About Kaya Belek hotel, Kadriye village and surroundings
Each time, I promise myself that for my next vacation, I will definitely not choose a hotel for a beach holiday with a passion and scrupulousness worthy of a better application. And every time, of course, I break this promise. It happened this year as well. Moreover, the choice was accompanied by “aggravating circumstances” - a two-year vacation-free period, coronavirus restrictions and a general state of mind, when by the beginning of the vacation it was already “I don’t want to want something” (c). But at the same time, on the periphery of consciousness, the thought of a sane vacation for your hard-earned money still loomed.
The result of almost a month of studying the websites of travel companies, hotels, reviews, videos in youtube, etc. , as well as superimposing all this on your ideas about beauty and your budget, was the choice of the Kaya Belek hotel. Firstly, because it is located in the Belek region, where we have not been yet and it was interesting to see what it is like. Secondly, because there was an impressive sandy beach with a large number of sunbeds and a large number of reviews from those who have been there that there are free places right at any time. For this, a separate “thank you” from me to them, because. in fact, this was not true at all. Although, perhaps by the words "ANY time" they meant a range, for example, between 5 and 7 in the morning. Thirdly, because the hotel was not far from the airport, and with the current coronavirus jokes, the closer the transfer, the somehow calmer. Although, in the end, in order to completely calm down, we took an individual transfer and did not fail at all with this.
So what am I getting at? And to the fact that, as a result, the vacation turned out like the notorious fake New Year's toys - they shine, and shimmer, and they are all smart, but - they do not please. Moreover, it seems that there are no special complaints about certain aspects of the rest, but in general - he didn’t dream like that. : )
So, the hotel itself is quite good. We initially took SeaView and they seemed to give it to us, but on the last 5th floor (mansard).
It turned out that the number there is one and a half times smaller than the standard one...
… but it has a hefty balcony-terrace. And, perhaps, we would not start because of this, because there seemed to be enough space (even despite the miniature dimensions of the “double” bed 1.40 m wide), but the roof above this balcony was located at a height of about 1.60 m from the floor, which is not very good even for me, and even for my husband with his 1.90 m - quite sad.
Therefore, having applied several times with different parts of the head on the visor of this roof, the husband agreed with me and decided to go to the reception. There, we were expectedly told that there were no free rooms, they could only offer LandView, which we might have agreed to if its cost had not been 10-15% lower than our interest at the start. Therefore, the question was smoothly transferred “to tomorrow”.
Again, in fairness, I’ll say that tomorrow the issue was really resolved and we moved to a room on the 4th floor, which exactly matched the photo posted on the site...
. . . absolutely not pleased with the miniature size of the balcony, but simply delighted with the absence of a visor above it at the level of my nose.
On this, in fact, the issue of accommodation can be considered closed. Because everything that is necessary for a normal holiday life, including toothpaste and a shaving kit, was in the room (for some reason, they even brought bathrobes in the evening, although we did not ask)...
…and there will still be certain flaws in a fairly old, albeit periodically updated hotel. But slightly worn skirting boards, a few not quite serviceable trempels in the closet and a plank in the shower torn off on one side did not affect my rest at all.
Of course, I could start a tale about the epic hero Ilya Muromets (in my person) and the nasty BALCONY, which in hot weather did not want to open without my heroic efforts, and in the evening, the application of the same efforts due to forgetfulness led to the fact that I flew away along with the balcony door in different directions, but I won’t - it was again a small touch to the rest, and by no means its mainstream. : )
The second rather burning aspect for All Inclusive hotels is food, I can only put Kaya Belek as a plus. A wide selection and variety of dishes, almost round-the-clock access to food at different locations, speed of service, etc. were quite satisfactory. Yes, black caviar and lobsters were not included in the price tag, but the notorious crayfish, mussels and squids, fish from red mullet to tuna, meat from chicken to lamb (excluding pork, of course), vegetables in various forms, more than a dozen types of cheeses, olives , the range of pastries from pide to croissants and fruits from watermelon to mini-bananas quite push the hotel to the “Decent level” nomination. And the tradition, instead of a glass of wine for dinner, to bring a whole bottle at once additionally raises the rating (and no - we are not alcoholics). ; )
Another argument in favor of the cuisine of Kaya Belek is the fact that we liked the food in the main restaurant even more than the dishes in the Asian a la carte we visited. Here everything was just mediocre - from service to the taste of food. So you don't even have to waste your time on it. Perhaps an additional negative argument for us was the fact that the restaurant always had the opportunity to sit on the open terrace, and all a la carte (there are 3 of them in the hotel) are indoors.
