Side Resort Hotel

We stayed at the Calimera side resort as a family of six with four adults and two very young children aged four and two. The team were lovely and agreed to move us into a family suite so we could all be together the first two rooms were very modern and had clearly been recently updated. The family suite needed attention but it was adequate for what we needed.

The food was faultless, they have themed evening meals every day, there was lots to choose from. There were no issues with food not being hot enough The staff were incredibly friendly both at the bars and dining areas plus the swimming.

One issue was I witnessed a guy being sick into the overflow of the main pool. I approached this person and asked them to leave the pool. He was very argumentative. His partner said he wasn’t being sick that it was water but it was clearly orange fluid coming out of his mouth. The management were called and asked him to get out of the pool. He refused. Personally I was disappointed by the managements response.

Another issue I came across was one of the bartenders had clearly given his phone number to a male visitor and whilst queueing at the bar for a drink there was a lady in front of me and a lady queueing behind me, when it was our turn the bartender told us to wait and served this man who just rocked up to the bar & was instantly served, when challenged the bartender shouted at me and said that he’d been there before and gone back to his seat but then the man showed me his phone where he had text the order to the bartender so clearly jumping the queue. I brought this to the attention of the managers and I’m presuming it was sorted out but I never saw the bartender after that so I’m not too sure what happened. He assured me there is no preferential treatment and no other way that people can order drinks to get priority over the queueing. I suspect dropping the bartender a good tip got preferential treatment?

The kids club was hit & miss, on one level it was very good but on another felt unorganised and unsafe for the younger children to the point where my 4 year old grandson walked out of the kids club without an adult knowing he’d gone this was unacceptable.

On the whole we had a really good stay. The resort is extremely clean. The food is delicious. The rooms are always kept incredibly clean even though some do need updating but I believe the resort might be addressing this. The facilities are really good and I would recommend for people to go there, please note it’s nowhere near the beach & is quite a walk to get to the beach. There is a shuttle bus they offer. There’s not much at the beach once you get there. There’s bar that serves very limited food and only beer and soft drinks are available.

There is a good shop about a five minute walk away from the resort and this stocks most things that you’d need at a very good price.

The animation team work extremely hard & although I didn’t join in it was well organised & they should be congratulated on their hard work!

It’s definitely worth either taking a taxi or walking to the old town. It is stunningly beautiful and the marina is worth seeing at night because it is beautiful too.

Anya was amazing for the kids club. It was our daughter's first time at kids club and Anya made her feel very safe and happy with all the fun things they did. They made masks, t shirts, cookies, pizzas. Amazing hotel and would definitely come back again. Food was amazing. Life guard was a little poor. More notice of taking towels off of sun bed than watching the children in the pool. Other than that very clean all staff very friendly and would recommend to families

We booked this hotel after reading amazing reviews. We feel that if it was a 3 star hotel it would suit those reviews, as a 4 star I just don’t think it does. Location is pretty good, just on the outskirts of the old town….about 15 min walk. Also a 15-20 min walk to the beach, there is a complimentary shuttle bus provided if required. Also complimentary sun loungers and snack bar. Nice beach and nice experience.

So…..our stay within the hotel……On arrival we were met by a nice young lady in the early hours, she pleasantly gave us our room key and told us that our room was on the 4th floor, she also gave us towel cards but that was as far as her Knowledge of the hotel went. We weren’t given any other information such as restaurant times or how to use the safe (it’s a key and free for Jet2 customers). I asked where the lift was as our room was located on the 4th floor but she didn’t know. Maybe she was new to the job. An older gentleman who was a porter by night arrived and assisted with our cases. Nice bloke who kept us amused on the way to our room by smashing paint off every wall and door casing that he passed with his luggage trolley.

The room was ok, we booked the family room pool view. Not a bad size at all for 3 adults, nice view. The room was just quite tired. A little bonus was Bein Sports and movie channels on the TV in the room. The aircon in the room was excellent, just have to make sure the balcony doors are closed for it to operate. There is a fridge located in the room but sadly no mini bar. A good 4 star would usually have this. There is a bottle of water in the fridge on arrival, it isn’t replenished however there is bottled water available 24hr from various locations.

