So, in order.
We rested from 19.05 to 29.05, the cost is 130 thousand (2 adults and a child 4 years old). We had a standard room booked and arrived at 10 am. Upon arrival, you find yourself in the palace from the fairy tale about Aladdin (at least I felt like that). At the reception there is a table with fruit and fresh juices. We left the suitcases at the reception and went to explore the territory. Made it to breakfast. At 14:00 we were given a room! ! Deluxe! ! on the 3rd floor. The registrar said that since we were with a child, the standard room would be too small for us and therefore they gave us an improved one.
We were taken to the room by carriage.
The driver / porter himself unloaded and loaded the suitcases, brought everything to the room, showed how and what to use.
The restaurant has a wide variety of food. We haven't tried everything in 10 days. I do not understand people who write that "the choice is not enough. " Seriously? Do you have a different breakfast, lunch and dinner every day at home?
There are also snack bars and coffee houses where you can have a bite to eat from 12:00 to 18:00. Alcohol is available 24 hours a day, but sometimes you have to queue as the bartenders like to chat with each other or with patrons. The queue is not critical, 3-5 people.
On the beach you can eat hamburgers, french fries and drink beer or cola. One time we did not go for lunch, but had a bite just on the beach.
Everywhere clean and beautiful pools, warm water in the pool and the sea. Lots of slides for kids and adults. A gentle entry into the transparent sea, flocks of fish swim underfoot (the child really liked it). The hotel was within walking distance but there was no shortage of sunbeds anywhere.
Cool animation every day: yoga classes, pneumatic shooting, darts competitions, competitions in the pool, jumping, beach volleyball, etc. Since we were with a small child, it was important for me what to do with him.
There is a two-story children's center on the territory, in which very positive girls worked at the time of our vacation. They are really really cool! The children's center is open from 10:00 to 17:00. You can leave the child without any problems and have a quiet time together. There is a schedule for the whole week, every hour is a new entertainment. Inside there are curved mirrors, a game room, a Lego room, a room with a home theater (believe me, the child will not be bored).
There are also playgrounds on the territory (I want to note that they are located in the shade, and an awning is stretched on the beach over the playground), water slides, slot machines and cars for a fee (I would not say that they are more expensive than in Russia, while the quality of the cars was much better), the sea of free good ice cream, at 20:30 a children's disco / show.
Adult animation starts every evening at 21:15 (visiting shows/circus and performances in the amphitheater, beach parties, parties on the football field). Once during the rest we got to a foam party.
The bar was replenished and the room cleaned every day. They won’t make swans for you, but I didn’t notice any dirt either. Although we ourselves are not pigs and did not make a mess.
Separately, I want to talk about vacationers. I don’t want to throw slippers at the Russians, maybe they are weird and not only they (I didn’t catch it by the hand). Just the facts, let's go:
1) there are baskets all over the territory, on which it is written on everyone that only dirty dishes should be put there.
No need for trash. But apparently people are not people at all, and animals cannot read. As a result, the remnants of food (mountains of food), glasses with unfinished cocktails, juice boxes and dirty napkins (despite the fact that there is a wastebasket nearby) are added to the baskets.
2) at the Garden party there was such a dessert as apples in caramel. We were 15 minutes late to the start. On the way we met grandmothers/grandfathers/women/men who were carrying armfuls of these apples. When we arrived, the apples were gone. Our child was very upset, crying. But when we showed him that no one began to eat these apples (but took them in wild quantities for 1 person) and they were almost whole among the garbage or thrown on the tables, he calmed down.
3) the problem of the buffet, which is noted not only in adults, but also in children. You came from Africa and saw food for the first time? Why collect so many? Enough for everyone, all plates complement. And if you don't, you won't die. I have a 7 year old child with me!!
1 plate! ! put pasta, chicken, french fries, tomatoes, cucumbers, ravioli, watermelon. Can you imagine this infernal mixture? As a result, I couldn’t hold it and dropped the whole plate on my feet: ((( Plus, you could often see a picture on the tables when they didn’t even touch the food and left.
