Altinkum Bungalows

My family and I went to the Side Altinkum Bungalows in mid-July and stayed there for a total of 7 days (excluding the day of departure). I will divide this review into 4 sections as there are several aspects to comment on.

1. The hotel and the accommodation

2. The location

3. The food

4. The service

5. The hotel and the accommodation

The hotel is located on a piece of land about 5-10 metres away from the beach. The path to the hotel starting from the street starts with a downwards ‘hill’ leading to a guard post. The guard post tends to have 1-2 attendees who check your band (that you get once checked in). Next to the guard post, I found apartments probably for the employees.

The path to the reception is an about 100-metre long one that is surrounded by bungalows and greenery. One important note here is that when the path is wet, shoes that tend to slip will most likely slip here. On your way to the reception, you’ll find signs leading to the Turkish bath, the hotel hairdresser, the restaurants, and rooms.

The reception is located in a separate house/room. You can’t miss it as the room is surrounded by glass/windows. The reception has one large room with a sitting area and two private rooms for the workers.

Standing with your back to the reception, you’ll see the start of the restaurant area. In there you’ll find plenty of sitting space, the bar, the coffee/tee station, and a refreshment table + water cooler. The restaurant included in the all-inclusive deal is located closest to the reception. While the other restaurant is a short walk through the tables and past the ‘gate’/divider. The restaurant is less than a 10-metre walk away from the coast.

Going back to the reception. To your left with your back to the reception, you’ll find the path leading to the bungalows. The path splits into two with trees and bushes in the middle. The housing is small-medium sized bungalows/houses. The houses my family and I stayed in included one bathroom and one bedroom. There are a table and two chairs for outdoor seating. The room my parents stayed in was larger than mine and my sisters’. They had a vanity, one large bed divided in two, a bathroom, AC, a closet, and bedside tables. My sisters and my room was smaller but included the same furniture as the previous room. The room key includes a plastic ‘bar’ that works as the trigger for the room. Basically, you have a bar that you insert into a slot inside the room. Once you remove the bar, the electricity turns off.

The room itself was fine. The AC was pretty loud and sometimes the remote wouldn’t work. The lights worked fine. The bathroom was nice and average-sized. The shower was nice, and the toilet includes a washer (? Used to wash your private parts).

My comments:

I have nothing bad to say about the hotel or bungalows. The trees and plants they have been growing there are beautiful and relaxing. There are a lot of ants there and cats. I loved the latter.

TIPS:

FREAKING. MOSQUITOS. Buy a Raid room plug. Mosquitos are a big thing during the summer so be smarter than I and buy that Raid plug-in or at least bug spray. The mosquito bites are pesky. In my case, I was bitten five times and the skin in that area would swell badly. Important to note here is that if you have the AC turned on the plug doesn’t work. No idea why that didn’t occur to me.

The key trick If you’d like to keep the room cool in your absence, then remove the key from the bar and keep the bar in. saves your skin during the heat.

2. The location

The location was very convenient. You’ll be located 4 km away from the mall (worth a few trips), 600-1000 metres away from the ruins, and a 1 km walk away from the nearest supermarkets. The beach is located right next to the hotel. Literally just a few steps down. Taxis can be ordered through the reception for no charge. A taxi ride to the mall shouldn’t cost you more than 30-35 TL. Be wary of the numerous vendors trying to sell you everything from fans to beach houses. They're very persistent and will scoff at you or even make fun of you if you don't pay them attention (and money). We even had one becoming upset because we refused to drink his tea.

My comments:

It felt great to be able to walk everywhere. However, since the heat was a tad too much, I frequented the taxis. The mall is pretty close but I never had the opportunity to walk there. Supermarkets can be found everywhere. Prices are in both euro and TL. The shopkeepers speak Turkish, some German and Russian, and VERY broken English.

Tips:

The freaking taxis Haggle. Please don’t overpay for a short ride because they will haggle the life out of you. Basically, a trip to the mall shouldn’t cost you more than 35 TL, a trip to the ruins 20-30 TL and a trip to the Manavgat waterfalls/bazaar 100 TL. Believe me, many of them will do anything to overcharge you. I had one driver agree with me on 35 and once at my destination asking me for 50. We had a long argument that ended with him leaving without getting paid. His loss. So yeah, don’t hesitate to shoot down their attitudes.

