Hotel Ambrosia

4 star? More like 2 star

My first, and last visit to Turkey. Chosen with Thompson, we have travelled with them before and always found their descriptions fair and honest. Not so this time. Its 4 star rating cannot compare to a European 4 star rated hotel. Not even close.

To be fair there are some good aspects to the Ambrosia. Its in a great place. The location is superb and the views are to die for. The food is reasonable, there is plenty, its good quality and the service from the waiters was good. They were polite and friendly - apart from the ice cream seller, who thought it was funny to ask for tips. He got one - "dont ask for tips, you wont get one"

We stayed half board. There was always plenty of choice and the quality was good in the main. The breakfast was "cooked". In reality it was scrambled eggs or boiled eggs and then what looked like baked hot dog sausages. The rest was continental and a combination of Turkish fruits and cerials or pastries and cakes. The abundance of fruit, in particular mellon made up for the lack of a decent cooked option. The only other choice was ommlettes or pancakes, made to order by the chef as you waited. These were both superb.

I say cooked option with some annoyance, as the same hotel, the same dining area, had a full English available, bacon, proper sausage etc - but you had to buy it as an extra 7TL or 3.5Eu. Really taking the mickey in comparison to the cooked options on the half board choices.

The evening meal was wide and varied. A reflection of the clientel one assumes. A strange range, from Shepherds Pie and Rice Pudding to more traditional kebabs and cooked veg. Loads of salads and fruit again and this meant you could choose to avoid the "English school dinner" type stuff if you liked. The puddings were as you would expect, a mixture of extravagant cakes and pastries, that look great but then fail to impress once you actually taste them. They really do need to understand dairy products better. There is a very clear demarkation between the dining areas. the "ala carte" section is not for residents. This is a really nice area, but as a resident you are told to move off there and sit in the middle section. I understand why, but its nowhere near as nice in the buffet section. In the photos on their website, the buffet section is behind and lower down than the ala carte seating which is beachfront and has super views.

Overall the food was good quality, decent quantities - you could go back for more if you wanted. Plates and waste were removed quickly and this must have helped to keep the flies and insects away. We were rarely bothered all holiday with pests of any sort. The much heralded stray cats and dogs were really not a problem. The cats stayed at foot level, only 2 or 3 in total all week. We never once saw a dog on the hotel land. The stray dogs we did see were very calm, docile and never bothered anyone. Compared to our dog at home, they were very well behaved! Our mutt would have run amok with all thet food about!

Drinks wise, the beer (local lager) was 6TL a pint and it was a decent drink. Im not a big drinker by any means but it was great and cold and very nice in that stunning weather. I had a few glasses of wine with my evening meal, but it was not very good and I gave up after 2 evenings. Im sure the bottled stuff would have been ok, but the house red is Sarsons!

The evening entertainment was, frankly, rubbish. The Shamrock Bar - really just a beach front bar with a sound system and flashing lights - not an Irish bar at all! Every night starts with a "Mini Disco" - They play the same songs every evening, the same staff animators teach the assembled children how to do the okey cokey, agado, birdie sone etc etc, in the same order and frankly its boring and drives many adults away.

After the mini disco, comes the main act. Its either an Irish Duo called Inchequin (I dont know if they are in anyway related to the well known band) This pair are at best average - singing songs that are beyond their vocal ranges. I dont see the point of having an Irish band there that then play a mixture of old rock and pop songs and dont do the Irish folk stuff that they probably do really well?

Then follows a mixture of strange acts, from hoolahoop jugglers to latino dancers and karaoke - where they assembled drunken Brits and Irish get up and scream into the sound system. Sorry, but its crap. The problem is that you cant escape it. The system is so loud that even in your room there is no escape the racket. Not good. But if thats your bag then I assume you will enjoy it!

Accomodation is not great. The beds are incredibly hard. The sheets and covers are adequate. there are blankets in the room if you require them. We slept with the air con on and it was ok, but the blankets were minging, clearly not washed regularly and didnt look like Id put our dog on them to be honest. As mentioned in previous reviews, there was a constant drip of water from the roof tiles in the bathroom. Gross and unpleasant. The bath was stained and the towels grey and horribly hard and scatchy. They were changed as required, but for another equally horrible set.

Not once during our week there was the bathroom cleaned, not the sink, bath or toilet nor the floor mopeed. The floor was mopped everyday in the room itself, but apart from the change of towles the ensuite wasnt touched all week. Also there was no pattern to the room cleaning service. It varied from 9am on our first day there to 5pm on one occasion. We were out and about on most days so I dont actually know what time they came.