And another argument in favor of food, as for me, is the complete absence of a queue (at least around 2 pm) in the gozleme tent located next to the beach.
As a rule, in any such tent in any hotel there are always queues of 2-3-5 thirsty people, but here it’s just lafa - he came up and immediately got what he wanted. Yes, and with a smile from the cook (usually some not very friendly aunts work at such locations). And the taste of gozleme is also five points.
If we talk about drinks, they are very average here, which is becoming more and more traditional for Turkish hotels every year. It doesn't matter how many stars are on their sign. Table wine for dinner is absolutely normal, low-grade beer in the heat is excellent, imported drinks - what is it? But, in fact, they didn’t go for that, so some cocktail, local sparklingwine or digestif were quite digestible for evening gatherings.
And yes, none of the bartenders knows how to make cocktails, and half of them don't even know the hotel's cocktail list. And when you try to ask for Linchburg Lemonade in return, you can get a glass of cold sprite, for example. But this, in my opinion, is not a problem. You can also ask again or even show your finger in the cocktail menu. : )
Moreover, there are no problems with the service as such at the hotel. The guys-waiters at all locations, as for me, did a great job. Everything is prompt, without excessive obtrusiveness, but also without braking. Girls on roller skates delivered drinks near the pool, boys with trays of ready-made drinks cruised along the beach, or you could order something for them if you really couldn’t take your ass off the sun lounger and go to the bar yourself.
Moreover, the territory of the hotel is quite compact and it is not so far to walk. For those who are thirsty, there is a small bar in the snack bar. . .
. . . 50 meters further down the pool bar. . .
. . . and across a small lawn - something like a children's bar overlooking both the beach side and the water park side. The latter, by the way, is quite simple and focused more on children. Although adults are also allowed to ride a couple of slides. The slides are quite small, but on one of them I managed to pull my shoulder and hit my head, so I had enough impressions. : )
But the main problem of the hotel, as for me, is the beach. Or rather, not even the beach itself - it is just quite long (they say about 250 m in length)...
. . . deep - has about 6 rows of sun loungers + more lawns with sun loungers behind the beach. . .
…sandy with a minimum presence of small pebbles at the entrance to the sea. But vacationers on the beach - it's a disaster. By 9 o'clock, almost all the sun loungers were occupied.
Yes, I do not argue - and at 11 in the morning on the beach at its different ends you could find a couple of free sun loungers, but they will be located in the very sun and you will not find a shade. If this is not important for you or you are a fan of relaxing by the pool, where there were heaps of seats...
…then bingo - you arrived at the hotel at the address.
If the minimum comfort in the form of a shade still matters to you, then on vacation in this hotel you will not get enough sleep. According to rumors, the first row of sun loungers was occupied at one in the morning. I won’t say, I didn’t see it, but when one day I felt like shooting the sunrise from the balcony...
… and I couldn’t fall asleep after that, then going out to the beach at about 07.30, I found 60 percent of the total number of sunbeds already occupied there. Naturally, with the almost complete absence of people.
But there are no special complaints about the swimming area - and the buoys are far away, and you can swim along the entire length of the beach, and even swim across to the swimming area of the nearby Kaya Palazzo without any problems, which gives you a total of about 1 km of swim per once. And besides, we didn't have a pier. For me, this is a plus, although, perhaps, for someone this is a significant minus, then keep in mind that there are no piers in Kaya Belek. : ) As well as individual gazebos. Those. here the principle is clearly promoted that in the dining room and in the bath on the beach of the hotel everyone is equal. ; )
True, the temperature of the water did not please me at all. By our arrival it was somewhere around +25, then the temperature dropped by about a degree and fluctuated around +24.1... +24.3. I prefer a few degrees warmer. Perhaps such a temperature would be acceptable if it were not for two more “buts”: an almost constant wind of varying degrees of intensity on the beach, which did not add heat, and a constant “banding” of the water, when you could get out of cold water into icy water in general . Or sometimes stumble upon not only warmer, but less cold. I don’t know what is the reason for this - either the rather cool velvet season of the current year, or such a picture is typical for this region all the time, but I didn’t like it.
There is animation in the hotel, but every year it interests us less and less. Therefore, for these two weeks, the only activity from the animators in which we participated was Beer Fest. And that is more in terms of drinking and eating than being active. ; )))
And here I smoothly want to move on to the surroundings, because if you dream of finding entertainment outside the hotel, then within a radius of at least 1.5 km you will not have such an opportunity. Because Kaya Belek stands apart, on the one hand, it is in close contact with Kaya Palazzo, with which it has a common entrance...
