Отель неплохой, но не королевский Good hotel but not royal

I will say right away that this time we were not going to go to another hotel, but even to another region of Turkey. Therefore, perhaps, a certain discrepancy between what was expected and what was actually received left its mark on the perception of the trip in general and the QUEENS PARK RESORT & SPA hotel, whose name hints at a royal vacation, in particular. But I will try to state the realities as objectively as possible.
So, the hotel is basically declared as 5 stars, and the location in the village of Tekirova (which is also considered the most elite of the villages of Kemer, where there is only one 4 out of a total of 13 hotels) leaves an additional imprint with a claim to a high class. The average rating of the hotel on various tourist sites, which a great many were studied before the trip (it seems that I myself can act as a tour consultant for Turkish hotels), is also quite high, and the reviews of those who have been there, if not WOW-positive, then in Most of them are supportive and loyal. Well, let me tell you about my experience.
Accessibility: Tekirova is the last resort on this coast to the west of Antalya. That says it all. We were taken from the airport for about two hours (taking into account, of course, the unloading of tourists at other hotels). Dolmus to Antalya (or back) - about one and a half. It is acceptable, but it is clear that from any other village in the Kemer zone it will be closer and faster.

Location of the hotel: in fact, like all other hotels in Tekirova, directly in the village. However, this does not affect the hotel in any way, because if you don’t leave it, you will never know “whether there was a boy” (that is, the village). A huge plus is a wonderful frontal view from the hotel itself, and especially from the sea when swimming, to Mount Tahtali (about 2.300 m) with lower surrounding ridges that grow very close to the coast. Scenic, no doubt about it. In the steppes to the east of Antalya, you will not find anything like this, and do not hope.
The territory of the hotel: it is declared to be 60 thousand sq. m. , it sounds kind of impressive, but in fact everything is very compact and not far from each other. If you are a fan of hiking, then you will have to go out to the village for the promenade, there are no special opportunities for exercise inside the hotel. At the same time, everything is very clean and well-groomed, there is a lot of greenery - various flowers and exotic plants, such as palm trees, bananas, oranges, lemons, quince, etc. All this is closely monitored by local gardeners - weeding, planting, watering, etc. The eye rejoices.
There is a large - really large - outdoor swimming pool with a bridge in the middle. I won’t say anything more about him - we just walked past and along the bridge, we didn’t even plunge even once. Separately, there are two slides and a very tiny pool for kids, the comments are the same.
Hotel building: not new, but, apparently, restoration and renovation is carried out in certain rooms from time to time, due to which the overall impression is positive. The hall has a hint of pathos and is quite spacious - despite the large number of guests, you can always find a place to sit comfortably. Live music is played in the evenings (piano, not just anything). There is also a lobby bar with tables both indoors and on the terrace in front of the hotel. On the -1 floor there is a SPA center (they gave out beach towels there, which, in my opinion, is not very convenient - this point is located at the maximum distance from the beach), an indoor pool and a gym, which, oddly enough, was quite popular with vacationers. We did not use it, but based on a superficial glance, there are a lot of simulators and they seem to be in good condition. Not a single person was seen in the indoor pool during the rest of the holiday, which, I think, is not surprising when the water temperature in the sea is about +30! : )) Between the two wings of the hotel there is either a brook or a canal with bridges, palm trees and fountains - very nice.

