Удачный эксперимент Successful experiment

This year, the choice of a hotel in terms of price / expected quality ratio was given to us with great difficulty, which resulted in a trip to the Litore Hotel, which, in principle, did not meet our initial ideas about the hotel either in location, or format, or area, or . . in general, nothing! But the experiment turned out to be surprisingly successful, although, as elsewhere, there were some peculiarities. And since I can’t express my thoughts briefly, there will be many letters further. : ))
Settlement. We were at the hotel at about 10 am and, based on the check-in rules, as well as the reviews read before the trip, we were ready to wait until 2 pm, which we were initially oriented to at the reception. However, while we went for a late breakfast, got to know the hotel a bit and returned to the reception, we were told that the check-in would be at 12.00 and exactly by this time we were in the room. Of course, there were feelings because of the number, because. The “Standart” specified in the voucher can be anywhere. In addition, I read in many reviews that people, when checking in, invested certain amounts in passports (whoever invented how much) to get decent rooms, but somehow this operation failed for me (probably due to lack of experience), which added intrigue. Well, and when my question about our room “Is it the best room? ” the girl at the reception answered “All our rooms are the best! ”, I decided that they would put us somewhere on the edge of civilization. Moreover, the room with number 1106, in my understanding, should have been located on the 1st floor, which was also not very inspiring, but... the attendant led us towards the elevators (it turned out that there is also a 0th floor, which is essentially the 1st ) and here we are in the room.
Rooms. I will say right away that the room fully corresponds to the photos on the site - both in terms of the surroundings and the declared area, and is also very ergonomic. There is enough space to accommodate luggage, and for all sorts of little things, and there is enough space for life. In the hallway, there are excellent built-in wardrobes with open and closed shelves, as well as with 16 (! ) trempels, which made it possible to place almost the entire wardrobe captured on vacation very freely.

The room has an electronic safe and a mini-bar with 2 bottles. water, 2 bottles min. water, 2 Coca-Cola, 2 beers, 1 Fanta and 1 Sprite - replenished three times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), which, in principle, is sufficient with reasonable use. In addition, refrigerators with 0.5-liter bottles of water are freely available throughout the hotel, which you can always take to your room.
The mattress on the bed seemed to me a bit soft, but it didn’t cause any problems, there was also a declared “pillow menu” from which you could choose your favorite. Or use all at once. : )
The bathroom also pleased me - quite spacious, and even the shower cabin is made, as I like, by enclosing a part of the bathroom with a partition, which does not limit your movements and space. There was a set of shampoos-gels-lotions, which was not replenished during our stay and as we used it, but perhaps because we did not fully use the current supply. The hair dryer was also good.
The air conditioner was hardly used, leaving the balcony door open at night. On the balcony there is a traditional set of furniture from a table and 2 comfortable wicker chairs. And also drying for bathing suits. With the onset of darkness and until 12 at night, the hotel lights were turned on along all the walls, but thick curtains almost hermetically close the windows if it suddenly interferes with you.
The cleaning of the room, as for me, was normal - the garbage was thrown out, the horizontal surfaces were wiped, the bathroom, glasses and the ashtray were washed. I don’t know about wet cleaning - we walked around the room in slippers (by the way, they are provided there), so I can’t assess the presence / absence of sand on the floor.
There was a failure with the change of linen, which should be changed 1 time in 3 days, but for some reason our cleaning lady changed towels, but the linen was not changed on the 3rd, 4th, or 5th day, after which we went to the reception and the issue was resolved after 15 minutes. There were no further questions. Several times they did not report the entire set of towels, but we did not strain much, because the next day the problem was fixed. We left tips for cleaners every other day, sometimes every day, but, as many people say in their reviews, this, in my opinion, did not affect the quality of cleaning.

