This hotel is not in Side but in Manavgat.Its the Sunrise Queen thats in Side.One of the members had a nightmare holiday here in 2005 but I cant find the link.It is popular with Russians and although some of the reviews are good these are for the winter months,the summer reviews dont seem as good.There are far better hotels in Side than this one.

thanks!!!
the forums on the other website were for june 06and more than 1 and people who had been there 3 yrs running so it cant be that bad! we all have to take our holidays somewhere even the russians!!
we were looking for a hotel that has creche for 2 yr old not many hotels do this in turkey the majority start from 4 or 5 yrs.

a holiday is what you make of it and the hotel itself sounds and looks good its just the russians who let it down?!
thats why we go abroad to meet different nationalities and lets face it the english can sometimes be obnoctious and rude too!!!

from justine

hi justine,
i hope that you have a great time on your holiday and you are lucky in getting the good russians at your hotel,i feel that theres good and bad in all walks of life but speaking from my own experiences i have yet to come across one,i have stayed in the same hotel for the last 2yrs and it's 90% russian holiday makers,how they treat the staff makes me cringe and they think nothing of pushing children out of the way so they can get to the food,they like to push in not cueue,never a please or thank you and dont even get me started on the sunbed situation,but hey theres gotta be some good ones out there,lets hope that they will all be at your hotel,

Justine,I have no problems with Russians as I make sure before I go they are not in the majority in the hotel I chose.The hotel I go to in Side is more popular with Germans and Scandanavians but they are well mannered and even they complain about the Russians.If you notice on some of the reviews some guests are put in the rustic cabins and not the main hotel.Depending who you are travelling with they may have their rooms in the main hotel.I wish I could remember the name of the HT member who had her holiday cancelled at the Hotel Kaya and was transfered to the Sunrise.Perhaps the mods can help find her posts.I was only trying to let you know what happened to her.Jay

Hi

Just read the posts regarding the Sunrise Resort......Hmmm Bad memories flooding back.....Sorry

It was me....... Who should of been having a returning stay at the Hotel Kaya, Side with my family ,but Thomas cook changed holiday on the wednesday before , we were due to fly out on the Sunday. ( We had stayed at the Kaya the year before, and re booked the following day after returning, so we had waited a year to return). We only went on this holiday , as only on the sat before my hubbys dad passed away.. we wanted to ease the pain for the kids, they had so been looking forward to going to the Kaya again too..and sadly we never got back.

When we arrived at 5am in the hotel reception area looked stunning...they drove us to our room on a buggy type thing and the pools look stunning..

However, this was the worst two weeks I've ever had on holiday. Even are kids aged then 7 and 4 hated it. The slides were based inside a windmill that was dangerous and slippy, my hubby wouldnt let the kids go up there alone, as accidents were happening every day... one of the luggage buggy would pick the injured holiday maker, and drive them to the front of the hotel to an waiting ambulance. This happened every day without fail.

One of the pools has a swim up bar, with missing seats and the fixings still in the pool floor would hurt your feet if you forget they were there.
Flies/ large sized wasps would be floating in the orange squash containers, and even on telling the barman nothing was done, he just shrugged his shoulders and say so ? The drinks at the bars were served in the small plastic ocntainers, you know the white ones, kids have at partys, and then only 3/4 full, so you needed to order more drinks to get enough. The only place to get a drink in a glass was the bar in the hotel reception area, and then to get served quickly you needed to flash so cash. One family on checking out the same time as us, told me that it'd cost them approx £120-£150 (if my memeory serves me well) extra in tips just to get served with drinks.

The kids would also be ingored when they went for drinks, so we ended up going to get them.

Food is served outside in the main resturant, and if you like your bread without bugs crawling over it, or jam without the added extras of the large wasps floating in the bowls, then you have to be there for 7am. If it rained then the food and you got wet, however if weather stayed rainy they did serve the next sitting inside, but this meant less dinning table & chairs...... The food quailty was poor, and the kids lived on chips and cheese bread for 2 weeks. And one of my kids hates chips too.

Our son nearly choked on plastic from the eveing special ice cream, and the rep was near by and she took it to the chef.

Ice-cream for the kids if for an hour at lunch time, 12pm - and the stall was hidden down by the ampitheatre.. Queves were long even before 12pm, and if you were still in the queue and the ice cream had run out it was tough. Same again in the evening. Dining started at 7pm but thats when the ice cream came out, so kids missed out on ice cream cos byt he time they queue up for their chips and cheese bread and ate them, them got to the ice cream - ice cream sold out !!

All the clothes in the wardrobe had to be turned inside out and shaken like mad as the ants decided to move it... we could not even keep toothbrushes in the bathroom area, as it was so bad.

The staff were rude, and un helpful.

