i dont think the hotel should be blamed for the illness unless of course illness was due to undercooked chicken, i always check that meat is cooked properly before eating it. i think where ever you go there will be someone that is ill, it only takes one person to get a bug and then it will get passed around, air conditioning can be a cause of that. for the few people that were ill there were thousands who were not.
last year we stayed at the tropical and myself and two of my daughters got a really nasty bug for the last two days and i know it was a bug because my son and other two daughters got it after we had returned.

Hi all

I've just booked a much needed break at the PV for myself and 13 year old son, departing 19th October.

Its our first holiday as a newly 'single parent family', and im obviously a little apprehensive to say the least!!

Has anyone out there been to the PV as a single parent, and do you have any tips/things to avoid etc?

Thanks in advance

Sue

We went to the tropical last september, when everyone was getting one illness after another, stomach upsets, ear infections etc.

There was 9 of us in our group and I have a very weak stomach and can talk myself into being sick quite easily!!

At the time everyone was complaining that the food was to blame for everyone being sick. I don't doubt that in the beginning this was true, however, we were maybe just extremely lucky, but not one of us had a dodgy tummy. kids included. We never stuck to the same food, tried everything on offer, and all ok.

As for the mossies, that's a whole other story!!

Trying the HV Egypt next year.

Stemma, Can I just advise that you don't book a hotel through First Choice that isnt even built yet, honestly after the trouble I had this year with the Kos aqua beach club its something you need to think long and hard about, I was cancelled 10 days before we were going as it wasnt nowhere near built! and that was with countless promises! and remember what happened to all the people who went to Pegasus in the first few months!:yikes sorry mods bit off topic.

I'll second that after our experiences at the Pegasos Palace June 05 when it first opened. After the blatent lies First Choice told us that all work had finished when it clearly hadn't, I'll never book from an artists impression again.

Thanks for that.
Have changed my holiday to the coral sea resort. Write ups are A1.
Not going til 27th September 2007 so will be having a peek at the HV while I'm there.
If it wasn't for the mossies at the tropical/palace we would be going back there.
Thanks again.

Hi All

Just an hello, we returned from PP a few weeks ago but have been very poorly from our trip. I will leave a review and tell you all about it when I return to full fitness.

For anyone about to go, please check the food you are eating is cooked! If you have any doubts, don't eat it, it is not worth ruining your holiday.

Also, any sign of tummy upsets go to the doctors! I did not go because I did not want to pay the £30 fee + any cost for medication but believe me, whatever I got from the food ruined my last week there and I ended up in hospital with severe dehydration. Imodium I taken over the period before I got in hospital did not work!

I told FC whilst we were there that I was ill and I thought it was from the food. An Irish guy went very defensive saying there had been no reports of food poisoning this year, he made me feel we was making it up and had no sympathy at all. I think he thought I over consumed the beer but there was no chance of that!

The place is great and as promised will leave a review. Do trips with Mustafa, an absolute must of which I will tell you about soon. Don't be put off about the place by my bad experience, like I have said, check the food you are eating, meat in particular and definitely check your kid's food. I would not have liked any of my children to have had what I had

There is definitely something in the pool water; my son got the ear infection even with all the precautions. I felt like my ears were burning whenever I got water in them, I did not get an infection but something was not right. The tests you see being done are not for bacteria, they are to che3ck ph levels and other information that you see on the boards around the pool.

I guess for such a large hotel, illness is part of the course and I hope it doesn't affect anyone like it did me.

Kids reps are fantastic, at the end of the holiday, if you are happy and they have made your kids happy, tip them as you will be shocked when you find out how little they are paid and that they don't get paid any extra for baby sitting after a full day of dealing with kids!

Just a last word, mozzies, my god they are trained assassins and have no mercy. I didn't see any for the first couple of days and commented to my wife that I had no idea why it was such a big topic here but they are there, hiding under the dinner tables waiting for that lovely smell of Boots extra strong tropical deet (Does not work, get a refund if you have brought it). All of my family got eaten alive in the evenings and my wife got her bites infected that required large dose of antibiotics when she came home!

Getting a bit weak now so will soon find the energy to write a review.

Just reading back, someone mentioned a review in the telegraph about the illness, does anyone have a link to this on the web? I would like to investigate this as the reps were adamant I was the first ill person they dealt with this year for food bugs!

If you have a kids den, there is something you should know! The sliding doors have slats in them that point down. If you are on top bunk, the little person in this bed has a full blown view of the main bed through the mirror. If you don't want an embarrassing conversation about what mummy and daddy's do in the bed together or why daddies bum bounces up and down, make sure the kids are well asleep and the lights are off, including the TV's! (Of which there are now two TV's in the kids den!) Privacy is not included in these rooms!

