Hotel Eftalia Village

This was our first time visiting Turkey and we chose Eftalia Village because the hotel looked lovely online. Overall, we had an enjoyable holiday in parts, but unfortunately there were quite a few things about the hotel itself that left us disappointed. Arrival & booking - When we arrived, we were told that we couldn’t use the al a carte restaurant for one evening unless we paid an additional £160 to upgrade our room/package. This was confusing as our booking stated that the restaurant was included with our all-inclusive package. We decided not to pay extra and stayed with the package we had already booked. We also found the welcome from some of the staff on arrival quite rude and unwelcoming, which wasn’t the first impression we were hoping for. Drinks - one of our biggest disappointments - The drinks selection was extremely limited for an all-inclusive hotel. There were no cocktails included, with the standard options being house wine, gin, beer and vodka, generally served in very small plastic cups, I asked for wine and was still handed a plastic cup! Cocktails were available to purchase separately, I’ve been to many all inclusives and never had to pay for cocktails, they’ve always been included. During the day and night you are constantly pestered by staff members to purchase cocktails and drink they charge £10 or more each and they didn’t even taste nice or look good. We didn’t feel this represented good value when we had already paid for an all-inclusive holiday. Neither me or my partner particularly enjoyed the alcohol included, so we barely drank at the hotel and ended up buying rum from a local shop to add to our drinks instead. Compared with other all-inclusive hotels we’ve stayed at, the drinks offering was definitely one of the biggest let downs. Rooms - Our room was clean enough and perfectly adequate, but fairly basic and could definitely do with some improvements. The biggest issue was the extremely thin walls. We could hear almost everything from the family next door, including arguments, swearing and children screaming during the night and early mornings. This made sleeping difficult, and on one occasion I got around three hours sleep. I appreciate that the hotel cannot control how guests behave, but better soundproofing would make a huge difference! Food - The food was another area where we felt the hotel could improve. There was some choice, but we found the main buffet quite repetitive, particularly after being there for a full week. The snack bar was especially disappointing. The selection was mainly things such as chips, chicken nuggets and onion rings, which were often cold or overcooked. Having stayed at other all-inclusive hotels, we expected a better variety of snacks, such as fresh pizza, burgers and other options throughout the day. Staff & service - We found some of the male staff to be quite rude or abrupt, and on occasions it felt as though serving guests was an inconvenience rather than something they were happy to do. We particularly noticed this at the bars, including towards women who were standing alone. There were also a lot of people around the hotel trying to sell additional services and treatments. One particular salesperson approached my partner almost every day and would spend a long time talking to him, while barely acknowledging me. He also repeatedly tried to touch his arms and complimented his tattoos, which I found weird and inappropriate, particularly after we’d made it clear we weren’t interested. We did enjoy the Turkish baths/massage, which was lovely and worth paying for. However, afterwards we were repeatedly encouraged to book further treatments despite making it clear that we only wanted the one. Atmosphere - The atmosphere around the hotel was quite a lot more rowdy than we expected. There were a number of very loud British families who regularly argued, swore and caused disturbances. On one evening, two men from one particularly loud family became extremely drunk, started fighting and swearing at each other, and then jumped into the pool after 10pm. Security eventually became involved as they became aggressive towards staff and other holidaymakers. Obviously, Eftalia Village cannot be held responsible for the individual behaviour of its guests, but we do think it’s worth mentioning because it affected our overall experience. We’ve stayed in quite a few all-inclusive hotels and had never experienced an atmosphere quite like this one. If you’re travelling with young children or looking for a peaceful and relaxing holiday, it’s something I’d bear in mind. Pools & beach - The pools were one of the better parts of the hotel. The main pool was enjoyable and the water slides were great fun. The pool areas were generally where we spent most of our time and we had some really enjoyable days there. The beach was less impressive. It isn’t particularly attractive and is very rocky and pebbly, although we still enjoyed having a little swim there. Overall - There were definitely positives to Eftalia Village, particularly the pools, water slides and spa, and we did have some enjoyable moments during our stay. However, compared with other all-inclusive hotels we’ve visited, we felt there were too many areas where the hotel fell short. The limited drinks selection, repetitive food, basic snack options, thin walls, mixed service and overall atmosphere meant that we didn’t feel the hotel offered particularly good value for the price we paid. For our first visit to Turkey, it unfortunately wasn’t quite the experience we were expecting. We wouldn’t choose Eftalia Village again, although we appreciate that some of our experience was influenced by other guests rather than the hotel itself.

I highly recommend visiting this hotel, everyone is very friendly especially the animation team, the cleaners are amazing and sometimes leave good towel art, has good air conditioning, the adults entertainment is really good. Also a really good place if you have childen. Also Burak is the goat.

