Turgutreis, Aegean Dream Resort Hotel

We stayed at this hotel last year it was the first time that we had been all inclusive normally opting to stay self catering. In hindsight it was a mistake. When we arrived we were given the wrong rooms we had booked family room got given twin this took four days to resolve. The entertainment was non existent 3 shows in 2 weeks. The food was always the same, at times the food was barely luke warm. The drinks at the hotel consisted of Efes beer and very limited spirits and I mean limited they couldn't even make cocktails they were advertising, no fruit juices were available even to buy.

We complained to the rep and made a report out stating everything that had happened during our stay.

We had a conversation with the customer service manager at the hotel he told us that the hotel should have closed 2 weeks before we had arrived and that the tour ops keep them open, this I can believe as most of the hotels around the resort were closed, maybe this is why that a lot of the staff had a couldn't careless attitude.

On return to the UK I complained to the tour operator about our holiday, they weren't interested saying that it was the hotels fault about the entertainment so basically they passed the buck. They also stated that no one else had complained about their holiday which is in my opinion wrong as I have learned from reading other peoples reviews from last year.

ROOMS/SUITE

We were given a suite in the main block above the restaurant with a fabulous sea-view and a long balcony. The room looked great, there were one or two flaws but all in all it was a great room.

We had one bathroom with a Jacuzzi and a shower above the Jacuzzi, a loo and a basin, lots of worktop space for toiletries, the supplied toiletries were even of good quality, normally I never use them, there was Lux shower gel and Dove hand wash, they also supplied shower caps. The bath towels were huge, the biggest I've ever had in a hotel but ladies, bring your own hair towel or turban as the hand towels are too small to knot on your head and the body towels are too big. We also had another bathroom with just a loo and a basin in it.

The living room of the suite was huge, there was a sofa and two chairs around a coffee table and another sofa, which would have turned into a sofa bed. There was a writing table, a chair and a cupboard, lots of space for bits and pieces. There were lamps, rugs and contemporary paintings, very nice for a Turkish hotel suite. It was really airy and bright with loads of frosted windows along one side and a picture window, patio doors over looking the beach and the sea to the front.

The bedroom was also large with 6 foot wide bed, it wasn't what you would have at home but again, that was really good for a Mediterranean hotel. There was a TV in a hideaway cupboard in the bedroom with a few English channels, I never put it on but hubby did! Plenty of drawers. The curtains were really thick, if you like a lie-in.

For some reason there were 3 phones in the suite, even one in the bathroom.

There was a huge wall mirror opposite the wardrobes and the safe was in the wardrobe and free, you choose a 4 digit number yourself to operate it.

The air-con was OK and free of course.

FOOD

There was a main buffet restaurant, with inside and outside tables, serving breakfast from 7am to 11am, there was no-one cooking eggs, omelets or pancakes to order, like the Olu Deniz Resort hotel but the bread was nice and fresh. There was a cold buffet, offering cereals, fresh and tinned fruits, yogurts, cheeses and even cooked meat and salad stuff! The hot buffet was hard boiled eggs, croissants, scotch pancakes. Beans or tomatoes, hard fried eggs or omelet and some German/Dutch style sausages. I didn't like the hot stuff but the bread, yoghurt and fruit was lovely, there were lots of jams and honey to choose from. There was also a toaster. The tea and coffee was lovely, it was brewed as you poured it from the machine, best tea ever abroad. The fruit juices were more squash style than juiced oranges.

The main restaurant opened again for lunch from 12.30pm to 2.30pm, serving the same food as evening dinner and the snack/beach bar opened from 12.30pm to 4pm, serving burgers, chips and pizza with a limited bar.

Afternoon tea/coffee, cake and biscuits was served from 4pm to 5pm in the Italian restaurant, which is between the main pool and the beach.

Dinner is served between 6.30pm and 9pm in the main restaurant. There is a different soup and again lots of fresh baked bread and a salad bar to start. There are eight hot dishes on the buffet and a chef just outside serving Turkish style pizzas and similar. There is also a chef the other end of the walkway running a big barbecue, doing a different fresh plain grilled meat or poultry dish every lunch and dinner. I think this is situated where it is because of the smoke, don't forget to check here before you go to the hot plate as he has the nicest meat. There are two counters with desserts and fruits on offer. Three times a week the main restaurant has a themed evening, on a Wednesday its Turkish night, with music and a market on the sea-front. On a Friday it's fish and on a Sunday it's Italian, with ice-creams served. There is also a midnight buffet between midnight and 1am.

There are three a la carte restaurants, all serving 5 courses. You can sit down at 7.30, 7.45 or 8pm and you need to book with the guest relations lady on the day before or the day you want to eat, no limit on how many times you eat in any but first booked on a first come basis.

The fish is on the rooftop and was our favourite, you get a Meze to start, then a salad course, then a choice of 2 starters, the Calamari was lovely, then a choice of two fish, the Aegean Bream was lovely. Then deep fried ice-cream or fruit for pudding. The deep fried ice-cream was delicious. Then tea/coffee after.

The Turkish restaurant is on the beach and the food was fine.

The Italian restaurant is at the back of the main ground floor bar to the front facing the beach, to be honest I didn't think much of this one.

BARS

The main restaurant has a bar; the lobby has a bar, which serves great coffee. There is a large bar on the ground floor near the main pool with evening entertainment. All the a la carte restaurants have limited bars. The Starlight rooftop bar even serves champagne, so I was told by people we met there, but I don't like it. The bars serve about 4 different cocktails and the Starlight bar also served 3 liqueur coffees, Irish, Russian and Amaretto and great coffee.

We sunbathed on the wooden jetty, there are two, one of them serves the speed boat for the water skiing and the banana boat, so we sunbathed on the other as it was quite peaceful and had the beach bar right at the end of it.

The hotel is very clean and the staff are really nice. The beach at Turgutreis is OK, not a patch on Olu Deniz, the beach in front of the hotel is narrow but OK. There are a few dogs that seem to wander around the beach during the day, they seemed very friendly to people but personally I thought the hotel should try and keep them away, in view of families with young children. There were a few cats but they didn't bother anyone. There were tiny birds that flew about near the tables outside the main restaurant and would have stolen your bread if you left it unattended.

We were lucky for the time of year, the weather was freakishly hot, some evenings we would wait for an outside table as it was too hot to eat inside and the decking was too hot to walk on comfortably. The day we left the weather changed and actually rained, after cracking the stones for our two weeks.

The hotel lays on a Bodrum bus route on Tuesday and Friday, book as far in advance as you can, as it gets booked up. We didn't use it, we hired a moped and a car for transport.

Right outside the hotel is Turgutreis Tours, we hired a car off him, a Nissan Micra and it was the best vehicle we have ever hired abroad, hubby is usually very disappointed with the vehicles they hire out but was very pleased with this £24 + £3 extra for windscreen, tyres and lights cover. Good exchange rate. We also went to a Turkish bath with them, only £7 for the bath including pick up and return but the oil massage was £22 for 30 minutes. So £29 all in all but it was a great Turkish bath, huge, so clean we were given covers for our shoes to enter the building, fantastic fresh orange juice served afterwards and some kind of lemon drink before. Best Turkish bath ever, it was near Ortakent I think and called Rashid's.