Hi McFester

So sorry to hear you have been ill. If you type in http://www.telegraph.co.uk and go to travel and where is says search type in Turkey, scroll down you will see a link saying hotel down with illness. I am really considering cancelling this trip now as I have a 7 and 3 year old and I really don't want then being ill!!!

I hope you are on the mend soon

Nia

we are going in may 07 but after reading article in paper and everthing on here im not sure about it seem to be too much of illness for my liking not willing to risk the kids and ourselves!

HI Bircia

I have e-mailed first choice today to ask if they will move us free of charge as I definitely don't want to chance my kiddies as they are so young!! I will confirm if I get anything back from them . I really feel sorry for Mc Fester it's a lot of money if you don't have a good time or are ill

Nia

Please please please do not let them put you off Nia. We were there the same time as mcfester and thousands of other people and no one in our party was that ill. Like mcfester said just check what you eat like you would in any other hotel or resturant. We had a very pleasurable stay whilst at the pp yes my son had an ear infection but these are very common its the bacteria in the pools and he has one most times we go abroad. My husband and myself had upset stomachs whilst there but they only lasted a day not like poor old mcfester. In every hotel you can gaurantee someone will of been ill during there stay due to food poisioning its not just at the palace.

Whilst at the palace we encountered some very wierd complaints

This place is far to big
Doesn't the title holiday VILLAGE give you a clue its going to be big

You arent a family (meaning myself husband and 2 kids) not like us.
Apparently because there was not five in our room we were not classed as a family.

Its like a school canteen
What do you expect silver service. I myself think they do a wonderful job i wouldn't like to think i had to feed 5000 guests would you?

Oh and to the family we saw in sarigerme who wanted to buy their baby an inflatable and the man wanted £3.00 for it they tried to haggle the price and because the shop keeper refused to go any lower they wouldn,t buy it. The next shop they came to they brought beer and never questioned the price of that lol

We had a lovely holiday and made a great set of friends (thanks bailey)

Hi All

Please don't be put off by our bad experience, the place is great but it is worth taking note of the issues before you go so you can prepare, this is the only reason I mention all the bad stuff to make sure you can avoid the pitfalls.

The place is very big but we liked it. We also found the tropical to have a better atmosphere, much more relaxed around the pools and seemed very civilised in comparison to next door! For example, to get a drink on the palace side, it is pot luck when you get served and you just find space at the bar, however at the tropical, we noticed a single line of people would wait, thus making it very fair and quick. I didn't realise this when I first went to get a drink and got served straight away leading to some scornful looks from the people in line (Sorry, didn't realise!).

We also found people friendlier and would chat between tables which was nice. Didn't get any of that in the palace side!

Sun beds were a pain at times, the usual complaint of the towel situation where some days we could not get a lounger until later in the day.

The DVD's at the market they have in the hotel are all good quality, got some latest titles which didn't work on the play station in the kids den so I thought I got ripped off but when home, they were perfect quality on the home DVD player! 4 for a £10, not bad!

Money! 3 lira to the pound when putting money in their pockets, 2.5 lira to the pound when having to give you money (Change etc) So, you are better off taking English. My wages was not clear in the bank until the day we got to Turkey so had to use Lira and it did seem more expensive. If only spending small amount of money, not a problem but it soon started to dent the wallet after spending about £600 in total over the week. (300 lira or around £100 for using thier currency!)

I don't know who in the past had left negative comments about Sarigerme itself but I thought it was a really nice village; it certainly had more to offer than had been suggested. Mustafa of Sarigerme Tours is the man, great bloke who is very honest and friendly and we really appreciate all the help and taking us on a great tour of the Mud baths (Highly recommended). Mustafa arranged for me to have a Turkish shave in the village and an apple tea bong/pipe, all a very good experience.

The shops in Sarigerme are all good and much cheaper than the hotel. I really wanted to go to a Tansas shop (I think one is in Ortaca) as these supermarkets are really cheap but I was too ill by the time we had a chance to go.

Beach is fine, great place to unwind after dropping all the kids in the clubs, guaranteed sun bed and relaxation. Beach is not as bad as been suggested but is very hot.

We tried but could not get a place in the ala carte restaurants; they were always fully booked for the whole two weeks but surprisingly did not look too busy when we walked past in the evenings! The steak restaurant is fantastic, you have to pay but cost is very reasonable and drinks are part of your AI, except wine. We both had a T-bone steak and it was the best steak I have ever had, well recommended.

There is a cocktail bar in the tropical and some of the drinks are part of the AI, it was never open though when we went to get one which was a shame.

It took us some time to get used to the inside restaurant, very busy and people do not look where they are going, it is all me me me, rush rush rush and is a very stressful place but you do get used to it and learn all the tactics to get clean tables with water! It is very noisy, especially if you are sat at the back where the waiters empty the tables. I preferred the outside restaurants as they were quieter but the problem here is the SAS trained Mozzies!

