Side, Kentia Apartments

Had an amazing 2 weeks at this hotel room's kept spotless staff lovely and polite, food was great served many option's,pool spotless. Manager's of the hotel and restaurant were very friendly and helpful. I had a spa and facial and felt great after this. They had plenty of entertainment with Cem and good variety offered from belly dancing (which was amazing) games day and night, and karaoke we ventured out nearby, to red lion and was amazing night.

Thoroughly enjoyed myself definitely be back next year, and a massive thank you to the manager who sorted my travel to airport when shuttle never picked me up, very helpful and took the worry away from me xx keep up great work see you all soon

I have just returned 2 days ago from a 2 week stay at kentia, it was a wonderful hotel, staff always welcome you (askin and kadir and ferhattin best staff) and always help you to the best they can... cleaner are amazing make your room spotless everyday (dora is the best).. food was lovely and at resinable prices. lots of things to do outside the apartments 10 mins walk to the beach and a nice 25 min walk into side itself with lots of bars and restaurant and shops. was well worth the money we paid for it and we are already booked for next april as we loved it there... SEE YOU SOON KENTIA

I think kentia apartments is s nice hotel ecspecially for couples and familys i think the rooms are very nice and it is very clean. the pool is a good size and the baby pool is very safe for young kids, although the slide could be better.We were very warm in our rooms and it costs an awful lot for air conditioning. The entertainment is not very good because there is no daytime entertainment and there is only 3 nights a week with entertainment at the hotel. There is a nice shop selling all your everyday essentials and there are a few mini markeys up the road. There is a nice resteraunt if you turn right from reception then turn left and keep going straight then cross the road and it is on the corney. Also if you keep going straight ahead you will come to a resteraunt with a park and its serves lovely food. Also is you get a taxi into side center there is a long street with 100 s of shops where you can buy all you fakes and gifts. I would not recommend the red lion as you have to wait about an hour for your food. i hope all of this helped and enjoy your holiday. xxx

Great Hotel, reasonable location just right for a great relaxing holiday. Kentia Apartments excellent. Staff and cleaners superb. Great swimming pool. Food good and reasonably priced and its a lovely place to relax and enjoy the weather. Good and cheap bus service available and some free bus services to beach. Great restaurant nearby called MY CORNER. Meals superb especially the steaks! Highly recommended. Lovely beach 15mins walk if you don't want to go by bus.

Myself and my wife stayed for two weeks at the Kentia Aparthotel in Side, and overall it was a big disappointment. We expected a luxurious hotel with air conditioning, but it turned out to be a disaster.

To start with - the air conditioning. I had specifically checked with our travel agency if there was air conditioning, and if it was included. Well, there was air conditioning equipment in both the living room and in the bedroom. You had to close both balcony doors to enable them to turn on. But then it was only functioning as a ventilator! On the door there was a pamphlet that said it was only functional at certain times, and the reception could inform you when. So I asked, and he mentioned from 22:30 until 5:00. Well, forget it. It was never working, not at any time. The Neckermann hostess was well aware of this, as it turned out after a while - it hadn't been functioning all season. First she played games with us by asking the reception to check it for us. The Neckermann hostess deserves her own review.

It was 33 degrees Celsius in the day time, and at night the temperature would drop only slowly to maybe 21 degrees. In the evening it was so hot inside we were forced to sleep with our bedroom window open. Unfortunately, there are lots of mosquitoes and no mosquito nets, so you can guess how comfortable this is. Besides, some guests seemed to find it necessary to party all night.

Then there was also the music. Kentia wants to entertain the guests with music from 10:00 until late in the evening; sometimes even until midnight. The volume is very high at some moments. Forget sleeping with the window open while the music lasts. Forget to sit on your balcony to relax, read a book and enjoy the silence, because there is none.

The bed is terrible. A hard uncomfortable spiral mattress and a cheap pillow. In addition to all this there were also the telephones near the bed and in the bathroom that rang at random times, mostly only once, so sleeping was hell. We dealt with the telephones by unplugging them.

The couch was not much better - it was more like a sleeping couch, but without enough pillows it was way to wide to sit on it comfortably. The chairs on the balcony and dining table were not much better either. The TV had only 7 channels, and none of them interested us.

The kitchen (or rather kitchenette) was very poorly equipped. Only a small electrical plate, a water boiler and two pans. Forget real cooking. Only usable for breakfast. So we had to spend a lot of dining in restaurants. Reckon for 50 Euros every day for two persons if you want a bottle of wine with the meal. The dinner in the hotel restaurant was OK, except for the french fries.

