Garden of Sun Hotel

In short, this was the holiday from HELL. Both myself and my husband have visited Turkey before, and have always had a wonderful holiday. Upon arrival at Garden of Sun, we were extremely impressed - the hotel itself is stunning. We had paid for and were prepared for a week of all inclusive luxury. It did not take long for the cracks to show. Both myself and my husband were very ill during our stay, from the second day, as was every other guest we spoke to. This involved severe stomach cramps, which led to vomiting and diarrhoroea - which made it difficult to leave our room. We tried without success to express our concerns to the hotel manager, who, although a nice man, did not have the first clue how to run a hotel. Our rep also failed to attend to discuss our concerns, despite numerous requests, until our second last day. There appeared to be a blanket denial from all the reps that there was a problem, although we noted with interest none of them would accept an offer to eat or drink at the hotel. We also know that one rep refused to attend as she was pregnant. Yet, if there was not a problem, why not attend?? We are still unsure what caused the sickness - water? food? lack of basic hygiene? Who knows. What we do know is the only good thing about our holiday is the people we met there - some of which were hospitalised due to the illness, and all of whom, like ourselves, were very ill. The fact that our room was only cleaned once during our stay at 6pm was the least of our problems - we were more concerned with having enough toilet roll, and ensuring we took our anti biotics on time to worry about anything else. All in all, we would not take the gift of a holiday to this hotel. We hope that everyone who stayed there is starting to feel better.

After a very diffıcult year, myself, my sister and my boyfriend decided to splash out and have a bit of 5* luxury for a fortnight. When we got here we were so excited, the hotel looked what we were expecting, the rooms were lovely and the pool looked fantastic, unfortunately they let themselves down dramatically. The food was bland, but we would have coped wıth that. All the cold foods, salads etc of which I am a bıg fan was swarming wıth flies, I couldnt bring myself to eat it no matter how nice ıt looked. The hot food was not labelled and ıf like me you are pıcky about what meat you eat, ıt was not always obvıous. Day 3 in bed wıth stomach cramps, sıckness and the runs followed, thıs contınued for 2/3 days then the throat and the giddiness kicked in. The giddiness was unbearable and unfortunately our rep from goldtrail just did not want to know. After spending a fortune at the pharmacy, I am stıll spending most of my time ın bed and I am unable to go out and about, having to stay close to the toilet. As I speak, the toilets in the foyer are full of people clearly unwell. Nobody seems to sure if this is a gastric bug or food poisonıng, however, with a large proportion of the guests feeling the worse for wear (some hospitalised) you would think that they would relocate new holiday makers elsewhere until they get to the bottom of it! I am reasonably fit and healthy normally, however, there are a few very elderly people here who really cannot afford to take the risk by contracting thıs sort of illness. We passed a list of basic hygiene issues to our rep ıe, no hand soap in the public toilets, not having changed our room towels or bed linen for 6 days all of these things that we would expect our rep to take care of and she had no interest, stating that she would pass our list to the head offıce and we should take the matter up wıth the uk office on our return. I would never travel with goldtrail again. I feel badly let down by our service, some things which could have been rectıfıed a week in to our holıday, were not! As for the hotel, ıt does have potential to be a 5* hotel sadly until they address many areas of their customer servıce they do not deserve such an accolade.

to anyone going to the hotel dont, i have just came back today the 15th sep 2006. I arrived on fri 8th sep at 6pm on the 9th sep 12 noon me and my wife took ill and were the duration of the holiday with severe food poisoning and having returned today the 15th sep are still ill, as are i would say 90% of the hotel guests of whom i have a number of adress etc and who were all still ill when i left if not hospitalised,having tried to get hold of the very illusive manager i gave up as he or she were never their.I do not recommend anyone to go to said hotel as people were still dropping like flies as i left especially the elderly as the biggest majority were put in hospital, or anyone with young kids etc ,staff were very untidy and very allusive , 5 stars i would say more like 2 if lucky so be warned unless you want to loose 18pounds in 6 days through illness well its your life .garden of hell spa should be the name the best of luck to any who goes. it also took 4 days for room to be cleaned and towels etc changed