Whilst you are on holiday, I recommend seeing Mustafa on your first day and booking your trips! The trips made our holiday and wished we did more of them. Turkish bath is all good and much cheaper than FC, Dalyan Mud baths is fantastic but I didn't like the 12 islands tour as much as we were left to is on the boat and I wanted to hear some local information about the islands. I think here though, the guide was more German speaking than English which might explain that one; I was also starting to feel very ill that day. If I was there now, I would like to do the Dalyan night, very nice place but we did not get a chance to look around as it was getting late in the day.

I thought the shops in the hotel were fine, no complaints at all. I had spent a lot of money here in the last week on newspapers and water due to the illness and wouldn't say I got ripped off. It was little more expensive but that is to be expected.

It would have been really handy if FC handed out the kid's club diaries as I could never remember what was happening and at what time and where, so I had to keep going back to the boards to check. All the clubs were great and they really do look after the kids well whatever their age.

There was a fire outside the hotel whilst we were there, most people could not miss it as it looked huge. I was impressed by how quickly the fire helicopters put it out. We was walking back to our room when we seen the fire and some very panicky FC reps on their mobiles, we thought we were going to be evacuated if it got any worst but it didn't.

I hated the airport by the way, horrible arrival but much more pleasant departure - I was on deaths door though at this stage and had just had a drip taken out of me so was very glad of the speedy process for getting us on the plane.

Anyone got any questions, please get in touch. I am going to try and put some photos on the site later.

Ta taa for now

Just another thing, whoever left their kids unattended in block 3 needs shooting! No lie, from about 9pm to 1am on a couple of nights on the last week, there were kids aged from about 6 to 11 who were banging doors, screaming, shouting, you name it, being right misfits. It kept me awake and all 3 of my kids until their parents got home and put them in bed. We were on the ground floor and they were playing on the first floor corridor. A place likes PP which has loads of activities and they decide that a corridor is much more fun? Beyond me. Other than that I had no complaints about unruly kids. I think it may have been one family out of the thousands who let their kids do what they want!

Thanks for giving me the telegraph link Nia.

here is the actual story:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/main.jhtml?xml=/travel/2006/09/23/etill23.xml

I would like to say here that I never seen any Ants, bird droppings or dirty tiolets (Except maybe the pool tooilets where you could end up with serious head injury if you are not steady on your feet!) but the chicken and water is of concern. Just avoid eating these though and you will be fine!

Me again!

Probably best you don't read this if you are going but if you have returned and was ill:

http://www.holidaytravelwatch.net/Content/Files/Press%20Releases/2006/Hotel%20Pegasus%20Palace%20-%2024.8.06.pdf

WE STAYED AT THE P/P FOR TWO WEEKS FROM THE 10TH OF AUGUST AND I FOUND NO PROBLEMS WITH THE FOOD, I HAVE A BIG APPERTITE AND PUT ON NEARLY A STONE WHILE I WAS THERE, MY WIFE HAD A CONSTANT UPSET STOMACH (RUNS) BUT I THINK THIS WAS DONE TO THE HEAT, ONE TIP I FOLLOWED MYSELF READING FROM THE EQYPT FORUM IS DON'T COOL DOWN TOO QUICKLY AS THIS CAN CAUSE SICKNESS ALSO DRINK SPENTY OF WATER, I WASN'T ONE FOR ROASTING IN THE SUN AND WAS IN THE POOL OR SHADE A LOT OF THE TIME, SO I THINK THIS WHY I DIDN'T GET SICK.
DIDN'T SEE ANYONE ELSE SICK.
ALSO NOTICED A SIMPLY PLEASE AND THANK YOU WENT A LONG WAY HERE AND YOU WAS MORE LIKELY TO GET SERVED MORE QUICKLY AT THE BARS, A BIT OF HUMOR/BANTER WAS ALSO FUN.
THE ONLY REAL PROBLEM I HAD WAS SOME OF THE TEENS BEING VERY RUDE, DAMAGING THINGS ON SITE, ON OUR SECOND DAY A LOAD OF 13-15 YRS OLD WERE IN THE IN DOOR POOL THROWING RUBBER RINGS TOWELS ETC AT THE MOBILES HANGING FROM THE CEILING AND DAMAGING THEM. MIND YOU A LOT OF TEENS ARE LIKE THIS WHEN EVER WE GO ON HOLIDAY, MAKES YOU THINK WHAT ARE THE PARENTS DOING.

APART FROM THIS THE P/P IS A FANTASIC PLACE TO GO

*Edit as per T&C please do not post with caps lock on Briar

Hi Lillgirl and Mc Fester, thanks for all your info. Will keep an open mind for now but if there's anymore I'm not sure what i'll do i'm just really worried for my kids health and safety to be honest.

Thanks again folks.

Nia

Put some photos on, will be in upload for a day or so at a guess then will move to the hotel section.