We were advised in advance by a Neckermann hostess (another one) to hire a safe to store our tickets and passports. Fine, but the rent was 40 Euros per week, which I find way too high for a facility that costs them nothing.

Kentia is located at a lesser region of the Side region. The location is boring and poor, and with all the open spaces it looks like there had been a bombing raid. It is also a 15 minute walk to the beach, and half an hour to the historical centre.

Side city is famous for its Roman ruins, and these are interesting indeed. But the centre is just one big tourist trap with lots of the same shops and restaurants. The owners are annoying salesmen, and they all want to know where you're from and want you to come in. After a while it drives you crazy. We were also cheated in a tourist shop by paying 10 times the actual price for something, as we discovered a little later.

The garden and swimming pool are nice if you don't mind the music.

The supermarket in the hotel is very poorly equipped, and the prices are at least twice of those in other supermarkets. There are some small supermarkets in the neighbourhood, but only a very few have fresh meat or vegetables, if you still would consider cooking.

Finally, there was the masseur. Apparently he did not have enough customers so he enforced himself to the guests round the swimming pool. I don't like to be massaged but my wife does, so she took two. On the second one she discovered his attitude was not at all professional.

All in all, this is the last place on earth I would ever want to be.

My sister and I stayed at the Kentia Apartments in Turkey with her little girl in September, and we could find no fault them. They were very clean and spacious apartments. They are within walking distance of almost everything, but there are taxi's outside to take you anywhere you wish to go if you don't fancy walking. These taxi's are also cheaper than anywhere else in the resort. The complex has everything you could need, so you don't need to go anywhere. There is nightly entertainment, and the kids pool is ideal, as it's only 40cm deep.

Overall, a fantastic holiday, and we will be going back.

Had I read what you are about to read now, before I booked this holiday, my decision to book this holiday would have been different!

The Kentia Apartments in Turkey are 45 minutes walk or 7YTL (£3) in a taxi from Side's resort centre, and 30 minutes walk from the beach. A long way!!!

t is in a developing area at the back of Side close to the main Antalya to Alanya road.

There are expensive mini markets close by, plus the odd restaurant or two.

The accommodation is quite good, but the standard of cleanliness could have been better. I never saw evidence of the maids cleaning the floors for us, which meant that the bathroom floor was quite grubby due to sun sprays. They also only seemed to change towels and linen during the first week of the holiday for those on a two week holiday, and those on a one week don't seem to get a change at all.

The apartments are modern, although a comfortable seat would have been very good to have, especially as most evenings were spent in the apartment watching DVD's, due to the very poor entertainment in the evening. This is the first holiday I have been on, and I was in bed most nights by 11pm. The remote location meant that the evenings were disappointing.

The air conditioning... The brochure says centrally controlled. Forget it! It's useless if it is on. Our room temperature was 82 degrees when the system was supposed to be on. We found it very difficult to sleep at night. Do not let the air con facility of this accommodation influence your decision to stay here, or at another hotel that does not have air con. In fact given the remoteness of the Kentia, I would recommend staying at a hotel nearer the beach that does not have air conditioning. There are many in the livelier Kum Koy district of Side. Such as the Melissa gardens.

The pool is OK but sometimes I don't think it was kept very clean, and at one point there was a reluctance of the management to close the pool for cleaning, when a young child had an accident in the pool twice!! Also lots of guests, me included had ear infections. Never had one before!

One night each week the animation team (entertainment team) would hold a pool party inviting guests to have a moonlight dip. Fine, but then the pool lights went out and children were still in the pool. The management made no attempt to clear the pool once they had turned the lights out. I mentioned, that as the pool was not lit, no one should be in for safety. Only then did they attempt to clear the pool. Also no lifeguards on duty day or night at this pool when it's in use.

The gardens are well maintained. In fact they try to mow them or water them when guests are sunbathing on towels, because they did not get up early enough to get a sun bed. There are 107 sun beds to 80 rooms. Average occupancy is 4. You do the sums, but that's why guests were up at 4am putting towels on sun beds before going back to bed.

There is a restaurant which we found to be better value than downtown Side, and the meals were very tasty. In fact we found them to be about 20 to 30YTL cheaper than elsewhere, based on 3 adults and a child with drinks. Side is not cheap. Average price for 4 soft drinks is about 11YTL or £5. About the same as home really. A beer is 3YTL just over £1. Most staff at the Kentia are friendly, except the miserable old so and so in the Kentia mini market who insisted on shouting at adults as well as kids. Also some of the reception staff were not friendly towards English guests.

Glad to be home? You bet!

If you're going to Side, and you want a very quiet holiday, then the Kentia is for you. If you want plenty to do, then check out the hotels nearer the beach, and in the Kum Koy district.