A one week stay for 4 Adults on an All Inclusive basis at the Garden Of Sun Hotel. Overall impressions of the Hotel, externally its stunning, a huge outdoor swimming pool, plenty of sunbeds and umberellas, lovely garden areas well tended, very clean and a nice outside eating area adjecent to the main dining room. a kiddies slide area with pool, and a theatre that opened for a hour every evening. Internally it could not be faulted you were taken aback by its layout. The rooms were what you would expect of a high ranking hotel, lovely fixtures and fittings, plenty of towels, plenty of wardrobe and drawer space, and a lovely view. The wellness and spa centre was well proportioned and clean,they also had a small but reasonably priced small shop in the hotel with everything you might need during your stay. However, this came at a price, the customer service was all but nonexsistant, Reception staff didnt want to know if you had a problem, fobbing you off came as second nature to them, the bar staff were constantly on their mobiles and wouldnt serve you until their conversation had finished, the poolside bar staff were very juvennile in their approach to the customer in fact very child like, waiters only cheered up if you gave them a tip. and the cleaners looked daggers at you if you walked over where they they had cleaned. All Inclusive drinks, ok if all you drank was Vodka or White Wine which tasted absolutely awful, any other drink you had to pay over inflated prices for, and i mean over inflated prices. Food, plenty of it just very bland, the soups however were delicious, we opted for taking our evening meals outside of the hotel. also the waiters were a pain you dare not put your cutlery down for fear of your plate going walkies, A big concern while we stayed there was three of our party were ill after two days Dyhorrea vomitting stomach cramps then more and more people were becoming ill, most people we spoke to had to visit the pharmacy for tablets, my own husband lost two days of his holiday and never really felt well all the time we were there. what really annoyed me was the hotel did not seem to bother at all about all these ill people.on the night we left a lady we had been speaking to earlier on in the day then had to be rushed to Bodrum Hospital for the same reasons as i have outlined. On our last day at the hotel we had to vacate the room at 12.00 midday even though we were not leaving the hotel till 3.00am monday morning, they gave us a place to store our baggage but we had to carry anything of value with us because they would not lock it, Tom Dick or Harry was allowed to go into this room and anything could have been stolen. They let us use the shower room in the spa center, they kept sending a woman in to make sure we did not pinch anything. I fell asleep on one of the settees in the foyer at around 12.00am a security man and a junior manager promptly told my friend to wake me up as there was no sleeping in the foyer allowed. A fair assessment of this hotel is as follows, it looks stunning and they are obsessed with it looking that way 24/7, they are obsessed with making more money, if you want people to go back and to recommend them then its time they upped there customer service skills and employed the proper the staff to create a welcoming atmoshere, we personally will never step foot in the place again.

The staff were fairly attentive especially if you were to buy an overpriced cocktail in a glass Sadly you could not drink out of a glass at night as they said it was dangerous aound the pool bar. There was no other place to drink.(But you could if it was a bought cocktail) There is a very noisy locals disco 30 metres from the hotel who like to impress the hotel guests with traditional music till 230 so ask for a poolside room. The food was turkish that's why we went to Turkey after all and valso very pallatable Some reviews are right but there are too many moans which I think is a little unfair on a hotel trying to get off the ground Try it in two years time the local disco and the hotel have sorted their problems out and when the news finally sinks in about there drinks policy and trying to make fast bucks...

After booking a last minute deal to the garden of sun for just me and my boyfriend, i was extremley excited...until reading the reviews on this website!! You would think that some people had gone to a local hostel for their holiday!!! It totaly dampend my spirits. I found the hotel clean, modern and spacious, unlike many of the cramped hotels in Altinkum town. i looked forward to retreating to the garden of sun after a evening out. Walking through the back entrance, passed the tree bar filled with fairy lights, and the lit pool seemed a pleasure to me. The hotel food was generaly good, and the salad bar was impressive however i did choose to eat out most evenings after fiiling myself with the fresh bread that the pool bar provided in the day. I found the rooms excelent, well decorated, with one of the best air-con facilities i have come across in a long time! Hot water was always available and the comfort of the beds often found it hard to get up in the morning. It may have been the exceptional company i was in that made the holiday what it was, but the hotel certainly added to it. The overall holiday was amazing!!!

