Samara Hotel

This was our first experience of 5* and Samara lived up to expectations (almost). The hotel is in a great location, being on the oposite coast to Bodrum on the peninsular and is only a 30 minute journey from the airport. Our arrival was late in the evening and as we found out later, the guy on reception with very limited english, did not tell us about everything, however we had a great stay. We were there in late September/early October and the temperature for us, 25/27 was perfect, also this time of year the hotel is not full, and so we were able to get sunbeds every day, I don't think this would be the case in mid summer, if you look at the photos and realise there are 332 rooms, then you can imagine how many people. The hotel is incredibly clean, there are even staff who just walk around all day with a dustpan and brush, and the rooms are serviced every day. The food is lovely and such a huge choice, breakfast and lunch relaxed and easy to find a seat, dinner, different story and it's a bit of a stampede at 7pm when they open, however the staff are lovely and only too happy to help. One major critisism, and it is one of my pet hates, why are people so rude to just let their room doors slam behind them, as they did, no matter what time of day or night, maybe something for the hotel to look at if they read this, to put slow door closers on the room doors.

Arrived late evening, greeted by reception, no welcome drink offered and the English language was not the best. Not very good for a 5 star. We were taken to our room which was lovely, and very clean. Porter took our cases literally 20 seconds away, £5 tip given, no eye contact and no thank you, just rude. The grounds are lovely, kept spotless and there are plenty of areas for everyone at night to sit, unwind and relax, there is entertainment on at night which is average in the amphitheatre. Animation in the day, the main man that runs it is adorable and very friendly, once he knows your face he always greets you with hello & a smile, your not pestered to take part in the activities but they do the same activities everyday, and the poolside music is the same every day. The bar staff on the beach bar are very busy but do serve you in turn which is good, whereas the large barman at the poolside bar is ignorant, if your a woman he will leave you standing there and serve men before you, even men that have come to the bar after you have been waiting there, he puts as priority, not good, my money is no different to anyone elses, therefore everyone should be treated the same. The Indonesian lady that serves at the indoor bar is also lovely and knows what you want to drink once she recognises you, and gets your drink straight to you, always smiling. Not a chance of you getting a sunbed on the beach at the front, 6.30 everyday my husband was down and there were towels everywhere with no people on them, my husband one day did remove a row of towels, which was funny, that afternoon everyone was given a sheet in the room to say if your not on your towel at 7am then security would remove them, this only lasted 2 days, but there are so many other areas that are beautiful that you can relax and unwind in, we were there 11 nights and never sat in the same area twice, some people are just very selfish. Housekeeping was really good, every day our room was cleaned and kept lovely and the lady if she saw us always managed to make sure she spoke to us. The food, well what can I say, quality is not bad but everything is so repetitive, I know it’s all inclusive but have to say the choice is one of the worst we have ever had and the meat is really fatty, and mainly caters for Russians. The staff that wait on you and clean tables are so polite and accommodating, we did tip the waiter and the lady that cleaned our table daily, our waiters English was not good, so he translated with us through our phones which was really good, in fact the restaurant manager should take note of his staff and follow them, he only ever spoke to a select few, walked around miserable, and never once said hello to us. Lastly the highlight of our stay was the spa, the lovely gentleman that sorts your appointments for you is adorable, even after he knew he had business from us, every day if he saw us would go out of his way to chat to us, we had 8 treatments between us over the course of the 11 nights, the ladies are Indonesian and I can honestly say, the best massages we have had in Turkey, the staff in the spa are absolute fantastic, I highly recommend, and it’s not expensive either, thank you spa team for making us so very welcome. The hotel is a taxi or bus ride right from the front of the hotel which is really good, and the harbour and city are a 10 minute ride away, the harbour at night is beautiful and well worth a visit. We did ask reception if we could extend our room a couple of hours until 2 in the afternoon as we were not due to fly until late that evening, it was offered to us at a cost of £60 which I thought was daylight robbery. We both made the most of our holiday at Samara but would not return unfortunately, it mainly caters for Russians. Thank you to all that made our stay enjoyable and to those that were rude and did not this is our reason for non return.

Great experience at Samara Hotel! The spa was definitely one of the highlights of our stay. A special thanks to the gentleman working at the spa, who was very friendly, helpful, and took the time to explain all the available options and treatments. His hospitality really made the experience even better. Highly recommended! Greetings from Kosova