. . . and opposite is Regnum Carya.
Since all these hotels, like most others in the Belek region, also position themselves as golf clubs, you will not reach civilization until you pass their immodestly spread around the golf course. Therefore, the nearest entertainment for you can only be watching someone else's golf (in our case, we had to watch through the fence, because the game took place on the Regnum Carya course). : )
But compensation for such a meager set of entertainment in the place, so to speak, can be considered the fact that after overcoming these notorious 1.5 km, going to a fork in busier roads and seeing something like this board...
…you will understand that you have come to the most famous entertainment of the Antalya region - the park The Land of Legends.
There is entertainment for every taste - and a theme park with attractions (mindful of the shoulder and head - not my option), and shopping avenue (because what is Turkey without shopping), and other shows and events (free option ).
And for the first time we got to the evening show absolutely by accident - we went to Kadriye, but ran out of steam - we didn’t reach it. And we decided to see what people were crowding at the gates of the park for. Based on the results of what you saw (and this is only in the “free” part), you roughly understand what the notorious billion dollars was spent on. : )))
And the light and music show of fountains…
…gondola parade…
... and a costumed performance...
…complemented the positive impressions of a random visit. And even the return trip to the hotel, which took about 40 minutes at almost midnight (the show starts at 10 pm and lasts a total of more than an hour), does not upset. And if you know that you can get into the park not only from the main entrance, located closer to Kadriye, but also from the entrance, located almost immediately behind the board mentioned above (only in this case, the buildings of the complex must be bypassed from the back, and not from the one which goes along the road), then the problem of remoteness is not worth it at all.
Although in fairness, I note that when we decided to go to the evening show again, it lasted less, and the cast was reduced...
. . . and cut out some numbers. Actually, there was no number for which I wanted to see him again - "Superman on a flyboard. " It's really something! And it was just the second time he was not. : ( So someone will be lucky here.
As for the shops on Shopping Avenue, there is a choice for every taste - from affordable Waikiki and DeFacto to luxury brands of clothing, shoes and accessories. But in general, shopping lovers have nowhere to turn around in Kadriye. Yes, there is a Kadriye center with the Kadriye bazaar located there and the announced local market on Tuesdays and Fridays, but in fact it is one and a half streets with about three dozen shops with a set typical for Turkey - leather-bags-suitcases, underwear-textiles- clothes, sweets-souvenirs. Prices are not cheap, sellers are not eager to bargain even despite the end of the season looming ahead, the range of goods is very modest. Of course, we have not been in Turkey for 3 years before, perhaps the same picture in other regions. But remembering the resort area of the same Kemer, where numerous sellers with their numerous goods meet you literally outside the hotel gates and do not end within sight and walking distance, local shopping looks rather modest.
And the walk from the hotel gate to the Kadriye Center will take you a brisk pace of 50 minutes in one direction only. During the day, this issue can be resolved with the help of 1 dollar and a minibus passing by the hotel, but in the evening, minibuses did not stop by in our darkness. : )
More on the topic of shopping - in relative proximity (about 30-35 minutes on foot) to the hotel is Forsa Mall, but as for me - an absolutely useless institution. In addition to us, there were 5 more visitors, whose booming steps echoed from the walls of shops with, again, a rather meager selection of rather expensive goods.
Therefore, as for me, it is more logical then for $ 2 to take a minibus VA-22 in the direction of Antalya with its wide range of shopping centers. Moreover, Mall of Antalya is located strictly along the route of this minibus and you even need to stop by the city itself no need (if your goals are far from sightseeing).
And if you need to buy small souvenirs in the form of halva-baklava magnets, then you can do this not far from the notorious boardwalk intersection, after walking 50 m to the left. There, next to the Innvista Hotels Belek, there are several modest outlets. There is also a pharmacy there, if suddenly someone, God forbid, needs it.
And here I am, contrary to the traditions of writing reviews about a particular hotel you have visited, I would like to pay a little attention to the nearby hotels of the Belek region, which, after my mega-biased choice of vacation, I almost knew by heart from reviews and descriptions, and now got the opportunity to see "in person".
I'll start with our separate trinity, among which we and our Kaya Belek were the most rogue. In this connection, we even more wanted to see how the neighbors are. ; ) At the same time, at Kaya Palazzo, the price tag of which was about twice ours, we admired every day and even used "their" sea with might and main. To be honest, purely outwardly, I did not see any advantages that are 2 times higher than ours. Although it must be admitted that their water park was much larger, and the sunbeds on the beach were not completely occupied by 100%.
