Side, Arum Hotel & Apartments Review

Good Points
The good points are it is clean, the grounds are beautiful, the indoor pool lovely - the outdoor not heated.
Using a card to pay for everything system is excellent. The view is great.
Bonsai Snack food - excellent.

Bad Points
Bland and old fasioned food in the restaurant for half board.
Not family friendly for small children - not much to do other than swim.

General Comments
The Side Arum Hotel is a beautiful looking hotel which is clean and well presented but it is owned by Germans and run for Germans, especially retired ones who wish to spend each and every day wearing a swimming costume and basking on their sunbeds. If you like nothing else but doing this then this is the place for you. The staff speak English although trying to get requests actioned was impossible. We were Thomas Cook guests and asked for bath robes to go swimming in the indoor pool and were told ok by the receptionist. After 10 minutes stood at reception the receptionist came back to us again and said "sorry what do you want". We said bath robes please - she said they would come to our room as if we should know that. Mind readers of course!! We waited for an hour in our room and in the end we gave up - no robes ever arrived.



Nurse/Doctor service - The hotel has a service between varying hours each day. I went down to find out the hours and found a nurse sitting in a room. I explained my little girl was ill and she asked me if I would like to call the doctor. Told her that I would nip upstairs to check with my husband and I would be straight back down. We went back with our daughter and she had locked up and left knowing full well we were coming back. It was 3 minutes past her home time!!



Beach Life and Swimming in the sea - The sea is full of rocks and it looks like the sand was imported. As soon as you reach the sea it drops off into rocks where I would say swimming is impossible and dangerous. I would not let a child in the sea at all. However there are other activities such as a banana boat and jet skiing beyond some of the buoys.



A set number of canopies and sun beds and put on the beach every day in a regimented pattern. One English man asked for a canopy over his frame as the sun was getting hot and he was told know that he couldn't have it because the allotted pattern had been done. He explained that there were no more sunbeds on the beach under covered canopies and he was told tough but they might do the others ones tomorrow



While we were there a Turkish man on horseback picked up a young girl and rode down the beach with her and her parents were frantic. After 300 yards they caught up with him and he said 50 lire please. Luckily the girl loved horses but that's not the point.



Eating - The food in the Bonsai Snack Bar at lunchtime is perfect. Authentic turkish pizza - wonderful. This is the meal you don't get as part of the half board package.



The food which you get for half board in the restaurant is bland and very processed. Breakfast consists of various forms of bread rolls/croissants, processed meat and cheese. I actually identified cheese strings there. The evening meal is also buffet style and is served from 7pm which we found too late especially with a small child. The Germans were queueing well before outside the entrance - pushing and shoving us. Meals were spread out in various hot plates and servers around the room with things like fried wheat balls, spinach stuffed pastry, quail casserole and lots of rice. A chef carved something each night and one night proudly carved a processed chicken roll (a long anaemic looking sausage) and the following night a similar beef roll. The cuisine can only be described as 70's style. The puddings are dreadful and never labelled. Things like blancmange with pistachios, cold rice pudding, Angel Delight type of mousse and synthetic cream which all look like and taste like they are from a powder. Sponges soaked in alcohol like Rum Babas, cold poached pears in a red sauce. My husband suggested getting Gordon Ramsay in to make them cook proper food.



The children have a Kinderbuffet which had pasta, bolognaise and french fries every night and one type of veg and one other dish such as burgers. I was told off by a German man for taking French Fries and peas from the Kinderbuffet for my 13 month old daughter. I was using her bowl rather than theirs so he thought it was for me. Naughty me!!


Staff - The turkish staff were polite but over friendly with my daughter and kept poking her whilst she was eating and sleeping in her pram. I don't think kissing her is appropriate and pinching her nose whilst she is eating isn't nice.



It says it is a family friendly hotel but apart from the Kids club I don't see any fun at all. No slides in the pool and if your baby gurgles or coos during your meal you will get harsh looks from the Germans. They actually pushed us out of the way at the buffet and we were holding our daughter at the time.



Mini Market - The hotel was fully booked yet the Mini Market had bare shelves. If you are happy with eating crisps, fizzy drinks, biscuits and milk then fine but if you expect cheese, eggs, fruit and veg then forget it.



Towel Allowance - The joke about the towels is very true. We saw a German woman throwing a hissy fit as she wanted her outdoor towels replaced when the hotel specify only one towel a day as it costs a lot to continually wash them for everyone and they are very environmentally conscious.



Side - I would say that there isn't much to do at Side itself. If you visit the shops outside the hotel they hassle you to buy from them so much you wish you were back safe in the hotel grounds. There is some areas of wasteland which aren't attractive. If you haven't got children then there are coach trips.



The Animation team - They people keep the guests occupied with boules, table tennis etc but need medals for their patience. I feel very sorry for the poor chap who was running the Mini Club (kids club) and trying to control unruly children of various ages in German and English whilst their parents led by the pool with a drink.



The good points are it is clean, the grounds are beautiful, the indoor pool lovely. Using a hotel card to pay for everything is an excellent system.



Just remember not to ask for anything extra and you will be ok. They have a set regime and they don't like it broken. Would I go back to the Arum - when I'm 65 maybe. Would I visit Turkey again - probably not.