Side, Melissa Gardens Review

Overall Rating

I have just arrived home (yesterday) from a fortnights holiday to Melissa Garden apartments in side with my Mother (86 years old), my husband and two daughters (10years and 9years).

We read some reviews before we went and were getting quite worried about what we had booked. We had had very good service from Thomas Cook at home where we booked the holiday and was quite impressed when we arrived at Antalya airport.

We were the second drop off and were quite shocked to see no frontage to the hotel and then a tiny reception area, mind you we did get very good service especially as we had arrived at 2 o'clock in the morning and were very tired.

We were helped to our apartments with our luggage by all the entertainment/waiters and reception staff and were really surprised how friendly and helpful they were. What a lovely surprise to see such big apartments and how clean and well decorated.

The next morning, we went to the pool, we were pleasantly surprised to see how clean and welcoming the pool area was. We also had lovely families staying at the apartments and we all had such a lovely holiday and the age ranges of the children were from 6 years to 16 years and all the children thoroughly enjoyed each others company.

One thing I would say, if you do go to Melissa Gardens Apartments, do go to the local restaurant "The Queen". These two guys are fantastic and really helped us as a family in so many ways whilst we were on holiday. We had such a good time in their restaurant with all the staff and were really spoilt and made to feel part of their "family". The food was fantastic and was always thoroughly cooked, beautifully served and absolutely lovely to eat, all the meat melted in the mouth.

We would go back again and in fact are looking to book for the October half term, we have never had such a fantastic, relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable holiday.

Also, another must is a visit to Side Town, this is where the old and new town both mingle together and what a fantastic sight. We also took a boat ride which took an hour and we were treated to a fantastic sight of the turtles and were shown where they float to the surface.

All in all, we did not want to come home.

When we booked our holiday on the computer at Thomas Cook it showed that there was air conditioning in all rooms and that was the main reason for booking it as we had two children and my 86 year old mother with us.
When we got there there was no air conditioning and were told that all the rooms that had it was fully booked and that it cost 3 euros a day to have. We asked for a fan and were told they only had the one that they were using in reception and that they were at a cost of 10 euros a week. After a bit of a moan my husband was allowed one for mum and the girls until we had sorted it out with the rep.

The only thing that we would have to moan about would be the Thomas Cook reps abroad. We had two in our fortnights holiday and both were very unhelpful and had a very bad attitude to the job they were doing.

The first girl we had, did our welcome meeting and hardly told us anything. We asked her to sort out about the air conditioning or fans and basically told us that there was nothing she could do and really was not interested in helping us as she was leaving in two days and could not wait to go as she had been here from the start of the season and had been given a room on the complex and was totally fed up with the moaning she was getting from the guests on the complex.

The only other thing I would advise is any young women travelling on their own do be aware all the waiters in the hotel have a thing about trying to come on to them and can be a pest.

The reception staff are very helpful and when myself and my two daughters fell ill with ear infections, the female staff member helped us with getting a doctor to our apartments and within half an hour the doctor arrived and had examined and given us all medication required and assisted us with our insurance.

I have never been to a resort before and felt thoroughly comfortable and safe before, the local shop traders and restaurateurs were very friendly and helpful and would always spend the time of day with you and would try and teach us as a family Turkish.

All in all I would say I would totally recommend Melissa Garden Apartments in Side in Turkey 100 per cent, and cannot wait to go back and have another chill time.