Alanya, Water Planet Deluxe Hotel & Aquapark
On the eve of the New Year holidays, I wanted to share my impressions of a trip to Turkey, namely to Alanya, in September 2016. The highlight of my trip is my son is 1 year old, but my eldest daughter is 8 years old.
They flew by charter airlines from Kyiv. Departure was overnight at 3:00. The plane was mega uncomfortable, the seats were so close to each other that even people of non-model parameters felt uncomfortable. On board they offered tea and water, and children were offered coloring books with crayons (a nice bonus! ).
We landed in Antalya, which met us with wonderful weather and incredible landscapes.
Then another 2 hours on the bus to Alanya, the bus was comfortable. On the way to the hotel, the carrier made a stop near the market, as I understand it, not only so that we solved our natural needs, but so that other Turkish citizens would have the opportunity to earn money, since the stop was delayed for 30 minutes and the situation repeated when transferring back. But it seemed to me that these are such small tricks of local tour operators)
Overall impression of the hotel: wow-wow, incredible beauty. Then, of course, after a few days, my eyes were opened that although the hotel positions itself as "5+", but in truth, it was already a little shabby life. This is especially noticeable in the water park on site.
But + outweighed these little things:
1) a lot of greenery, several pools and the territory itself is very large
BUT: the entrance to the sea was immediately from the pier, where the depth reached 3-4 meters, so it was better to keep a child without water behavior skills and life jackets near you. This was a great inconvenience, so we still came to the sea and really wanted to splash in it, despite the fact that the water was warmer than in the pool! , and incredibly clean.
It took about 30 minutes to stomp to the pebble beach in the heat and rough terrain up and down. We went there once, took a picture of the sunset, didn’t go again, because it’s hard and still small all the time strove to dine with pebbles.
2) There are no complaints about the cleaning of the room, the staff tried to please.
3) Dining room terrace. . .
The food was varied, the inclusive justified itself, there was even free alcohol at the bar, but I can’t judge its quality, I stopped by more for desserts (+2 kg after 7 days). Nefuraxacide and coal were not needed, and even the youngest ate some of the dishes. In addition, infant formula and all kinds of purees were sold in the pharmacy. So the children, even the one-year-olds, did not remain hungry.
4) All kinds of excursions were organized, such as Cappadocia, Istanbul or a trip on a yacht. Their cost varied from 30-50 USD. But I decided not to torture the children with bus rides. Animation was organized on the territory of the hotel, but very weak, the animators were like sleepy flies and the children, if they stayed with them, were left to their own devices.
5) About other expenses. There were actually few of them, since entertainment and food had already been paid for. Bought little gifts. The whole trip (voucher + "magnets") cost around 600-700 USD. for four people (2 adults and 2 children). It was possible not to change the currency, both dollars and Turkish liras were accepted. But for convenience, I broke a little for petty purchases.
6) Impression of the region itself. A lot of green spaces, an unlimited number of greenhouses and all this is actually on sand and clay.
It became a little embarrassing, we can do that too (((Active construction of hotels. Explosions, aggressive behavior and other horror stories were not observed... everything is for a tourist. Locals love to touch children by the cheeks, it bothered me a little.
For the first time I had a chance to relax in this way, since before the appearance of the youngest I traveled more on my own, "all inclusive" was unknown. Of course, you can try it for a change, it’s convenient that you don’t have to worry about transfers and daily bread, so there’s really nothing as an option for family relaxation.
Thanks to everyone who managed to finish reading and I hope my story will be useful for those who are going to discover Turkey for the first time.