Rooms: here, in my opinion, the policy of the hotel does not quite correspond to the solid title of a 5-star establishment. Let me explain what my, shall we say, claim is. We bought a settlement marked ROH (Round of House), i. e. check-in in any room available at the time of check-in at the discretion of the hotel. But in fact, it turns out that they will most likely settle you in the lowest quality room without a balcony and with a view of where you have to. And if you want to have a free room with a balcony and at least a partial view of the sea, then pay extra, if you please, 20 dollars. per day, and an intermediate state, such as a room with a balcony and mountain views, is somehow not offered for consideration at all...
I perfectly understand that they may object to me: if you buy the cheapest tour, get the cheapest room. BUT! Even on the official website of the hotel it is indicated that they have 10 economy class rooms (as for me, there are several more) - accordingly, the hotel itself is well aware that it has rooms of different levels, and it would be more honest to sell them with an indication of a specific category of room (for example, as an economy class room without a balcony, a room with a mountain view, a room in a bungalow, etc. ), and not under the heading ROH. Then a person could make a purchase “with open eyes”, and not according to the principle of roulette, depending on the mood of the reception service.
But we were very lucky with the reception service and, in particular, with its head, Mr. Idris - at first we were indeed settled in a room without a balcony overlooking the mountains (which is a plus) and the howling air conditioning system of the entire hotel (which is a huge minus). However, after 2 days, as Mr. Idris promised us upon check-in, we were offered a wonderful room in a bungalow. Its advantage consisted not only in the presence of a balcony and the ability to open windows at any time of the day or night without the threat of “enjoying” howls equal to the sounds created by a dive bomber, but also in general peace and quiet, without screams coming from 7 in the morning for breakfast vacationers , roll calls of cleaners, etc. (soundproofing in the rooms of the main building leaves much to be desired). In addition, when you live in a bungalow, you do not depend on the workload of the elevators! ; )))
The rest of the rooms are clean, functional, there is enough space for living. The furniture is a little old, as well as the renovation in general. And if we proceed from the requirements I once read for 5-star hotels, which, by definition, should have NEW furniture and accessories, then in Turkey I, perhaps, have not yet met a single 5-star! : )))

However, the bed linen and towels are clean, once they brought a sheet with a hole - the next day they replaced it, although the bed linen is changed once a week. Towels were changed for us every day, although we did not throw them on the floor, which is equivalent to asking for a replacement, but left them on hangers in the bathroom. There are no complaints about cleaning the room either - every day they threw out the garbage, wiped the dust (at least on visible surfaces), washed the bathroom, perhaps vacuumed it, because we walked barefoot on the carpet and there were no negative sensations such as sand under our feet. But we are unpretentious in this regard and did not specifically look for shortcomings in cleaning. Tipping cleaners left about a day later. Swans and rose petals were present on the bed and somehow did not depend on the frequency of tips (sometimes they were, sometimes they were not : ))
A safe and a minibar in the room were included in the price. The minibar was stocked with liter bottles of cola, forfeit and sprite (in their local version), a carton of apple juice and two 1.5 liter bottles of water. Due to the significant volumes of drinks (as the guest relations explained to us), the mini-bar was replenished every 3 days, and if you drank, for example, the cola you love right on the first day, then the remaining two days you will drink fanta- sprite, even if you are not an ardent fan of them - there is still no other. : ))
Beach: mostly sandy (small pebbles at the entrance to the water), wide and deep enough (7 rows of awnings were counted) and even closer to the sea 2 rows of sun loungers without awnings. In principle, as it seemed to us, there were enough sunbeds for everyone. Perhaps not always where you would like, but you could find a free place even at 10-11 o'clock, and closer to 12 the beach began to empty - people left for dinner, moved to the pool, etc. , so somewhere before 16 hours on the beach was very spacious and deserted. What can not be said about the morning hours - around 9-10 o’clock it was difficult to go into the sea, you also had to swim with caution so as not to run into the same lovers of water procedures, and in general all this (also taking into account the specifics of the contingent) resembled Massandra beach in its best years! ; ))) Including the fact that the density of sun loungers per square meter is still a bit high.
The beach is clean, at least twice a day hotel employees pass through it, collecting garbage from trash cans, plus bar employees collecting dishes (glasses), which some of the vacationers are simply not able to bring to a specially designated counter in the center of the beach. Broken sun loungers during the rest saw only 2-3, the rest are normal. Mattresses and beach towels of varying degrees of novelty, but frankly falling apart or full of holes were not seen. In addition, hotel workers were seen replacing both sun loungers and mattresses. And in general, the general feeling of the beach is cleaner than in neighboring hotels (such as Euphoria, Sirius and Phaselis Rose)

