Name: Ephesia Holiday Beach Club
Price range: from £536.82pp (7 nights includes flights and transfers)

Select Room & Board Basis | Mercury Holidays

Product Details

Pool

The hotel in a lot of areas look very different from the photos, either it does not exist, had changed so much or was so run down that it looks like a different hotel.  For example: the beach is half the width the photos show, the playpark by the main pools was just not there anymore (it is now a patch of sand with loungers on it), the mini golf area has move, the area is now just grass with loungers.  The new location of the mini golf course is no longer a picturesque course as part of the landscape, it is now prefabricated in small sections of board placed in a sandy area, all squashed up together. In reception it shows a place to get cakes and biscuits and it is now a bar. Even the front of the building has a completely different colour theme, the photos show red and it’s now blue.  The colour itself isn’t so important of course, but it shows how inaccurate and/or outdated the available photos are. The whole hotel is completely worn down and dirty, the photos do not give a true or accurate picture at all.
 
There are quite a few dogs and cats roaming the hotel, but they all appeared very calm and relaxed and used to being around people.  It appeared that the hotel has in a way adopted them, in reception there was a donation box for helping to care for them.  The dogs do bark a lot a night, so bring ear plugs.  If you or your children have any fears over cats or dogs, this is not a hotel for you, and from a hotel with an obviously “family friendly” posture, this information ought to be available prior to booking.  The cats do get into the restaurant and look for food fallen on the floor, as do the dogs, although they are shooed out by the staff.  We did hear of a child being bitten by a dog, but it was said that the child had antagonised the dog.
 
Many of the walkways around the hotel had a problem with slippery surfaces. Several times my flips flops slid on paths and walkways that were not wet or near the pools.  It seems this is a common problem, as at some point long lines of “grip” tape had been placed along paths to resolve that.  But these were now very worn and missing in places.  The paved areas near the pools were in places very slippery. There were also some plastic bollards that had been broken at some point, one very close to the ground and had sharp pointy edges. Out daughter tripped over it on our first day.
 
The Wifi is appalling and only worked 10% of the time outside the hotel room.
 
Hotel food
Only the main restaurant was open during our stay so I can only comment on this.  It was a loud noisy mess, masses of people, all desperately trying to find a free table.  If you found a table it was often dirty and without cutlery, then it was next to impossible to find clean cutlery – the cutlery carts were virtually always empty, and we were often reduced to searching for unused cutlery on recently vacated tables.  Absolutely no tablecloths and napkins as shown in the pictures.  The tables were either not cleaned at all between people; only the dirty dishes taken away. Even between mealtimes, the mats were not property cleaned, and the napkin dispensers and salt and peppers pots looked like they were never cleaned.  The tables and chairs were battered, chipped and completely worn.
 
There were long queues for every food station and for the bar (only one bar for the whole restaurant and only 1-3 people serving).  I did not mind the queues so much, as four of them were for live cooking stations, so the food was being freshly cooked then and there, which was a definite plus.  Overall, the food was very good, the live cooking stations had something different each mealtime.  The buffet section was pretty samey each mealtime and I found any vegetables to be very soggy and overcooked.  The salads on offer were very extensive and always fresh and delicious.  There was a problem with flies, I feel this was because of so many areas not being clean properly and thoroughly (for example, the furniture and drinks stations).  The staff in the restaurant generally were very overstretched, stressed and rushed.  Several times I had drink splashed over me and all down the glasses because they were rushing to pour drinks and basically threw the glass at you.  The staff were very mixed, some were very friendly, made jokes and small talk, some did not even say hello or really acknowledge you.  Most days there was only one drink station open for tea, coffee and fruit juice. 90% of the time the fruit juice was empty, 40% of the time, the coffee was empty.  The fruit juices were not nice at all, completely watered down cheap concentrated stuff with little actual fruit in them, I think they were actually syrups than juice, they were the same used for cocktails as well as breakfast. 
There were no hand sanitising stations at all, which I feel should be a given with a buffet where 100s of people are using the same serving utensils. 
 
The lunchtime slot was quite short, only 12:30-14:00.  The only food available between 14:00 and the restaurant opening at 19:00 for dinner was the snack bar, open 12:30-17:00, where you could get chips, pizza, Turkish filled bread (pide), spaghetti and sauce, breaded chicken burger, beef burger and a little salad. The quality was ok. The pizza and Turkish bread were cooked freshly there.  The burgers were heated up to order, but only warm and not very good quality meat, but the bread was good.  The salad, spaghetti and chips had generally been out a while and not great to eat.  There was also a small cabinet in the roof top bar that had cakes and biscuits from 14:30-18:00, we only went there twice, and it was mostly empty and stale.
 
