Archived hotel reviews Hotel Kumköy Beach Resort & Spa

Hotel

5.5

(Ich bin Holleander, ich schreibe weiter in Englisch)
Once you get used (2 minutes) to the smell of the cleaning fluid (the staff is cleaning this hotel 24/7), the stay at the hotel is wondefull. It's far out the best hotel in the area. We found nothing we needed that wasn't available somewhere in or outside this massive hotel. Lot's of German guests, some dutch, russian, english. All guests were very well mannered. Lot's of room to sit, lay, swim and eat. Had a room with seaview (1101), we could see the ocean, but not the pools (green matras/roof of the restaurant). We did not care, the rooms for sleeping and looking at the ocean, the rest of our stay we were downstairs anyways. And yes, there were some corners cut while building this hotel, but nothing that was that obvious I would complain about.

Location

5.5

Avoid the street shops in front of the hotel, unless you realy know your prices and want to spend valueable holidaytime arguing with the salesmen. Take the bus to Antalya (nice trip anyways) and buy all you clothes in de outer rings of the city, were the Turks live themselves.
The public transportation is very easy, frequent en very cheap. Turks on the busses all speak reasonable German and are very helpfull if you need a transfer to another bus. We also took a boattrip from Side to Manavgat. The Manavgat waterfalls and the monday farmersmarket are a touristtrap, but the trip on the small boat (15 euro at the harbour) including a fantastic meal, stopover at the river-end for a swim and bellydancer was amazing. With 10 people on a small boat just makes you laugh out loud the the big tourist/pirate cargoships that you pass on the ride.
This hotel was the first on the after flight drop off, with 50 minutes transfer time. Also we were the last to be picked up for tranfer to the airport (some guests already spent more than an hour on this bus)

Service

5.5

The more down the chain, the less the staff spoke german. Most restaurant waiters were poor german speakers, the rest of the staff could handle a descent conversation. The quality of service was excelent. Turkisch people are very friendly and eager to help. The rooms were cleaned daily. We gave a 2 euro tipp per day and a starting tipp of 5 euro's. We know the maids have a very hard job, be nice to them and tipp! We had no complaints, so no way to say how the hotel handles complaints. We asked for a second doorcard and it was given promtply after an ID-check (excellent method) I've already mentioned that this hotel is cleaned 24/7. WOW! The toilet seats in Turkey seam all to be twisted to the right. Saw this at all the (few) toilets I had to visit. Coincidence or fact?
You need to bring/buy extra towels. One complementary towel per person is not large enough to cover the bed at poolside or beach.

Gastronomy

6.0

The food in the buffet restaurants is very diverse, of high standard and plenty. Showcooking is not available, baking an egg/pancake or carving a turkey bone is not showcooking. Hot plates were available but not marked. So the first few day I used the cold plates at the entrance. We did not use the theme-restaurant, the buffet food was that good, we stayed at the main restaurant. That is a GREAT compliment for the chef(s)! Soft drinks and beer are A-brand (coca cola/Sprite/Fanta) Effes beer is good (so i've heard) fruit drinks are watery. Water is available in .5 liter bottles, cooled at the pool bar/restaurants. Cocktails are watery and tasteless, wodka/tonic, wodka/lemon and Turkish Bailey's are perfect. Tip: Take a plastic plate from the poolbar and get something to eat from the Posseidon restaurant. With this plate you can eat at the poolside! Foodwise, this hotel gets a straight A!!

Sport & Entertainment

2.5

The wellness was very expensive, also the 'amusement'-hall (bowling,electronic games and internet).
The animationteam was very 'buddy' with some of the guests, but when it came to actually work, they failed misserably (can't judge the kids team). I've played volleyball, waterpolo and Petanque at the beach, but the animation team were all bystanders and dit not participate themselves or to a very dissapointing level. Furthermore, all of the team were dressed in personal clothes. This I find unacceptable for a 5 star hotel. They need to wear company/animation outfits. The shows the animation team put up at night were of embarrassing amateur level. There are some shows that are performed by outsiders and they were excellent.

Room

6.0

Rooms are large enough to accommodate 2 persons, there are no shelves in the room, so bring extra coathangers. Safe was big enough to house all my fotoequipment (15 kg's of camera/lenses and extra's - WOW) The hotel and turkisch people gave us the feeling we didn't need a safe (thank you Turkey!) Again, this hotel is clean, clean and again clean. Take a walk along the beach an look at the other hotel's. You'll be glad to retun to the KBR. Also there are 2 guards at the beach and a lifeguard. At night when the kids do their show at the theatre outside, the guards were present every night. Compliments! The poolmusic was diverse enough, not on all the time, sometimes to loud for some, but there are 6 pools. On the other side you could barely hear the music and those location were also very beautifull.

Tips and recommendations

Use the public transportation system. It's cheap, frequent and fun. Dolmus cost 1 to 2 euro's. Busfare to Antalya €7. Go and see the outer rings of Antalya, were the Turks live. Also there are som real farmers markets along the road to Antalya. Do a lot of research of the area an go by Dolmus,bus or car. Thereby you will bypass the touristtraps. We love the Turks. They are the most friendly and helpfull people we have met. This was out first time in Turkey. We will defenitely go back soon! We will post pictures soon at www . KennethTan . nl