Ephesia Holiday Beach Club

What a fabulous 10 days I had here. 100% i recommend and would come back here. We went as a family of 4 with 2 adults and 2 kids 16 and 4.

-Overall review of hotel

Laid out really well and kept to a high standard. Grounds looked fab. Rooms spacious we had a sea view room 7206 and was a great view of pool area and sea behind it. We did have some noise a few nights but not enough to keep us up all night so not a major issue and that’s not the hotels fault It’s just other people

We were there during a period with limited English there and felt it was a lot of Turkish but the staff there always made effort to translate to English or involve us in things which was fine

Sea area is great and the way the hotel is laid out is all fine with lots of pools to visit. Slides are great with a great mix and all kept really clean. Reception area is modern and very clean.

We didn’t keep room on at end as was €50 and instead used the area in reception. I was pleasantly surprised it was gone out really nice with lots of room and very clean/modern. Save yourself the money and use it for something else

-Location Hotel is on a beach so has water sports centres attached to the hotel and a beach area across the whole front of the hotel.

Around 10-15 min to the Kusadasi town which was €12 from taxi outside hotel. They said we needed two taxi for the 7 of us. But when we came back from the town there was a 8 seater we got back for the same price

The marina is nice and lots of shops and bars in the local town

Outside hotel turn right and. You can walk down to the beach. Not a lot down there really but was a nice walk down the front

• Food & Drink

The food here is really great. I had different food every day and had some wonderful plates of food while there. Having all the hot cooking food on the left hand of the restaurant does cause major queues and makes it look really crowded so they could do with splitting the hot food out to each side to help with this. The kebab night was a nightmare as so much crowded on the left I couldn’t even be bothered. They really need to figure a way to use the layout a bit better to spread out the queues as this will make a huge difference

Sitting outside is great and the sunset views while eating your tea is perfect. The young lad I think his name was Aradi was so helpful and always helping us sort a table and provide drinks

Recommendation- sort the toaster out. You can put it through 3 times and it’s still like bread. This needs to be fixed.

Lunch bar food was so good, wraps, fresh pizza burgers, chicken nuggets all tasted great and was really well made. The wraps and pizza were stand outs and so nice

Alacarte was amazing we had Turkish and Italian. When you are out on the terrace it’s such a great view of the sea and really relaxing the food comes out with choices of different types for the food you had chosen. We tried lots of new things and it was just a nice evening. Service was spot on.

Drinks: cocktails and spirits on all inclusive. Cocktails were decent and although not the best I have had, I enjoyed them all week. I did spend most of holiday on vodka &Coke with vanilla syrup which was really nice. Pinapple juice in morning and lots of locations for free water

-Entertainment

Entertainment team work really hard and a fab bunch. A lot of the hotel visitors got involved which was good to see. Barney was a stand out. Always stopped and shouted out and was a real great asset to the hotel. Evening shows were really good and the amphitheatre was great. They could do with opening up the bridge near that to help getting to it without having to walk past the restaurant or around the front and this would make a big difference to getting to it and back to the other area. Magic show, entertainment team dance show, afrika show all were really great. On top of that they have entertainment in the main other area with live music. The one day with bingo was a let down and they use the smaller stage for the mini disco which just isn’t suitable and ruins it for that evening. I do feel with how many people get involved at this hotel they could do something to get the crowd more involved with a quiz or show of some kind. But overall I enjoyed all entertainment and they made the effort with it all.

Sponge bob and especially minion work so hard at mini disco and are great so massive shout out to them

Recommendation- bingo / karaoke night needs some improvement as just not very good and takes away from the rest of the really good week

• Excursions and extras

Day trips: For excursions we checked with Jet2 but then walked out the hotel turn right and you wil have a shop just down on the left hand side calls New days travel. They were great here Ozzy dealt with us and we it was a huge amount cheaper than what was offered in hotels. We used them for a boat trip but the jeep and other excursions all looked great