There is a pier with a few sun loungers on it, a modest bar where you can get water, beer, cola-fanta-sprite, something like frozen juices (sweet ice), several cabanas, showers and a stand with taps for washing feet. On one side of the beach there is a playground with merry-go-rounds and a place for beach volleyball, on the other side there are water sports (kayaks, jet skis, parasailing, etc. ). As standard, as everywhere in Turkey, the bathing/swimming area is separated by buoys from the area of ​ ​ motor boats, although often boats were driven just right next to these buoys, and there was a case when a jet ski even flew into the bathing area. To be honest, it's a little annoying - there is an additional wave, plus periodically there is a smell of diesel or something like that. In general, as for me, it would be nice to make a buffer zone of another 20 meters between the tourist swimming zone and the motorized watercraft passage zone.
However, it was even worse for the poor fellows from the neighboring 4-ki (Sirius) - they were given a beach twenty meters wide with a swimming area exactly where these watercraft famously moored to the pier. So one could only sympathize with their somersaults and dodging boats, and one could consider their position as very tolerable.
Food: and here, perhaps, the biggest discrepancies between the reviews read and heard - and our impressions. The main leitmotif of everyone who mentioned this hotel was: “But the food there is just a hurricane! ” I will allow myself to doubt - lobsters, oysters, black caviar and Crystal champagne were not noticed in the restaurant for 2 weeks. ; ))))
And if in order, the hotel is declared as operating on the Ultra All Inclusive system. There is a main restaurant (fresh and rather successful renovation), with an internal hall and an external terrace (very spacious, also on both sides of the internal hall). There is a snack bar next to the beach. And even inside the hotel, for some reason, on the -1 floor, coffee, tea and cookies were organized in the fife-o-clock area (and people were there, they saw it for themselves).

In addition, four a la carte restaurants are organized - Ottoman, Chinese and Italian (in another wing of the hotel opposite the main restaurant) and fish (on the terrace by the snack bar, i. e. closer to the sea). Regarding a la carte, I would like to make one more "fee" in the direction of the hotelier - visiting any restaurant was paid, for the first three - $ 5 per person, for the last - $ 10. I agree that the amount is small and it seems like it’s not worth talking about it, but, on the other hand, for guests who paid a very good amount for a hotel stay, it would be possible to visit at least one restaurant for the entire vacation period free of charge - so, as a compliment. Moreover, in many 5-kas it is supposed to visit all a la cartes once per stay. The funny thing is that out of all the proposed options, after familiarizing ourselves with the menu twice, we could not be interested in something other than Chinese (as experience has shown - not in vain), where we went twice. : )
Access to the main restaurant is limited by a dress code (at least for lunch and dinner), which is strictly declared (trousers-dresses-skirts-shoes), but, in fact, boils down to the fact that visitors do not go to it in T-shirts, swimsuits , pareos and beach shorts (zippers or buttons on the bottom of the suit are required : )), as well as no beach flip-flops (only civilian-type shoes, only hardcore). This is correct, in my opinion, especially considering the soft chairs, sheathed in a pleasant light-colored fabric - well, who hasn’t had to sit on this after someone’s “seat” right from the pool?
And here's what's wrong. The general impression of the proposed food is clear: a lot - yes, different - yes, only some hyperesthete from cooking can remain hungry, but to say that it’s so tasty - rather not.
Breakfast - scrambled eggs, scrambled eggs, scrambled, ham and sausage cuts, fried sausage, vegetables, herbs, muesli, yogurt, jams, etc. , fruits, a lot of pastries. Everything is fine, but definitely indistinguishable (yesterday from today, and today from tomorrow) and completely neutral (closer to tasteless - not bad, but not at all).
Drinks - standard "yuppies" or whatever (with apple, cherry and orange flavors). We did not drink tea, coffee (however, as elsewhere in the hotel) - from the machine, it feels like instant. However, there are no complaints about this; someone ordered some juices or grain coffee - I won’t even say for a fee or not - they brought them.

