Luna Blanca Resort

The hotel caters well for children. There are two large pools, a pool for very small children and a pool with 4 water slides. The slides are only open between 10am to 12pm and 2pm to 4pm daily. The slides cannot he used outside of these hours. Nothing on the hotel website about this. There is a lot of poolside entertainment which is largely catering for adults but some suitable for children. The hotel in my view is cantered around Turkish and or German tourists. Some of the staff speak in English but many don’t. There is kids entertainment in the evening but again this is mainly catering for Turkish or German guests. The adult entertainment is dubious and risqué at times. All the hotel is smoking and no where is off limits. The food is fine and caters for most. My children enjoyed the food. The food at the Italian restaurant was awful. The buffet was better. On another note, you only get one a la carte dinner if you’re staying 7 nights or more. Not all the restaurants are open every day and you need to book in the morning. Nothing on the hotel website about this. At the buffet, little help is offered in getting a table. You have to fend for yourself. For all the good points, I felt that holiday could have been so much more if the staff were friendlier, more caring and more helpful. When we arrived at reception, we weren’t assisted by anyone and left to sort out our own luggage without the services of a bell boy. Despite the receptionist seeing we were struggling with pushchairs, luggage, no help was offered. Due to an issue with the booking rather than two rooms, we were given a two bed suite until our rooms became available. This was a tactic by the hotel as they had overbooked. The hotel claims not to charge for under 3 year olds but it does, and so we were told to pay an extra 80 euros per night unless we accepted then accommodation on offer. We had no choice but to wait for our rooms to become free after two nights. Housekeeping only tended to the bedding and do not clean on a daily basis. When this was pointed out to the staff, we were told we’d have to wait until the following day for the vacuuming to be done. Even when the bathroom was pointed out the cleaning was not done. Any complaints were dismissed and not taken seriously. We booked a taxi for 7 people for our transfer back to the airport and despite being assured we’d have the correct transport, a five seater was offers to us when there were 7 passengers. When we complained we were told to sort out our own taxi when the hotel was clearly at fault. No assistance was given to rectify this nor were we refunded our money for the 7 seater we paid for. All in all, the staff need lessons on how to treat guests. Had they been more professional, the issues highlighted above would not have felt so big if we had been treated better. It felt like every time we asked for something we were being a nuisance. Some of the waiting staff were very friendly and made us feel very welcome but overall, this hotel is no where near a five star establishment. The hotel is a 5 minute walk away from the beach which is fine, though a bus service is available (though not really a bus, more like a truck). The hotel is opposite the Side Mall which isn’t the most glamorous of areas. The surrounding area is full of shops selling counterfeit goods. If you do go to this hotel, a visit to Side promenade and the ruins is an absolute must.

Very good hotel, good buffet and no cheap local drinks. The only bad thing is, that the hotel owners dog at the parking lot is a poor thing. He deservers a better life. Super sweet dog asking for attention. Laying in the sun at a dusty parking lot.