Nicola
The hotel is in a good location. The swim up room was great. The problem was the food. Within 24 hrs of landing back in the UK I was really ill. In fact I was ill for 2 weeks with Salmonella.
On my last afternoon I ate kebab/meatballs and rice. I left one of the meatballs because it didn't look cooked properly. The holiday was booked through Jet2 and on contacting them I was disappointed with their response.
They said their hotels follow guidelines etc..
Well if that was the case I wouldn't have been ill, I have travelled to Turkey with Jet2 previously and had amazing holidays. This was the first time at this hotel and never again.
I would not recommend going to this hotel at all.
Mr Weeks
My family and I have recently returned from this fantastic hotel. We spent 2 weeks there and the staff couldn't have been more helpful, they are a credit to you, especially Hakan and Cheylin from reception, Habib in the lobby bar and Ibrahim in the a la carte Italian. There are plenty of activities to do during the day, the pools are spotless and well supervised by the life guards so we always felt that our children were safe. The food choices throughout the day were always excellent with plenty of choice for all. We will definitely return in the future.
Gilly Fleur
Just back home from a wonderful week at Ephesia and missing it already!
6 of us went, 3 adults, 3 children aged 15, 10 & 6 years.
So many positives to write about, just a couple of things that weren't so positive so I'll get them out of the way first.
Dining hall ... Always really busy and very hot. There are a couple of A/C units, but unless you are directly underneath them or by the open doors looking out to the sea, you didn't feel the benefit, that being said we did choose to go in August and experienced very high temperatures. Most staff are very hard working and try to clear tables quickly. Special thanks to 'DLake' from the kitchen who brought us our favourite chocolate pannacotta upon request! There was a grumpy one who objected to us pushing tables together to fit all 6 of us, but DLake's happy attitude outshone that small detail.
Good - Lots of food variety everyday, all 6 of us with various tastes enjoyed the meals. Even the snack bar meals were great, especially the salad bar and freshly cooked pizza from the outdoor pizza oven. Drinks were great, but like others have said, the paper cups go soggy. The coffee cups are very small so I used 2 of the larger cups from the bar and doubled up to stop the burn/sogginess and managed to fit 3 coffees in ... Win win! Always cold bottled water available at every station. We mainly used the Sunny Bar, the staff there are wonderful! So friendly. No queues.
Location - On the beach! The beach is small and not very clean, could do with a rake every morning. The rest of the grounds and gardens are immaculate. The grounds staff are extremely hard working.
Right, onto the best bits ...
Our room (2304 - the new part) very spacious, tastefully furnished and very clean. Cleaned everyday and given fresh bedding/towels. Fabulous A/C, great monsoon shower, free safe, fridge and huge comfortable beds and pillows. Great view of the lazy pool, the sea, sunset and mountains. Double sliding doors with insect net which was great it you wanted to sleep with the doors open. A large walled TV which we didn't use.
The pool - Our favourite was the fresh water infinity pool which benefited from the sea breeze. The entertainment team put on lots of water activities such as aerobics and polo. Also liked the lazy pool but this is salt water and the kids weren't too keen. Lots of beds and always got good spots easily at both pools. At the other side of the complex is the water park with some great slides and lots of attentive attendants. Although this had been the pull factor in us choosing Ephesia, we only went a couple of times. It was really busy and finding 6 beds together was difficult, but we enjoyed the infinity pool so much that it didn't affect our holiday.
We had a wonderful Turkish bath/scrub/massage onsite at really reasonable prices. There is also a small shopping complex onsite selling essentials/gifts, again at reasonable prices.
Saving the best until last -
The entertainment - fantastic!
A great bunch of caring, hard working, wonderful people who made our holiday. They immediately remembered our names and made us feel really special all holiday. We had so many laughs playing shooting, dancing and darts everyday - Thank you Ronie, Rio, Sourinho, Diego, Burak, Casper, Twety, Poto, Eto, Niloy, Barnie, Limz & Nazli-Memet.
The night entertainment was very impressive in the outdoor amphitheatre with special acts and prior to the show is a kids mini disco. The fabulous entertainment team mentioned above were still working during the nighttime shows, they never stop!
We loved this holiday and will definitely be returning. Highly recommeded!!
Lukas Slavik
Great place for families with kids but also for couples of all ages. Divided in 3 man accomodation areas, each having large pool just at the doorstep.
Nice and well equiped waterpark with slides for toddlers and teenagers too.
Just beside is probably the nicest beach in the area, equiped with parasols and comfy sunbeds.
Nice animation programme for kids and adults too.
It is possible to take bus and in 20 minutes be in the Kusadasi historic town centre full of restaurants and bars and shops.
Or you can just walk outside the hotel, and there is a seaside village with some shops, bazaar and few restaurants too and also a nice seaside walk.
Large central restaurant with wide selection of great food. (I missed wider selection of fish and seafood, but Turkish cuisine is probably not about fish that much).
Another 3 bars and 2 finger food spots beside the pools.
Beer was good but the quality of wine and others alcohol drinks was way under avarege.
The family apartments are spacious, with nice view on the sea and pools. The ground-floor rooms have their own water brambles for kids and direct access to the pool. The isolation on main room door should be better.
All in all it is a great place to spend a week with family. Well worth the extra travel from the airport.
Trisha Watson
The place is nice enough, but the bedding is faded and worn in places. The workers were nice enough but mostly spoke to each other and just wanted to get their job done, the cleaning lady was very polite, the beaches are disgusting, fag ends cups and bottle caps everywhere. Streets are littered with empty bottles. Food was ok at the hotel, about 95% was the same every day, and one thing changed so kofte or fish, or liver from the outdoor grill. Ice lollys only available 230-4 and only 3 choice. No British type cereals so breakfast was quite hard for little one. Snack bars were lovely. Entertainment was not good at all. Beer after midnight is 270lira for a half pint. Or it's 60 lira at the market over the road for a 50cl