Oh, and one more thing about the room - in our case it overlooked the outer side of the eastern wing of the hotel, which pleased us: from the balcony there was a view of the mountains towards Alanya, the sea, the Water Planet hotel in some distance and a piece of pine cape. And on our balcony you could meet the sun rising from behind the mountains. : ) Rooms 1104-1115 faced this side (although, of course, 1115 already had a frontal view of the sea), but numbers 1116-1128 faced, let's say, the inner part of the hotel with a restaurant, bars, swimming pool, etc. . The western wing of the hotel is similarly formed, but the rooms located on its outer part look almost into the windows of the neighboring Long Beach Alya hotel, which is not very pleasant. Rooms numbered 1101-1103 are located at the back of the hotel and offer a breathtaking view of the nearby Oz Sui Hotel. Although, if you are a fan of outright madness in architecture with an excess of domes and golden figures, then you can safely ask for one of these numbers. ; )
Yeah, and I also forgot - a photo of Florence with its main attractions stretched over the entire wall of the room above the headboards. I don’t know why they chose Florence and what it has in common with Litore (translated from Latin - “beach”). Except perhaps the Brunelleschi dome, which, apparently, inspired the local architect when creating our hotel. : ))
Nutrition. This is the next burning question in every hotel. And here our hotel did not disappoint - the food in Litore pleased more than in the Yasmin Bodrum Resort and Queen's Park Tekirova hotels visited over the past few years. Here it was quite tasty, and not averagely bland and tasteless, as it is increasingly common in Turkish hotels lately and is called the approximation of local cuisine to European.
Main restaurant. Breakfasts are traditional, so I won’t even list all the egg dishes (in particular, a huge delicious omelette with various additives that is cooked in front of you), vegetables, cheeses, muesli, toasts, cuts, sweets (I recommend tahini halva), the only feature is almost there were no fried sausages or anything like that. At the same time, cutting ordinary sausages was always present in 4-5 types. Yes, and the morning pastry was somehow not very impressive, which is uncharacteristic for Turkey - usually you can’t tear yourself away from it. But nothing, eat less! ; )))
Here's a late breakfast, which took place from 10 to 11, was not very extensive and even somehow plunged us into sadness (on the day of arrival, we got it). You won't leave hungry, but there isn't much choice either. Therefore, it is better to get a regular breakfast and, I think, it is quite possible to do this before 10 am.

Dinners alternated every other day - either international cuisine or a themed evening (on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday). For 2 weeks, Turkish, fish and Italian evenings were repeated twice, and Mexican was replaced by Asian. I won’t say that all the food was exclusive these days, but they adhered to the themes and treated them to a certain set of specialties: they even made rolls for Asian (albeit with cucumber and pepper, but somehow they were very tasty) and duck, for Italian in including serving a local version of Caesar salad and delicious ravioli in pesto sauce, Turkish was with lamb on the tandoor, shawarma, etc. , on the fish main course was salmon baked in salt.
In general, the meat was chicken, turkey, lamb / lamb, veal and the already mentioned duck, there was grilled fish every day, seafood was represented by salads with shrimp, mussels, tuna (moreover, it was they who prevailed there), all sorts of squid dishes - not super chic, but quite normal. Several types of pasta, potato dishes, fried vegetables, rice dishes and other delicious stews (eggplant parmesan for an Italian evening - mmmm) allowed you to choose a side dish to your liking and at the same time not too repetitive.
Fresh herbs, olives, cheeses, a variety of cold (such as stuffed peppers, zucchini, onions, etc. ) and hot snacks, daily 2 types of soups, pide and pizza, a diet buffet... In general, you won’t stay hungry anyway, but , which is nice, and at the same time quite tasty to eat. : )
Fruits were represented by watermelons and melons, which we mostly ate, but there were also peaches, grapes, pears, plums, tangerines... But somehow they didn’t make a special impression, so we didn’t try them, so I can’t evaluate them . The melons were delicious, the watermelons were also okay, but it was felt that it was already September and they had already lain down a bit.
Desserts are also good, the assortment is sufficient, which sometimes made it difficult to choose. In addition, there was always ice cream (dondurma) at themed dinners.
There was also ice cream and from 14.00 to 16.00 in the confectionery, but there it was portioned, which is not so interesting. ; )) Well, as you already understood, there was a separate confectionery, where from 11.00 to 23.00 you could get the same desserts, and besides, they made coffee. The hotel guide praised him very much, but I was not impressed.

