Отель хороший, правда староват The hotel is good, but a bit old

We stayed at the end of September 2019 with two couples. Since for me there is no other sea better than the Aegean; -))) so far, from those where I was, my husband and I immediately chose Bodrum (I was last here in 2010, and my husband had never been to Turkey at all, my brother and wife had never been abroad before). Chose for 10 days on your budget. And we knew perfectly well that we were not eating in a super hotel (for 10 days in a very good hotel in the top five in Bodrum, you need to pay at least 2000 euros, and even there, if you find fault, you can find cons).
Let's start from the very beginning. We arrived early in the morning at 9.05, at about 10.30 we were already at the hotel. Check-in according to the standard as everyone else at 14.00. We had rooms in the main building with a note in the voucher from the travel agent that the rooms have a balcony and a sea view. For the first time I meet that they were so responsible in order to fulfill all the options. Who took tours to the bungalow rooms - they were settled at about 12.00. We were around 14.00 - they didn’t take the money, because the rooms with a sea view were released only at 12.00, and with a view of the garden they offered - but we ourselves refused. The rooms are normal and spacious. My husband and I had a room on the 5th floor (near the reception), overlooking the sea and the tea patio.
My brother and wife settled on the second floor overlooking the sea, the pool and the amphitheater (it’s very noisy if you want to sleep during the day, you won’t be able to, and there are also some unique people who sit near the pool and yell for half the night - but this is not a hotel problem, but an upbringing problem ). For example, a company of young people lived in our wing (I don’t know from where, but Russian speakers) - they thumped until midnight a day later, slammed the door loudly and could stand near their room and talk loudly, and in a 10-word sentence, everything else was normal mat. They made a remark - it was enough for one day. I understand - you came to rest, but reckon with other vacationers.

The room was cleaned normally, both for us and for my brother (someone here wrote that they didn’t clean at all - we didn’t have this), and the towels were changed every day, and the bed was changed every 2 days. In our room, the water from the bath didn’t leave well - they said 2 times at the reception, no one responded, it didn’t bother us for 10 days, everything else worked. Someone wrote in the reviews that there was no brush in the toilet - we had one.
Territory - very large, green, all in flowers. There are a lot of different places for relaxation, and not only by the pools. The territory is clean, in some places not quite well-groomed, but overall very good for 4 out of 5 balls. The hotel is old and, accordingly, the territory is already shabby.
Swimming pools - there are many of them, all of them were not bypassed. We swam in the pool once, mostly, once in the one near the water park. The pools are clean - but the sea is better ; -)))
The beach is the entrance from the platform, or if you walk from the elevator to the end of the beach, there is an entrance to the room not from the platform, but along the pebbles, but there is a very small strip of the beach and many of those with children. In my opinion, the hotel is not intended for children, there are slopes everywhere, the beach where the entrance is not very small from the depth, but from the platform for children it is only probably from 7-8 years old and then they could swim. The beach is old, sun loungers and mattresses are already shabby, the pier is shabby, ladders for descent and ascent are already loose. It is also small for the number of vacationers - in order to take a place on the beach under a canopy on the first line - you need to go to the beach at 7.00 before breakfast, if you come right after breakfast - then I think you will still find a place, but under a canopy already on 3-4 lines . And if you come at 10.00 (well, as we usually did ; -)))) then you will either be at 4 on one sun lounger, or collect free ones all over the beach : -))))