4) Let me tell you one more situation. We returned with the child in the evening to the room. We go, and on the ground floor there is a piece of watermelon (apparently someone dropped it into the room from the restaurant). Ok, they dropped it, but why the hell not immediately pick it up and throw it away? The urn is at arm's length. What are pigs? In defense of the hotel, I will say that in the houses of the Camellia Club there are only rooms, there is no reception in each house, there is no butler. I must say thank you that they are generally allowed to take food out of the restaurant, and instead of "thank you" - "for those you have a surprise. "
In general, I decided to observe the situation. Vacationers in the evening and in the morning passed by and everyone was too lazy to pick it up and throw it away.
As a result, I couldn’t stand it myself and in the morning, when we went for breakfast, I took a napkin with me and threw away this unfortunate piece (((Someone was sorry to spend a couple of seconds apparently.
P. s. By the way, you can download the "Kamelya" application to your phone and you will be aware of all the events that take place on the territory of the hotel all day long.
The choice of the hotel was treated very responsibly, it took a long time to choose and read reviews and settled on Camellia Club in Side, 55 km from Antalya Airport. We arrived at the hotel at 6 in the morning and waited for check-in until 14. We were put on bracelets and offered, leaving
suitcases at the reception, go to a restaurant (it opened at 7).
The restaurant, more like a canteen, offered a very generous range of food to choose from. For 10 days of stay, you can really get fat from this endless catering department.
In the restaurant, the food is placed in different places, so that there would be no queues. The only thing is that the choice of soups is small - there are always two. There were more sweets - just an unrealistic amount, you can’t try everything. For a week only once there were crayfish, shells, shrimps. There was plenty of meat and fish for every taste, side dishes were the same. Vegetables, fruits and snacks are full of all sorts. As many people write here, you definitely won’t stay hungry ????
A little about the hotel.
The general name is KAMELYA COLLECTION exclusive hotels, this is the territory shared by two more hotels Fulia and Celine.
Celine and Fulia are high-rise five-star mansions, with luxurious rooms overlooking the sea. Our hotel offered to check in standard rooms in two-story brick houses, designed for several rooms. Unfortunately, there are no sea views. There are views of the beautiful territory, it is very well-groomed, majestic palm trees stand around, oleanders and luxurious hibiscus are fragrant. There is a huge area to walk around. We got a room with a view of the trees behind which there was a road. But everything suited us, they were not going to sit by the window to rest.
About the room itself, everything is very decent. TV set with 3 Russian channels, condo, replenished bar, safe, balcony, large bed for us and a separate one for the child. The bathroom has clean towels, shampoos, conditioners, gels, lotions, soap, three pairs of disposable slippers. The plumbing, of course, is not cleaned to a shine, but we did not pay attention to it. Comfortable beds with snow-white sheets.
From now on, I'll start about the extremely unpleasant.
After sleeping one night, I found bedbug bites on my body! Having dismantled my bed, I found traces of bloodsuckers! The shock knew no bounds! And this is a 5 star hotel. We ran to our guide. Oddly enough, no one was surprised, apparently the usual situation !!!
At first, I was denied. The room will not be changed, only linen. What's the point?? ? Bed bugs live in furniture, not linens. After yelling a little and being indignant at the service, they offered me to replace the beds themselves. We spent half a day in the room, they came to replace the bed, the beds were not touched. Again called the guide, waited until the evening, replaced the bed. The whole day went down the drain. And three more days for painful scratching and itching from bites!
No apology was brought, apparently this is how it should be in a five-star hotel!
But we tried to forget this incident and enjoyed our holiday.
We liked everything! The cleanest pools, a cool water park, cozy bars, an awesome huge sandy beach, a warm sea with waves, a beautiful promenade. The child liked to go to the kids club. There you can watch cartoons, lying on the floor on soft pillows, play Lego, Playstation, and various other animation programs.