Returning to the restaurant - drinks during lunch and dinner had to be ordered from the waiters. In principle, they brought everything quickly enough, especially if you order immediately after choosing a table, then by the time you arrive with food, drinks are on the table. And if you give a couple of dollars to the waiter boy several times, then he will generally love you like family and will bring the order before you make it.
I will make a reservation right away that the staff understands English, German and Russian - but with very different degrees of confidence. Therefore, it is better not to enter into long discussions, but a brief request will be understood and fulfilled.
And regarding the places - they were always there, we prefer the open terrace and there was always the opportunity to sit there, although we usually did not come at the beginning of dinner, but around 8 o'clock in the evening. And the food was also all available, I practically did not see queues for food or drinks. Once seen a queue of 3 people for an omelette does not count.
Lunches, in principle, were like dinners in terms of the assortment of dishes, but during the 2 weeks of rest we dined in the main restaurant only 1 time, the rest of the time we had enough of a snack bar on the beach, to which I will smoothly move on. : )

I’ll say right away that at first he didn’t make a very favorable impression on me - a narrow selection of food, disposable plastic utensils... But then I thought, and the presence of disposable utensils put him more of a plus than a minus. So, in the snack bar, traditional fries, pasta, hamburger sets, grilled fish, grilled meat (chicken, turkey or lamb cutlets), fresh vegetables and olives, watermelon and alternately something else from fruits, several types cupcake cookies. I think the advantage of this snack bar is that all these dishes (except hot ones) were in a glassed-in window, and not in the open air. Literally a stone's throw from the bar, they made 2 kinds of gozleme - with potatoes and with cheese, sometimes I also saw it with sugar and cinnamon, but I never tried it. In general, this assortment was enough for us for 2 weeks of good snacks, especially after on the 3rd day we learned about the availability of portioned ayran, which we had to ask the bartender from the refrigerator, and about a week later we discovered kumpir (its exhibited after 14.00) - a baked potato, in which you can choose fillings if you wish.
Drinks, again, are traditional for a beach bar - beer, colored ice, cola-fanta-sprite plus alcoholic vodka-gin-whiskey and white-pink-red wine, coffee from the machine.
Perhaps some will accuse me of unpretentious tastes, but I will tell you this - do not forget the meaning of the word "snack", from which the name of the bar comes. ; )))
There was also a second snack bar near the pool, which opened after lunch in the main restaurant at 2 pm, but we couldn’t get there at all and therefore I can’t describe it, although I think that the assortment there was similar.
There are also 4 a la carte restaurants in the hotel - 2 paid for 15 euros (they work once a week each) and 2 free (each is open twice a week). Although we had the right to visit both free restaurants, we only went to Rybny, because. The Asian menu, to be honest, did not impress and did not differ much from the dishes in the main restaurant. In Rybny, the appetizers were almost the same as in the main restaurant for a fish dinner - salads with shrimp, mussels, tuna and squid, as well as a very good 2 types of hot smoked fish. In addition, there was fish soup (I will not call it bouillabaisse, under what name it was listed on the menu), delicious squid rings in batter. Main dish to choose from: fillet of sea bass or flounder - both were slightly overdried. For dessert, if you win, of course, chocolate fondant with ice cream is not bad. But to be completely honest, it was possible not to go - in the main restaurant you can eat fish anyway, and because of the trip to a la carte we missed the Mexican evening, which I still regret. : ))

In addition, the a la carte booking system is a little annoying - you need to approach the guest relations immediately before the day of the planned visit by 9.00, i. e. It is impossible to sign up a week in advance, which leads to a queue. And our people still do not come at 9.00, but at 08.30, to be sure, after which the poor foreigners, who come to 9 in a disciplined manner, do not have enough places in a la carte. ; )))
Oh, and one more remark about food - almost every day in the main restaurant, and several times in a snack bar, pastry shop, etc. we saw the chief hotel manager responsible for the direction of food, who controlled the work of the services subordinate to him. Yes, and the chef periodically appeared. I think this can be put in a plus for the hotel.
Bars. There were always places in the bars! Well, except perhaps in the pool bar, when there were karaoke contests or live music evenings, all the tables could be occupied. But it is enough to turn around the corner, where the tables of the hookah bar are located (the hookah is paid, we are not fans, therefore we did not try it) and you will find a place for yourself.
I have not seen a single person in the so-called librery bar on the -1 floor next to the confectionery, although the bar itself looks very cozy. I think that it is in demand in rainy weather, because. is in a closed area.