Hotel drinks
The free drinks menu was extremely limited. 1 red, 1 white, 1 rose wine. A cocktail menu of around 10-12 different cocktails, all made from syrup juice stuff and soda dispensers- no mixing, pouring, stirring or shaking at all.  Two types of beer, around 4-5 spirits and pepsi, pepsi max, fanta & sprite.  Everything else was chargeable.
The bars were always running out.  We paid for all-inclusive, but most things were not on offer and available.  That’s quite poor for such a restricted drink menu.  Running out of the basics like beer, coke and fruit juice was shocking.  The bars very not very clean and tidy at all, strong smells of spilled sweet drinks and beer were quite overpowering.  Apart from the reception bar (you could request a glass), all drinks were served in the coated cardboard cups, a lot of the times they had to be doubled up as they were not strong enough. This is very wasteful and not good environmentally either.
 
A lot of at time, especially at breakfast and lunch, staff were just standing around when so many tables needed clearing and cleaning, food and drinks replenishing and spills clearing up.  Several times I saw staff grabbing paper napkins from the table dispensers to clear up big messes as they did not seem to have a mop and bucket to hand.  A member of staff who had a trolley to clear tables, saw we were waiting for a table to be cleared so we could use it. He cleared the cutlery and crockery but had not cloth or cleaning spray to wipe down the table. He took ages to go and find a cloth and it was just a damp cloth.  I never saw anyone use any cleaner at all. Just a cloth to barely wipe over the table and mats.
 
Bottles of water were available from all the bars, all the time.  It was disappointing that they were such small plastic bottles, not environmentally friendly at all.  I noticed staff putting them in the bin with normal food waste, so it seems they were not recycled.
 
Hotel Reception
We were offered a very warm welcome on arrival and were driven to our accommodation, that’s a far as the 4* service went.  Although the staff were always friendly in reception, we reported our fly screen door being broken and no one came to fix it, we ended up fixing it ourselves, but it came off many times during our stay and had to keep being put back on the runners.  At night, there was also a strong sewage type smell in reception, I think coming up from the spa/Turkish baths below.
 
Hotel Room
Our room did look like the pictures, it was not too run down and was fairly clean.  The AC functioned fine, but it was not needed given that it was October.  We asked for blankets as we were cold at night; these were brought to our room for us within a few hours.  There was a hair dryer, soap dispenser and all in one hair and body wash dispenser in the shower.  Two TVs, we put one on once and the picture was all fuzzy.
 
There was no window in the bathroom, a vent was above the shower and a small thing by the toilet resembling a fan, but no moving parts to actually extract any air.  These were extremely dirty, full of long term dust build-up.  The bathroom door was also heavily water damaged by the lack of ventilation.  There was a free safe and a “mini bar”, which consisted of a small fridge which barely kept anything cool, and was stocked with two bottles of water on arrival and that was it, so not a mini bar.  There was also no room service.  Although the floor was “cleaned” every day, our feet were always black after walking around in the room, so fresh water and a fresh mop arec clearly not used by the cleaners.  The rooms were turned down every day and towels replaced if we wanted them to be.  More attention to detail in the cleaning is needed, such as the pots that held the tea bags & sugar, they were quite grubby.  These were also not replenished at all during our stay.  We also stayed for 10 nights, and I am pretty sure we did not have a change of bedding.  One thing to note about Turkey is the toilets, you are not allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilet, so one must get used to cleaning oneself - a different experience whilst visiting, but not necessarily a bad one. This was not necessarily a problem, just intended as an FYI.
We had a swim up room, the pools were very cold, but just about manageable for short periods of time.  The patio, loungers, umbrella etc where very old and worn and didn’t really seem to get cleaned.  There was spilt hot chocolate on one of the walls the whole time we were there, the loungers and umbrella were very stained and grubby looking.  After our neighbours left, their end clean did not seem to be very through, these things were still dirty.  The splash pool lost half of its water, but it did this on our last day, so it did not affect us, but not good for the neighbours.  The pools have build ups of green algae (most noticeable on the white slides  at the main pool areas and black stuff.  We are not sure if it was mould, dirt or some sort of moss.  So again, does not show good levels of cleanliness at all. 
 
Each morning, we were woken up very early (5am-ish) by the morning call to prayer on loud speaker from somewhere, then dogs barking from then on. A couple of nights, the dogs started around 2am and didn’t really stop. The walls we very thin, we could hear everything going on in our neighbours’ rooms, and the main door to the outside of our room, was so ill fitting in the door frame, you could hear everything going on outside and the light spilled in.
 
