Reviews of Hotel Grand Efe

The reviewer did not provide a detailed description of their stay at the hotel. I would like to share my experiences of staying at the hotel in more detail.

A very good hotel for family vacations with children, retirees, it could get boring for young people, groups, and solo travelers. This year, I decided to change the vacation destination from Alanya to something cooler in the summer (from 6.7 to 17.7 the temperature ranged from +25 to +4, the sea was refreshing and slightly chilly when entering). I chose the more expensive region of Bodrum. However, as it turned out, it is not actually Bodrum or Kusadasi, as they write everywhere, but Ozdere - a small town on the way to Izmir. In the vicinity, there is NOTHING. And it is VERY far from Bodrum Airport, 19 km to be exact, it's a long journey ((( The hotel itself is located in a picturesque pine forest right on the beach. The rooms are clean, with new plumbing, quiet and excellent air conditioning units. The territory is also clean and well-maintained, with lots of greenery, flowers, and palm trees. My room, number 142, faced the forest and the mountain behind the hotel. The sun was only there in the morning. The room was clean, with carpet flooring that felt nice on bare feet. They provide a safe with a key for a deposit of 1 dollar, and the internet is free, but it only works well in the reception and lobby bar area. Excellent plumbing, always hot water and good water pressure. They regularly provide fresh towels and clean the room, even without tips. The beach has pebbles and sand, the entrance to the sea is not very convenient, the best spot is at the second entrance where there is pleasant sandy bottom, but there are rocks, so be careful. There were always available sun loungers and cushions. It was great that there was plenty of shaded areas on the territory, such as a lawn with sun loungers and sitting areas with tables under the canopy. From 12 pm to 6 pm, the sun was very scorching. The sea is clean, and there are two pontoons for sunbathing and swimming, just 5 meters from the shore, which is also great. Of course, there is all the infrastructure for vacationing with children: 2 pools, water slides, appropriate entertainment, though the latter is available only in the evenings and also for other guests (contests, shows). The food is also good, except for the FLIES in the dining hall: they are everywhere, sitting on the dishes, and they don't do anything about it. There is a bar on the beach where they serve hot dogs and pizza from 2 pm to 4 pm. However, it's not very clear why they do that if lunch finishes at 2 pm... What I liked: due to the significant price increase, there were NO crowds of people, no queues for food even during peak season in the summer. As far as I understood, the hotel was only about 6-7 percent filled when I arrived. And of course, there was NO rowdy behavior, noise, late-night partying with loud speakers, shouting, etc. It was a peaceful European-style vacation. The majority of guests were Turks themselves or Poles/Germans. There are water sports available at the beach for an extra charge, and beach volleyball is free: you can play it twice a day. We had fun playing, by the way. There is also table tennis, darts, and billiards in the lobby. The hotel offers various cosmetic procedures, shops, and a reasonably well-equipped gym with free weights. No need to wear special footwear, which is also a plus. Regarding the food: it is of a decent level. The meat consists of chicken, turkey, and fish. Sometimes there is lamb. Of course, there are greens, fruits (oranges, apples, pears, plums, grapefruits, watermelon, melon). But everything is spoiled by the FLIES that land everywhere. I really liked that the dining hall has an open veranda where you can have your meals under the pine trees. However, there are begging cats roaming around. Everything would have been very good, but this was the first hotel since 2016 where I had a slight stomach upset (Enterofuril helped me, and luckily everything passed within a day. A strange thing is that they don't even allow guests in the room for two hours after 12 pm when checking out. And paying for an extra day is very expensive (my acquaintances paid 14 euros). I was not very pleased with the fact that there is NO late dinner available either. So, for those arriving in the evening, after dinner (after 9 pm), there is no food at all, only drinks, and you have to wait until breakfast, which starts at 7 am.

