Just Returned from the Eftalia Hotel in Konakli Turkey.

It was very much geared toward German/Russian Guests but having said that, we found most to be very friendly.

The Pool was the centre for never ending rounds of Games and Noise. So it was very difficult to just chill out and relax there. The upper floor where we stayed was extremely noisy late at night with people coming in late shouting and slamming doors.(Management didnt seem to care.)

My wife got physically and verbally abused on the beach by a cheap perfume seller so beware there is no security to be seen, and our reporting the incident met with no apology or action being taken. The food was plentiful and of good quality and enough choice to please most.

Rooms were cleaned daily and towels etc replaced at the same time.Lifts were allways breaking down (a hardship when on the 5th floor)The hotel staff were friendly and helpful but the entertainment was probably enjoyed more by the entertainers than the guests.

The view to the beach was marred by the unfinished building site of another hotel which they actually lit up at night (Very Strange)We were told that the Eftalia was directly on a Beach, this is certainly Not the case.

Would we go again? probably if it changed its status to 3 star and priced accordingly. I dont mind paying 4 star prices for 4 star accomodation but not 4 star prices for 3 star.

I returned yesterday from 1wk last minute break. Rooms where comfortable with sky TV and nicely fitted out - mine overlooked the front of the hotel and and whilst the immeidate view to the road wasn't great watching the sun rise on the mountains was magnificant. Whole hotel was exceptionally clean and well looked after. Food varied but on the whole was excellant - especially the salads and desserts. Brits are most definitely a minority group so the food did tend to pander to more Russian and German tastes but it was great to be away from the 'egg & chip' masses for a while. It was possible to eat practically continually from 730 til gone midnight in both the formal restaurant, snack bar, beach kebab bar and best of all two little ladies who sat in a traditional tent by the pool making fresh sweet and savory pancakes all day. Bar staff were friendly and exceptionally generous in the pouring of gin (big beware as it caught us out a few nights or should I say morning afters!) though vodka was little watered down (Russian influence perhaps!?!). Red and white wine were on tap everywhere - just help yourself. The hotel is not directly on the beach but has a little path to a very clean and tidy private beach 2mins max away. The facilities at the beach are excellent and much nicer than neighbouring hotels (I had sneaky peak at their loo's - not pretty I can tell you!). Besides the main L shaped pool there was a smaller childrens pool which was covered in parasols, an indoor poor with jacuzzi and sauna and 5 very high water slides into their own deep splash pool... I eventually put aside my grown up reservations and had a couple of goes - excellent fun and used mainly by the adults!

Only slight snare was the entertainment team...mmmmm enthusiastic and very very very loud, especially at 10am as they wake you from you hangover and sun stooper with a rousing renditions of 'good morning campers' or words to this effect. All entertainment is very 'euro-centric' thought the kids club seemed to be fantastic fun and their mini-disco had all adults up at the end! Whilst not to my taste ( I like lazy days and quiet snoozing!) there were activities for+- everyone from ubiquitous volley ball, darts games, water aerobics etc to more unusual rifle shooting and baccia. All hats off to the entertainers though who had to explain everything in dutch, german, russian, polish, english and turkish! Impressive if slightly tedious..

Do try the fabulous turkish baths in the base of the hotel - for 20 euro we were scrubbed, rubbed, soaped and massaged before relaxing with face mask... ideal way to start a relaxing holiday and provide good base for tan!

All in all an excellant cheap and cheerful hotel - we most definitely felt we got far more than our money bought and wouldn't hesitate to reccomend it. It is a new hotel and some teething snags were evident but being sorted but the staff do try hard and are unfailingly polite. Every evening for example, all the ladies get presented with a cut rose by hotel management...cheesy? Yep! Love it? I sure did!

Eftalia Hotel Resort,one of the worst holidays I have ever had, same goes for the few English I spoke to that are all going to put in official complaints, as I did, one to the rep on site and one to Thomas Cook when I got home. We couldn't wait to get home.

The beach is three footpaths away, not directly on the beach, as it says in the holiday brochure, down unmade chippings that were impossible to walk on without shoes, past the new building that looks like it has just been bombed, someday it will be the 'sister hotel' apparently.

The beach resembles Beirut with row after row of steel frameworks covered with green sacking to provide pathetic shade. Water geezer bottles refilled by staff with a hosepipe from behind lobby bar. The rep said they had a filter system.....I'm not convinced, still they carried them around by putting their hand over the open neck and then putting them on their shoulders, so the water, even if it was filtered, was then contaminated by whatever was on their hand.

Watch out for them trying to tell you at around 1215 that all inclusive has finished and trying to charge for drinks. Fruit drink machines were filled by adding powder then water, thats ok I suppose, but then one of the bar staff poured some in a plastic cup, tried it and then poured what was left in the cup back in the machine, he did this to every one of the 5 or so different flavours, very hygenic!!??

The area is a dump,there is nowhere to go, good luck to anyone going there. Take plenty of travel games. All evening shows the 'animation team'were not using microphones so it was impossible to hear them and they were nearly always in German. The shows seemed to consist most nights of the animation team 'pratting' about on the stage, often to German music, the Germans seemed to enjoy it. I think they need to get out more often. Strangely enough. Before the adult show, is the kids 'mini-disco' same name as the ones in the Dominican Republic and it was exactly the same music, in the same order.