So, where do I start? Let’s start with the hotel itself. It’s moderately clean and, at the end of the day, clean enough that you’re happy to lay your head down at night. It’s nothing spectacular and certainly not somewhere I’d rave about, but it does the job. I’ve stayed in much cleaner places, and I’ve stayed in worse. The biggest disappointment for me was the food and drinks. This is honestly the worst all-inclusive I’ve experienced when it comes to what is and isn’t included. Having to pay extra for cocktails at an all-inclusive resort is something I’ve never come across before. If you’re booking an all-inclusive, you naturally expect a decent selection of drinks to be included. The food itself was okay — edible, but nothing exciting, and there wasn’t a huge amount that appealed to children. That said, if you head down to the food court on the island between 12pm and 4pm, there is much more choice for kids. The staff were probably the biggest let-down. I’ve been to Turkey many, many times, and one of the things I’ve always loved is the Turkish hospitality. Normally, the staff genuinely cannot do enough for you. Unfortunately, that wasn’t our experience here. A lot of the staff came across as rude, abrupt and as though serving you was a massive inconvenience. We particularly noticed this towards women, especially women standing alone at the bar. One example: I ordered some soft drinks and two beers. The barman served the soft drinks, then walked down to the beer pump to pour the beers. Rather than bringing them back up — which he had to walk back past anyway to continue serving people — he aggressively pointed towards the beers for me to go and get them myself. There were several other occasions where we experienced similar behaviour from different members of staff, including around the bars on the island. It just wasn’t the Turkish hospitality we’ve experienced elsewhere. We even spoke to a local who said he had noticed the same thing himself and felt the staff weren’t providing the standard of hospitality he would normally expect in Turkey. Now, the positives. The waterslides are fantastic. There are loads of slides both at the hotel and on the island, so if your children love swimming and slides, they’ll have plenty to keep them occupied. There are also activities available for an additional cost, such as ziplining and drift cars, which we actually really enjoyed. Unfortunately, though, the general atmosphere of the hotel really brought the experience down for us. It was, quite frankly, rough as fu*k. There were constant arguments, domestics, people screaming across the pool at each other and generally behaving badly. A lot of it was from British holidaymakers, which was honestly embarrassing and gave us absolutely no pride in being British. We saw people pushing lifeguards into the pool while they had their phones and radios in their hands, people shouting across the pool, loads of swearing and arguments about everything from social services to who someone was sleeping with and when their UC was being paid. If you’re travelling with young children, this is something I’d seriously consider. There was a LOT of foul language and behaviour that I personally wouldn’t want my children exposed to on holiday. The rep was another disappointment. Gemma, the hotel rep, was honestly diabolical at times. It felt like talking to a brick wall. We wanted to visit Land of Legends and asked her for the price. We were told £250, but when we actually went to book it, the price was £290. More importantly, we weren’t told that because we were visiting out of season, a significant amount of the park would be closed. With children aged 5 and 4, this was pretty important information because a lot of the things they would have been able to go on were unavailable. There was also an incident involving a young lad who had travelled on our transfer. He had accidentally left a bag containing money behind, which we handed to the transfer driver and asked him to return it. I messaged Gemma afterwards to check whether he had received it because, understandably, I was concerned about a young person being in Turkey without his money, phone etc. Her response was essentially that he wasn’t staying at her hotel, so she didn’t know. I asked if she could simply contact the driver to check, especially because she had previously been able to message us through the same system when we were running late for our own transfer. I received no response. I then asked her face-to-face and was simply told, “I’m sure he will have.” That really wasn’t good enough for me. Would I return? Absolutely not. We’ve been to Turkey countless times and have stayed in different areas and different types of hotels, from budget to more expensive resorts, and this experience was completely different from what we’ve come to expect from Turkey. I genuinely wouldn’t return to Alanya after this experience, and I certainly wouldn’t return to this hotel. I understand that you get what you pay for, and this is clearly one of the cheaper options for a reason. If you’re looking for a cheap holiday, aren’t bothered about the quality of the food and drinks, and your main priority is keeping the kids entertained with waterslides and activities, then you might absolutely love it. But if you’re travelling with young children and want a relaxed family atmosphere, decent all-inclusive food and drinks, good hospitality and somewhere that feels comfortable and respectful, I personally wouldn’t choose this hotel. And finally — if this is your first ever experience of Turkey, please don’t judge the whole country based on this place. Turkey has some absolutely incredible resorts, hospitality, food and people. We’ve experienced that time and time again, which is exactly why we keep coming back. This hotel just wasn't it for us.

Food was always cold ie every morning 5 trays of fried eggs standing behind counter that had been cooked . It was clean hotel.

Been here many of times clean food good and entertainment good must recommend