There is a lot of entertainment in the hotel. These are foam parties and garden parties, tropical parties, discos, various shows, etc.
Sea drinks, including imported ones. Beer is excellent, lemonade and cocktails are delicious.
Separately, I want to write about the sunbeds near the pools. They are constantly busy. People get up at 5 in the morning and throw their towels on them and then go back to sleep. But this is nonsense!! ! But this is the problem of people, not the hotel. Near the sea there are a huge number of sun loungers and they are always free.
You can write about the hotel indefinitely. Everything is great, except for the bedbugs. Russian-speaking staff is almost everywhere.
Only it was very stuffy, even at night.
We liked everything, we will come again!
We bought a tour to Turkey in advance (at the beginning of summer) to this hotel for a trip with the whole family. Then the media began mass publications about the virus in Turkey. Of course, we were very alert and began to find out the situation everywhere. Opinions turned out to be very contradictory - in all forums there was literally an information war "for and against". Someone wrote that they got sick with a virus, and someone that everything is perfect and that there are attacks in general on tourism in Turkey because of politics. As a result, we could not get an exact opinion. We contacted the travel agency where we bought the tour.
They clarified whether it is possible to return the money for the trip in connection with such events, or change to another direction, or at a later date - but they told us that this cannot be done, and they can return the money to us only with a loss of 30-50% of the cost of the tour . They also reassured that the situation in Turkey is ideal, no one is sick and all the information about the virus is a stuffing of competitors, and the Russian media picked it up so that people would better go to Crimea to relax. We were also told, for example, look in foreign media, in Germany for example (which also actively rests in Turkey) - they don’t say anything about the virus at all. So don't be afraid and go. And in addition, the director of the agency said, for even greater persuasiveness - "I have a daughter in Turkey for 2.5 months and everything is fine with her. "
In the end we went!
Since it is more customary to discuss the specifics of the hotel here, I will dwell on this too.
We lived in the Kamelya K Klub hotel - this hotel consists of a set of two-story buildings (someone calls them "bungalows", but these are rectangular buildings in each of which there are 4 or more rooms, depending on the length of the building and the number entrances). The territory is quite large, and the territory is also common for 2 more hotels: Fulia and Selin - these hotels are already multi-storey modern buildings located closer to the sea. But the territory of all three hotels is common, including bars, swimming pools, animation, football and tennis fields, there is also a small water park and a mini-zoo. All this was called "Kamelya Collection Exclusive Hotels"
Directly about our hotel. We lived in a two-story building, consisting of one entrance, in which 2 rooms were downstairs and 2 rooms up the stairs on the 2nd floor. We had a two-room family suite on the 2nd floor. Number 1118.
A few words about the room: I would call it "traces of former luxury ...
", the room is comfortable 2 large rooms, a large common bathroom including both a bath and a shower. But, the room itself and the furnishings in it were already decently shabby, and some moments were generally terrible: on the walls and ceiling in several places there were visible traces of what - some leaks on which mold had formed - all this looked like dirty gray spots on the wallpaper, also the wallpaper was stained with something in many places (spots and smears of different colors, most likely from food .... ) The air conditioners worked very poorly, one of them showed old traces of fire. We made a remark about this at the reception, they came to see us and said that all their rooms are like this and there is nothing special to change for ...Well, in general, we somehow put up with it, Fortunately, we planned not to sit in the room especially on vacation. But such a room is not a 5-star hotel at all!!! On the strength of 3 stars.
Next, I'll talk a little about food. There is nothing particularly to complain about here.
The restaurant is really good, a huge selection of dishes, fruits, drinks. There is a late breakfast, a late dinner, and also on the beach a bar where they cook burgers, and not an open cafe on the coastline. In general, you can eat around the clock. The only thing - a lot of people and queues everywhere. And if you come at "rush hour", then you may not find a table at all. Therefore, in order to sit down normally, it is best to come to the opening (full assortment and everything is clean) or closing (but there is already a lot and it is already dirty).
