Фальшивая звезда false star

Hello everyone who loves Turpravda, finds help here and helps others to make their trip comfortable and interesting. I discovered this site for myself when it became a question of resting abroad with a baby (now my son is almost 4 years old). Traveled a lot before the baby was born, but never looked for anyone's reviews or left reviews themselves. But... everything turned out to be different with the child, and how Turpravda helped me a lot. I was happy to leave feedback about a trip with a baby to Turkey and about the first acquaintance with Egypt. This year we decided to go from June 1 to Turkey, the Side region, and, to be honest, I had thoughts that upon arrival, I would post a photo report with comments and emphasis on the main points and I would not bore anyone with long stories. It turned out that not everything is so simple, because there are so many little things in the chosen hotel that one star is obviously superfluous, or rather fake. Do not think from my report that we did not like everything, that we left Turkey without regret, that we did not rest - this is not at all the case. Just with my story, I would like to help people choose a hotel, knowing all the nuances and cons, as they say, informed means armed. I fully admit that some moments will be a trifle for someone, and someone will be forced to think once again whether to go to this hotel, but of course you choose.
And so, on June 1, I, my husband and our son are going to Turkey, the Iberotel Serra Palace 5 * hotel in Side. Tour operator Turtess, UIA airline. A very inconvenient flight to Antalya (5 am) and the same not convenient to Kyiv (8.15). You understand that it is not easy for an adult when the night is broken, and even more so for a child. Departures were without delay, which is good. We drove to Borispol airport by car, but at the travel agency, when we bought a ticket, we were offered a free transfer organized by Turtess from the railway station to the airport, in my opinion this is a good additional service to the tour package and can come in handy for many, so if they forget offer , please inquire.
Antalya airport, small queues to the windows for visas. Here I want to give one piece of advice, take the euro. A visa for one person costs 30 dollars or 20 euros, for Ukraine it is definitely more profitable than the euro, we have a savings of 15 dollars for three, it is clear that the money is not big, but it will be for tips at the hotel. And in general, take euros for this hotel, because there is a children's store on the territory, popcorn, cotton candy, toys-symbols of the hotel's children's club, CDs with club songs, taxis in Side and Manavgat are sold, everything is more profitable to buy for euros.

The transfer to the hotel is long, the hotel is somehow on the outskirts, more than 2 hours, on the way we stopped at 4 hotels, our last one. Of all the bus passengers, half in our hotel, the check-in turned out to be great.
Receptionist - the first impression is good, two Russian-speaking girls offer to give documents and quickly go to the restaurant to eat, since brunch ends in 15 minutes, we did so. After breakfast, we explain at the reception that we would like to get a room in the main building. We have paid for the standard, but without specifying in a bungalow or in a building. Since I am allergic to dampness, bungalows and first floors are my enemies, but it turned out that some bungalows have another unpleasant moment - mosquitoes. According to the stories of vacationers, it became clear that not all bungalows are suffering from their invasion, but some of the bungalows are suffering a lot. People came to the reception and asked to spray the room, which they did immediately, but it was of little use. The answer is simple, one hotel from ours there is a river, which is very swampy, and is a place where mosquitoes live. So I recommend the main building, no mosquitoes, checked. I also want to warn those who are going to buy rooms - economy room - this is not a small standard room, but a room without a balcony and even without... windows. So be careful and buy the standard.
We are with soul to the receptionists (20 c. u. ) and he is to us. Instead of the standard, they gave a large standard (superior) on the 2nd floor, the windows face west (the room is not hot) and onto the lawns and bungalows of the neighboring hotel (quiet, calm and pleasing to the eye). I really liked the room - an area of ​ ​ ​ ​.28 sq. m. , carpeting, which is great for little feet, there is a sofa for the child, but he slept with us, for adults, two beds pushed together, but the joint was not felt, the mini-bar was replenished once a two or three days, but we had a lot of that - beer, sparkling and non-carbonated water, sprite, cola, fanta, there is a free safe in the room, which is very convenient, a TV, still an old fighter, but we didn’t really need it ( there are 2 Russian channels, in my opinion ORT and RTR-planet), the bathroom is normal, everything worked, there is no bath - only a shower cabin, shampoo and soap were periodically replenished, the hair dryer is very weak, I have long hair, it takes a long time to dry and it is difficult, cleaning was excellent, every other day they left 1 c. u. , they laid out bows for us and beautifully folded the child's toys, very nice.
The hotel building is a building with three sections connected together. For mothers with strollers and small children, it is very important that there are two elevators in the building. The sections are made in squares with glass roofs, in the middle of which trees grow - very interesting. On the lower floor there is a restaurant (there is an open area and a billiard table - free of charge); spa center (there you will receive beach towels every morning and rent every evening); gym (free admission, just don’t forget sports shoes; new Kettler simulators were installed with us, my husband and son ran there with pleasure); photo studio (one photo - 6 euros, without the possibility of having a photo in electronic form, we bought 10 photos - we are satisfied with the quality, but as previously written, be careful with them, we were also offered, only on the condition of buying all the photos, even those that were not successful and we didn’t like getting purchased photos in electronic form) and an a la carte restaurant, which is a day off on Sunday, two days a week (Wednesday and Saturday) works like Italian, and on other days like Turkish. On the ground floor there are reception offices, representative offices of tour operators and a lobby bar (it works around the clock, the atmosphere is quite cozy, there are almost no people, the World Cup in South Africa is broadcast, and broadcasts are also on the big screen in the restaurant).

