Side Royal Palace Hotel and Spa

Firstly the hotel is lovely, the coffee shop is fantastic. The rooms are cleaned very well. Everywhere is spotless. Right here goes the huge disappointments. We are a family of 5 so we have to go in separate rooms. We wasn't even put on the same floor. Our daughter has learning difficulties and needs alot of support from both myself and her dad but being on different floors made that difficult However after 2 days I could move to the same floor but down the hallway. Language barrier is huge, we were ignored especially by male staff. Germans run the hotel completely which is such a shame because I would have gone back if it wasn't for rude ill-mannered people. They actually walk at you and do not move. Please and thank you do not exist. I'm surprised at the staff but they weren't interested in us. However some of the female staff tried. Also the hotel behind us was very loud so younger children wouldn't sleep.

[Romanian guests, but TripAdvisor won’t let me select “Romania” as the region I come from].

So, my husband and I stayed at this hotel (the “old” one, Side Royal Palace) for 7 nights and all in all the experience was a pleasant one. What we liked:

• The rooms were nice and well cleaned;
• The hotel was clean, as so were the public bathrooms;
• The hotel is within a walking distance from the beach (a 4-5 minutes walk). Also, there is a shuttle from the hotel;
• The food was tasty, the vegetables and fruits were fresh. A few dishes (not all of them) were a bit repetitive indeed, but it didn’t bother us since they were good and there were a lot of options to choose from. I highly recommend trying the local - Turkish food, since they really know how to cook it. Indeed, the international dishes (such as burgers) were not very flavory. However if you visit a foreign country, it is quite obvious that the locals will master their local cuisine. We also had dinner at the Sultan’s restaurant and have been served traditional Turkish food which was delicious;
• The drinks were also good (mineral water, sodas, teas, coffee) and the cocktails were made on the spot from local alcoholic drinks;
• There is a bar by the pool that is opened 24/7, so if you want to grab a coffee early in the morning before breakfast, that’s your place;
• The staff was polite and welcoming, smiling and willing to help. We didn’t feel like they were expecting a tip, they behaved properly with or without tipping. It is true that they are not fluent in English, however we didn’t feel like this was an inconvenience, since we could communicate our requests and they did understand without any problems (they seem to speak better German though);

What we didn’t like:

• The beach-cleaning process could get some improving. There were some bottles, leftover cigarettes, straws and other things left in the sand by tourists. Even though it is disrespectful for the tourists to leave garbage behind, I think the hotel should take better care of the beach and clean it properly. The employees did remove the bottles and other bigger garbage left, but there were still cigarettes leftovers, straws and other small pieces of garbage in the sand, which was unpleasant;
• The beach bar opens at 10 a.m., a bit late for those who enjoy an early beach visit; however, starting at 8 a.m., you can get bottled water and some soda from the fridge on the beach (that’s separate from the beach bar);
• We found a bug in the bathroom on our last night, right before checking out;
• There was no food whatsoever available for those who departed early. In theory, the restaurant is open from 1:00-4:00. Despite this, we couldn’t find anything suitable to eat. There were some tomatoes and olives but we couldn’t find anything else, so we left without eating. It would have been nice to have something else, such as a slice of bread and some butter, nothing very complex or complicated;
• Even though we love cats and appreciate the care the Turkish people show towards them, I think it is a bit unhygienic to let them wander through the hotel’s restaurant and sit on the sofas and chairs in the lobby. If they are not dewormed or untreated for parasites, it could be dangerous for the tourists. My husband found himself having plenty of flea bites on his legs and arms and we suspect that he got them either from sofas/chairs where the cats sat or from the beach;
• There was a small incident with a waitress and a what-seemed-to-be-a-German tourist, which made us feel a little disrespected: one evening we went on the terrace where was scheduled a live-music-program. We stayed at a table that was free and had 2 half-empty glasses placed on it. After a while, a waitress came to us and asked us to leave, because the table was booked by a German lady who left those 2 drinks there. We left because we didn’t want to make a scene, but I don’t know how is it possible to leave a table unattended, without any belongings, only with a few half empty glasses on it, and expect people to know that the table is “booked” and not sit there;
• Also there are not a lot of activities to do inside the hotel, for those who don’t want to stay on the beach or by the pool the whole day.

All in all the experience was a positive one, despite the incidents above mentioned. We do recommend the hotel and we would like to return there some day.