On the other hand, in their swimming area, a pier with a gazebo brazenly stretched out, which blocked this very area for swimming by 50 percent. Which for me, as I said above, is a significant minus.
To our left, across the public beach area, was Regnum Carya with triple our price tag, a heliport for VIP guests (yes, there were helicopters - I confirm) and white Maldivian sand on the beach (at least it was stated in the description). Well, we went to look at this sand, because you remember - there is not much entertainment in the immediate vicinity. Indeed, in the area of the sun loungers, the sand was white, the general surroundings were gracious, and even the beach was divided into 3 zones - for mere mortals, for guests of villas (at least I think so) and individual gazebos (which, whatever one may say, but paid ).
The swimming area was also rich - as many as 2 piers, which by my standards is already too much, because you can hardly see the sea when you are located on the beach.
Then we walked towards Alanya past the beaches of Zeynep Hotel - very nice, not very crowded and there is where to swim.
TUI Magic Life Masmavi Beach (former Robinson Masmavi) made the best impression on me - among other things, 4 (!!! ) beach volleyball courts spread out on the beach without being too shy. And the infrastructure of the hotel, which we could see, made a very pleasant impression. From what I saw in this direction, this hotel is in my first place.
Next, we were struck by the almost empty beach of the strange Altis Resort Hotel & Spa.
As I understand it, this hotel is mainly visited by locals, and even ardent Muslims. Because all three women I saw here on the beach were wearing burkinis. And here, for the first time in Turkey, I was able to observe such a beach compartment, into which men are not only allowed to enter, but also look at. In general, no comments. : )
And here is my biggest disappointment of this acquaintance - Papillon Belvil. For as long as I can remember, the reviews about this hotel have been very worthy, which allowed me to dream that someday I will get here. And this year, this event almost happened if the price tag of the hotel was 10 percent cheaper. But! When I saw his beach, my dream was not only shattered, but significantly dimmed. No matter how beautiful it may be, other things being equal, but relaxing on a beach like a boarding house in Berdyansk with dense rows of vacationers under awnings, along the water, in the water, etc. Well, nooo. . . We have such good things in bulk in Kaya Belek.
Therefore, in order to avoid further disappointments, we headed in the opposite direction, and a few days later we decided to walk along the hotels in the direction of Antalya. I have already told about Kaya Palazzo above, and Kempinski Hotel The DomeBelek, which goes further, is Kempinski in Africa - intimate, not crowded, calm, with one pier in the sea. : )
The beaches and the infrastructure of the Sirene Belek Hotel looked good…
…GREEN MAX Hotel with its recognizable tall palm trees along the beach and a fairly large number of people there…
…and IC Santai Family Resort, on the beach of which it was quite free and, in the eyes of an outsider, comfortable.
I didn’t like the Adora Resort Hotel at all - there are a crowd of people on the beach, there are very few sunbeds under awnings, everyone is roasting in the sun - sadness.
As well as Crystal Tat Beach - it seemed shabby, tired, densely filled. Yes, and the visible infrastructure is somehow dull. I was glad that we did not go here, although the price tag was much cheaper than ours.
TUI MAGIC LIFE Belek, which completes this block of hotels, unlike its fellow Masmavi, did not make much of an impression. Is that the view of the mountains near Antalya is almost no one's pier blocks. : )
And my undisputed favorite here is Club Mega Saray, whose beach is very long, but not very deep. Although there is still an additional area with sun loungers on the grass behind the beach, and on the beach for adults, located away from the exit, by about 10.30 we did not see almost a single person, but there were plenty of free sun loungers.
And what especially bribed - the beach is somehow cozy, with various cute interesting things and mini-entertainment.
And the pier in the swimming area is quite small and without the notorious gazebos that block the entire sea view.
I think this is the end of the story about the Kaya Belek hotel, the village of Kadriye and its environs. And in the end, I’ll say this - if you are interested in a classic old-school beach hotel, where a completely normal room will be provided at your disposal, you will be fed tasty food, slightly less tasty water, acceptable service and tolerably entertained, and at the same time you are ready to get up at 7 in the morning and take a place on the beach or sleep longer and be content with places by the pool, and you are absolutely not interested in the territory and activities outside the hotel, you can safely choose Kaya Belek for your vacation. And, in fairness, I must say that there are people who do just that - at the hotel we met vacationers who come here for the 4th and 8th (!!! ) times. And, perhaps, this will serve as a more weighty argument for you when choosing this hotel than my multi-letter polyvariant review. But the final decision, in any case, remains at your discretion. And the Kaya Belek hotel will be waiting for you all in the same place - not far from the village of Kadriye in the Belek region. ; )