No less popular is the lobby bar on the 0th floor, which is explained by the presence of imported alcoholic drinks in it - martini, baileys, 12-year-old chivas, jack daniels and something else. Regarding whiskey, I won’t say how true this is, because I don’t understand blends and they all taste the same to me (Husband, however, tasted and confirmed the authenticity). But the martini for the first time seemed a little strange, then it seemed to be nothing. Also, of course, there are all local drinks, three types of draft beer plus bottled, cocktails and local champagne (not brut, of course, but not Buratino's drink, as in last year's Tekirov). In principle, it is quite possible to choose something for an evening conversation. Unless, of course, you pretend to be a gourmet taster who will say on the fly whether 1990 was a good year for the Chateau Haut-Brion vineyards or how old the oak from which John Dewar's hardworking followers riveted the barrel in which their Aberfeldy is aged ". And one more plus of the lobby bar is a huge open terrace, where there were always seats. The queue in the lobby bar was about 3-4 people in the evenings, it passed quickly.
Beach. Finally, let's move on to the sea, because of which, in fact, we arrived at the hotel. Yes, you have to walk to the beach (actually 3 minutes with a leisurely step down) or take a ride in a trailer pulled by a tractor (such a local landmark). Upstairs, of course, is better with the same tractor, because the climb is very steep, but if on foot, then count on 7-10 minutes. The tractor has a schedule (every 30 minutes or something like that), but it does not adhere to it, but drives when there are people who want it, i. e. more often. But he had his last flight from the beach at about 18.45, and if you want to stay at the sea longer, then it’s only a hike.
But the photos of the beach on the hotel website are not entirely true, and here the hotel is a little cunning, showing a spacious beach strip with fungi in front of the snack bar. Now the beach has been reformatted - all the fungi lined up compactly along one side of the snack bar, and in front of it there are 2 rows of sunbeds without umbrellas. In addition, the beach was significantly stinged - the nearby hotels wedged in and there is no longer such a spaciousness, as shown in the 3-D panorama.
But at the same time, there are enough sunbeds for everyone, and there are still free ones. They never ran at 5 in the morning to take something there. They came at 9 and 10 - there were always places. Even taking into account the fact that due to the peculiarities of the trajectory of the sun across the beach, and not along, and rather high mushrooms, the shade of which is not enough for the 2 sun loungers provided, we occupied 2 mushrooms and 4 sun loungers, respectively. And it is best to occupy them on the border with the beach of a neighboring hotel, where 3 small palm trees grow - this will allow you to move the sun loungers between the shade from three fungi, and in the afternoon you can also use the shade from the palm tree. : )

The sun loungers are not super new, but they are whole, and, what I especially liked, they are mesh, they do not need mattresses. True, in front of my eyes, under one of the rest, part of the grid broke through - not a disaster, but it was quite unexpected. ; ))
The beach strip consists of small-small pebbles, it is comfortable to walk on, but very hot, so we went to the sea in slippers. The sea is quite clean, traditionally slightly whitish, sometimes it brought small algae or turbidity rose, but not often. Our beach was the last one in a wide bay, and it was protected from the winds by a pleasant pine cape, due to which there was almost no unrest in our part. Yes, and walking along this cape was a pleasure (but not in the heat).
Another plus of the beach is a fairly wide water area for swimming, which is stretched along the beaches of 4 hotels, so when swimming you do not feel like you are in an indoor pool. And besides, it was possible to swim along the cape further into the sea.
Of the minuses or, let's say, features, I would name 2 points: on our beach, though closer to the gazebo zone, people came who, as I understand it, lived in apartments located behind the line of hotels. Yes, they did not occupy sunbeds, but were located on the sand with their towels, etc. , but this gave the impression of a public beach. Moreover, they certainly used our shower on the beach. And the second thing is that not only we, but also local boats liked our cape - every day one or even two boats with scuba divers who dived along the cape sailed there, sometimes the so-called “pirate ship” came with a crowd of tourists on board, which were let out there to swim and swim, and sometimes a rare muck sailed - a yacht that did some kind of barbecue right on board on some terribly smelly fuel. It is clear that all this flashed before your eyes, pressed on your ears with its music, and, of course, did not contribute to the purity of the water. So if something happens, be prepared.

