Melissa Garden Apart Hotel

I loved the members of staff, shout out to the lovely receptionist Uğur, the cleaning lady Ella, Mert the person who kindly helped to unlocked our room and the lovely manager sorry I forgot his name. I loved Ella, such a friend person. I stay in a 1 bedroom flat on the 1st floor. The swimming pool was just at the bottom of our staircase. They have 2 swimming pool and we were staying near the 2nd swimming pool which was a bonus as that pool was not crowded at all. Each evening they had different entertainment which was fabulous, especially if you have children with you. If you are looking for a place that is simple, great value for money then this is the place.

I would say to ensure the swimming pool area is tidy every night such as the chaise longs are nicely tidy.

Fab place.

We had a great time during our 13 night stay at Melissa Garden, and we definitely recommend it if you're looking for a very good and great value place to stay. It's not a 5 star resort so it's not luxurious, but it's comfortable, has tasty food and decent enough facilities. These are our highlights: - most of the staff were very nice and helpful, especially Kasim who manages the breakfast! Mustafa who managed our diners was very nice and accommodating as well. The guy who manages reception during the day (don't know his name) was great and very friendly and helpful as well. - the food was very good, choices were limited here and there (especially soup, salad and dessert), but the main courses were very nice and with a good variety for our 13 night stay. Breakfast was very decent as well, especially because they accommodate requests for omelets, fried eggs, pancakes etc. - The (1 bedroom) apartment was very spacious and the beds were very comfortable - the beach area which can be used by guests of the hotel was very nice, lovely sand, lovely sea, very safe for kids, and toilets and showers available - the pool areas are limited in size, but because the hotel is not very big there is enough room (and sun beds) available for everyone, and though there is only 1 slide it is a very nice one, good fun! - location of the hotel is good for doing a quick shop outside, and (long) walking distance from Side old town using the lovely boulevard - the air conditioning (which for us as Booking.com customers was included) was very necessary and worked great! - the spa at the hotel, which works independently, was very good and great value for money. Highly recommended! - The foam party was fun, and we enjoyed the quizzes and karaoke.

- when you don't take (a lot) of drinks, some of the staff treat you as second class guests, which was annoying. There was a sense of being pushed to take more drinks, and we understand that it's an important part of the business model, but all guests should be treated equally in all circumstances. - drinks are very expensive, at the same level or even higher as UK prices. - there was a pretty strong smell of cat poo around some of the green areas of the hotel - the warm water often ran out around 7pm, presumably because a lot of people were taking showers around that time. - the entertainment only starts very late in the evening (9:30 pm at the earliest, usually later), so we skipped the entertainment most of the time. - we asked for a quiet room and were given a room that is apparently one of the most quiet in the hotel (809), but there was unfortunately still quite a bit of noise from the road behind. We were offered other rooms but they had other issues (another road, or noise from the hotel behind), so we decided to just keep our original room. We did sleep pretty well during our stay, but light sleepers may struggle. - the curtains in the rooms block very little light, so the rooms become very bright very early in the morning, which isn't great for sleeping. The staff did accommodate our request to put more/ darker curtains, so that was very good, but blackout curtains would have been great to have. Overall we were very happy with our stay and our expectations for a 3 star stay in Turkey were definitely exceeded, but there is room for improvement. The above are the things we did not like, these should not dissuade you from going to this hotel (we will definitely consider coming here again in the future), but I think it's good to have realistic expectations and perhaps give hotel management ideas on how to improve the hotel. Still highly recommended if you're looking for a very good and great value place to stay!

The appartment was a little bit shabby, particularly the kitchen. The beach where we could stay was not so easy to find. please, provide more explanations next time we come :-)