Side Holiday Village Hotel

Excellent Hotel/holiday village , friendly staff and food was beautiful and plenty to choose from. The rooms were cleaned daily and fresh water, which was free of charge, was put in the mini fridge each day. Air conditioning in our room was a great idea.
The entertainment was great for kids and there was stuff for them to do daily. Even stuff to do on the beach. The pool area was great with the slide and kids pool. The evening entertainment was ok but nothing to go wild about. The hotel is right on the beach and there are enough sun beds for everyone. Staff we on hand to help you find a bed and shade!
The only problem was that this is a very quiet part of turkey, and there are only a few shops close by. But you can get busses just outside the hotel. I thoroughly enjoyed my time here and would go back again.

We got a fantastic holiday for a fantastic price! We went with our friends who also agree on this. The weather was great the rooms were spot less cleaned everyday, pools were fab! Especially the slides!
The food was to a good standard but have had much better in more expensive places, e.g. Mexico. I do agree that the alcohol spirits was nasty but beer was drinkable. Great location but rep needs to sell the area more! Germans and Russians were a pain very rude, its not just the English that think this as many Turkish people made comments about this.
The Turkish love the English and are crying out for us, so give it a chance get more Brits out there! P.S My friend and I are both blonde and yes we did receive glances but so what, take it as a complement!

Although I agree with some of the comments made on this resort, I tend to disagree with some also.
First the good points:
The room was immaculate, it was cleaned everyday. All features of the room worked ( air con, TV, fridge)
Bad points:
The food was always warm, never not! And did not look very nice, this is probably why we spent a fortune eating out, (I recommend the golden star along the beach)
The spirits at the bar were like drinking ethanol,
But the main disappointment was the perverted staff that would not leave my blonde girlfriend alone all holiday,
My advice go if you’re dark!

The hotel was lovely, it was right on the beach and views were breath taking in the evening. I visited turkey last year and wanted to return so i saved all year for me and my son to go all inclusive it was not easy but i got their in the end, the pools brilliant very clean, staff very friendly and jolly and really worked hard trying to keep everyone entertained. I love foreign food but i was very disappointed with the choice, all mainly German, for kids it was chips cut up hot dogs and pasta every single night it was not fare on the children a couple we met had to take their daughter out every night for her tea as it wasn’t appetising at all.
Drinks were disappointing you had to pay for cocktail if u wanted one, the bar staff treated you like it was a production line always making sure the German people were tended to and got to you when no one else at the bar. Entertainment was 99% in German it wasn’t fair on the English kids who all seemed to go early as it wasn’t really entertaining them one bit.
Day time excellent weather great ,even got tutted at for having a laugh while chilling playing cards it was pig ignorant as yes, I WAS ON MY HOLIDAYS TOO. Thomson should have made us aware of the menus and entertainment solely aimed at the German people in the resort.

ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC HOLIDAY!!! I went with my parents and my daughter and we had a fantastic week - good choice of food and drink, the staff fall over themselves to look after you and the people adore children - especially the little ones.
The entertainment was FANTASTIC and they work so hard to keep you happy and there is a lot on offer during the day for both kids and adults if you want it - the "Animation" team work from 9.30am til 1am with hardly a break and still manage to smile at everyone all day. The pool was clean - although the edge was a bit slippery. The beach was beautiful and there are security guards patrolling at night so you are safe. The apartment was cleaned beautifully every day and bottled water provided - there was a fridge too which is unusual in an all inclusive hotel.
The aircon was great - the flight out was slightly delayed so to compensate they upgraded our rooms to beach view - WOW! I would love to go back again one day as would my little girl who was treated like a princess all week.

We were all dreading going on this holiday after reading such terrible reviews, however, it has taught us not to ever take much notice in the future.
We travelled here with four teenage kids, all who like different things... all of them had such a fantastic time that they didn’t want to leave and they want us to book up for next year.
The food was plentiful, always plenty of choice and variety, always hot. The complex is kept wonderfully clean and the entertainment team along with the hotel staff work so hard at keeping all the guests happy. I have travelled to many all inclusive hotels in Europe with my kids and this was by far the best I have ever been to.
The kids were occupied all day, the hotel has its own disco at night, which they were more than happy with. It is situated right on the beach and we never had problems getting 6 sunbeds either on the beach or round the pool at 8am, considering this was August and the hotel was full I was very pleased about this.
We had two rooms right on the beach, they were cleaned spotlessly every day, bottles of water placed in the fridge, and the air conditioning was a god send.
Yes the English are in the minority but that in no way ruined our holiday. This is a family holiday village with lots to do for all ages and as long as you remember it is 3 star Turkey and not 5 star Mexico you will have a fantastic time.