It’s impossible to write about nutrition unequivocally, no, don’t think that we were hungry, not at all. We really liked the traditional breakfasts - pancakes, muesli, vegetables, dinners are also excellent, the only thing for those who are used to dinner in the open area of ​ ​ ​ ​ the restaurant, and next to it, to roast a large amount of grill - this hotel will only have an open area, everything is roasted will be indoors and perhaps the choice of meat will not be so great. The biggest minus of the hotel is the dinners. They take place from 12.00 at the beach bar (it seemed to me very old, shabby and not cozy), where the choice of dishes will be poor, compared to the main lunch, which is the main problem. Lunch from 12.30 is held at the pool bar and that's something. You understand that a bar is not a restaurant. Firstly, half of the tables are without umbrellas and without any other canopy, but even if all the tables are used, and those under the sun, there will not be enough places. Imagine how difficult it is for mothers to feed their child, because it is clear that every mother would like to feed the baby faster and put her to sleep in the room during the period of solar activity, but mothers do not have a normal opportunity. We tried to have lunch on the beach or come for lunch in the middle. Indeed, in the middle and towards the end of lunch there are places under a canopy, but there is almost no food. Several times we encountered that there was no meat, and the sweet table was surprising (look at the photo below - a sweet table, there is 1 hour left until the end of dinner, then you will understand everything). In the afternoon, delicious ice creams of several types are served, as well as pastries at the pool bar and beach bar. There is also ice cream during dinner, and at the beach bar during the day there is a very tasty ayran in the vending machines (although not always). The day before we left, they started to build something like a canopy in the pool bar, maybe people will have better luck with dinner after us.
Now for the a la carte restaurants. We only got into Turkish, we came to the recording a week before departure, Italian was busy, there is an assumption that people who bought a tour for a week are unlikely to get into it. And so the Turkish restaurant: service, decor and food - everything is fine. I advise you to go, we really liked it.
The weather was not typical for June in Turkey, the Turks themselves never cease to be surprised. There was no day that the sky was completely clear, it was necessary that there were not big clouds, but this did not interfere in any way, rather, on the contrary, the air temperature was 28-30, the water temperature was 23-24, partly cloudy helped not to burn out in the sun and feel comfortable feel. What was bad was the stormy sea. There were calm seas for several days and my baby swam in it with pleasure, and with waves he didn’t even want to sit near the shore. Sunset, in my opinion, is not childish, firstly, pebbles (it is difficult, but you can enter without safety shoes, although we wore slippers), and secondly, there is no smooth transition of depth, for those who cannot swim or study, as well as for children, it is important to feel the bottom under your feet, and here the depth is very close. And so, the beach is covered with sand and children are happy to dig in it and build castles. Now about the "wonderful" pier, which you will see in the pictures in many catalogs, it does not exist, or rather it exists, in the form of rusty remnants. Now let me tell you a case. Children from the sunbeds next to the beach saw something sticking out of the sand between the sunbeds, together took up the shoulder blades and dug out... a piece of the rusted pier. Then this column was dug into the sand, maybe the beach worker will pay attention to it. I think it is not necessary to write that those who saw it were shocked, because small children are running on this sand. Attached is a photo of the find.
Now about security on the territory of the hotel: no, there were no unpleasant incidents, but... there are no bracelets, the territory is not fenced, no guards were met for the entire period, it is written that there is constant video surveillance (we saw several video cameras). But somehow it’s not very hard to believe that it is possible to control all people entering from the beach without bracelets, because from the side of the wasteland there is a road along which cars drive up to the sea.

