Okay so let me start by saying I did honestly have a good holiday! Although this post may not come across that way…

Airports are probably one of the most stressful places we could ever have to visit. Add in the fact that online check-in isn’t an option for flights to Turkey, and that everyone going seemed to not know how to make the most of the small area allowed to our check-in lines, and over 90 minutes later we were still waiting to be checked in. I think that sort of set the tone for the holiday.

Once in the air, we began to relax and look forward to the holiday, although we knew it would be ages before we got to the Hotel. Over 4 hours later, and then the 2 hour time difference, we arrived into Dalaman airport after midnight, and someone decided to start an argument over queue jumping to get through border control. After waiting forever for our cases, we all jumped on the bus and took the almost 2 hour journey to the hotel. At least, I think it was about 2 hours. We finally reached the hotel at around 3:30am.

The lobby looked gorgeous! And even though it was the early hours of the morning, there were plenty of people wandering around the room. After a rather hectic attempt to check everyone in, our cases and hand luggage bags were taken  from us and brought to the room after we got up ourselves. This was when things really got interesting.

Our “family room” for 3 adults was apparently 2 rooms. However, it was 1 room, about the size of my bedroom. There was a half wall to separate the “rooms” but apart from that there was no privacy.  They had their double bed, and I had a single bed. Our wardrobe had 4 hangers and 3 shelves, and the bathroom was tiny. But we decided not to let it bring us down, we were exhausted and thought things would be better in daylight.

We made it down for “late breakfast” the next morning – served between 9:30am and 10am. There was very little food left, and we weren’t impressed with the selection. Plenty of watermelon, plenty of hams and cheeses, and very little normal breakfast stuff.  After leaving the restaurant, we wanted to take a walk around the hotel, collect our towels, and figure out where everything was. Unfortunately, we were mobbed by the spa Staff and had our morning completely taken over by them talking us through every little thing we had no interest in. All we wanted was some sleep!

Okay I realise we are 400 words in and it’s all been complaints. So here are the great sides to the hotel and holiday:

• The weather was perfect!
• The spa pool was lovely and refreshing
• There were fresh flatbreads made every lunch, afternoon, and dinner
• We sunbathed on the pier daily and it was perfect
• The cocktail bar upstairs had some great live music each night
• Staff were pleasant and most were more than capable at their job
• The drinks were on tap
• The beer wasn’t too strong
• We got a day trip to Rhodes!
• There were freshly cooked baked potatoes at lunch and dinner, along with a bbq
• I got a tan
• I read 5 books
• I just realised these are more to do with me than the actual hotel…
• There were plenty of activities going on throughout the day for anyone to join in

So as you know, I’ve touched on some of the aspects that didn’t wow us about Ideal Prime Beach.  Others included:

• The pool areas were overrun by children
• There weren’t enough sunbeds for everyone, and if you wanted by the pool you had to be down at 5am.
• The hotel had rules posted all around it, but the staff couldn’t (or chose not to) enforce these.
• There were only local spirits, wines and beers on offer. You couldn’t even buy a Gordon’s Gin.
• The spa staff were very pushy.
• The culture of the majority of the guests was quite a rude culture.
• Mealtimes were manic – there’s no other word for it. 2 hours over dinner is not enough time to feed the whole hotel when there aren’t enough seats.
• On nights when the hotel was busy, it was clearly understaffed, and yet there was no attempt to make things run smoothly. This resulted in us cleaning and setting our table, walking across the hotel to get drinks from the bar as the restaurant couldn’t cope with the number of orders, having to then clear each individual course’s dishes ourselves, and then when we tried to ask why they didn’t have more than 4 members of staff for the entire restaurant we were treated quite rudely.

All in all, I actually really enjoyed the holiday away. It feels like a lifetime ago though, so I can’t wait to get to Disneyland next week!

Have any of you been to Turkey? Would you return, or would you like to go back? let me know below!

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