Someone from Turkey must have been on an all inc to Dom Rep, shame they didn't pick up a bit more, as they have a lot to learn about entertaining English guests. The whole hotel is geared for the German guests, of which there are plenty, 90% or so with a few Russians and other Baltic States. Staff very unfriendly, unless you spoke German.

No late checkout on last day either. Well there was but, it cost

The hotel itself was very clean, testament to the efforts of the staff, and the aircon was great.

The pools were either not cleaned often enough for the amount of people using them, or weren't cleaned thoroughly enough.

A large number of people visited the onsite medical centre each day with complaints ranging from ear infections, sore throats, high temperatures, sickeness and diahorrea. This had been the case since it was opened.

Food generally bland and repetitive, favouring a german / russian palette. But the waiters were helpful.

Forget trying to order a free cocktail, unless vodka, whisky and milk is your tipple. They seemed to make them up or just not serve any unless you were paying for them.
One of the staff physically assualted a minor and despite being led away by security, was on-site the next day.

Disappointingly the reps in country suggested we report these findings when we got back to the UK, which means that more people have to suffer before anyone takes any action, such as suspending it until things are improved.

The comments book made interesting reading (if its still available), as judging by the comments of other residents suggest there have been problems since it opened in May.

Before anyone says I am just a whinger I went to Kaya Side last year - same country, same operator - and it was fantastic.

We first arrived at the the hotel and were pleasantly surprised as when we drove from the airport the area looked a complete dump and I thought what have we done! But as soon as we walked through the doors I changed my mind.

The hotel was very clean and brand new, but when we got up to our room we had a shock as the air conditioning wouldn't work and it was so hot. Turned out that this was due to a power cut which was not the hotels fault.

Over the course of the week I found the level of cleanliness very good. Our beds were made and towels changed every day.

The food could have been better as it didn't cater very well for English guests, but it could have been worse.

The hotel location could have been better as there wasn't much around but we were warned of this before we booked so couldn't complain.

The hotel staff weren't perfect and couldn't speak English but the odd one or two did make an effort to be friendly.

I thought the entertainment was terrible none of it was in English so my daughter couldn't join in very much which was a shame.

I would visit this hotel again in a few years when they have resolved their teething problems.

We went as AI for a change and never regreted it!

Absolutely beautiful food had breakfast lunch and dinner without any complaint.

Really clean with towels etc. changed every day excellent!
Brilliant pools with slides and everything lovely for children.

Staff friendly as normal and always willing to help.

Entertainment ace as they had shows and animation which was brill.

I'd definitely visit this resort and hotel again!!!

This was my first holiday away alone with my children and it took me over a year to save for it and it was not what I had expected.

The staff could hardly speak any English and as soon as the waiters knew you were alone and no husband or partner with you they followed you all over, my children were getting sick of the waiters hassling me all the time but when you told them to go they did not listen. I tried to complain to management but they did not have a clue so for 2 weeks I had to put up with them hassling me next to pool and then a couple of nights they knocked on my hotel room I did not answer the door but I knew who it was as they spoke.This scared my children as strange people knocking on my door in the early hours of the morning this should not have happened! I should have been able to enjoy myself and just chill out but I couldn't.

We had a lovely room with a lovely view of the ocean apart from the building that was built infront of our hotel was a bomb site it was horrible and an eye sore it was never mentioned that there was going to be a building there and I thought the beach was disgusting, we had a look then turned round and came back it was that bad!

The food, totally horrible we did not like most things so we lived on bread for breakfast and chips for dinner then bread again for tea unless there was a plain chicken dish. I was ill after eating rice on my 2nd day there so we stayed well clear of that!

The hotel was a lovely nice clean hotel but thats just because it had not been open that long so most things were brand new. There are still a few teething problems with this hotel and I do not think it should be a 4*.

There was a problem with the pool alot of people getting Ear infections(my son one of them!) etc and 2 days after I had left the resort the pools had been closed for insepction due to the rise in complaints.

There are alot of things stated in the brouchure that are supposed to be free but when we got there we had to pay for pool and other games and cocktails which were supposed to be included. We complained about this to the rep and she managed to get a free cocktail list, but there was only 5 cocktails on there and all rubbish! They only gave you the free list if you asked for it so we made sure that most of the English knew about this.

I can surely say this was not a nice holiday to go on with my children and I will certainly not be going back there ever!! Such a shame since it took me so long to afford to go on holiday! I would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

This was the worst holiday experience my family and I have ever had. The food was poor with many guests going else were to eat despite being all inclusive.

The water slides were only operational for four hours out of each day.

The drinking water dispensers were replenished from a hose pipe behind the bar!

Hotel gym poor with only two pieces of equipment out of four working.

Some of the staff were unhelpful.

Our bath/shower leaked despite complaining it remained like this.

The smoke detectors in two of the rooms still had the instillation covers on.

The lifts never stopped level with the floors.

The building site was an eye sore with workmen hammering/working away.

I complained to Thomas Cook rep along with many others. Despite having complained to them in the UK, I still haven't heard anything 58 days later. Abta are now involved. TERRIBLE!!!

Everyone we met and spoke to never had anything good to say about the hotel.