We dined most often in a snack bar - so to speak, without departing from the sea. Menu: chicken shawarma, rice, spaghetti with a couple of sauces, pizza, hamburgers, again vegetables (a lot of different ones), greens and cuts of vegetables and herbs from different angles, sauces for them (oh, local tzatziki! - yes), cheeses, olives. I note that due to the “Russianness” of the hotel, there were two soups - some kind of chorba (rarely none, which is generally uncharacteristic for Turkey) and “Russian soup“ Borsch ”(this is constant; I always wanted to correct this idiotic inscription, since “Russian Soup" is cabbage soup at best, and borscht is a UKRAINIAN soup!! ! But either there was no handle, or the hands didn't reach. Maybe, after reading this review, the restaurant management will bring its menu in line with the realities of life). The quality of the latter was not checked, as well as dumplings similar to dumplings, which were also included in the menu every day, because you don’t fly a thousand kilometers behind them. Nearby they arranged the cooking of “gozleme” (that is, flat cakes) with potatoes, cheese and meat, and ayran to them. Fruits - plums, apples, oranges, pears, and separately - a delicious freshly cut watermelon (but to my great regret, somewhere in the middle of the rest, he disappeared from the snack bar; however, much disappeared in the hotel as the end of the season approached). Plus soft drinks (cola water), beer, white and red wine. (By the way, I want to say that I don’t see any reason to enter into heated discussions about the quality of the latter in Turkish hotels at all. Is the beer weak? So you don’t need anything else in the heat. Wine is mediocre? Yes, ordinary table wine, standard “vin de table”, of course that it’s not Chablis or Bordeaux - but the debaters imagine how much a decent wine costs, in fact, and did they pay for it in the price of the tour? Yes, and the country is Muslim, it’s strange to ask them like from France, Italy or Chile).
Everything is edible, another thing is that there were no changes and no foreseen.
As for the evening menu, that is, dinner in the main restaurant (as well as a couple of dinners spent in it), there are questions for it. I repeat - just a lot, I'm not going to lie. 6-7 kinds of cheeses (up to "Circassian" and cheese with the marvelous name "fatty feta" from goat's milk - this, unfortunately, among other things, disappeared by the middle of the rest), the same number of types of olives (not bad); assorted vegetables and greens, salads “with mayonnaise” as my husband calls them - sorry, we didn’t eat - we don’t see the point, stewed or blanched vegetables such as zucchini, eggplant, artichokes, and they are also stuffed, or fried, salted (pretty) fish like sprats or anchovies, vegetable dolma, etc. Dietary (that is, steam) menu - again, vegetables, rice, etc. Sauces - in assortment. In general, snacks were available. Another thing is that if there were changes in their composition, they were not too noticeable, and it was impossible to find differences in the taste of stuffed pepper from stuffed eggplant, for example, with closed eyes. And everything is neutral, almost bland. Despite the fact that Turkish cuisine is rich, spicy and spicy. Here, you might not even know about it. : (((
As for hot dishes, yes, there was a grill. Or something like this. Meat was cooked on it (chicken, turkey, lamb - less often). Or fish. Yes. Sometimes I wanted to ask the chef why. And what needs to be done with fish with the proud name "sea bass", so that once its taste and smell is similar to carbolic acid (of course, I don’t eat it, but if I ate it, I probably wouldn’t distinguish it), and the second time - on something less chemical, but no less inedible? And why did tired hands peel off the scales before frying only halfway, which gave the taste especially “soulful” tones? And why did the rest of the fish almost all have such an inexpressibly “fishy” (frankly unpleasant) taste? Well, yes, twice there was a small trout, once something small, bug-eyed, the size of a Baltic herring - it was possible to eat, although also without much fanaticism. As for the rest of the "frutti di mare" - twice in two weeks, a sauté of them was cooked; the first time I was somehow very lucky with the squid - nothing else was noticed, the second time the set expanded to mussels and even pieces of octopus - just fantastic! And the crayfish and salmon described in different reviews were not observed at all (maybe they were served on those days when we visited a la carte? )

Once again, this is a seaside hotel. BY THE SEA, CARL!
Grilled meat is another story. The claim is the same - tastelessness. I can't add anything more. Plus the indistinguishability of one from the other. However, it was possible to have fun guessing what to eat. Kebab was proudly served with pita bread (apparently to absorb the juice from the meat). Sorry, it didn’t come in handy - the pita bread remained dry.
No, it’s clear that there were also whole fried chickens, or chickens, or turkey, pies with fillings (for some reason sometimes called “meatballs”, yeah), just fried small fish (by the way, much more edible than grilled). Even the tongue was once served beef; suddenly. Stew and even fish of various variations, spaghetti, rice with gravy sauces, something else of the same kind. No, I repeat - there was neither little nor meager food here.
But what should have been tasty was not tasty. Tasteless at best.
Fruits, cakes, baklava - also a lot, in general, not bad. Sweets, however, differed mainly in shape and color, but this is so...
Against this background, they were satisfied only with patisserie - pide, buns, pies, cakes. Moreover, if with a filling, then with vegetables it is almost tastier than with meat or sausage (where, by the way, the kitchen had to put the cuts that were not eaten yesterday; ))
Plus the menu goes on repeat every week.
So to sum up: to be hungry in this hotel is to be incapacitated. Or want to be hungry. But to eat in such a way that it was guaranteed to be tasty is difficult. Somewhere like that.