What was obvious was that people were going into our rooms when we were going to breakfast - the reason for this was not clear - I have my suspicions and Ill come back to that later. But I deliberately set a few things to see if they were disturbed whilst we were away. They were, even though no cleaning of towel changing had happened. Why would anyone need to go into our rooms when we were eating and not actually do anything? The cleaning staff were always hanging around on the corridors, watching who was coming and going and raely did you see them actually doing any cleaning.

One couple we met had some cash taken. Not obvioulsy, but a note from a purse, a not froma wallet. Not something easy to keep track of. Of course a safe is available in every room and we used that whenever we left the room. But if you left a purse out and had a few notes in it you risked having one taken. The couple we chatted to were dead straight, no way would they have made up that they had 50TL taken from a wad of 400 they had counted rady to go shopping later that day. They did complain and got basically told that the cleaner had a good record. There key records (a credit card type key) showed that the cleaner had been in their room when they were eating also, but again, no cleaning. They can computer check the entry of any room and the printout showed every entry and its time. But nothing happened, 50TL is about £20, not a big deal to us I guess, but to have someone going into your room and your purse is not on. I guess its an issue for the management to address. But they may be in denial about it?

The hotel and recption staff were helpful and friendly in the main. The hotel its self is a nice building and the corridors are clean and tidy. The public toilets are much better and cleaner than the ones in the rooms. These obviously get checked regularly. The pool is lovely, is not chlorinated, but uses a silver cleaning technology which makes it much more user friendly. Its not 12 foot deep anywhere, its no more than 5 feet deep and has steps shallows at one end. The biggest problem with the pool was the lack of supervison by some parents of thir teenage children who just made it unusable for periods when the mood took them. The same group of around 7 or 8 kids from age around 7 or 8 up to mid teens did the same all day, it just depended on where they were as to how they affec ted your peace and quiet. For example we sat in the lobby for a period on out final day. This group just ran riot in there for over an hour, ran round on the seating and tables, shouting and being silly. No sign of their parents. Its that sort of place I guess.

The much vaunted beach is at best, over sold, and at worst lied about. Its not clean, its covered in fag butts, its not sand - more a very rough gravel and is not pleasant to stand on, most people walk to the water edge in flip flops and leave them there. They claim its cleaned, not from my experience, the gravel was never raked and the cig buts never removed. The sea is clean and once in the sea the sea bed is soft sand. The sunbeds are decent and the staff walk between them and patrol all day.

Overall, Id say the Ambrosia is a nice hotel, the staff clearly try hard. The cleaners are awful and some rooms leave much to be desired. But it is without doubt the best hotel in Bitez, its in a great location. There is nothing major that spoiled our holiday, just lots of small things that in isolation would be nothing, but when they stack up over a week, make the difference between a nice relaxing holiday with good memeories and a "glad to be home and wont go back there again mindset".

Unique Quality: Before you book with your tour operator, walk down the beach. They exact same trips are on offer, much cheaper at several outlets.

The trip to Kos was great.

The coachtrip and waiting around for the coaches - not customs - spoil the day. A 20 minute fast catamaran is wasted when you sit on board for 90 minutes while all the coaches arrive and fill up.

The little minibus service to Bodrum is superb, every 5 minutes form the door for 3TL each. 20 minutes ride and you are in the town centre. Bodrum Castle is great and 10TL entrance fee is a bargain. Inside there are pleny of air conditioned halls to cool down in while taking in the history.

The Jeep Safari is good and bad. The morning part is great, you visit a village in the mountains, you visit a smsll lake where you can feed turtles and then see a real house and its elderly occupants. See how they really live and would exsist without the tourism industry. The lunch at the beachside cafe is nice nad views to die for. The afternoon drive is rubbish, a retrace of the road for a good 30 minutes a stop at a little rain collector and at the drivers mates coffe shop. If you get the choice of a half day folloed by a boat trip - take it.

Finally a warning about the cowshed that is Bodrum Airport. Dont rush to get into the duty free area. Once through passport control, where they take all your liquids from you, you are then stuck inside asmall depature area wher cans of coke/fanta etc are 5 Euros each. Thats around £4 for a normal sized can and water for a 500ml bottle is 2.5 Euro's. You have the choice to not drink or pay their extorionate prices. My advice would be to take a good drink before going through passport control and hope your plane isnt delayed too long. The robbing airport cafes and shops love the fact you have no choice.