Hotel review for Hotel Alba Resort

Hotel

The Alba Resort is a 5 star all-inclusive hotel and we really enjoyed our stay there. It is an amazingly huge complex to wander around. I counted 9 blocks of apartments with 2 large outdoor pool areas (one beside the main complex area) and another further west catering for families with a kiddies area). We had a ground floor room which overlooked the pedestrian path outside. It even has a zoo for children to enjoy.
Everything was so clean and well maintained, especially the green areas which are dotted everywhere. The buildings are in pristine condition both inside and out.
I would say that 80% of the guests appeared to be German and mostly with families. I did come across Poles, Dutch and having a Hungarian wife we met some nice friendly Hungarians as well.

Location

We arrived early in the morning at 1am due to our flight being delayed from Budapest to Antalya. Antalya is 55km from the hotel and the shuttle took about 50 mins to get to the hotel. There are a lot of hotels on the strip with bazaars to the left down the hill and another 700 m up the hill.
Beach was about a 5 min walk from our room in apartment block 2.
Side is about 30 mins away. We took a mini-bus from outside the hotel one evening and it cost €1. 50 each. Unfortunately, it doesn't take you to the centre of the town ,so we had to take a tourist train (like a kiddies train) to the main shopping street(cost was about 1 lire p. p) adjacent to the Roman ruins which looked stunning. Most of the shops had pure crap stuff for sale and they were expensively priced, much to my consternation. There were no bargains to be had, unless you are shopping for jewellery.
I was told to shop in Antalya for genuine clothing with prices about 15%-20% less than Western-European prices. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to get there.
There are daily tours advertised to different destinations so please check the hotel notice board for more info or your tour operator rep will inform you

Service

The check-in process was relatively swift , even though there were about 20 people waiting to be checked-in. The receptionist was courteous and surprisingly to me spoke English well.
The majority of guests are German and that is the language spoken by nearly all of the hotel staff dealing with guests. In saying that, the waiters understand basic phrases and numbers so it is not a problem ordering in English.
My son had an accident on day 2 and slipped on a floor and needed to be taken to the hospital as he split his head. Thankfully, he got stitched up and it wasn't too serious. The guest relations woman was very helpful as were the doctor and nurse on duty that day. ..they couldn't do enough. I was impressed by their professional manner.
I enquired about a baby sitter and the cost is €10 per hour. You may be able to bargain, however we didn't avail of the service. You may need to book 4 hours in advance.
Overall, I would say everyone is really professional and the service was much better to what I have been accustomed to in Hungary. Hats off to the staff and management !!!!

Gastronomy

There is 1 main restaurant in the main building. 2 poolside bars that serve drinks and snacks and the Aloha beach bar . It has has 2 a la carte restuarants(Fish & Italian). You may try 1 of these during your stay if you so wish.
Open buffet Breakfast is from 7am-10am. Open buffet Lunch in the main restaurant is from 12: 30 - 2pm. Snacks, coffee & pastries can be got in the aqua pool bar area from 10am-7pm. beach bar also serves snacks from 10am - 6pm. Ice cream is available for 1 hour between 3pm-4pm . Open dinner buffet is from 7pm-9: 30pm . Late night Snacks can also be got from midnight to 3am.
There are many tipping boxes around the restaurant areas should you wish to tip.
When dining in the main restaurant you may have to wait a few mins for cutlery as the waiters had a lot of tables to wait for the amount of people there at rush hours. The same was true when ordering drinks. It was roughly 1 waiter to 10 tables from what I could see. Food was primarily to the German guests taste buds and after a few days it became quite repetitive unless you liked salads of the kiddies meals.
Hygiene and cleanliness in the restaurant areas and bars was first class.

Sport & Entertainment

I loved the volleyball on the beach and the football pitch was a throwback to the 19th century ,but playable! I joined up with some English lads and we beat a German select 3: 0 so it was quite satisfying for some of them.
My 3 and a half year old son loved the mini-club house and the 2 girls looked after the kids well. It was well organised and had lots of programs for the kids. Unfortunately, toys were a bit sparse in the mini-club and my son was bemoaning this.
There is free wi-fi access in the lobby area which was a life saver for me...I could connect with my smartphone. I used the fitness gym twice and it has 1 threadmill, exercise bike and more exercising machines. The indoor pool was freezing compared to the water outside
We found Zafer Tanir of Lidya very accommodating, friendly & professional in the jewellery store located on the Alba Resort hotel grounds. He gave us a good deal on my wife's ring. The other shops were quite expensive and the quality of the clothing and accessories was a bit poor. The sweet shop was stocked with foreign chocs, drinks and toys and the guys working there were really friendly and you could have a joke with them.
All the areas were spotless and the beach was so clean you could eat your dinner off it!

Room

We had a standard room with a bunk bed for our child. It was fine for us and had a tv, mini. bar (stocked everyday and free). Sheets and towels were changed daily. Only noise came from some people testing the hinges on the doors when they were banging them early in the morning. Thankfully, it wasn't so bad and we had no problems sleeping.

Tips and recommendations

Make sure you have travel insurance as it could be costly if you need health care.
Don't eat or drink in Antalya's airport departure lounge as the prices are sky high. I paid 37 euro for a double whopper meal and a kiddies meal at Burger king. A can of coke and half litre of water cost 8. 50 euro in another Bufe. Pure robbery!!