This hotel was completely re-built and this is the first year of it being all inclusive so there are bound to be a couple of teething problems-some bigger than others. We are still at the hotel until Saturday, so lets put our opinions down.
On arrival we were greeted by friendly staff who were very efficient with check in and taking us to our room. We are in room 4308 which has a double bed, lovely bathroom with a fabulous shower, hair dryer, a welcome pack with small shampoo, shower gel, cotton buds, shower cap & slippers. The balcony overlooks the pool and we can see the bay of olu deniz also. There is plenty of wardrobe space and the air conditioning is a godsend. The room is cleaned daily and fresh towels are also provided daily. There is a small fridge in the room, handy for keeping drinks.
Next, to the food. It depends what you like. Some people have said on here that there was nothing for the kids. Well, if their kids are just used to eating burger n chips then they are probably right, although chips are regularly on the menu and there are burgers at snack times. Maybe some kids should be encouraged to try different foods and then they wouldn't find it so difficult. I am vegetarian so do find it a little difficult to find hot food to eat here. They do veg in various sauces etc. but it would be nice to have something substantial to go with it. Maybe tofu or something. However, I have not gone hungry at all, and my meat eating husband has enjoyed the food on the whole. For the reviewer that said it was chicken rice and chips every night, that's a little mean. Yes, rice is on most nights. Yes, chips are on most nights, but there are always 2 or 3 varieties of meat dishes - beef, chicken, turkey, veal. Some nights they do kebabs. We saw lots of children eating salad, including olives, and the meat dishes that were on offer. thats the beauty of all inclusive, encourage your child to put a little of something different on their plate just to try. and if they don't like it they can try something else. Some people have complained the food is sometimes not as hot as it could be - well close the lids on the servers they are in and it would stay hotter, but some dont bother to do that. The salads are always fresh and a huge choice of ingredients. The bread is beautiful and always really fresh. There are always 2 different choices of soup.. The desserts are plentiful and varied, and there is always fresh fruit. Breakfast is ok. Omelettes every other day and fried eggs or pancakes on the other days. They have boiled eggs cooked for either 5 or 3 minutes. The 3 minute ones are actually not cooked enough as the whites are still runny. The juice from the machine is not fresh juice. It's of the sweet sherbet kind.
TIP; the juice from the dispenser at the pool bar is fresh orange. They turn the dispenser off overnight and don't turn it back on again until after breakfast, so we get juice from there last thing, take it up to our room, put it in the fridge overnight and then take it down to breakfast in the morning, hence fresh orange at breakfast. Simple. I have to say that when we last came to Olu we stayed half board at the Montana pine and the food there was actually much better, with eggs done any way you wanted them every morning. There were usually 2 or 3 chefs cooking at breakfast. And also for the evening meal there were chefs at each station cooking fresh food constantly. They also put Turkish delight on at dessert time every day plus ice cream, neither of which you get here.
Next, the pools. They are really good and we have never had a problem getting a sun bed. There is water polo twice a day if you are energetic enough. The pool area is jet washed every night and the bins around the pool are constantly being disinfected to keep flies away. For the person that complained about someone "having a dump" in the pool, it was NOT HOURS before it was dealt with at all so that comment is really unfair. Someone pointed it out and shouted that it was there and so everyone got out of the pool. Within a couple of minutes a member of staff was there to clear it away and the announcement was made immediately that the pool would not be available for the rest of the afternoon while it was cleaned. As for the bar staff serving drinks in plastic cups, well that is sensible around a pool as glass gets broken and people get hurt! If you are actually sitting in the bar area they will serve drinks in glasses.
Entertainment: virtually non-existent. Very, very poor and something that needs to be addressed. There is a pool table that you need to pay to play! one table tennis table and a dartboard. There are NO other activities except water polo. If you do want to stay on site at night there are not enough table and chairs in the bar area, so we tended to go out every night, which is a shame for an all inclusive resort - you shouldn't need to go out to find something to do and somewhere to sit. Please sort this out as it is letting the resort down.
Staff are constantly cleaning and the hotel is spotless. We never saw a big problem with flies. Yes, there was the odd one on the rare occasion, but the restaurants have an open side so it's impossible to keep them all away.
Wifi is free at the hotel, but reception is sometimes a little hit and miss. Most of the time it's ok and it was very useful for me to FaceTime the family back home.
The hotel is only a 10 minute stroll from the main strip and beach and there are some nice places to visit around the area. The jeep safari is a must. Take packs of sweets to throw to the local village kids and buy a water blaster - the reason for that will become obvious when you are on the trip!
All in all, not a bad place to stay, and once they've hopefully ironed out the few problems it could be lovely.