Hotel Pools
There were several pools throughout the hotel, again the age and wear of everything really it let it down. We saw bins being emptied and some sweeping of trash, but never saw any cleaning of floors around the pools.  Especially around the main pool, it was very dirty.  There were long blue mats around the pool as the floors were very slippery.  Again, they look full of dirt and did not appear to be cleaned. I hate to think of the germs contained in these mats. We only spent one morning by the pools as I was afraid that we would catch something nasty.  All the pools were very cold and we could not spend much time in them. One small children’s pool was listed as heated, but it was only very slightly warmer than the unheated pools.  There are not many showers around the pools to use before and after using the pools and we only found one from the beach to the pool area.  The shower we did find by a pool was broken and unusable. 
The children’s pools and splash park looked amazing in the photos, but again, so run down, worn out and dirty, it looked like another hotel.  3 out of the 6 slides were closed, apparently due to the stairs being damaged.  When looking at the stairs, I was surprised they had not collapsed completely, they were so rusty, old and worn. A real health and safety hazard.  Unfortunately, I did not get many pictures of the pool and splash park areas to show this as I did not feel comfortable taking lots of pictures where there were lots of children in swimwear.
 
The loungers, umbrellas, tables etc were all so run down, worn down, dirty and broken.
 
Hotel Entertainment / activities / mini club / games room
 
There was a hut near each pool bar which displayed the daily activities though the day at the pool area and by the slide pool area, the evening entertainment, the opening hours of the mini club and the mini club activity.  The daily activities were the same each day, around 4 activities in the morning and 4 activities in the afternoon at each location, either adult only or kids only. My daughter wanted to try out soft archery, but when we went over, it was adults only.  We were told she could do kids darts later.  The evening entertainment was different each evening, but repeated weekly. The mini club offer was only bag and t-shirt painting each day (which you had to pay for).  The mini club was not somewhere to leave your children, you had to stay with them. I feel this was not very clear on the website and highly unusual to have a kids club where the parents must stay with the children during opening hours in an all-inclusive hotel.  There was an option for childcare, for a fee.  We did not go inside the mini club, my daughter did not show any interest, as again, it all looked worn and run down.  There was a small play park near the mini club, but had signs up that it was closed the whole 10 days we were there, a neighbour mentioned it was because of broken equipment.
 
The mini disco was every day at 9pm. It went on for just 15minutes each night and was the exact same 8/9 songs in the same order each night.  There were 2-3 people from the entertainment team at the front of the stage, showing the children the dance moves to each song, and a staff member dressed as a minion joining in too.  The evening entertainment started at around 9:30pm, and we did enjoy all the shows. There were 4 outside entertainers: magician, dance show, traditional Turkish show and African show).  A comedy show and “surprise” show were performed by the in-house entertainment team and then bingo on the Sunday (which you had to pay 10euros to take part in!).  There was also a “lucky number” game a few times before the show started, which again you had to pay for and the prizes were a t-shirt, bottle of wine and **. The prizes for the bingo were discounts for things like the spa and photographer on site, bottle of wine, random gifts (which appeared to be seconds) from the onsite gift shop.
 
For the most part the entertainment team had a lot of energy and enjoyed what they did.  By the amphitheatre and sunny bar in the evening, were popcorn and candyfloss machines and lollipops were on offer, again, these were not free, you had to pay for them.
 
The games room was open from around midday until late, and it was truly awful!  It had arcade games and a soft play area at the back.  The games were not free and very expensive. Without any exaggeration, half of the games in there were broken or out of order.  It was so very dirty.  There were cables running along the floors everywhere, only some partly taped down to the floor.  Honestly, it was a complete hazard in there. It also looks nothing like the photos on the website.
 
Hotel beach
 
This also looks lovely in the photos, but different in real life.  Not something the hotel can help, but it’s now only about half the width compared to the photos.  Sadly, it was not the nice clean taken care of beach in the photos, piles of seaweed mixed with litter across the beach was sad to see.  There were several big metal structures sticking out of the water; these appeared to be manholes leading down to sewage pipes running along the top of the sea bed around 3 metres into the sea. You had to walk over the top of the concrete pipes on your way into the water.
 
