Aydinbey Gold Dreams - Ultra All Inclusive Resort

I was here on holiday with my family. In my opinion, this hotel deserves three stars. The food tasted very good, but there wasn't much choice. Breakfast and dinner were about 90% the same each day. There were no local dishes like kebabs, lamb, beef, or pork, mostly chicken, fish, pasta, and stews. The salad bar was quite nice, though the overall dish selection was poor. The dining areas were very clean, and staff quickly cleared used plates and replaced them. They also wouldn't let anyone enter the restaurant in swimwear. Some workers managed to communicate through a translator, which helped a lot. Staff were friendly and helpful overall. Wi-Fi worked everywhere, and the hotel is in an excellent location, close to shops, markets, and shopping centers. There were activities for adults throughout the day, with positive, smiling animators, and different activities organized each day. Turkish Day was the best. The minibar was supposed to be refilled daily, but it happened only twice in seven days. The pools weren't cleaned during our stay, and the poolside area around the loungers wasn't swept, so rubbish stayed there for days. The pool ladders were damaged, and one step came loose as I was getting out of the water. Several people, including me, reported it more than once, but nothing was done. The lobby bar wasn't open 24/7 as advertised, only from 10:00 AM to midnight. Drink machines used by the bartenders often didn't work, and I often heard them say "machine unusable." There were few staff, so tables and floors in both lobbies were often dirty. The bathrooms by the pool were dirty, soap dispensers were broken so you couldn't get soap, and the men's restroom urinal partitions were temporarily fixed with angle brackets and screws and wobbled sideways. The public bathrooms near the lobbies were clean, but the tiles had been patched with plaster, the urinal drains were clogged, and the flush sensors were screwed together with sheet metal screws. The bathroom shower leaked from the bottom of the faucet whenever we turned on the shower head. There was mold in our shower stall, and the glass wall was stuck to the tiles with a huge amount of silicone. The faucet was a basic lever type with a spout and handheld shower. For a five-star hotel, I'd expect a thermostatic tap and rain shower head. The installation was also so poor that holes in the tiles showed around the pipe covers. After the earthquake, our air conditioner began leaking badly, probably because a drain pipe had come loose. We don't blame the hotel for the earthquake or the leak, since it was beyond anyone's control. But it took two days and four calls before someone came to fix it. We couldn't use the air conditioning during that time, or the whole room would have turned into a "private pool." Elevators had stuck or broken buttons, and as the days went on, I was afraid to press them in case they collapsed completely and someone had to pay for repairs. There were cracked walls everywhere, patched plasterboard, holes in sockets covered with duct tape, and wall decorations falling off, including one by the reception desk in the hammam. The language barrier was another issue. In my view, only a few hotel staff spoke English, while Russian and Turkish seemed to be more widely used among the roughly 85% of guests.

The food was the low point. It was the same sort of thing every day with different seasoning, and after day three it became too much. The taste and quality weren't great, and there was no local food like kebabs, lamb, beef, or pork, just chicken, fish, and sides such as pasta and stews. The salad bar was decent, but the rest of the choices were poor. We couldn't book the a'la carte dinner, since there was no space that day, or something like that. The rooms were pretty nice and the beach was close, though it was small and crowded but still okay. The pools, bars, and extras like the shishabar, ice cream, and popcorn near the pool and stage were nice. The store was a big plus. Please improve the food!

The pools were lovely, and we never struggled to find a sun lounger. There were still beds free at midday. Staff kept the pool area clean, and there were activities throughout the day, though they were pretty loud. The mini disco was fun for the kids. Evening entertainment wasn't really for us, but it was nice that they put it on. The food got repetitive, but the freshly grilled section was good and we never went hungry. The buffet area was very busy, and staff couldn't always keep the tables tidy. We could visit the on-site restaurant once during our week, and I'd recommend the barbecue. Lunch at the beach bar, pool bar, and kingdom bar was all the same, but the pizza was worth trying since it's cooked fresh. Drinks were fine: six cocktails, local spirits, and wine. If you tipped, you got nicer drinks in a glass. The rooms were cleaned daily, and any problems were usually sorted almost immediately. Most staff were helpful, though the language barrier sometimes made things difficult. It's not a five-star hotel, but it really wasn't as bad as some reviews make it sound. Our stay was fine. If you've booked, don't let the bad reviews put you off, decide for yourself.

I stayed at this hotel with my family in the summer of 2018, and one incident from that trip still stands out. At the bar one evening, two bartenders made inappropriate jokes about us. I understood what they were saying, and their gestures made me very uncomfortable. We reported it to the hotel staff, but they didn't handle it properly and we never received an apology. I hope behavior like that doesn't represent the hotel's standards and that it won't happen again.