Sheraton Cesme Resort Spa Hotel

I used SPG points to book the hotel and didn’t read the reviews until it was booked. I was a bit worried, but once I got there, I can’t figure out why others didn’t like this hotel. Realize a few things if you’re coming here:
- It’s a Sheraton and all the extras are expensive
- It’s in Turkey and many folks don’t speak English (get a Turkish dictionary!)
- The entire region is seasonal, and there are lots of things that aren’t open in the winter/spring.
It’s very nice overall. The location is prime – right on the Ilica beach, a 5-10 minute walk to a strip of restaurants and shops, and a 5-10 minute drive to the town of Cesme. The beach is outstanding - it’s very clean (the Sheraton staff clean it regularly – they were even picking debris out of the water) and there’s a pier that extends several hundred feet into the water. Plenty of beach chairs on the beach, and there’s a bar with staffers if you feel like a drink.
The pools are also nice, but realize that (like other services in the hotel and throughout town), they are seasonal and not all of them are open year round. Only the large pool was open when we were there – the others were being renovated in prep for the summer season.
The rooms are very nice – quite roomy, very clean, and most (if not all) have balconies with a great view (the hotel design allows about 2/3 of the rooms to have an ocean view).
There is free parking on the site, and they will valet park for free as well.
The rooms only have wired internet (for a fee), but there is free wireless in the lobby.
I thought the staff was very friendly and most spoke good English.
The only complaints I had:
- As is standard with any Sheraton, the food and services are expensive – breakfast was 50TL (about 22 Euro). No big deal, we drove to Cesme where there were many restaurants with very good (and cheap) breakfast. There are plenty of restaurants within walking distance as well.
- There are no ice machines, so you have to call room service whenever you want ice.
- You cannot bring in food or drink from the outside. We tried to walk in with some take away and they tried to make us take it outside (we played dumb and kept walking). Simple fix would be to put it in a backpack or non-restaurant bag (they never searched our bags).
- I don’t know if the A/C worked in the room. We tried to turn it on and it seemed to blow hot air. Not a big deal since it was cool outside and we just opened the window (be careful of mosquitos!)