The opinion about the beauty and landscaping of the territory is also not unambiguous. Part of the hotel closer to the main building is very pleasing to the eye, but the part of the area between the pools and the beach is terrible. Lawns are burnt grass, sandy and earthen puddles among the remnants of grass, in some places not properly cleaned. On one side of the hotel is a wasteland, where a herd of goats often walks, on the other, the Felicia Village hotel. On the territory of the hotel there is a mini-zoo, where my son and I went to feed the little goat and his mother, as well as near the open area of ​ ​ ​ ​ the restaurant there is a cage with many parrots that sing wonderfully.
Now about the pools. There are five of them: closed near the spa, very calm near 1-storey bungalows, children with a small slide in the form of an elephant (babies from 1 to 6 years old swam somewhere), a large pool with a gradual decrease in depth in a section with 5 slides and another. What to write about slides. For 4-year-olds, the slides are quite dangerous, so they rode an elephant, although among these five there is one gentle, more closed one, which comes out as if from a tunnel, my baby rode it with dad or one of us sent him from above, and the other picked up in the pool. I strongly recommend not to let the children themselves go on the slides, there is no one responsible, those who leave do not maintain a safe distance, several times people ran into each other in my presence and an 8-year-old boy was especially injured on whose back an adult woman fell. Without parents, children are very dangerous there.
In the hotel, half are Germans, Poles, French, Slovaks and half are representatives of Ukraine and Russia. So there are a lot of vacationers both at the pool and on the beach. And sun loungers... were sorely lacking either there or there. In the morning it was necessary to take places, because after breakfast you could find either a lonely sun lounger somewhere or nothing at all. On the beach in the morning several times lay down on the sand, there were no sun loungers. Were there sun loungers that people occupied and did not come to them all day? There were, but these are isolated cases. There are very few sun loungers in this hotel.
And now about children's animation. The hotel has 2 children's clubs: Fanny, a German club at the hotel (Fanny is a cool monkey (don't think it's real, an uncle in a monkey costume)) and from this year the Tukan club, an exclusive from Turtesse for Ukrainian and Russian children (Toucan - aunt in a bird costume). I will write right away that the animation for children was wonderful both in the Fanny club and in Tukan, we went to both. And one and the other children can go to one and the other club. I would like to pay attention to the Tukan club. Turtesse advertised it a lot and opened, in addition to the Iberotel, in several more hotels in Turkey. I can’t say that this club is somehow unique, it’s an ordinary normal hotel club for children from 4 years old (this is me about exclusivity). Two girls Polina and Dasha work in the club, as well as a young guy Taras. They are energetic, perky and it is clear that they want children to be happy. What I will write now is not to blame Polina, Dasha or Taras, but to blame Turtesse. The advertising catalogs indicated professional educators and trainers, of course this is not the case. It is very bad that in the exclusive from Turtesse (Toucan club) there was no place for at least one teacher with sufficient work experience. I know for myself, at the age of 20, there is energy, a desire to work, to move forward, but there is no experience and probably an understanding of how big a responsibility it is to look after children. Therefore, I wish Turtesse to improve and help young educators. And so, my child went to the Toucan club with pleasure and especially Polina fell in love with him, on the first day of visiting the club, children are given T-shirts and caps with the image of Toucan. They drew with the children, and painted pebbles, and did gymnastics, and played bowling, mini-golf, football, painted their faces, taught them to shoot from a bow, and swam in the pool. In the evening, Tukan went and invited all the children to dinner at 18.30 in a restaurant. The kids enjoyed eating. And in the evening there was a very good disco in the amphitheater, which was held by animators from both Fanny and Toucan. Half an hour of interesting dancing to perky songs, at the end, Fanny the monkey comes out and several dances with her. After the disco, you can take a picture with Fanny, as well as participate in small competitions for children held by Fanny's animators, in which Chupa-Chups were prizes. Before the disco, children's faces and hands were painted several times, and balloons were given as gifts. After the disco in the kids club there was an evening watching cartoons.

Adult animation was carried out by the same animators of the Fanny Club, of course, mostly in German. During the day, I saw yoga, Pilates, African dances, darts for those who wished, but we never took part. Evening shows are organized by the same team. If you are used to the fact that evening shows are really shows with guest actors, dancers, then this is not here. Animation is amateur and there are many accents in it on contests and games with representatives of the audience. But to be honest, we went to the animation every evening, the child sat with pleasure and we also relaxed next to him. Once a week there was live music in the bar near the pool (a young Turkish woman sang), which was pretty good for me.
Basically, the staff is friendly, but I’ll give a few examples about the quality of work, and you decide whether they work well or badly: upon arrival at the reception desk, they looked for a porter for a very long time, we already agreed to carry things ourselves, but it turns out that the part-time porter is also an instructor for using the safe, the search continued for a very long time, after which my husband figured out the safe himself and, having lifted our things to the room, resolved the issue with the search for the missing worker - the search was stopped; in the middle of rest in the evening at 23.15, carefully look at the time again and think that the hotel is family-run and there are 1 or 2 children in each room, a knock on the door and noise in the corridor, I go out - everyone is handed a piece of paper indicating that tomorrow at 9.00 it will be disinfection of insects is carried out, the medicine used is safe for humans. There is no instruction to remove things, then ventilate the room, but the most important question is how can people with children be raised at such a time. The situation on the beach is also very interesting: at 16.30-17.00, the hectic work of the person responsible for the beach begins, he actively removes the mattresses from the vacated sunbeds and hides them under lock and key, despite the fact that there are people on the beach until 19.00 and many come to the beach after lunch to relax until dinner and in order to grab a sunbed with a mattress, at this time, you need to wait until one of the vacationers releases it.
Even the best hotel does not guarantee meeting good people, but we met them in the Iberotel. Best wishes to Ivano-Frankivsk to mother Olya with the boy Sasha and to Moscow to mother Kristina with the boy Saveliy.
And in the end I want to say that you can relax in this hotel. Reading reviews from previous seasons, I understand that the hotel has deteriorated. The crisis probably affected, now many complain that their favorite hotels, where they went and knew for sure that everything was fine, are saving.

I want to thank the good people from Turpravda who helped me choose a hotel, advised me and even sent a video of the hotel. Thank you very much.
Interesting trips to all, excellent hotels and vivid impressions.