I am going to try and balance my review as much as possible as there were good and bad parts of my families 2 week stay. This review will be a long one I am afraid.

I arrived at the hotel and went to check in. My first experience with the hotel staff was, while I waited in line, a lady speaking English complained about her family being pushed to check out before 12pm, but at 2.15pm were still waiting on the airport transfer. Her complaint was met with the receptionist by the name of Baris (we will meet him again later in my review) talking down on this woman telling her not to talk to him like that and to go sit and wait. Thought it was unprofessional in his way of speaking to a guest, especially of a 5 star hotel.

After checking in, I realised that very few of the staff have English. However I did know this before I travelled as it is a mainly Russian Speaking resort area. My wife speaks Russian so for me, half the battle won.

However, our first real bad experience, which I was extremely surprised about, was having to complain to the Guest Relations Manager (Gulcan) about the behaviour of 2 of the staff from the Kids Mini Club. Gulcan was fantastic. She listened and apologised regarding our complaints and tried to resolve them. She always came and checked up on us while also interactimg with the kids. Although it is advertised for kids above 4 years old, all kids are welcome under supervision. However, the first day we arrived, my wife and kids (16months and 3 years old) was left standing at the door for 20mins as these 2 girls concentrated on the other kids painting. She finally just took her shoes of and just asked the girls for a brush and paper for my 3 year old daughter. No hello or welcome at all. The following day I decided to go with them. Upon entering, kids were around the table making cat face masks. Again, no hello from the same 2 girls and after 12mins of standing and waiting just sat my daughter down on a free chair and had to ask for materials via my wife to let my daughter join in. My 3 year old asked me "do they not want us here daddy". I found it so unprofessional and not nice to treat kids that way. During the 12mins, one of the girls just had her head buried texting on her mobile. Not all was bad however, as on day 3, a third girl arrived part of the team. She smiled, said hello, and interacted with both my kids. Her name was Busuluu and she was a breath of fresh air. I hated going in to that place for the remainder of my holiday when the other 2 were there.

The hotel itself has a beautiful setting. A newly built hotel in a beautiful rocky mountain setting, and a private beach area (although stoned beach not sand). However, the finishing standard of the hotel was poor. Sound proofing was non existent with hearing everything happening in the neighbours rooms. Also the standard of the carpentry, painting and plastering was cheap and extremely poor. Skirting board cut and installed when too long with no angles, foam boards used before skimming over on the walls. The list goes on for these types of poor finishing.

Food: well... this was an experience. As this was buffet, you get what you can expect. The food was decent. However, the Guests were like starved dogs running to their food bowls for the first time in a week. The skipping of ques and the nudging was just incredible. I was never so stressed for getting a buffet dinner before in my life. The waiting staff collecting plates at times could be irritating as they try and take plates even when not finished. That being said, we were very happy with Veli and Nasrettin as they always said hello, helped us find tables and ensured they were clean, and got us drinks. They also interacted with the kids which helped us settle for dinner. 2 great guys.

The Spa:

As always on our holidays, we spend some time in the spa. We spoke to a nice girl called Lara that done good deals for our massages etc. However, my massages were cancelled for the first 2 days as their masseuse had problems with his paperwork and they ended up letting him go. So on the 3rd day, we got a new guy called Yusif. A really nice guy and great at his work. The only down side was, they only had one set of hot stones and the machine. So my massages over the few days was interrupted on a few occasions by others looking for them. I found this not very good for a 5 star Spa.

Back to Baris from reception. For a 5 star hotel, even in Turkey, the way he spoke to ourselves and other guests when making general enquiries was a disgrace. He would talk down on people for asking a question like we asked (could we have a second room key as one of us takes the kids home for daytime naps during the day and the other follows later) which was met with him waving his hands and a raised voice saying "no way are they getting it, we don't do that here" even though we were talking to another reception staff at the time. Just a rude man and really do not know how he keeps his job there to be honest. Not 5 star treatment at all. More like a 3 star.

My overall opinion of this hotel;

No more then a 3-4 star at best. It has huge potential and a beautiful look, but too many let downs. Could have been so much better then it ended up being. A relaxing enough holiday, but as you can see, too many problems whether big or small over 2 weeks for my liking. I wouldn't return to this hotel.