Right, I’ve covered my departure in a previous post, so now onto the hotel.
As I may have mentioned before, I tend to look obsessively at TripAdvisor before booking a holiday, and this year was no different.
After ploughing through the brochures we found the 4 star all inclusive Turquoise Hotel and Spa in Sorgun, near Side in Turkey. The star rating was good and the Trip Advisor score was excellent. So we booked it.
We were greeted at 3 in the morning (after our transfer coach got lost) with a glass of bubbly, an ice cold towel and a comprehensive run down of hotel amenities before our bags were taken to a large room, which we were very pleased with.
It had a queen sized bed, sofabed, arm chair, TV, air conditioning and a balcony. Although this was perfect for us, I did suffer a little room-envy when I saw the villas with their own pools!
The grounds
When we woke the next day, we discovered that the hotel was set in beautiful grounds, covered in pine trees, bougainvillea and brightly coloured hibiscus flowers – it was beautiful and fragrant.
The hotel also had several pools (including a quieter option, without music) and a private beach, surrounded by trees and beach umbrellas (perfect for pale complexions like mine).
The Turquoise is also about a 30 minute walk to the town of Side, which is great if you want to get out of the hotel and see the sites (there was also a regular dolmus bus from the hotel if you didn’t fancy walking in 35 degree heat).
All you can eat
The food was very good for an all inclusive hotel too, with a huge amount of variety. Even at breakfast there was a vast choice: various types of cereal, yoghurts, fruit, pastries, eggs, pancakes – I could go on…
Every day for the two weeks the main buffet restaurant had a different theme at dinner, including a Turkish night. I will confess: I did eat a huge amount of Pide (a topped flat bread) while I was there. In fact, I ate a lot of everything, because in addition to breakfast, lunch and dinner, there were also pancakes, flat breads and tea and cake served at 5. It is a wonder i’m not 30 stone after eating so much baklava.
In addition to the main buffet restaurant, there are four a la carte options too, Turkish, Italian, Chinese and Fish. You are entitled to visit each restaurant once during your stay, although we only tried the Fish. The table service here was very good and the food was delicious – especially the calamari. It was very fresh and tender – much better than over here!
Let me entertain you
The evening entertainment at the hotel was odd; because there were so many different nationalities in the hotel, everything had to be explained in about five different languages. It made it quite difficult to get any flow going (but that said, all of the staff did speak a ridiculous number of languages).
Thankfully, you can escape all of the entertainment to one if the many other bars, including the terrace, where there were often bands playing.
The day time activities were better, I will say. These included water aerobics, step aerobics and archery (they don’t hassle you to join in though) and it’s all easy to follow because most of it is in English. It helps to burn off some of those excess calories – I thought I’d better try at least!
All in all, we had a great stay and would recommend the Turquoise hotel if you’re looking for accomodation near Antalya.
Visit the website. You can book the holiday from Norwich with Thomas Cook.