But the sea is super, and if you eat for the sake of the sea (and you should go to Bodrum for the sake of the sea and Bodrum itself ; -))) - then you can close your eyes to everything. The sea is clean, warm, a lot of fish, just swim with them. We were very worried that we were eating at the end of September, that the sea would already be cold, that the weather would already be cold, that this was the end of the season. Everything was fine - one day out of 10 it was a little cloudy and raining, and the sea was a little stormy and the water became 2 degrees cooler. I went out to swim even at 6.00 - the water was like fresh milk.
Food - there are already cons of course. There is enough food - you will never leave hungry, and for some reason everyone lined up from 19.30 and ran knocking each other down, suddenly something was not enough. But everything is enough for everyone, we came a couple of times at 19.30 - then we scored and came already at 20.30-21.00 - we sat down at a table overlooking the pool and the sea, and everything was enough for us to eat. Food - the dishes didn’t change at all, only grilled for dinner, and soups for lunch, and for breakfast, lunch and dinner everything is the same from day to day, there is a choice of dishes, but on the 6th day of rest they are all already boring, and you have to eat one and also. I read in the reviews that the food is not for 5, and even 3 stars does not pull.
Here they gave lamb a couple of times, and grilled mackerel - for Turkey this is chic, in some hotels it will never be more expensive. We went for lunch twice in 10 days, had a hearty breakfast, and then the men, if they got hungry, ate burgers in a cafe on the beach. It made me laugh that my brother had never been abroad, in Turkey and on all inclusive, on the third day of rest he began to resent why there was no borscht, and in general, upon arrival in Kyiv, on the way home, he was looking for where to eat borscht, in general, we concluded that he should not be long time to leave Ukraine.
Alcohol - absolutely normal as elsewhere on all inclusive. Vodka, gin, crayfish, beer, wine. Wine - white normal, red and pink, of course, shmurdyak is diluted. Efes beer is normal, someone wrote non-alcoholic, it gives nothing like that from the 3rd glass. The cocktail is also like everywhere else - some kind of yupi is mixed with gin or vodka. We are on vacation - either we drink beer or a gin and tonic, or what we brought with us, took champagne for $ 17 - we didn’t like it. Everything was ok with that. The coffee from the vending machines is not very good, but the cappuccino mochachino and coffee light are essentially the same drink, only you press different buttons on the machine, I didn’t find a difference in them, the tea is good.

Animation is ordinary - entertain as I can, there is something to laugh at, and all sorts of contests. Morning exercises are a joke, or you need more cheerful music or more active movements, otherwise it’s somehow completely sad. On the beach they do not entertain at all, all the animation is near the central pool.
The hotel has a cool hookah bar (near the tea yard) - a hookah costs $20, but you can bargain, and the hookah is very good, we liked it.
The tea yard is nothing special, except for the location - in the shade of pine trees and that's it. Tea there is ordinary coffee, too, some incomprehensible cookies, nothing special.
The nearest town of Gundogan is a 20-minute walk (the guys went to the pharmacy themselves), on a minibus that leaves from the hotel for 4 lira, you can get there in a couple of minutes. There are supermarkets in the City, if you take tea, coffee, olives and olive oil, then in supermarkets it is cheaper than in sweet shops (to which you will be taken from excursions), but I don’t remember if they were in the supermarket or not. There are souvenir shops, cheaper than in Bodrum and in the hotel. There is also a beach and promenade - small, but clean. And there are a lot of cafes along the embankment, if you want to dine with grilled fish or seafood, then here it’s about 20% cheaper than in Bodrum.
We went to Bodrum with an excursion from Pegasus for $15, and we stayed back until late at night and returned by taxi for $20. They didn’t regret the excursion, I was in Bodrum for the 3rd time on the observation deck (but in 2013 the mills were not restored yet), I was in the amphitheater, I wasn’t at the gates of Myndos, and I only read the history of Bodrum a little. It was frustrating that the fortress and the museum of archeology are under restoration after the earthquake and will open only in 2020, but this will be a reason to return here. In general, I can write a lot for Bodrum - I fell in love with him at first sight and this time he did not disappoint me. We had dinner at a cafe on the beach with grilled fish and seafood. With a bottle of French wine and beer for 4, we got $ 60, for comparison, in 2010 for two with a bottle of wine, also French, we got $ 120.

On excursions - from the general list offered by Pegasus, I was almost everywhere, except for Pamukkale. We chose a pirate yacht and Ephesus for ourselves. A pirate yacht - nothing has changed since 2010, in my opinion I was on the same yacht in 2010, only it was called differently and was not so drawn out, it’s worth going and swimming in the bays because the water there is just super. Ephesus is also very interesting, I was here for the second time, I was in 2013 - from that moment the city was dug up a little more and they continue to dig it up to this day, that is, if you have already been there once, it does not mean that you will not be interested the second time.
On excursions - once again I am convinced that there is no better tour operator in Turkey than a teztour, because the Pegasus guide still lied a little bit on each excursion, for example, a sightseeing tour of Bodrum "you will have 1.5 hours of free time" in fact gave 1 hour, and for Bodrum even 1.5 hours is not enough. And no one tells you that in addition to the tour you will be taken to different shops (with their prices). Probably we have already lost the habit of this, since Teztour 1. warns about this and 2. not all excursions have it.
In general, we were satisfied. After Egypt, my husband told me that now only to Turkey - it’s calmer here, and the price suits us even in the same hotel, we know the rest of the cons and are ready to return here again for the sake of the sea.