The entertainment was in different languages but not alot in english, if in fact much at all, it was geared up for Russians and Germans. So we never bothered going in the end, as we could understand but kids didnt and got bored. Even the mini kids club dancing on the stage was not geared for the english kids, and my two said they didnt want to join it because of that, however the year before in the Kaya, we couldnt get them off the stage, lol
The hotel is in the middle of now where. Theres 2 small sets of shopping area near by, but very limited and poor. To get into Side itself, then you can get a Taxi, and they'll wait for 3 hours in side for you for a return fare, about £35-£40. Or you can get the boat that leaves just after 9 am and will get you into the harbour for just after 10am, you have to be back for the boat for 12.45 to leave for 1pm and you'll be dropped off back at the hotel for about 2pm. Shooping should not be a timmed thing in Turkey, as they all want you in their shops to buy of cousre, and many are so friendly that this limits your shopping time futher, especially when haggling. Why on holiday should you have to clock watch , this spolit the day for sure.

We love Turkey and are currently looking at returning this year.

But no way we would return to this hotel, even if you ask our kids the answer is no way, not the place. And I cant blame them for that thought. Would not waste my money.

Lucky for us, on attending the welcome meeting, a family who also had been at the Kaya Hotel the same time as us the year before, and who also had booked to return to the kaya but also had their holiday changed , noticed us and we spent 10 days out of the 14 with them, and they too had complaints as long as your arm..when they went home, both my kids & myself cried as we would on hopped on their plane to manchester and got a couple of trains back home, just to get out of there. In fact the rep who picked them up on the coach was the same rep to pick us up to take to airport and she said she'd never seen holiday makers so pleased to go home !!

Actually, most of the english we met in the lobby on the day it rained and had heavy winds, none should of been at this hotel. And not one of them didnt have a tale to tell.

Which begs the question, in Sept in this hotel was any good then why were Thomas Cook able to put some many people and families into this hotel.... The reps at this hotel by the way are under the name JMC. Why was it so empty.........

But anyone has they own views, so this must be taken in to account. However, I'll stop on this note, the hotel rep had so many complaints she ran out of complaint forms.

regards
snow-white

ps ..
forgot to say it's not close to manvagat, i read this earlier in a posting it was. It was miles away from there , and a good way in taxi or a dolmus. sorry.

Thanks for your information Snow White but cannot understand why you stayed there and did not insist, at the time, to be moved, especially as you had previously booked a different hotel.
On other sites, people have said what a good time they had so I am a little confused.
We (two families of 5 and 4) will be going on 17 July - 31 July. But when I come back I shall certainly let you all know my opinions and Thomas Cook if I am not satisfied, remember this is a 4+ star hotel, and I shall expect the hotel to live us to this.
Can anyone tell me what the family rooms for 5 are like?

Hiya Justin. Unfortunately we will not be there when you are there, we go on 17 July - 31 July. But I will let you know my opinion. I agree a holiday is what you make it. On most of the other sites messages are good. Lets see if anyone else has an opinion on it.
Does anyone know what the family rooms for 5 are like?

i cant find any reviews or discussions about this place! surely some of our HT peeps know of it i have read stuff on other forums , that say it is excellent, but a few dodgy reviews too, i take everything on board when deciding to book and wouldnt let this put me off...i am just concerned that it is nt mentioned on holiday forums, alot of reviews mention the large amount of russian guests , so i pressume its not a big english hotel however jmc are selling it next year and they have full kids world clubs advertised, i have a really good deal on it so i am hoping for some opinions thanks in advance

hi,
my family 2ad + 2ch are going here in august this year. take a look at tripadvisor website there are more uptodate reviews on there. i was like you abit worried as no reviews on here but tripadvisor put my mind at rest!!
the hotel has its own website too if you google it you will find it.
there was someone on here a few weeks ago wanting to know about this hotel too, they are going in july.
i chose this hotel because they have all the kids clubs, including creche.
hope this helps?

from justine

Hello all ........ just like to say that the last time I visited this hotel it was fabulous, and that was September 2004. Yes there are different nationalities there, and I think that it makes for a good mix. a couple of words spoken in German to the other guests usually raises a smile and a polite reply. Regarding the entertainment, I felt that this was rather poor. We were happy to go to the beach bar of an evening, and listen to a band, who played a more ''adult'' form of music. Nothing loud or abrasive, just a few chaps with guitars. The cleanliness of the hotel is undisputed, maids attend your room every day to change towels, and bed linen is changed twice per week. Now, on the question of food. As this is an all inclusive resort the food is mass catered, your unlikely to find haute cusine here, however you will never go hungry. The salads are wonderful, and there is a chef who prepares and cooks fresh Pizza for you. There is an ommlette station for breakfast, unlimited amounts of fruit, and should you so wish, you can have chips with everything.
The majority of the guests are European, and so the catering does favour them, but British tastes are tended to also.
All in all I found this hotel to a reasonable 4 star resort, that is why I am returning to it this year. As I have pointed out, I did visit this hotel in 2004, and I am looking forward to being a guest once again. As some people have pointed out, a holiday is what you yourself make it. Do not just sit back and expect a good time to handed to you on plate, get up and join in the fun........only you can make your holiday memorable. Hope this helps, do look at other sites for reviews, they really do help.
Thanks for listening................Elmo