The exchange of beach towels is located very conveniently - on the -2nd floor in the SPA on the way to the beach. The only nuance regarding which we had a small conflict was the replacement of towels. For the first time, the employee who gave out towels explained that we can change them until 13.00, and then only return them. I understood that we were talking about the exchange of towels, but it turned out that they had in mind (probably, because the conversation was in English, which is neither native to us nor to him) the exchange of cards for towels. Therefore, when we brought towels the next morning, which we did not have time to return before 19.00 yesterday, he gave us a whole lecture that it was impossible to do this, we had to hand it in strictly before 19.00, etc. As a result, the exchange nevertheless took place, but relations remained strained. : ) Towels, as elsewhere - there are newer-fluffier ones, there are older-thinner ones. We usually got the mix.
Infrastructure. In my opinion, it's great. As for a hotel with such a small area, it has everything you need and there are enough places everywhere. The hotel descends several steps towards the sea, due to which the main pool offers a beautiful view of the sea and amazing sunsets. However, the pool is big. It is also embellished with 2 bridges, where I didn’t take a picture, probably only a lazy one. Sunbeds, based on our superficial observations (we are not in the pools, actually... ), there were also enough for everyone.
On the same level was an archery area, which also hosted an Oktoberfest and a foam party during our stay.
The terrace below is a pool with 3 slides, of which 2 worked with us, but they are quite enough for entertainment. The time of their work 10.00-12.00 and 14.00-16.00 somehow fell right after breakfast and right after dinner, but at 3 o'clock it was quite possible to frolic there.
Approximately at the same level, there is a terrace with a small children's pool, next to it is a playground (several swings, a slide and something else) and a mini club. In the same place, a little closer to the center, there is a kind of relaxation zone with large sofas (I don’t know what they are called correctly), a small pool, showers and changing cabins. Further down is a fish restaurant, followed by another relaxation lawn and an entrance to the indoor pool with Jacuzzi. But here we definitely have never been, only once we went for informational purposes.
And on the next terrace there is an amphitheater for shows, and it is equipped with more than just benches. There are tables with chairs on several levels, i. e. it turns out to be such a cabaret format - very convenient, there is where to put drinks, an ashtray, etc.
On the -2nd floor there are traditional leather-fur-watches-jewellery-clothes shops plus a hairdresser's, a tattoo parlor, a doctor's office. There is a car park in front of the hotel entrance, and this is where the territory actually ends.

I forgot the main thing at the present time - WI-FI! It was best of all, of course, in the lobby, but I caught it in the rest of the territory, in the room I even took it to my weak phone. He also worked on the beach.
Yes, and one more note - not about infrastructure, but still. The hotel has a very convenient location for trips around the area - it is equidistant from Alanya and Side. On a dolmush, the road both there and there takes about 50 minutes, it costs 1 dollar. or 6 lira per person one way and, which is very comfortable, there are always free places in this section in dolmush, which are actively filled as you approach Alanya / Side. For us, this was a significant plus.
Animation. The animation team, as usual, is international with a local Turkish chef. The set of entertainment is also approximately similar to other Turkish hotels. True, all activities take place at the hotel, on the beach only volleyball is sometimes once, sometimes twice a day. In the hotel, from what we heard or saw, it's yoga, darts, water polo, foam parties several times a week, archery. The list is long, but we didn't participate, so I can't say for sure.
2 times held a local Oktoberfest with beer, fried sausages and salted pretzels, plus different competitions. It was cool - the Germans rejoiced most of all. : )
Evening shows, created by the animation team (such as "Mr. and Mrs. Litore"), were interspersed with performances by invited semi-amateur groups - Cuban and Turkish dances, acrobats, extreme shows of cyclists and rollers, a fire show. Often, after the show, the entertainment moved to the pool bar area and continued with something like a disco, a karaoke contest or a game of Bingo. Several times there were evenings of live music.

In addition, there are opportunities from the category of "entertain yourself" - big chess on the street, ping-pong, a mini-golf course. Moreover, by its appearance, I thought that it had been abandoned for a long time, it turned out - no, go take clubs and play if you want. There was also a separate room for games with backgammon checkers, billiards, game consoles and slot machines, but I didn’t notice a single person there for 2 weeks either. I don't know if it's a paid option or a free one.
Outcome. Summing up, I will say this - the hotel, in principle, corresponds to its price, you have all the options for a normal holiday as a beach hotel, the lack of territory is practically not annoying, and a relatively recent construction and a fairly fresh look give it an additional preference compared to many others. In addition, a huge plus of the hotel, which was practically decisive for us, is the absence of crowds and queues in the restaurant, bars, on the beach. On vacation, you want to relax, and not fight “for a place in the sun” in the form of a shadow from a fungus, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. : ) Therefore, I can fully recommend the hotel for a visit, if you are not embarrassed by its features described above, but, as they say, forewarned means armed. And I will be happy to answer questions about the hotel, if anyone has them!