Неплохая пятёрка эконом-класса Good five economy class

Summer has come, and again the question arose - where to go to rest? No, this is not about choosing a country for a vacation - I have long been in love with Turkey and go there every summer - but about choosing a region and a hotel. The criteria were: 5 stars, delicious food, interesting water slides and a good beach without stones on the seabed, medium-sized territory - not very big, but at the same time not small, so that people do not sit on each other's heads, and also good animation, because it turned out that I went to rest alone. In a travel agency, whose services I have been using for several years and have always been satisfied with my vacation, they advised me the five-star Dionysos Sport & SPA in Side - they say, a good new (built in 2007) inexpensive five that meets all my requirements. Yes, the hotel is really good, but still there are minor flaws. By the way, I note that I am a tourist unpretentious and not picky. I rested there for 2 weeks, from 13 to 27 June. So...
Hotel and territory
The flight was delayed, arrived at 8pm. Following the advice from previous reviews, I gave the guys at the reception a box of chocolates, they were very pleased, settled me in 10 minutes in a large and nice room with a direct view of the sea, pool and animation. The hotel consists of 5 4-storey buildings, standing next to and surrounding a huge pool in the form of the letter "P". The interiors of the rooms and the whole hotel in general are designed in the "grape" style, because Dionysos is the ancient Greek god of wine and winemaking. A huge crystal chandelier in the shape of a bunch of grapes hangs in the lobby of the hotel, and when it is turned on in the evenings, it shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow. A huge and very beautiful swimming pool occupies most of the hotel. Greenery on the territory, as they wrote before me, neither more nor less, it is enough. The very concept and design of the territory does not provide for a large amount of greenery.

The overall impression is not bad, but the territory will still be re-equipped, on the site of the proposed football fields there is still a wasteland and greenhouses, potted trees grow, which may be planned to be planted on the territory in the future. Everywhere is clean and tidy. A path paved with cobblestones leads to the sea, and it takes about seven minutes to walk along it to the beach. If you are reluctant to stomp on foot, you can take an electric bus that runs between the slides and the beach from 8:00 to 12:30 and from 14:00 to 17:30. The path from the beach is separated by a bridge over a small river in which fish and turtles live, and watching them is a pleasure! By the way, the river does not stink at all, as you might expect, beautiful large yellow flowers are planted along its banks.

Number
Each building of the hotel has its own name. I lived in the "Poseidon" building, it is located next to the building where the reception is located.
As I wrote above, a box of chocolates and my greeting in Turkish (I am the translator of this language) worked wonders, and I had a great room on the 2nd floor (#3306) with direct sea views. There were 2 beds in the room (1 large and 1 small extra-bed, of course, I slept on a large one : ) When I and the receptionist entered the room upon check-in, it was stuffy and the beds were made with blankets, not sheets. To my bewilderment: “Is the air conditioning not working in the room? And where are the sheets? ” The receptionist replied that the sheets would be brought, and the air conditioner was not turned on for a long time here because this room had not been rented out for a long time - it was “held” for especially dear guests. I was pleasantly surprised!
: ) The room had a closet with shelves, the closet has a semi-automatic safe (you don't have to pay for its rent), a mini-bar with soft drinks (mineral water with and without gas, cold fruit tea and juices - good, not "yupi"), they filled it out every day at first, then they saw that I didn’t drink much, and they started filling it out on request. There is also a plasma TV with many channels (Turkish, German, Polish, English, Jewish, 1 Russian and 2 Ukrainian), 2 mirrors, paintings of ancient Greek themes on the walls. On the frames of the mirrors there is an openwork stucco molding in the form of vines. On the balcony there are 2 chairs, a table and a small dryer. When the door is closed, almost no sounds coming from outside can be heard - the sound insulation is good. The air conditioner in the room works by the hour, but it cools perfectly, it is controlled by a couple of buttons on the wall. (They often write that the conditioner is terrible - don't believe it, some people just don't know how to use it!

) In the bathroom - shampoo in bottles, soap (square, reminiscent of our laundry, but if you're lucky or ask, they can put a round one in a box, it smells nicer), a hair dryer - it works fine, but you have to hold the button with your finger all the time. All plumbing and in general all appliances in the room work perfectly, nothing broke even once. The floor in the room is stated as parquet, but in my opinion, it was a laminate with a parquet finish.

Service, staff
The staff is lovely, friendly, smiling and friendly. But, unfortunately, without knowledge of Turkish, or at least German or English, there is nothing to do there - almost no one speaks or understands Russian, and if they speak / understand, it is bad. Room cleaning is a separate issue : ) On the first day I left 5 Turkish lira (equivalent to 2.5 dollars) on the pillow, and the first days the room was simply licked, but then it was not cleaned so carefully.
Once, the maid's question made me laugh to tears: "Do you want to make a bed, clean your room, or let it be like this? " take a nap. But I think that order is order, and room cleaning should be carried out according to the plan established in the hotel. They won’t put towels for the feet, they won’t put shampoo. But these are such trifles - anyway, I had my own shampoo with me : ) Unfortunately, there is such an unpleasant thing as ignoring tourists from the CIS countries as if "by chance". For example, even if you speak Turkish, but not Turkish, you can wait at the bar for your cola for about half an hour, and if you ask the waiter to bring you a chair, cutlery or fanta, he will promise ...but will not do it. Forgot? Or maybe it doesn't make it? But for some reason, the same request of the Turks or Germans is fulfilled immediately ...

