Отдых превзошел ожидания Vacation exceeded expectations

Travel time - from 4 to 11 June 2008.
We flew via Rostov to Dalaman airport. Passport and customs control passed very quickly, they pasted a visa for my husband and two for me, because the child is entered in my passport (only $ 60). Dalaman greeted us with heat and high humidity, despite the fact that it was already late in the evening. In addition to us, there were other tourists from Tuana on the bus, the hotel is halfway to Lycia. Roads - serpentine, a little motion sickness. We arrived and settled down. The room was in a part of the hotel called the Residence. At first we were a little upset, because We walked along long corridors sloping upwards for quite a long time, periodically turning. But then it turned out that the location is very convenient, because. no one walked by. The room is on the ground floor, but overlooks the lawn, which is, as it were, inside the building, i. e. no one walks on it, except perhaps the personnel serving the territory, but we never saw them. The only negative of the hotel is that there are no bathrobes, slippers, or toiletries in the rooms. They pour some kind of liquid soap into plastic containers attached near the sink and above the bathtub and, above the bathtub, another container, hopefully with shampoo. Having given more than 100 thousand rubles. for a week of rest, it didn’t even occur to me to bring shampoos, balms, soap, etc. with me. It turned out that it was necessary. Moreover, everything is very expensive in the shops on the territory of the hotel; three to four times more expensive than ours for the same goods. And I didn’t buy shampoos and stuff there because of the week of my stay, I was tormented with what was. Well, yes, it didn’t spoil our vacation at all, everything else is beyond praise.
The hotel is located separately, by the sea, surrounded by mountains. Part of the Residence is closer to the sea, close to everything, part of the Village is quite far away, some buildings, at the very top of the mountains. But shuttles constantly run around the territory, for those who are too lazy to walk  . Absolutely magnificent, well-groomed territory, licked, thoughtful, green. Around the flowers. The photos turned out amazing, despite the fact that almost all of them were taken on the territory of the hotel. The sea is very beautiful, indescribably turquoise hue. Despite the fact that it was quite cool, it is still impossible to resist and not swim. The water temperature was 18-20 degrees, only Russians swam  . As well as occupied all the sun loungers with towels in the morning and came only in the evening to pick up these towels. I really wanted to collect a few pieces and hand them over to the kiosk. For the loss of a towel - a fine in the region of 15 euros.  Pebble beach, clean. There were waves all the time and it was very pleasant to lie on the sun loungers, look at the sea and listen to the sound of the waves. The child even slept there at lunchtime. Great! Full relax.

It must be said that seventy percent of the hotel, if not more, are Russians. There are a few English people, and quite a few other nationalities. But the Russians, except for the sunbeds occupied with towels, are all very calm and well-mannered. Initially, I wanted to go to a hotel where there were as few Russians as possible, but I did not regret it. We can be proud of, at least in this hotel. If we differ, then only for the better.
The food is excellent, they feed almost the whole day, in different cafes and restaurants. Everyone dine mainly in the Marina, on the seashore. Every evening, they always make a vegetable snack and grilled fish on the coals. Swordfish are just amazing! Food for every taste and dietary and not very sweets. Ice cream for lunch and dinner - free of charge, as much as you want. The wine is local, but we are not lovers, we have not tried it. But I can recommend ayran, they have two types - simple and with mint. I drank mint all the time. Very tasty and not at all what we sell under this name. In the evening, before dinner, they often ate cakes, which are made by a woman at the central dance floor. Sweet and spiced with cheese. I liked the sweet ones better  . During the day, alcoholic cocktails and ice cream are paid in bars. All delicious, loved it.
There are a lot of pools, there are slides, which is good for children, everything is clean, there were no problems with sun loungers, because. no one took a seat there.
Children Paradise - swimming pools with children's slides, playground. According to the descriptions, I expected more, in fact, there are really only a couple of slides where a child of 5 years old can ride. Everyone saw the guns shooting water in the pictures. There are only two small pools. There is a very deep one, I didn’t even climb there, all sorts of grottoes. The playground is small. There is a cafe that serves lunches earlier than lunches start in other cafes. We usually had a snack there before dinner with ice cream and fruit.
The child did not get out of the water for the first days and ate too much ice cream and at the same time did not even sneeze even once, this number would hardly have passed at home . .

Kids club. Yes, and for the whole day. But. Cartoons for lunch - in English. Entertain them somehow without enthusiasm. Mostly there were non-Russian children, whom their parents rented out for the whole day, while they themselves drank and walked. We gave our daughter away only for a couple of hours, when there was something interesting in the programs (at the entrance to the club on the stand there are schedules for different age groups). We ended up in a group of 3-5 years old, despite the fact that we are five years old - it was already basically uninteresting. For older programs, it seemed more interesting, with sports and the like. And we kind of had a nursery.
Because the hotel is quite far from the airport and from the main tourist routes on the tour got out only once - in Dalyan. We don’t regret that we went, although the road took four hours round trip, at least, but the guide was very good (Riviera tour operator), we saw how people live, learned a lot of interesting things, i. e. were not only in the hotel  . The tour itself is nothing special at all. We sailed on a boat to the spit, heard that the turtles come out to lay their eggs once a year at night, and even at this time they are guarded, so you won’t see anything. We drove to hydrogen sulfide sources and mud. People smeared themselves with mud and bathed in water that smelled of rotten eggs. We just watched  . Our group was still lucky, we arrived when there was no one, when ours were already getting out of the hot spring, a huge group of foreign tourists arrived, no less than 150 people. It’s not for nothing that we didn’t climb, it seems to me, there is a lot of infection there  . Lunch on the tour, as usual - so-so. But we completed the program, on the whole we are satisfied, besides, as the girl from the Riviera who met us at the airport (Olya, very nice) told us, this is the easiest excursion, so almost she is suitable for children alone.
Before leaving, there was a little tension with the Riviera. We called them the day before departure, asking why the booth did not have the promised information about when they would pick us up. At first they were surprised that we were there at all, then they promised to post the information in the morning. So they didn't hang it. We called again. , they were once again surprised that we were there. They promised to call back, they didn't. We called again, we were promised to call three hours before departure. Thank God we're gone. But if we had relied on them and did not call for two days in a row, we could have stayed in Turkey  .
In general, a very, very good hotel, I really liked the rest, even though we are not lovers of passive recreation. I recommend to everyone. Just take shampoo-conditioners  . The hotel is very good for families with small children, for families with many children, which there were quite a few.