Ramada Resort by Wyndham Side

Avoid if you’re a fussy eater cause the food is absolutely disgusting. Same crap every day and not much choice. Feel bad for the kids as even worse for them, pay WiFi for per person. Bit out of the way also. Best part about the holiday is bedtime. Eftalia the best no joke!!

The animation team was amazing! We really enjoyed the daytime activities and the night shows. Everyone was friendly and made our holiday even more fun. Highly recommended!

the room was big, nice, very clean

Disgusting!! I wouldn't normally write a review like this, but this is 100% honest. I am writing this because I have just seen the kitchen staff scooping flies out of the sauces with their gloved hands at lunch. I am absolutely disgusted. Our first night and day were ruined, and I was left looking for either a new hotel or a flight home. After arriving at around 9.30pm, we weren't offered any food or drink. We had to ask for some water and were told to wait for the night soup at 11.30pm. We were put in a room for two people, despite there being three of us. The first room we were taken to had a double bed, again for three of us. We were told to just all sleep in that bed. Absolutely not. We were then taken to another room which was slightly larger, but still only had a double bed. We went to reception and were told our allocated room had an air conditioning issue and that we could move the next day. At this point we had been travelling for 14 hours. They brought another bed up with an old stained mattress that the housekeeper tried to hide by flipping over, only to reveal more stains. The room was so small we had to put furniture in the bathroom. We all have bruised shins from trying to navigate the room. There was absolutely no way three people and three beds should have been in that room. The balcony was also little more than a shelf. Literally. Please be careful when booking if a balcony is important to you. This also seems to be a regular occurrence, with people spending their first night in the wrong room before moving the following day. It's just unnecessary extra stress. My 67-year-old mother ended up having to sleep on the camp bed while I shared the double bed with my daughter. It made for a very uncomfortable first night. Why they weren't honest with us at reception about the room situation before sending us to two unsuitable rooms, with no apology, is beyond me. It really left a bad taste. We went to reception at 9am the following morning, as instructed, and were told to come back at 1pm. We did, and the room was eventually sorted, but our first day and night had already been ruined. The lift was temperamental. I got stuck in it twice. Just put it out of service and get it fixed. On another occasion it took me to my floor but the doors wouldn't open, so I had to go to a different floor to get out. Bizarre. It was finally taken out of service on day six. The food was a mixed bag. Breakfast and the snack bar were absolutely fine. We only had lunch in the restaurant twice because, on the second occasion (our second-to-last day), I saw kitchen staff going around scooping flies out of the sauces with their gloved hands before walking away and returning to do the same again. We never ate in the restaurant again after witnessing that. The evening meal, though... I have been going on all-inclusive holidays for over 20 years, and the evening meal here has put me off ever booking another. People were incredibly rude, which isn't the hotel's fault, but the whole experience was chaos. What the hotel could do something about is the number of flies and the lack of tables. People were eating on sunbeds while I was hunting around for cutlery. If you wanted a table, you had to run the gauntlet at 7pm. The food itself was abysmal. The queue for chips stretched the full length of the restaurant, and I'm not surprised. We are not fussy eaters by any means, but we really struggled. There wasn't even much typical Turkish food, some dishes were labelled incorrectly, and people were literally fighting over the last of the "good" food. We also had an unpleasant encounter with a member of the entertainment team. He was handing out pool noodles to lots of people in the pool, not just for an activity but for general use by adults and children alike. My 9-year-old daughter reached up to him for one as he walked past. He gave them to people before and after her but waved one in her face and sharply said, "Do not touch." She was very upset. To be actively excluded for no apparent reason made her, and us, feel really unwelcome, and she's mentioned it several times since. Make of that what you will, but I know my thoughts, and they remained the same after seeing some of this staff member's other interactions throughout the week. Something that might seem insignificant really did have quite a big impact. Other than the flies in the restaurant, which seemed to love the plastic chairs and table mats, the hotel was relatively clean. Our room was cleaned every day and the towels were changed daily. However, there were empty spirit bottles and rubbish left on our floor for almost the entire week, only being cleared away on day six. The pool itself was nice and clean, and staff were constantly cleaning around it throughout the day. The sunbeds, however, are incredibly close together. Unpleasantly so, to be honest. It reminded me of trying to cram three people into a double bed in our tiny first room. There was plenty of shade thanks to the fixed canopy around the pool, and because we were naturally up early we never struggled to get sunbeds. However, I did see people standing around the pool trying to sunbathe because there wasn't enough space in the sun. If you're looking for a relaxing sunbathing holiday, this isn't the place for you. The pool was horrendously overcrowded, although I will say the lifeguards were excellent and very vigilant. The cats aren't an issue. If you don't like them, just ignore them. I love cats and actually had to go looking for them. The kids' club was also disgustingly dirty. They offered T-shirt painting every day for €10, but I didn't notice any other organised activities. It's just a grotty little soft play area that smells. I certainly wouldn't count on using it, especially if your children are over about four years old. The evening entertainment that we saw was perfectly fine and much the same as at other hotels we've visited. Drinks and bar service were also fine, although we aren't big drinkers. Most of the staff were friendly. Yes, some looked fed up, but honestly I probably would be too if I worked at this hotel. However, I did have one very strange experience. While helping my daughter in the toilets, one of the cleaners knocked on the cubicle door. It was obvious someone was inside because the lights are motion-sensitive and we'd only been in there a short time. When I answered, she simply asked me for €10. I'd never seen this woman before in my life. Staff asking guests for money is a first for me. She wasn't even asking for a tip. It's such a shame because this hotel could be lovely, but the room allocation, the evening meals, the chaos in the restaurant, the flies being removed from the sauces, and staff asking guests for money completely overshadowed any positives. I would never book this hotel again, even if it cost half of what we paid.