A little about alcohol and drinks. Everything is OK as well. In bars, beer and wine flow like water, many different cocktails are prepared. Everything is really high quality and tasty. The bartenders are kind helpful Turks as well as Russian guys.
Pools. Big, beautiful, clean. There are several. In the pools there are interesting slides and houses for children.
There is a rather interesting water park on the territory, with quite serious high slides designed in the form of paths from the dragon's mouth. We did not use the pools and the water park as protection against the virus, but this did not save us in the end ...
Sea and beach. The beach is large, as a selected fragment on a common coastline, but without fences (that is, the passage between the beaches of all hotels on the coastline is free). Compared to the beaches of other hotels (we walked along the sea along the coast), this is the cleanest. But they only clean the line near the water. Between the sun loungers, if a child starts digging in the sand, then solid cigarette butts, peach pits and other small debris come out. In places - again, due to the large number of people, it is better to take places in advance in the early morning. Otherwise, if you calmly and leisurely come after breakfast, then there will simply be no free places (especially if you also need 3 at once nearby).
The sea is clean and good.
Smooth sandy entrance to the water. Right next to the beach there is a big water entertainment company, the most popular among the people is the parachute.
Now about the glaring problems and what pissed me off cardinally.
I already wrote about the quality of the room above (and I’ll even try to post a photo here), but this is still a trifle compared to the next one.
1. Host company Intourist and its guide (Bogdan). At the first introductory meeting at the hotel, the guide began with the following, I quote verbatim - "be extremely vigilant, crime has worsened, people have descended from the mountains. The hotel has free access from the street, swindlers (including even Russians) come who are watching you on the beach or in bars, enter into friendly conversations, especially in bars, find out where you live (what hotel room, and also where in Russia), after that they steal your room key card, clean the whole room, and when you even then you come to Russia, then your apartment there, too, has already been cleaned).
So, the guide described this problem as the main one in the hotel. As for the rest, everything is chic, rest. Just remember to carry your voucher with you at all times, especially when going out into the city. And then anywhere, even in a hotel, the police can stop you and check your documents (such as martial law, they have increased vigilance).
When we asked the guide - how is the virus in the hotel. He said he didn't exist at all! And out of 1200 tourists for the entire season, only two of them got sick (and not with this virus, but simply got hurt with something). Most likely, the entire staff of tour operators are specifically taught to speak like this. But at the same time, this is a complete lie and concealment of the real situation with the virus!
The setup came out with medical insurance, the guide clumsily clarified during the conversation that we had insurance with a deductible. That is, to use insurance, a doctor and treatment, you need to pay 30 dollars per person on the spot.
And only after that you will be treated. This is like, so that people don’t turn to trifles ...At the same time, the tour operator in Moscow did not warn us about this at all and said that we had a complete package of documents and “do not worry about anything” ....And when we after the conversation with a guide, we asked the tour operator in Moscow for clarifications and clarifications, we were told - "are you sick already or something? oh well, don't worry, relax and don't get sick : ) .....
I also note that the Intourist guide at the hotel still framed us with a tour. Signed up for sea fishing. Before the day of departure - no message from him - where and what time they pick us up (and he promised that he would definitely let us know). I call him on the phone myself, and he says - "and there will be no fishing tomorrow, two of the group fell ill and were put in the hospital, and the incomplete group will not be taken. " Note (for further understanding - "got sick and ended up in the hospital", this was already the first signal ... ). What got sick? I ask him.
He replies - "caught a cold" ...(it is immediately clear that this is complete nonsense). In general, the tour was postponed 3 more times! ! ! And every time there was no information from the guide and I myself ran and called him. And the answer was always the same - they fell ill again, this time the children, they had no one to leave them with, etc. and again all sorts of stupid reasons like, "overheated", ate something wrong, etc. ...Even then we realized that this was a signal ....
