44 Reviews
Traveller Rating
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Excellent16
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Very Good21
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Good6
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Average1
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Poor0
Review Overview
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Cleanliness
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Entertainment
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Food
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Service
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Location
Travel operator: portland direct
The walk in to town takes about 10-15 minutes.
1 word of advice there is a boat trip,the guy comes round the hotel for bookings,very good value but take your own drinks and crisps that is how he makes his money,the boat is the albatros.
Overall a very good place to stay i would have no hesitations to go back.
Travel operator: Thompson
The hotel has three outdoor and one indoor swimming pools and a small child pool. There are nice water slides; great for the kids. There is ample space to lie down around the pools, on the beach and on two boardwalks that belong to the hotel.
We stayed in a Select Family room with seaview that has a separate child room (with playstation) and some extra luxuries.
The animation team is new (just transferred from another hotel) and they do a good job.
Travel operator: family
Staff were very pleasant and the entertainment team tried very hard.
We will certainly return but for 2 weeks next time.
Travel operator: Thomson
We were bounced from La Blanche to this hotel at short notice along with quite a few British couples by First Choice.Supposedly 5 star !
Definitely no better than 2-3 star.
PROS:-
1. Fabulous views from Starlight Bar and Terrace over the sea.
2. Plenty of sunbeds on the piers.
3. Nice atmosphere and reasonable food in the Turkish A La Carte.
4. No real hassle from sellers.
CONS:-
1. Dirty shower cubicle in the room (we had to clean it before we used it!)
2. Tiny & dangerous balcony.
3. No bedroom air con. anywhere in the main block all week (very uncomfortable at nights - hotel cost saving perhaps !!)
4. Very cramped dining area at buffet in the evenings, virtually sitting on your neighbour's lap, dirty tablecloths and tables;flies everywhere in the buffet (what happened to flykillers?)
5. Generally poor food in the buffet - few if any vegetables.(although a good range of salads if you were brave enough)
6. Small pool - no sunbeds available on the "sunny" side after 9:00am
7. The pool bar was a dive - full of sad (British)alcoholics most of the time!
8. Italian A La Carte was a joke - situated at the end of the pool bar so that you had a commentary of World Cup soccer on TV whilst eating and the food was poor - we are still laughing about the tiramisu - it was a tiny disc of flavoured gelatine!!
Also a general criticism of the area (but not the hotel's fault) - the bands of dogs roaming around - we like an early morning walk but had to abandon it because the first morning we were quickly surrounded by 8 assorted dogs, some with collars - my wife was quite upset.
Won't be going back to this hotel in a hurry!!
Travel operator: First Choice
We have just returned from a half term week stay at the Aegean Dream and it was the last week the hotel was open before closing for the winter. However, I did not expect the hotel to be closing around us. From day one the hotel was in wind down mode. The daytime activities were very limited even though upon check-in we were given a copy of the daily organised activities programme covering the entire day - it bore no resemblance to what was actually on offer. Up until the 4th day there was darts, beach volley ball and rifle shooting on offer each day. From day 5 onwards there was nothing. On day 5 we were sat on our sunbeds around the pool watching the animation team pack away all the activity equipment. There was a table tennis table, however, when my son asked to use the bats and ball on day 5 he was simply told "No". This is because they had been packed away. Whilst sitting on our sunbeds throughout our entire stay we witnessed staff transporting sunbeds, tables, chairs, mattresses and potted plants into storage - not exactly making us feel terribly comfortable - in fact we felt that we were in the way and an inconvenience. This moving of hotel contents intensified as the week went on. There was supposed to be a mini disco each evening for the kids. This also ceased mid way through our holiday. In fact I did not witness evidence of any evening entertainment! For an "all inclusive" hotel to not offer any day time or evening activities/entertainment for half of our holiday is a disgrace, especially during a half term week where kids were plentiful and needing to be occupied. The poor children were bored out of their brains. I have a 10 year old and he can be quite resourceful at making his own fun but even he was struggling on this holiday.
As for the food - this was poor and got worse as the week progressed. The choice declined and the quality was pitiful towards the end of our week. I think we were just being fed any leftovers they could find in the cupboards and not re-stocking on any produce. I drink rum and managed to have this for 5 out of the 7 nights, however on night 6 was told they had "run out". I suspect it was really more a case that they didn't want to open another bottle and not use it all up before the hotel closed on our last day. Other guests were of the same opinion as myself and not impressed. Many of us complained to our rep. I have never experienced a holiday like this before and have travelled extensively. There is no way the Aegean Dream could be classed as a 5 star resort - in my opinion 3 star at the best. To walk around the main buffet trying to choose something appetising to eat was impossible. Each food container was labelled but not very helpfully, ie. "a kind of chicken" or "a kind of soup". Hmm! There were a la carte restaurants (Italian, Turkish, Fish) but when you tried to book you were either told it is fully booked or it is closed.
On a positive note - our room was adequate, although a little cramped. It was cleaned every day and towels changed every day. The fridge was restocked daily with water and juice. I have nothing negative to say on that front. The pool area and beach were nice, sunbeds were plentiful although I should point out that the hotel was probably only half full during our stay. I am not sure how cramped it may feel during the peak season. Oh, probably should mention that they had a banana boat running on 2 out of the 7 days we were there. Not really to everyone's taste though.