But the undoubted pluses can be attributed to the organization of the work of the restaurant staff. If you have already found a place for yourself at the table, then someone will immediately be next to the question, what drinks do you want? And they will bring the ordered, without any delay. Only once the husband, without waiting for three or four minutes for any of them, went to the whiskey bar, when he was almost intercepted on the way with a fright, they immediately sent him back, they didn’t give anything to take and brought the order right away. They offered vodka, cognac, whiskey (J&B, by the way; not just anything - even though it is blended, but scotch), champagne (local, very reminiscent of soda from childhood), beer and wine. In general, quite enough.
To be honest, when mentioning restaurants and food, I would like to note one... feature of our contingent - despite all the horror stories about the Coxsackie virus raging in the vicinity, other enterovirus infections, and generally spitting on all the elementary rules of hygiene, EVERY DAY with EVERY VISIT of public places food, I observed the same picture - how gentlemen vacationers with primordial zeal delve (sorry, but it’s hard to find another word) in the fruits displayed on the counter - peaches, pears, plums, grapes, etc. , feel them, sniff them, slightly they don’t try it on the tooth, and then they put it back on the common tray !!! ! To be honest, I’m a fairly tolerant and well-mannered person, but so I wanted to approach such an aesthete from cooking and wrap a restaurant plate on the back of the head (and they are quite weighty there), so that the brains fall into place and hands do not reach where they don’t need to. In short, if I took fruit, it was either from the farthest tray, to which there were minimal chances for the playful hands of other vacationers to reach, or washed and laid out on a tray by restaurant employees in my presence.
Bars: there were 4 bars in the hotel - in the lobby, by the pool, on the beach and the Q-lounge bar, updated in 2017, with a view, as it is written in the advertisement of the hotel itself, of the 3 Islands diving center, i. e. standing almost on the shore. Although, taking into account the fact that this bar opened at 19.30, it was problematic to see anything from it due to the darkness that set in early enough. But we liked the place - it really had a calmer and more relaxed atmosphere, as well as not a very large number of people. The main movement was in the bar near the pool, next to which discos were held in the evening until 24.00.
Animation: it is. I don’t know anything about the quality, this is the part of the sea holiday that doesn’t interest us in any way. Although the entire animation team went to the beach every day at 10.00, greeted vacationers and, as it were, reminded of themselves. Next - by interests. : ) The only thing is that some shows in the amphitheater were arranged by her forces, and we "do not like amateur performances" (c). The rest of the shows were standard - Turkish night, Mongolian circus, Moroccan acrobats, Latin American dances. And yes, the White Party. All white, all white. Loud. For an amateur. As well as the famous "foam parties", which took place in the same amphitheater around 5 o'clock in the evening.

Contingent: consists of 95 percent of Russian-speaking (or perfectly understanding this language), including Russians, Ukrainians, Kazakhs and, in my opinion, Moldovans. The Balts were distinguished by the fact that they communicated with others in English, which at least somehow brightened up the feeling of a “sanatorium in Berdyansk”. Also almost completely Russian-speaking (or understanding this language) is the hotel staff. Well, except for the cleaners and gardeners, maybe.
The hotel as a whole is more focused on family holidays, a large number of families with children. We have repeatedly seen vacationers who, as it was clear, are coming here not for the first, and not even for the second time - they hug the waiters, greet the receptionists, etc. Which, in general, speaks of the demand for the hotel and popularity among tourists.
In general, something like this. Well, the one who was able to get to the end of this opus and master so many letters deserves to know the summary of the rest at the QUEENS PARK RESORT & SPA hotel - apparently, the person is really interested. ; )))) I will say this, if you are not embarrassed (or, perhaps, vice versa - pleases) the presence of:
- native (or at least absolutely understandable) speech around you 24 hours a day,
- the everlasting feeling of the Massandra beach around you by the sea and the aura of the Crimean-Odessa settlement along the entire western part of the Anatolian coast,
- plentiful, but very average both in taste sensations and in the range of food and drink,
- slightly shabby, but still fairly functioning rooms,
- a certain greed (or, to put it more tactfully, frugality) in certain matters of the hotel owners, which leads to the need to pay for a la carte, luggage packing or to complete uncertainty about the place of residence when buying a tour,
and at the same time you are demanding on the level of management in the hotel, comfort in self-perception during a beach holiday, and are also sensitive to the surrounding beauties and want to see something more than sand under your feet and water to the horizon, then this hotel will, in principle, be a good choice from hundreds and thousands of others on the Turkish coast. : ))