Elysium Side Bella

The rooms are spacious, though the bathrooms are small. That may be fine for couples, but could be difficult for families with children. The pool is small and stays at a fixed depth of 1.40. There are two slides that operate at certain hours, and it’s good that there’s a lifeguard. The air conditioning wasn’t strong enough for me, though it wasn’t a big issue. The elevator was small and very hot, and its ventilation bothered me more. The room phone didn’t work. On checkout day the cold water was cut off, and I couldn’t call reception, but the issue was fixed quickly. The biggest drawbacks for me were the sea and dirty dishes. The hotel is right by the beach, but the sea wasn’t beautiful. As a diver, I was disappointed by the zero clarity and rocks here and there. That seems to be how the local sea is. Clean plates and cutlery were really hard to find. There were some good points too. The food selection and taste were decent, and the welcome, nightly entertainment at sister hotel Bella Sun, and Turkish night were good. There’s a shuttle to the side disco for 50 TL on some nights, though I didn’t go. Beach games and sports were entertaining, if not very filling. Foreign staff at the front desk were friendly and their smiles were a plus. Some of the issues I’d read about and taken seriously before arriving turned out to be true. People also complained about paper cups. I won’t get into all the details. This is just my general impression of the hotel. If you’re particular about the sea and clean dishes, I wouldn’t recommend it, though I can still call it a pleasant hotel.

We stayed for seven nights as a family with two children, arriving August 11th and coming back August 18th. I’d thought it was a five-star place before we went, but it’s actually four-star. The rooms were spotless and the food was okay. The location is good, though hauling a small child up the stairs to the beach gets tiring. It’s odd that they haven’t installed air conditioning in the dining room or lobby, since that would be an easy fix. If you’re late for dinner, there’s a greater chance you won’t find a place to eat. For this price, some hotels don’t even offer bed and breakfast. Taking that into account, this one meets what I’d expect of a four-star hotel. Would I go again? I would.

The food is why I’d give the chefs a 10, maybe even 100. We stayed from July 14th to 24th, 2017, and every dinner brought something different for all ten days. There was grilled, boiled, stewed, and fried food, mostly chicken and turkey, along with fish and other meats, salads, and sides. Plenty of fresh vegetables and fruit too. Ayran was served from 10am to 4pm, salted and unsalted. The beach bar chef was brilliant at baking. If you like fast food, there were always fries, nuggets, and onion rings. Drinks weren’t our focus, but many people liked them. We tried the beer but aren’t experts. The dining room wine was bad, the red drinkable, the white and rosé terrible. Entertainment was good for children under seven. For teenagers there wasn’t much beyond water slides designed for 5-7-year-olds. No discos, and evenings were dull even with a show every night, mostly with Kenyan artists. That’s not really for young people. The advertised gym was there in name, but had only a treadmill. My child was very disappointed and did pull-ups on the playground swing bar instead. Cleaning was terrible, even though we left tips each time, which I deeply regret. Beach towels cost one dollar each to change; we didn’t change ours, just rinsed them and dried them on the balcony. The main frustration was the beach and sea. The beach was terrible for both small children and adults. The seabed was rocky to begin with. When hotels were built, rocks were removed from the beach area and some sand was added to the bottom, but many sharp, huge stones remained. You need to be very careful in the water, preferably wearing shoes, if you don’t want injured feet. Near the end of our stay, newly arrived guests from our country manually pulled several huge stones from the seabed. Lots of seaweed washed ashore daily too. Since the sand there isn’t native, sand, shells, and seaweed kept splashing around in the shallows. It was impossible to put a small child in that filth. Our youngest was just learning to swim, so we went to another beach. About 300 meters to the right with your back to the hotel, near the other hotel, there’s a good beach for children who aren’t strong swimmers. It has fewer stones, cleaner water, and is quite shallow. I’d rate the hotel a three, and only because the food was excellent.

The hotel is old, and our bathroom ceiling leaked. They moved us only after 24 hours of repeated complaints. The staff were good but there weren’t enough of them, so queues for food and drinks were constant. The food was terrible. The chicken, turkey, fish, and meatballs were inedible. The sea was rocky and stony, and the animation team had no intelligence or humor. There were water cuts, and the beach showers didn’t have enough water. My vacation was over when they came to repair the TV. I’m sorry, but I’ve only described what I saw and experienced.