Restaurant wise we found the food in the buffet to be of a decent quality, always found something tasty to eat and it was always cooked well. We thought that the experience was a let down, nobody greets you at the restaurant doors, nobody shows you to a table and usually you will be offered your first drink. This resulted in a bit of a free for all, many times we saw families of 2 or 3 sat at tables for 6-8 people. As a family of 6 we sometimes struggled to find a table which could be alleviated by staff managing this. At a 4 star hotel we would expect to be offered a tea or coffee at breakfast, it is available but you get your own and the full buffet breakfast experience was rather chaotic. The Italian restaurant was one of our highlights of the hotel. Well managed with nice food and wine. Make sure you book the Italian within 24 hrs of arriving to ensure you get in. It’s worth it for the wine as you won’t find nice wine anywhere else in the hotel. There is also a snack bar at the poolside where the slides are, it’s a pretty decent snack bar to be fair for lunch if you fancy a change from the main restaurant. There is food available at all hours throughout the hotel, you won’t go hungry.

Pools are plentiful, all have plenty of sun loungers….all within kilometres of each other but there is a lot of guests at this hotel with not a lot of open space. I think 4 pools in total. Chaotic main pool with sun beds being reserved before 6am for prime spots close to the water. The slides pool with additional pool adjacent. Then there is the so called Relax Pool with a set of rolls for a calm area. There was nothing relaxing about it. Still full of kids like the main pool was and the loud music from the main pool can still be heard…..still very loud. Lifeguards don’t manage the relax pool area as they should. An improvement to this hotel would be for this pool to be maybe age 14 plus.

There is plenty of entertainment at this hotel, we didn’t actually watch much of it but took part in a couple of poolside games and the entertainment team work tirelessly. There is a spa at the gym which we used, brilliant friendly staff, lots of knowledge and treatments at a very fair price, we thought it was very good value for the Turkish bath and 60 min massage. There is a small gym next to the spa, we found the gym and guests here frustrating. There is only one treadmill and on more than one occasion people were using the gym and decided to take their young children in. There is no rules against it however I don’t think that guests should be letting their 6-10 year old kids piss about on the treadmill and cross trainer whilst they are working out when other adults are trying to complete a workout. One morning I shared the gym with 3 families which meant that there 7 under 12’s just faffing with various equipment, I gave up in the end and left. Maybe the hotel could look at this issue and introduce a minimum age for entry to the gym?

Drinks……this is a bit of a strange one. The beer was ok, Efes on tap. No other options….id think that a 4 star may have another option. The spirits, now we aren’t really spirit drinkers but we know what spirits usually taste like and I like a couple of vodkas or gin whilst away. After ordering a few drinks that had a lot of a spirit poured in it was clear that the spirits are watered down, whether that’s at the hotel or the supplier I don’t know. There is no way I would normally drink a vodka neat but it’s certainly possible here as you can hardly taste it. The positive for this is that I only saw one person drunk in 10 days and that person had bought their own bottle of vodka. A lot of guests were buying their own bottled spirits as the cocktails were also clearly watered down…again not a 4 star standard.

Overall we had a nice stay, in Europe without doubt this hotel would be 3 star, in Turkey I guess it scrapes a 4? Most staff are attentive and friendly, they work tirelessly and the hotel is spotlessly clean, even with scruffy guests who can’t be arsed cleaning up their cups and plates after a day at the pool. Batuhan was brilliant, really nice fella, always happy and a credit to the hotel, Mikhail not so happy. We witnessed him ignore guests one day at the ‘Good Mood bar’ as he was too busy on his phone. He didn’t seem to have a smile for guests unless they were Turkish. Maybe he was just having a bad day or two.

Would we stay here again? No…we’ve stayed at nicer hotels with better service for similar money. Would we stay in Side again? Yes. Beautiful place and well worth a visit.