Side Premium

First impressions are excellent; the hotel has a luxurious feel. However, several negatives became apparent later on. Pros: Excellent internet throughout the entire resort, including the beach. Plenty of drinking water available everywhere in outdoor coolers. Clean throughout. Cons: Although the hotel has air conditioning, it can’t keep up with the heat in the restaurant. There is no AC in the hallways and elevators, making it terribly hot and stuffy. The hotel is divided into blocks and is generally confusing, like a maze (e.g., room 2318 is on the 1st floor, while the main restaurant is on floor -2). Smoking is allowed everywhere. Staff language skills are poor. Rooms: Spacious enough. Comfortable double bed plus an extra bed. Two pillows. Complimentary refilled fridge. Toiletries, hairdryer, and slippers. Kettle with tea and coffee. Beach: Sandy and well-maintained. Plenty of free sunbeds and umbrellas. Showers, toilets, and a beach bar. Beach towels provided by the hotel. Access to the beach requires leaving the hotel premises and walking about 200m along the fence of another hotel. The hotel is in the second line, with another hotel right in front of it. Hotel beaches are crammed next to each other and divided by buoys in the sea, which is bad for swimmers. Water sports operate beyond the buoys. Although the beach bar is open until 6:00 PM, the beach snack is only available from 12:00 PM to 3:30 PM. Dining: Great selection of food, nothing to complain about. Due to massive traffic jams, we arrived at the hotel just after 4:00 PM and were starving (we landed at 12:00 PM). The only food available until 5:00 PM was at the Food Corner—a small stall serving döner kebab with fries—along with pastries and ice cream at the patisserie. Nothing else. We were told all other food stalls closed at 4:00 PM and dinner starts at 6:30 PM. Well, thank you very much for such an "Ultra All Inclusive" experience. Entertainment / Animation: On Sunday, there was only aqua gym. Generally weak, with poor information sharing and low engagement from the animators.

We are back today from a 7 night stay at this hotel and I feel this is a fair review.

Last year we stayed at The Titanic Hotel in Belek which is a 5* hotel. When comparing Oz Side Premium which is also rated a 5* the difference is very noticeable. I would say Oz Side Premium is a 4* it was more likely a 5* many years ago.

Rooms Our room 5015 showed signs of age and wear. The wallpaper was coming away from the walls, the balcony doors didn’t lock properly, the wardrobe doors were warped and didn’t close and the toilet seat was broken. The rooms definitely need some TLC.

Food Breakfast was repetitive but on the whole the food was nice, we always found something to eat. The BBQ station was great as well as the poolside food huts. We also enjoyed a meal at the Asian à la Carte restaurant which was lovely and great service.

Drinks Staff come round the pool area each morning with iced coffee and baileys this is a great touch and something I looked forward to each morning. The alcohol is non branded cheap imports and the cocktails weren’t great, again comparing this to the 5* Titanic.

Entertainment The entertainment team work hard throughout the day to keep everyone entertained with a variety of different activities. Evening entertainment wasn’t great.

Staff All the staff were pleasant and friendly, shoutout to the guy who keeps the poolside area clean and tidy collecting cups etc and always with a smile.

Word of warning regarding the onsite supermarket. None of the items in the shop have prices on them. I asked how much for a bottle of suncream and he said €25 so I walked away and said I will buy it elsewhere. By the time I walked 10 steps he had brought the price down to €8 so have your wits about you. I felt he was trying to take advantage of a captive audience.

We also ventured out of the hotel, the beach is lovely and close by as well as lots of shops and restaurants. We ate at the steak house one night and the food and service were both great.

On the whole we had a lovely holiday but after the 5* we had been to the previous year our expectations weren’t quite met.

It was a wonderful experience the food was very good and even if at first we had some problems with our rooms they were really comfortable. The staff was so nice and the people who talked many langue langueges helped us a lit since we didn't know turkish.