Other services (spa, shop, hairdressers, photographers, outside contractors, doctors)
 
On the TUI website it showed a doctor at the hotel, we were looking for a hotel with this as we usually have bad luck with one of us getting ill on holiday and having to find a local doctor or hospital.  Sadly, it is not a doctor on site, the hotel will just call you a taxi to take you to a doctor.
There was a small shop and gift shop onsite with pool toys, toys, snacks, some holiday essentials, gifts etc. The guy who ran it was very friendly.  Another shop sold knock off trainers, belts and bags.  There was a photo studio, where the photographer was really nice and friendly. They were not the best quality photos, but for the price, more than fair, and worth buying from.
The spa we only saw from the outside of the building.  The owner did go around the resort giving out leaflets and discounts, but we did not use them.  There was also a hairdressers, my husband won a free shave at bingo and it took us a while to figure out when they were open. No one was able to tell us their opening hours, even reception.  They said they did not belong to the hotel, so they had no information.  I found this very disappointing given they advertise this as part of one of the hotels offerings. Eventually they were open when we walked past, and my husband had his free bread trim.  But the guy there did not really seem to be confident in what he was doing.
 
There were advertisements throughout the hotel of a local restaurant and tattoo studio.  Each day we saw representatives of these places who were allowed to spend the day in the hotel, trying to gain business from the guests.  We were approached a couple of times and saw them each day going around the resort, talking to anyone and everyone, trying to sell to them, whether they were sat relaxing by the pool or walking from or to the restaurant.  I did not like this at all, you come to an all-inclusive holiday to chill and relax and then you are approached each day by someone trying to sell you something.  They were friendly but this is not the kind of behaviour you should expect from a 4* hotel.
 
Overall
 
The hotel is not as advertised and completely failed at all inclusive.  We paid so much money for this holiday, and we were completely ripped off.  I would never go back to this hotel or recommend it to anyone.  We are extremely upset and feel it was completely mis-sold to us and there is no way this hotel meets a 4-star rating. We as a family choose only 4 or 5* hotel to ensure we are getting a level of comfort, quality and service we are happy with and TUI/ this hotel have in no way supplied this at all.  I have never known an all-inclusive hotel to have so many things you had to pay extra for, be so limited in their “all-inclusive” and have so many things unavailable during a stay.

Not what we expected. Completely different to photos on TUI & website!!

1st time in Kusudasi and we were fair impressed. The hotel was basic but very clean and tidy. The staff were very friendly and the entertainment team did their best to keep everyone entertained. Food was excellent and this is coming from a family who are fussy! The family room was large with a sliding partition to separate spaces. The shower run cold fairly quickly but this was at peak times. 
Negatives would be the timings for dinner etc. There is only a 2hr window to go have your food and getting a table proved a little difficult and I can only imagine during peak season it would be crazy. The pools were extremely cold but thinking it was the time of year. We are used to heading to Turkey in September where the temp is higher. .
I would recommend the market on a Wednesday if you like a hustle. Good prices and quality. There's a bus stop over the road and a bus every 15mins which costs 20tl ppl which is around 50p. Take a trip into main kusudasi town where restaurants and bars and shops galore. Very lively. Most restaurants also come collect and drop you off! 
Over id recommend. Views as always are my own.

Great value

Great budget last minute holiday, friendly stuff and proper food. A lots of British ### complain about whether (too hot), food (too much meat and no British classics available), too strong alcohol (rakija are brilliant), activities not too interesting (all world pop stars are not available), so totally perfect place for normal people who want to rest with family, eat a good food, drinking and fun like normal people!
We spend more money after 3day in Blackpool than here, so defo come back. We pay less than 1k for full week all inclusive (2+2 family)

And one more thing - Scot’s are totally welcome here! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

See You soon !

Definitely YES 🙌

We had a great holiday. Great food, good rooms, friendly personnel. The swimming pools and waterslides are very Nice. Special thanks to the animation team: Ronnie, RIO, Ferry, DJ zero, Cindy and Tirtil. They are very enthousiastic and remember every name. Hope to see them next year. Karaoke star: Andrew

Great hotel, super entertainment

Everything was really nice in this hotel,the staff were so friendly and helpful,the rooms were so spacious and big. The variety of foods was amazing and I recommend it to all families who want to go with their children they had lots fun games and programs for the kids,and also I want to specifically thanks Miss Cindy 🌹thanks for your hospitality.

Animasyon

This attractive beach hotel is located in green surround some 600 m from the beautiful beach and just a short distance from many shopping and entertainment venues as well as links to the public transport network. Built in 1980 and renovated in 2005, this hotel comprises a 2-storey building with a total of 192 rooms. Facilities include a foyer with a 24-hour reception desk, a safe and a currency exchange desk. In addition a café, a newspaper stand, a small supermarket, a shop, a hairdresser's salon, a bar, a nightclub, a TV room, an air-conditioned à la carte restaurant, a conference room, a public Internet terminal and a children's playground are also available. Guests have access to the 50,000 m² of well-kept gardens.

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Ephesia Holiday Beach Club