Hi, I just returned from Ramada by Windham from Side. This hotel has nothing to do with the big hotels of Ramada chain. Here are the cons first and the pros: - ROOMS: as we reached around 9pm first day we were given a room at ground level which was small and smelling like poop, with no balcony; the excuse was that they are fully booked and with the promise that they will change it next day as we paid and yes, they changed at 10 o'clock but we lost the entire morning with this process; this room was at 4th floor, a bit bigger, nicer I would ay but clearly they have a problem with the pipe system because where was smelling pee; we had to close the bathroom door and keep on the ventilation all the time; on the other hand the furniture is ok, bedsheets and towers clean: only the minibar prety old and the so-called wardrobe was with no doors, only some shelves and hangers but was ok; one light in the bathroom at the morrow wasn't working; good thing though the AC was still on even when we were out of the room and the room card wasn't connected. - FOOD and DRINKS: as soon as we reached the reception guy told us to rush to the restaurant as we had only 20 minutes left to grab some bite (it was 8,40 pm) and the restaurant schedule for dinner is 7-9pm; pretty early I would say as in another resorts you still can get some food til 10 pm; morning schedule is 8-10 I think and lunch 12,30-14,30; the restaurant has a terrace too but is almost all the time crowded, the hotel is overcrowded itself when everybody is back and the staff is cleaning with same old dirty rag the tables in rush to make space for another tourists so they can eat; the food is ok-ish but repetitive; you can find something to eat though; cakes are not good but baklava and turkish sweets are good; there are good salads all the time and seasonal fruits (like we got a lot of water melon); drinks are horrible at taste, I gave up of asking after the first cocktail and I preferred to choose soda with lemon or at the most a local beer; coffee is watery, I expected a good coffee being a hotel in Turkey but no, it's just a tentative of coffee (by the way, it's not a resort but a hotel with 3 wings and small public areas). SERVICES: as I mentioned before the dinner is too early, people have to rush from beach to grab some food on time; the beach is around 10 minutes walk in an almost deserted area with bushes and dust/sand or with a stone-age minibus with has an odd schedule from 10 am to 5 pm (comes every half hour same driver) but who goes to the beach in the middle of the day?? I expected from 8 or 9 am till at least 7 pm but o, you have to walk in an unbearable dust and sun tilthe hotel and if you stay longer after 7pm the back gate of hotel (this is the short cut exit to the beach) is locked!! You have to go around the hotel til the main entrance tired, sweaty because there is no bus and no open gate; pool bar also is closing 5 pm but fortunately they leave packed glasses of 200 ml water on the counter for free to take; the beach has sun chairs and umbrellas but there are the kind of umbrellas make of wicker which hardly covers 2 half bodies of 2 people so you really can't stay in the sun after 11 am because there is no shade, eventually at the beach bar; they provide beach towels but again you have to take them from the hotel from the Spa and that place close at 6 or 7pm because after 7pm there is nobody to take them back so you have to carry dirty towels to the room til next day; the room service from room atwntenad was inexistent even if we left the sign "Make up my room"; daily we came back and we had to ask on the corridor to give us clean towels, to ask on old lady room attendant to take the garbage and to give us minibar water and sodas; she never changed the bedsheets in a week. POOL and ENTERTAINMENT: the pool has many sun chairs but they are one next to another one, there in no distance between them, the pool is overcrowded always, we decided to never spend time there; there are 3 pools (2 small and one bigger but it can't cover the capacity of so many people); next to the small pools is a stage with some chairs and there the entertainment is happening; they try to make it different (Spanish might show, African night show, Turkish night show etc) but that's all; so people have only the receptio area with old furniture, the bar next to it and some terrace with table next to the reception to talk and drink and that's all entertainment! I saw a "disco" sign but never heard music on the ground floor for music, Spa with pretty expensive services, a small gym always empty and some shops. On average from 1 to 5 I would give for the rooms score 4 (for the drainage smell problem), food around 3,5, drinks score maybe 2, ertartainment 2, services to the beach maybe 2,5 (there also food is only 12 to 3,30 pm and ice-cream 15-16 so if you are not there you don't eat but ice cream are 2 types ...bleah!). Beach has stones so you need to bring those shoes for going in the water but sea water was amazingly warm and nice (this has nothing to do with the hotel but with the local nature). I wouldn't recommend, it's a very low budget hotel, I repeat, it has nothing to do with Ramada brand and generally tourists are Turkish, Russian and some German (youngsters and family with kids). For the price we paid could be much better comparing to another places we have been but we didn't find reviews like this one to decide if it's alright or not for us. That's why I decided to write it. I hope it helps.