I read the reports on here a week after booking my holiday, it was too late to cancel and after reading the reports of others I was not at all happy at the prospect of staying in what one person called 'a dump'. However I went ahead with the trip.
There are a lot of Germans at this resort they have been going to Side for years and because of this the staff have a greater understanding of German than English, but this in no way means the staff are anti English, in fact I found them all to be very friendly and pleasant and they do have an understanding of English, a lot better than we can speak Turkish.
The hotel was large very, clean and friendly. I can only speak for the room I got it looked over one of the 2 pools in the complex (the second having shoot/ slides, that adults and kids seemed to love) My room had a fridge, small satellite TV, shower and own air con unit very easy to work if you needed it. I have no complaints (I have stayed in 5 star hotels around the world).
I am a great lover of food and was again dreading the meals after reading this site, I am not someone that can eat anything, far, far from it. Breakfast did not have anything with bacon or pork as this is a Muslim country, but there were fried, scrambled, boiled eggs, toast, fresh fruit, as well as cold meats, cheeses, jams, honey tea and coffee. That was between 7-9 if you missed that well there was more from 9-10-30/11.
Lunch was 12-2, the pastries were like afternoon tea 4-5 for that if you could find any room. Evening meal 7-9.30 there was just so so much, salad, cooked foods like fish, lamb, chicken, chips, rice, pasta even noodles, red and white wine in wood barrels help yourself, I was expecting vinegar it wasn’t I paid that several visits. As for the sweets ahhh to die for, must have put on a stone easy, the food was all good and a wide choice. I cannot believe that someone found nothing that they liked to eat, I was there a week and was still finding new meals. No stomach problems at all.
I met Pat the 'waste of space rep' she was always on time pleasant, happy and pleased to see you, nothing to much trouble, she was a good, I hope to see her again someday.
The entertainment 'what .......' Well they speak a lot of German but my God they work hard a small group of young guys and girls. They put on shows like Grease and one of the guys every night got the youngsters up on stage doing a little turn, I don’t care what country they were from its always good to see youngster enjoying themselves, and it isn’t easy, ever tried it ? I have trust me they made a hard job look easy. The girls from the entertainments offer keep fit, aqua gymnastics as well as beach volley ball and water polo also through out the day. They put in a lot of hour and they do it for all guests not just Germans.
I was so surprised my holiday was good you will feel a little isolated as a Brit but but I met up with two nice couples. In time more and more Brits will go to the Side Holiday Village. Its not 5 star Barbados or Mexico if you want that then go there its 3-star Turkey but I ve stayed in 4-5 in Spain that haven’t come anything like up to this. Yes I would go again and I am pleased I went.

The accommodation was totally unacceptable. The room was smelly when we arrived. To turn the light on in our room we had to unscrew the light bulb and vice versa to turn it off. We had little black worms in the shower under the cubicle.
The food was cold and disgusting we found a dead cooked fly on a piece of our chicken. The alcoholic drinks were the cheapest brands, PERA beer, which was not the local beer as it is EFES. There was no snacks available throughout the day i.e. chips etc only pastries which were available at 4pm-5pm. Ice cream was only for 1hr a day even that was disgusting.
The entertainment, WHAT ENTERTAINMENT? It was all in German as the place was all German orientated. Only 4 couples from England who all came across the same problems. Outside on the streets there were only a handful of bars which again were taken over by Germans.
Since we returned home we have had sickness and the trots.
WE WILL NEVER BE GOING BACK TO THIS DUMP OR TRAVELLING WITH THOMSON’S AGAIN

I did not enjoy this holiday at all. No one spoke English and the hotel staff that tried failed because it seemed to come out foreign anyway. A man who worked at one of the hotel shops, the bag shop, was very pervy and followed me around where I went.
He always used to say my name whenever I walked past him and embarrass me. He used to blow kisses and lick his lips when he saw me. I did not like this. Everybody was rude and expected you to move out of the way. My whole family had dioreahh and it wasn’t nice because we felt we always had to be near a toilet. I do not recommend this hotel to families with children. Being all-inclusive didn’t really make a difference because not many things were available.
The drink range was rubbish and the desserts at the evening where disgusting. I will never use Thompson’s again as they also did not tell us it was the first time English people has used this hotel. My air conditioning also leaked continuous through the night and the maids kindly placed my clothes on the wet floor, by the time I had came back in the evening I had to hang my clothes on the very small balconies. This was not a very good holiday and definitely was not worth the price I paid!!!

My holiday overall was quite good except for the fact that when we booked this holiday we were not told that it was a German hotel and it was the first season English people were going. So therefore none of the staff spoke any English, only German and French and of course Turk.
Everybody was impolite and I got elbowed many times whilst swimming in the pool and walking on the pavement.
The air conditioning in my room leaked continuously all night and when I woke up I found half my bathing suits soaking wet.
In the mornings I had to wake up at 5:30 am to get a sum lounger for the rest of the day. Most of the time I sun-bathed on the floor. The English people I found luckily were very nice and friendly.