I have never seen so many people actually looking forward to going home from a holiday. I usually think a week is not quite enough but a week at the Aegean Dream seemed to drag endlessly. We met a family who were on their second week of their 2 week day. The did tell us that the week before we arrived it was like a totally different hotel, lots of things to do, food much better, staff more attentive. However, on the Sunday we arrived, they said it was like someone had flicked a switch and everything went drastically downhill. Lucky us!
To be honest, I think we were unlucky and that the Aegean Dream just did not bother to try during its last week of opening. However, we paid a lot of money for our holiday as it was half term and prices were substantially bumped up. If we had known in advance that the hotel would be in wind down mode and not a lot would be on offer we probably would not have booked this holiday. I feel like we have been ripped off and I don't like that feeling much. As a consequence, I would never consider returning to this hotel and its actually put me off Turkey completely - which is a shame.
Travel operator: Thomson
Travel operator: Thomson
The pool area was a little small and cramped for the size of the hotel and I needed to be up between 6-6.30 for sunbeds around the pool but there were always plenty of spare sunbeds on either of the Jettys or beach for those that wanted a lie in or more peaceful retreat from the busy pool area. Plenty going on around the pool during the day . music played all day . animation team started at 10am with stretching excercises, followed by water gym, darts, beach volly ,pool game that was always funny and different every day. afternoon there was more volly, football, rifle shooting, archery, table tennis. An endless list of activities plus watersports included from the jetty which were watersking in the morning and banana boat in the afternoon . There were also pedeloes and canoes available and windsurfing. Parasailing had to be paid for. Also 3 decent waterslides at a seperate pool.
Food was plentiful and good although at times lacked variety , passion and imagination . Breakfast always good with the usual cereals, jams , honey , yogurts, cheeses, olives,plentiful fresh fruit, fruit salad, dried fruits etc. Omelette man doing pancakes, fried eggs omeletes and there was scrambled eggs, toms etc to go with these. Plenty of fresh bread and a small selection of coissants.
We had lunch in the resturant the first couple of days but found it a little unexciting so from then on just used the pool side snack bar where they served chips, delicious pizza and burgers etc. salad and water/honeydew melen . Must of put on a stone just from the amount of pizza alone I ate.
Cakes available at 5pm but I couldnt believe the amount people were piling on their plates.my plate looked bad enough but was miniscule compared to some !!!
Evening meal consisted of Hot buffet Area and 2/3 further cooking stations outside with BBQ each night of grilled meat or fish on the fish night , stir fry, pide and the all important chips everynight for those that wanted. there were also a chose of 2 soups and plenty of bread. There was always plenty of salad and cold dishes plus the usual sickly fattening turkish deserts or lovely ice cream available outside.
I would say if you had booked this hotel purely based on its 5* rating some may be disappointed with the resturant . There is no waiter service which didnt bother us in the slightest but somebody showing/finding you a table would of been nice as we struggled every night to find a table for 6 . there were plenty of large tables inside but this was stuffy and had more of a cafeteria feel . We were forced to move around and push tables together ourselves if we wanted one outside although there were plenty of tables for 4 outside.
The hotels location is stunningly beautiful. We have never been to a hotel where the sea feels so close .You constantly hear the waves lapping and there is a constant welcoming breeze . It didnt feel anywhere near as hot as the olu deniz area where we stayed the same time last year.
Evening entertainment was plentiful with a mini disco around 9pm followed by a show in the amphitheatre done by the animation team although we didnt watch many of these and preferred to take a stroll or sit and have a drink by the pool. After the show there were coctails available around the pool then always a live singing couple who were actually very good , Karoke, belly dancing contest or something similar until fairly late ,followed by the downstairs disco from 12am-2pm but we left this for the teenagers.
Overall we have had a brilliant holiday, met some wonderful people and had great fun with the various activities in a truely stunning location.
Our only critism which to be fair isnt realy a critism and more of a general feeling about the hotel is what we feel we can only decribe as a lack of Turkishness. There were none of the usual cheaky chappy, bouncy , mischeivious turkish personalities. the animation team worked hard and were very good and friendly especially scottish stevie and the morrocan guy who did most of the sporting activities and wore the bandanna but they were a mix of nationalities , many of the females russian and felt that many , not all were just doing a job. We just felt something was missing from an otherwise wonderful holiday.
Jack the boat trip guy semed to be the only real mischeivious Turkish personality. .
would just add that at a guess I would say 50% english and the rest a vast mix of nationalies, including many, dutch, Polish, Belgium and Russian.
Travel operator: DIY
Travel operator: Thomas Cook
The hotel itself was nicely laid out, with the starlight bar, fish restaurant, buffet restaurant overlooking the bay - beautiful sunsets nightly with cocktail in hand, what more could you ask for! There is also a turkish restaurant set within the grounds that we pre-booked and had the most delicious 7 course meal - it just felt really strange getting up (slowly) at the end of the night having been served this delicious meal and not paying!!
We found the staff obliging and polite despite being very busy and working long hours. The Dream Team work hard keeping everyone entertained with a variety of activities but are not pushy and are happy to leave you alone if you would rather laze by the pool.
We found the hotel to be clean, well laid out, and surprisingly quiet rooms at night- whether we were in a fortunate spot we're not sure.
The beach front location absolutely made this holiday, watching the sun glistening on the sea during the day, and the sun setting over the ocean at night - well, perfect!
Travel operator: thomson
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