR!

4 readers found this review helpful

Went in august 2010 last minute booking cost more than we should have paid but wasnt an issue. Went with kiss flights who went bankrupt the day we flew back to England but still got back with no problems. When you get to Dalaman airport hand over your tenner (We should do this in England!). After an extra long transfer (the driver got lost and didnt have a clue where he was going)we got to the hotel where we had a warm welcome from the staff and we were taken to our room. Once in the room sorted out the air con, bathroom was ok room was clean and basic but had all you needed which was a bed bathroom and balcony with chairs and we were lucky enough to have a nice view. This hotel is just a very short walk away from a gorgeous beach with free sunbeds. The food in the hotel was good, fresh bread, soups, cold meat selection, salads etc, Even the staff (all family run) will eat the food from the buffet style breakfasts lunches and dinners. All inclusive light means drinks at meal times only and we were made aware of this at the time of booking and it wasnt a problem. Icmeler is a lovely place much better than marmaris. At the end of the day your holiday is what you make of it we had a great time so good infact that we have booked to go in may to the same hotel. The people are lovely friendly and couldnt do enough for us. Clean bedding and towels for 6 days out of the 7 we were there. Dolmas available every 10 minutes to various places for around 2 turkish lira. Bars and places to eat are everywhere but if you are going for a drink would recommend the bar next door called the Pig and Whistle again family run by a lovely guy and his wife very entertaining. As said before the room was basic but when your on holiday do you really want to spend all the time in your room? The food is mostly turkish so if you want english food stay in england. Had a really great holiday and cant wait to go back :)

This is quite simply the most awful hotel I have ever stayed in!!
I can't believe it is even still open.
Seriously do not go there!

1 reader found this review helpful

well i think the hotel was amazing the staff was great the food was okay the rooms were small but it was okay we still has just enough room we loved it the staff and the bar staff were good with us they kept us entertained we were never bored or never had nothing to do the room sare clean and the beds were changed once a day and the best thing was the pool it was clean and big so you can swim proper well i loved it and i am going back next year definately xxxxx