Thank God, the ignoring didn’t particularly affect me personally (a couple of times they didn’t bring a chair at dinner at the request, so I took it myself), but many tourists complained that they were not paid attention to and even rude. But personally, everyone smiled at me, seeing my benevolent and friendly attitude towards them, they answered the same, and it was somewhat strange to hear complaints about the rudeness of the staff. There is a lot of security in the hotel and on the territory, so you can safely leave things on the sunbed and go for a swim, but it’s better not to take risks and not leave valuables in sight, because the hotel is not responsible for the loss of things outside the safe. For 2 weeks of rest, I could not find a guest relation - I know that they have it, but where it is located is a mystery. The animators, after listing the names of the participants in the game in the pool, would certainly add "masha-dasha-sasha-rasha-sushi! ", that is, our names are the same for them.
(This was the sin of the animators who replaced the previous animators on June 21, but it's a pity - those that were before the 21st were much better ... )

Food, restaurant
The restaurant is very large, there is an indoor and outdoor section. The food is varied, sometimes too spicy (even for a spicy lover like me), but such is Turkish cuisine. Large selection of fresh-boiled-fried-stewed vegetables, cheeses, salads. Fish and meat (beef, veal, lamb) are plentiful, but there is tension with fruits - in the sense that they were enough for everyone, but the assortment was not very diverse. For breakfast there were very tasty white and pink grapefruits, for lunch and dinner green plums and the sweetest watermelon. Fresh orange juice - $3. The sweet table is beyond praise - varied and sooooo tasty, jelly desserts and oriental sweets predominate. The most delicious is where the cooks cook and stand at the distribution.
For dinner, a lot of goodies are prepared on the street, but there is usually a long queue for them even before dinner starts. In general, the queues are a significant minus of this hotel. Ice cream is given free of charge from 3 pm to 5 pm, so I once stood in line for it for exactly 1 hour (! ) From drinks both in the restaurant and in bars - cola, fanta, sprite, ayran, "yupi", mineral water with gas, tomato juice, from alcohol - red and white wine and others (I didn’t take it, I don’t know, so I can’t say anything). The waiters serve quickly. There are often not enough places on the street during dinner, as many tourists drag away chairs and sit down 6 people at a table designed for 4 people. There is a children's and dietary menu, that is, the problem of "what to feed the child" does not arise. Tea brewed or in bags - black, linden, sometimes fruity and mint. Coffee in the range, brewed coffee can be ordered at the bar.

Beach, sea, pool

The hotel has several swimming pools - children's, indoor, outdoor, with slides and jacuzzi. In the pool - fountains and waterfalls, under which you can swim. Different parts of the pool have different depths. There is a pool bar where you can sit at a table on ordinary chairs, or you can sit at the bar on underwater chairs without taking your ass out of the water, which is very convenient in the heat. : ) At night, the illumination of the pools changes - blue-purple-red-green, and the pools look very beautiful both during the day and at night. The water in the pools is crystal clear, in the evenings it is disinfected and the bottom of the pools is cleaned with a special vacuum cleaner. The slides are just super: 1 with 2 curls, 1 "gutter", 1 gutter with a springboard, the fastest, 1 simple, divided into 3 "paths" and 1 more, along which they go down in circles, but not into the pool, but up and down the hill. EVERYONE screeches! But a lot of fun and not a bit scary.
The beach has fine golden sand, which is cleaned daily, but, unfortunately, not all tourists know that their rubbish in the form of cores and cigarette butts must be thrown into the bin, which are numerous on the beach, almost every sunbed. There are enough sun loungers for everyone, but you can take a good place by the pool only at 7-8 in the morning, then there are either no places at all, or there are, but in the sun. Beach towels are issued on cards, and no one can understand where. : ) I tell you: if you stand facing the indoor pool, on the right there is a staircase to the -1 floor, there is a doctor's office and a SPA center. Go to the very end of the corridor, there is a guy with towels on the counter. There are no stones at the bottom of the sea AT ALL, the entrance to the sea is flat and sandy, the water is very clear and clean, which is rare for sandy beaches. This is probably the best beach in Side, since I walked far along the coast, went to the beaches of other hotels, and there were terrible stones everywhere. The water area of ​ ​ the beach is fenced with buoys.
The last few days the sea was very stormy, then there were lifeguards on the beach, and if they saw that a high wave was approaching, they turned on the siren. But this did not stop our people - even with the kids they climbed into the waves and caught a buzz ...: ) There is a bar on the beach where you can drink, and from 12 o'clock and have a bite.

Entertainment, animation

Animation entertained from morning until late at night - games in the pool, gymnastics, darts, boccia, evening shows ...Until June 21, there was a Turkish animation team - the guys were just super, funny, incendiary, put on enchanting, memorable evening shows. Shao-lin monks (combat school of Kung Fu) came, the show was such that the heart simply sank with delight, and sometimes with fear - when they threw knives and swords at each other, or one hit the other with a stick on the head and in the face, and he dodged in a split second! The children were delighted with the Turkish animator who ran the kids club.
But after the 21st, the animators changed, and this significantly affected the quality of both daytime games and evening shows - unfortunately, for the worse ...The disco was held indoors, so it was not heard. For sports, the hotel has a gym, it is planned to build a football field.

Conditions for recreation with children
There were many families with children of all ages in the hotel. Excellent conditions have been created for children - children's chairs in the restaurant (they are covered with cling film as a guarantee of their cleanliness), animators work with children from morning to evening, conduct various games, the children are very happy. There is a separate small children's pool with a fountain where water flows from above and a separate small slide, there is also a mini club and a good playground on the beach. Children enjoy feeding fish and turtles living in the river.
Evening mini-discos are held to new songs, although classics like the dance of little ducklings or a train have not gone away : ) In general, the hotel is a good five, but the economy class is more drawn to 4 * than 5. Everything would be super, if not for the "buts" described above .. .