As a result, the fishing did not take place, and after almost a week the guide returned the money back to me, even without any apologies.
In conclusion, about the Intourist guide, he also set us up 2 times with the cost of renewing the room, we left the hotel in the evening, and the room must be returned by 12.00. He said (and by the way, the travel agency in Moscow, when we bought the tour, also said) that extending the room until the evening would cost no more than 50 dollars. As a result, when we asked for this on the day of departure at the hotel reception - there we were billed 140 euros (20 euros per hour for extending the room !!! ).
And the culmination was the complete disappearance of our guide from the hotel the day before our departure. There was nothing on the stand at the hotel, where they were supposed to post a list with our names and the time of transfer from the hotel in the evening of the day before departure. And besides, the plate with the photo and contacts of our guide was generally broken off ....The guide answered more to my phone calls and messages in the Whatsapp. Perhaps, and quite logically, he was fired. But they didn't send a replacement. And this is a pure cant and responsibility of Intourist. In general, Bogdan and Intourist - a big heartfelt greetings to you ! ! !
As a result, we ourselves had to contact the agency in Moscow, shake the hotel reception and get information about the time of our departure. In general, there was no need to relax on vacation!
Well, now the main thing! Coxsackie virus, be it wrong!
Here is the real truth for you.
We arrived at the hotel prepared.
By the middle of the day he had a fever, it was getting worse. The first symptoms were like this (at first we tried to console ourselves that it could be a sunstroke or something that was not eaten ... ). At night the temperature rose to 40 degrees. We periodically gave children's antipyretics to alleviate the condition. The next day, the child developed a rash: on the ears, sinuses, on the palms of the hands and feet. The temperature fluctuated intermittently. Fortunately, we arrived at the hotel with a supply of our medicines and prepared (we learned how to be on the Internet in case of emergency). As a result, the temperature jumped for 3 days and we brought it down with antipyretics as needed. The child was very tormented, especially at night, there were 3 sleepless nights. The temperature was replaced by a problem - the rashes on the body turned into painful blisters, which burned and itched and worried the child very much. For relief, we smeared them with Kalamid.
Also, rashes and inflammation were in the mouth. It was also very disturbing for the child and he could hardly eat. As a result, the last 4 vacations went down the drain and turned into a "infirmary" ...
After what happened, I began to look more closely at the public in the hotel. And he noticed that: a lot of strollers are brought to the restaurant for food, which are hung tightly and the children are not specifically visible. On the beach, I looked more closely at young children and noticed a similar rash in many, it is especially noticeable on their hands.
So it turns out - the virus is an absolute reality and the hotel is amazed by it.
As a result, the active stage of the disease in a child was about 4-5 days. Now there are residual rashes on the skin, as after measles, they disappear for a very long time.
And a few words about myself. From the first day at the hotel, in addition to all the meticulous hygiene, I made myself a systematic "disinfection" with alcohol in the bars.
On the forums, someone said, like "drink 50 grams of gin and don't worry about the virus. " As a result, I did not get sick while we were 12 days in the hotel. But he fell ill on the second day after arriving in Moscow. So there was a longer incubation period. I fell seriously ill and I can already accurately describe my feelings. When I woke up in the morning I felt a slight malaise, which intensified with the course of the day. From the middle of the day, the joints began to break, weakness increased and the temperature rose. By evening, he barely crawled to bed. My throat started to hurt. At night, a strong fever began, with a rise in temperature to 40+. In the morning I found rashes, I have them only on the palms of my hands and feet, but in the most painful places (in the folds of the skin, on the fingertips). It is so unpleasant that it even hurts to walk. Sore throat and inflamed mouth. It hurts to eat, I can only drink cold water. I've been suffering for 3 days now, something really doesn't let go yet ....
As a result: everything written is pure truth. I hope this will help you get real information about the current situation in Turkey. It is up to you to choose whether it is worth playing such roulette for your paid a lot of money.