We found the hotel to be very good. The food and service were excellent. All-inclusive wines, beers and soft drinks were ok and they ran "happy hours" for cocktails and other spirits. The room was clean and serviced regularly and the beds were comfortable; the air-conditioning was quiet and efficient. The entertainment was fun and suitable for all ages. Later-night music was ok and did not interfere with anyone's sleep! It was easy to get in and out of the local town for more frantic partying, anyway. The pool was clean and big enough to service all the families staying there. Some grizzles were heard about the number of sunloungers and umbrellas, however! Although our booking agent assured us we had booked for 7 nights, we had to pay a surcharge to keep our room beyond 8pm the night we checked out. The sauna and spa were lovely - the full-on Turkish bath is highly recommended, as is the massage. The "no food and drink in the rooms" rule was annoying but easy enough to get around with a little judicious use of shopping bags. All in all, I wouldn't class this hotel as 5-star against GB standards, but having stayed in other hotels in the area, it certainly was the best of the bunch and gave us good value for money.

A late booking for family of 2 adults & 2 7 year old kids, drawn by the attraction of 5* and facilities listed - sadly not all of these proved available - there is no jacuzzi, the in house spa is very amateurish, and there are RULES, 100's of them! Nonetheless, the pool was a good size, although deep all the way around so a bit of a struggle for younger kids, and the baby pool was exactly that. The slides were a hit, although they need to do something to make the area safer - matting and manned when open would be a start. Sunbeds were limited, and parasols you had to be down for 7am to stand a chance of securing one. We thought the food to be excellent, we didn't struggle to eat at any meal, and with fussy kids that takes some doing - the salad bar was superb, we have never eaten so healthily, by choice, in our lives! As others have commnted, the entertainment was dreadful - pushed off to an awful basement "nightclub" where everything happened to strobe lighting (without warning). Daytime entertainment was fine for late teens, but otherwise loud and pointless - when we were there there was nothing for younger ones, at all. The RULES are unbelievable - you can only have 1 key to the room, you can't take food / drinks to your room, bars open & close at specific times and its very limited what is actually inclusive, you pay extra on the last day to keep your room & eat, even if you didn't arrive until 7am "technically" they say you have to check out...and more. However, after a couple of days, you realise there is no point in fighting the RULES and you get on with having a good holiday. Reception are probably the most unhelpful, Restaurant are probably the most fun, Kitchen are probably the most skilled, Bar are probably the most adapt at ripping you off and applying the RULES.

to much health and safety problems. around the water slides to slipy. the slide poll was losing water over the sides so the manager ordered the pool guy to drill 3 hole to take the level down, but this filled the baby pool more and all the kids then hurt themselves by hitting the bottom because it was to shallow for slidding. there were tiles missing from the baby pool, (people got hurt) i split my finger open (very deep)and still nothing was done to fix it. there were railings missing from the main stair case. also the new area outsde for entertainment opened when we were there, ther shows got better but there were no guarde or rail arround where people sat. i went with 1st choice and the rep was that bad i thought she was on the hotels pay role. there were loads more. the entertainment team were the best thing about the holiday they were fun and friendly, although there was nothing for kids from aged 6 to 17. the mini disco didn't last long and the main entertainment was max 1 hour, but they are getting better. we did have a good time but mostly because of the peole we were with and met up with. the hotel has so many rule i couldnt keep up, but when i asked to see them as all the staff know them but none of the guests do i got told they dont have them written down. so there are being faced with conflict all the time. this is no where near a 5*. ice cream was limited., kids club poor, (but she was nice). kids had to pay for pool and table football also the games room which allowed you onto the internet. it just seemed like the owner just wanted your money but gave nothing in return. i could go on but no more

this is not a 5 star hotel it should be down graded to a 3 star. On first impressions beautiful clean hotel with lovely gardens and spacious pool area. However you had to queue for your drinks which only gin, vodka, whisky and brandy were free. The cocktails were expensive as any other drinks. There was only ice cream available for the children for an hour a day. there was no personal service but the staff were friendly. There was nothing organised for the children over 8 which is a shame as the facilities such as the football pitch were excellent. They would not allow any child under 16 to play in any of the tournaments. this is not a hotel for families with children over the age of 6. The dining room was like a school canteen with your plate being taken away before you had even finished your meal so you would hurry up and get out. There was not entertainment at night very boring as nowhere to go outside unless you went into town. Also when you check out at midday they take your armband off so you have to pay for drinks and food until you leave. If they sort ot the drinks and service and employ an entertainment team such as that at the Didum Beach hotel this would be a great hotel to stay and would deserve its 5 star rating.