1. Flight The trip was independent, the flight was with Aeroflot, everything was great, arrived at Izmir airport. If you are flying from Sheremetyevo, bring an empty water bottle with you. After all the security checks, you can fill it with drinking water from coolers. 2. Transfer Also independent. After reading reviews about get transfer, I contacted the company through which I booked the hotel. They offered me a price of 15 rubles for a one-way transfer. Then I decided to get to the hotel by public transport. Exit the airport and head towards the metro station, where you buy a card and load money onto it. The card costs 3 lira and by default, they put 3 lira on it. We got two cards, but the woman at the window charged us 16 lira, either she made a mistake or some other fee is charged, it's unclear. Get on the train and ride one station to Kumoovasi or Menderes station. Get off the station, making sure to tap your card on the orange terminal, and look for bus 775, get in the end of the line and ride to the Grand Efe stop. It takes about 5 minutes if there are few stops and 1 hour and 5 minutes if there are many. In the end, the transportation cost us 6 lira for the cards and 35.12 lira for the metro and bus. You can check the schedule at the stop on Google Maps, but the bus goes much faster than indicated. Also, don't miss your stop like we did, as the bus is very fast and you need to exit in advance and press the stop button. Your landmark will be this: as soon as you go out to the sea, the bus runs along the sea, then it loops back from the sea and as soon as it comes down from this loop, you need to get off after one stop. Be attentive, otherwise you will have to go back to the hotel for one stop in the heat like we did. 3. Room Check-in was quick. We didn't have a printed voucher, I emailed it to them. The room was good, the furniture was not super new, but everything was intact, everything worked properly, no strange smells, and most importantly, very clean! 4. Cleaning Daily cleaning, everything was replenished on time, water, shampoo, shower gel, and hair conditioner. If someone needs body lotion, it's not provided, so bring your own. There are also no dental kits or sewing kits. Only slippers are provided. 5. Food Everything was super delicious, you could always find something to eat. Yes, the variety is not extensive, there are no 33 dishes, but there was always a few hot options, a couple of side dishes, and every day they tried to surprise with something: red fish, fried fish, kebab, grilled meat. Many delicious pastries, vegetables, various salads (not the awful mayonnaise ones, but made from eggplants, zucchinis, beans, etc.). There were always very tasty melons and watermelons, pears, plums (hard ones), and very juicy sweet peaches. There was even grapes once. There were no fried eggs every day, it was only once as a surprise, which was very strange, but there was omelette every day and boiled eggs. You will never go hungry, but be prepared that good coffee is not available at the hotel. The coffee machine makes terrible coffee, so you can use this time for a coffee detox and drink delicious Turkish tea. The juices are not great either, only iced tea, so we drank Pepsi. The waiters were prompt and cleared everything right away, there were enough seats for everyone. Yes, there were queues, but only in the last 2 days and you can avoid these queues, as everyone stands in one line when you can take a spoonful of rice and move away instead of standing in line. Towards the end of the meal, there were no queues and there was plenty of food for everyone. 6. Animation There's always some activity throughout the day, the evening entertainment is not wow, but it will keep the children entertained. Once, at 1 am, I went to the beach and saw the entertainers in costumes walking around the pool, changing clothes for other guests, having fun. 7. Beach There are plenty of sunbeds, they are always available everywhere: on the beach, on the grass, by the pool. On the rooftop bar, there is a heap of broken sunbeds. The sand and gravel on the beach are a bit neglected, they should be sifted, but the large waste is cleaned daily, they collect cups. I saw them changing mats for foot showers and replacing a broken holder for the shower head. The sunbeds are cleaned in the evening. Yes, they are not in perfect condition, but you can nitpick about everything. Choose the entrance to the sea opposite the entrance from the bar to the beach, there are no stones there, only sand. The water is amazing, crystal clear and warm. Sometimes it brought in dirt in the form of wood chips and seaweed, and occasionally there was some random garbage floating, but for the most part, it was absolutely

The reviewer did not provide a detailed description of their stay at the hotel. I would like to share my impressions of the hotel stay in more detail.

This is a solid 4-star hotel. Upon arrival, we were immediately checked-in to a visually clean, but as it turned out, very dusty room. It seemed like it had been unoccupied for a couple of months, so we immediately went to change rooms. They gave us a room on the 6th floor with a sea view without any questions. They apologized. The rooms are clean, renovated, and have modern plumbing. The rooms are cleaned every day. The territory is small, but you are right on the beach. There are 2 pools, one for children and one for adults, as well as water slides. The entrance to the sea is pebbly, but not everywhere (on the left side there is sand). The pros are polite staff, prompt cleaning of both the territory and the dining area. The food is delicious and diverse, with meat and fish served every day. The fruits were not always sweet, but the pastries were excellent. Wi-Fi is available throughout the territory (mostly), and it is normally fast, except for the rooms where it doesn't work at all. The animation is a bit weak, but it keeps you entertained throughout the day with beach games, bocce, tennis, chess, and more. During the day, there is a beach bar serving drinks and food, and there is always a queue for hot dogs and french fries. The bar works very quickly, which is a plus. Be prepared for the fact that the sea is almost always wavy! And it is cooler than the Mediterranean! The hotel is more popular among Turks, Bulgarians, Germans, and Iranians, and there are few Russians (whether this is a plus or a minus is up to you). If you are looking for a youth vacation, this is not the hotel for you, as there are many children here. For some reason, the MIR card (Sberbank) did not work in the hotel, but it worked perfectly in the shop opposite. We paid with Turkish lira at a rate of 3.8 lira to 1 ruble, which is very advantageous. Cons: I don't know about other rooms, but in ours, there was a smell of sewage that disappears when the air conditioning is on. There are huge queues in the dining area. Some of the food is portioned, which causes the queues. The pizza queue was unreal... in 7 days, I only managed to eat it a couple of times because I didn't want to wait in line. During the peak season, there are a lot of people, so be ready for that. You will be looking for sunbeds (which are taken early in the morning) and looking for a place in the dining area, despite it being large, and there are many places to relax on the territory. Sometimes, it can be difficult to find a place at the pool, but luckily, it doesn't happen all the time. There isn't much to do outside the hotel, but you can go to the pier to the right of the hotel. Walk along the shore for about five minutes and take a wonderful boat trip with food for $25 for 7 hours. We went and highly recommend it! A terrible downside is the road to the hotel. If you fly to Bodrum, it took us 3.3 hours from the airport. A separate minus for Pegasus airlines for their terrible service. It was Pegasus that sold us the tour without warning us about the 3.3 hour journey. The Pegasus driver took us to the hotel and suddenly made a stop at a gas station, where it smelled awful. We waited for him for about 3 minutes and then decided to go find him ourselves. The guide at the hotel is only interested in selling excursions to you. When we asked her about the stops the driver made, she just rolled her eyes theatrically and said, "Oh my God!" In short, we had a 6-day vacation instead of 7 days thanks to Pegasus taking away our whole day. For 6 days, the hotel was very decent, it didn't get boring. It is also suitable for families with children. The evening animation is very weak and ends at 11 pm. It is mainly geared towards Turkish audiences. There is a disco on the territory (ask the animation team for directions). It operates until 1 am. Overall, it is a 4-star hotel, perfectly suitable for a family vacation with children.