Grand Ozcelik Hotel

We have just returned from our stay at the Grand Ozcelik and what can i say, the only thing about this hotel that is grand is the name. On arrival to our room at 6am we found that we only had 2 single beds for 2 adults and a 5-year-old child, the answer we got from the reception was that we would have to wait until after breakfast. So not only had we just had the most uncomfortable flight with Onuair, a nightmare of a transfer we now had to share 2 single beds. On speaking to them after breakfast they firstly brought in a cot, which was obviously not suitable, they then brought in a fold out bed which they just dumped in the room, we then had to try and rearrange the whole room around to fit another single bed in, bearing in mind that it was already small, the outcome of this was that we had to live out of our cases as there was just no room for anything else. What annoyed us was that we had paid a full adults price for her. Regarding the food firstly the breakfast was typical Turkish cuisine, which we pretty much expected anyway but a week on bread, cheese, boiled egg, and watermelon was a bit much. it would have been nice to get maybe some fried eggs and bacon just the once. The lunch was reasonable but mainly salads and a stew of some sort. The snack bar offered just 1 selection a day either burger chips, salami sausage and chips, pizza chips, which we ate as this is all our little girl would eat, oh and bread. Evening meal was chips, potatoes and rice, one per night with one sauce based dish and one vegetarian dish, along with salad and bread. The pool was pretty good, 2 deep if you cannot swim as it is nearly 2meters deep everywhere and the kid’s pool is about a foot deep. There was no animation team whatsoever, and no table tennis, that was broken, no table football, the hair dressers was shut the aquarium disco is not open either along with the Turkish baths that only opened towards the end of the week due to everyone complaining. The beach was great straight down from the pool and bar and there always seemed to be enough lounges. The only bar that the AI drinks were available at apart from meal times was the pool bar which meant if you wanted to get a drink for your room it took you about 5 minutes to get there and then they weren't keen on you taking them away. Another problem we encountered was there were no outdoor pool toilets these were with the indoor pool, so you had to go down the steps from the pool area onto the beach up steps parallel with the ones you have just gone down, through a seated area, through the indoor pool and then into the toilets which had no lights on most of the time. We were told as it was 2 hotels connected they had to block a doorway which would have meant just walking straight through, this was mainly a problem because we had a 5 year old girl and did not want her go all that way on her own and had to take her every time she needed to go, especially as the toilets were next to the lift and stairs to the hotel exit. This was also a pain when sat at the bar on a night, as you had to do the same trip then. There were also no water sports or beach volleyball as the hotel site suggests, there isn't even room to play volleyball. We were very disappointed with this holiday as when we booked it we specifically asked the rep if there was any entertainment for children and was told the animation team is excellent, it may have been last year when the hotel was half board but we were told when it went AI they stopped the animation team to try make people go into town and not drink the AI booze, which you had to do if you wanted any sort of entertainment. We were lucky as there were a lot of other families in the same situation so the kids entertained themselves but it could have been a very different story. The hotel seems very anti British they don’t like it when we drink too much of there booze but a good tip is when it gets to near 11pm go get a round in each they hate it but cant really do much about it. The food is no good for children as ours lived on ice-cream, which they charge what they want for, and crisps all week with a few chips at lunch, oh and bread.
Just a few tips regarding this hotel and getting there, do not travel with Onuair they bring a whole new meaning to cattle class, and they are always late. Do not pay a lot for this holiday as you will have to go into town at times if you want any entertainment and it can cost you quite a lot, and the AI drinks is ok if you like beer, vodka, wine and raki. If you want a quiet hotel out of town with lovely views and can get it cheap then it is what you are looking for.