3. The food

Sigh, where do I even start?

The restaurant included in the all-inclusive price was fine. They have an average selection of dishes and there’s usually a cook cooking up a dish outside, too. The salad bar is alright but most of the greens were bitter. The cheese and cold cuts selection were good although the latter tasted the same. the dishes were a hit or miss. I liked the breakfast the most while I preferred eating out around dinner time. The dessert table was ok. Most desserts are too sweet, dry or bland. The bread is quite good, and they have a toaster and panini maker. The soups where very salty.

They focus a lot on carbs and proteins. If you don’t care about flavour, then you should be good to go.

We didn't try the other restaurant since its prices were higher than a more decent restaurant outside the hotel. Just eat out whenever you can. We wished that we hadn't chosen the all-inclusive by the third day there.

4. The service

Oh dear, here we go.

We were generally welcomed well. A guy helped with the luggage and the receptionists explained everything. The staff was welcoming and nice (until the fire nation attacked). As the days went, the service level decreased. A lot of the staff members went from all smiles when they’d see you to dry washing their hands expecting payment to every inch they’d take for you. The hotel staff service differed between leeching off you to helpfulness.

The one line that could attempt summarising my experience with the hotel staff is: they’d love to help if you wave a few bills in the air OR they’d help and semi-frown at you if you didn’t use their paid services in the future.

Here are some examples:

The receptionists were either semi-helpful or extremely dismissive. If you didn’t speak Turkish or German, you’re practically on your own. They would get frustrated with you before you had the chance to explain the issue in simpler terms. Once, I called the reception to ask about the pick-up of the minibar (btw, the minibar is an extra cost. It will cost you 65 TL or 10 EURO) as we had agreed for them to pick it up Thursday. The receptionist, a woman, told me to wait and then hung up on me. I called again and they never picked up. I actually had to go there and explain the situation. The fridge was never picked up regardless of their promises.

Regardless of how much you pay for extra services, the provider will most likely try to sell you whatever extra stuff they have for a too-high fee. I had the Pedi and mani treatments that cost me 90 TL. Regardless, the worker still tried to sell me a foot file for 60 TL. I saw that same file at Gratis (go there) for 10-15 TL.

The cleaning lady wouldn't change the sheets unless they were very dirty. My sister dropped some chocolate on one of the bedsheets and that was the only time the lady changed the sheets. The towels were changed but not the bigger ones for showering.

Some of the waiters can be uncomfortable to be around. My sister had one waiter constantly trying to chit chat regardless of how dismissive she tried to be. He eventually was fired for harassing the guests. Be careful. On the last day, the staff completely lost their service skills. We weren’t allowed to place our bags inside the reception (which every guest had been allowed to do before us), the receptionist wouldn’t ask anyone to help us with the bags. Since the bus taking us to the airport cannot go down the little hill we had to drag the bags up. One guy ran after us and dry washed his hands smirking. He wanted money, obviously, and claimed he could take all the bags up the hill for us. However, since we were already fed up by the staff we asked him to leave after kindly declining his offers. He wasn’t too pleased.

So, who are the nice people at the hotel?

The hairdresser, her husband, and their dog The cleaning lady Some of the Turkish Hammam staff Some of the restaurant/bar staff The old man gardener

To sum up:

The location and the actual hotel are great. The service is ok until you reach the last days of your stay. Then, it sucks unless you wave your bills at everyone and overpay. Some of the people are good people but they’re hard to find.

The hotel is good location is excellent food is ok only a few British mostly German but staff are very friendly overall for the price 4 out of 5 alcohol is only vodka rakiki and red and white wine
Other than that all good very hot 35 Deg no rain at all

Very friendly hotel , staff were great . Ideal for the old town and ruins, rooms were fine for us as we don't spend a great deal of time in them , just to sleep and change . Food was fine only for kids not a lot of selection , in 2 weeks there was on chips on once . Would stay again with no worries