Onsite water sports: Hotel water sports dolphin water sports. Great bunch of guys. Gino was amazing all holiday always stopping to come chat and always helps us with a great deal. Highly recommend the fastest jet ski (if really is fast) also had a go in the car which was a great experience. You can also pay a little extra for insta360 footage from them which was well worth the extra. Can’t rate Gino highly enough really nice guy who made us feel so welcome even when we were not buying more water spots things

Photos: All the photos team were great and always said hi and chatter. Hugo a was awesome and so friendly I often spoke to him. Sunset photos are a must as it’s such a perfect location. You can choose how many you want but can work out around €7 per photo. We had 4 different ones from the holiday and were great. Never pushy and really friendly bunch

Overall I cant fault anything that would take any stars off. I had such a great time there and felt so welcome with so much to do on the complex it really is a great time away and I would love to come back here at some point. The staff make you feel so welcome which a great thing

I was disappointed with this hotel overall, especially considering the premium price I paid for what was advertised as a beachfront property.

The name of the hotel and the promotional photos give the impression of a large sandy beach, but in reality this isn’t the case. You only have to take a few steps before you’re in the sea, leaving very little sand to relax on. The water was also quite choppy and murky during my stay. I’ve honestly seen larger sand pits at children’s play areas, so the “beach” experience was far from what I expected.

Unfortunately, I also found the atmosphere around the hotel disappointing. the majority of the guests are Turkish and they have no manners whatsoever pushing past people on walkways and while queueing at the bars. There was often half-eaten food left around the hotel, and they let their children run around without much supervision, making it difficult to relax.

The hotel itself could also do with some maintenance. There are a number of broken tiles and uneven walkways, which create potential trip hazards, so you need to watch where you’re walking.

That said, it’s certainly not the worst hotel. The food was good, and every member of staff I encountered was friendly, welcoming, and hardworking. I especially felt sorry for the housekeeping team, who seemed to be fighting a losing battle to keep the hotel clean throughout the day. We also paid for a swim up room upgrade and I think having the private part to get away from the feral unsupervised kids saved our trip, the room was lovely and modern.

Overall, I don’t feel this hotel offered good value for the amount I paid. In hindsight, I believe I could have booked a much nicer hotel for the same money. My advice to anyone considering staying here would be to shop around and compare other options before booking.

On arrival reception was welcoming check in was straightforward and quick. We had emailed ahead to get rooms for our party together which was arranged for us. We had the superior swim up rooms which were fabulous. I liked the added touch of the buggy’s to take us to our room.

Superior Swim up rooms which Great rooms and loved my say with the convenience of the room and pool. The only downside was privacy as others would swim near our room and sit on our sun beds on the balcony which wasn’t great given our personal belongings were there. The hotel should look to make these more private possibly have another pool at the other side for those in above rooms to use or even section off the pool areas with a line of floating balls. Especially given the cost to upgrade to swim up rooms.

Rooms are cleaned daily and our maid was lovely left us different designs on our bed daily.

Pool bars & Restaurants Panorama Bar at the swim up rooms you will have the basics for drinks until 4:50pm although it says 5pm if you go after this time you won’t get served the girl Svelina is very unhelpful and quite rude she told my husband no for a drink after 4:50pm then we sat and watched her serve others. Anytime she was there her face was tripping her definitely in the wrong role in my opinion!

Sunny Bar Everyone there was brilliant including the lunch time buffet staff. The chef accommodated plain wraps for us which was much appreciated.

Bar staff again great in particular Halil is very much a hard working guy as well as friendly by the end of our stay he knew all our orders including what the kids liked too. He definitely added to us having a great holiday.

The main restaurant Everyone found something they liked the queue for the grill is long but I didn’t mind as you knew everything was being made fresh. My only complaint would be the flys around the uncovered salad bowls and lack of air conditioning in the restaurant.

Shops Shop within the hotel has all you need but we were charged the same in euros and in pounds my advice would be to take TL with you for the shops. Outside the resort there’s not many shops but if you come out the hotel turn right there is a supermarket about 5 min walk. The first restaurant you come too is run by a Scottish girl who does a great British breakfast at a reasonable price.

Overall we had a great stay and would return hopefully the hotel will take on board the small things to make it better for future stays but I would recommend the hotel to others.