Club Tarhan Hotel - Didim - Turkey

We booked this package holiday to Turkey on a last minute deal through Teletext holidays. The Club Tarhan hotel in Didim is advertised as a 5* & the facilities pretty much reflect this, however the food is more like 3-4*. We paid £285 each for one week all inclusive.

Accommodation
The rooms were immaculate, very fresh & cleaned daily. We booked a standard room expecting a double bed but were disappointed when we were allocated a twin room. The air conditioning worked well though & the bathroom was very modern with a decent shower & a vented window meaning no noisy extractor fan which was good. The small mini bar/fridge had cans of soft drink & lager although they were not part of the all inclusive package. A can of diet coke was 3 lira (£1. 00), Lager was 5 lira (£2. 00).

We requested a sea view when we booked & this is what we got -the view was fantastic. The balcony was spacious with two chairs & a small table. The seaview rooms were the furthest away from the main areas of the resort so were very quiet at night, however some people were right on top of the disco/bar areas so I can imagine they were kept up until the early hours.

The only negative point I could make about the room were the sheets & blankets provided. They were very starchy & rough & we both ended up very itchy & scratchy by the end of the holiday. We did laugh when we realised that the blanket on the bed was made out of the same material as the curtains.

Food
I wasn’t very impressed with the food quality or selection but I was pretty much expecting this for the cheap price I paid. There were plenty of rice dishes, breads & salad but not a great deal of choice of meat dishes. We ate freshly made omelette each morning, which was great as the scrambled egg was awful & frankfurter sausages cold! There are lots of cereals & fruit on offer & the tea & coffee options were decent enough. Even the milk was reasonable & not bitter. They have a cafe on site which served pizza & garlic bread at lunch but you had to visit at around 3pm to get a table. It was difficult to get a table for dinner in the evenings so definitely get seated before getting your food otherwise your meal will get cold. They are also very quick to clear your plates away just as you take your last mouthful of food which was quite annoying. Yes, the food is poor but it is just about edible & there are plenty of bread chips & salad on offer to fill you up.

Facilities
The two outside pools were big & very clean & the sea view was fantastic. No problem getting sunbeds providing you get your towels laid down by 8am. We managed to get two every day in a good spot. The floor around the pool is a bit slippery & a few people skidded & fell whilst we were there. As usual there were plenty of people laying towels down & not appearing until later on in the day, which is a bit out of order.

It was very windy when we were there so we spent a lot of the time watching parasols blowing over & into the pool which was dangerous. All inclusive drinks start at 10am and are served until 11pm in small flimsy plastic cups at the pool bar. They do not know how to pull a beer & you tended to get half a cup of froth! They also didn’t clear the cups away so these blew around the pool area all day. They had a good choice of soft drinks though - fanta, sprite, coke, diet coke, water, orange juice & lime juice served icy cold which was good. I was very impressed with both of the pools - plenty of space for everyone. The swim-up pool bar only serves soft drinks.

We didn’t spend time at the beach purely because it was so windy & they had hard wooden sunbeds which weren’t very comfortable. The lobby/reception area is very nice, lovely décor & the only bar that serves drinks in glasses. The only negative was that there was no air-con so it was stifling at times. People tended to drink at the pool bar in the evenings because of the breeze. We spent a few evenings in the lobby which was always empty.

Overall we did have a good holiday & the resort itself is very clean & tidy with good facilities. The staff do not speak very good English & at times came across a bit rude, but I have experienced this in Turkey before. There is no entertainment in the evenings & we felt let down by the food but if you book this as a last minute holiday & pay a cheap price then it’s a pretty good deal.