Suntopia Hotel Pegasos Club

The hotel had its own shops, but to go to the nearest town, Side, you could get catch a bus which stopped outside every 15 minutes for 2 lires and then the little train from the bus station into Side for 50 cents. (So about £2 for the round trip). The beach was right at the end of the garden area - plenty of sun beds (never had trouble finding 4) and although the beach shelved into the sea, we enjoyed the endeavours of getting in and out (when we were there the sea was unusually rough and so it was very amusing to get in and out of the water). Having said that the lifeguard was particularly vigilant and blew his whistle and beckoned holidaymakers out of the water if he felt they should not be there. Shopping at Side was all you could want for - plenty of shops, restaurants etc. We went on one excursion to the waterfalls/markets/river cruise and had a Turkish bath/massage (fab). It took about 1 1/4 hours to get to the airport, but the journey was pleasant enough.

I have to say that the service at the hotel was excellant. If you had a problem, however small, they dealt with it and were more than willing to improve the facilities of the hotel. I would imagine because the British contingent is new and small they wanted to make sure that we were looked after as well as possible and I think they were very friendly, very helpful and the service in the restaurants was brilliant. Never was a plate left on the table with leftovers on it. When you left the table after finishing a meal it was cleared, new tablecloth put on the ready for the next guests in a matter of minutes. Full credit to them - it is a large hotel and we never queued for food (except at the bread and toaster tables), there was always a good and full selection of food and there was certainly no pushing in from other guests.

We only used the self service restaurant for main meals as we were only at the hotel for a week, but the quality and quantity of food and drink were good. As a tea drinker my only criticism would be that as in most countries in the world it would be lovely to have boiling water for tea. That which comes out of water urns is never quite boiling and the tea doesn't taste right. Also, to have to pay 2 Euros for freshly squeezed orange I thought was rather expensive and declined to drink it on principle. For the size of the restaurants (there were two either side of the self service area) it was very, very efficient and not as noisy as you would imagine either. Variety of food was very good, we especially enjoyed the lamb we had one evening. Any spillages were mopped up immediately. The outside food/bar areas were very good too.

There was a huge indoor swimming pool which we used, with towels outside the door for use. There was a fitness suite just outside of this area which we didn't use, so I am unable to comment on the equipment etc. The pools outside were huge and plenty of space for children and adults alike, it was never anywhere near full. The children, as far as I could see, were very well catered for - even having their own outside food area especially for them. They had an entertainment body to look after them and several times we saw them being entertained on the beach. There were also plenty of sunbeds around the pool, which were normally taken up early morning, but there were always some available in and around the pool area. We never had any trouble finding four sunbeds at the beach, no matter what time of day we went there. The whole of the hotel and outside was perfectly clean and tidy - no litter etc.

We had a suite, which was huge and very clean and inviting. Only criticism (my own fault really). The bed was low and had a wooden plinth to it which I managed to knock into constantly, so I had one very bruised leg for the duration of the holiday. The suite had a very comfortable sitting room complete with television and patio doors, patio and patio furniture. We had a welcome plate of fruit and were asked during our stay if we required more. We were also asked during our stay if we required a kettle and tea/coffee/sugar etc. Towels were replaced when requested. We were on the ground floor but apart from one evening momentarily we were not disturbed by any noise from guests although there was a walkway quite close to our block. There was a hairdrier which worked very well as did the shower.

We went on holiday on 8th September, after the children went back to school in the UK, although there were quite a lot of small children from England as well as all the other guests in the hotel as we prefer it to be a bit quieter! Having said that, although there were children they did not disturb us at any time. Also, it was a good time to go weatherwise I think. I am sure it must have been terribly hot in August as we found it very warm when we went. I would take more beachware as drying these out took a while, but I would pack less dressy clothes as it is a very informal hotel.