moira27,

You'll find member reviews for the Arum hotel and Apartments on our Hotel Review section. There a topic in relation to the Asteria; Hotel Asteria, Side....has anyone ever been?????

Darren

I have stayed at the Arum three times since August 2008, I got back on Friday morning. Its a great hotel, we love it and miss it so much!

Hi cloclo Thank you for reply,what is the beach and sea like is it ok for swimming ,we are just back from Bulgaria and the sea and beach was very dirty.
Any hints or tips about the resort would be great like eating places or day trips.thanks.
Moira

Just typed a long reply and it was deleted!! Gotta go cook dinner now, so will try and reply tomorrow!

Thanks will hear from you soon.

Ok, am going to do this quickly...sorry for later reply but have had several crisis since I got back...wish i was still there

Beach and sea both very clean.
Dirtiest part of the beach belonged to the Sunrise Queen, they did have lot of building work going on there so maybe they were pre-occupied...it was noticabley dirtier and 'grubbier' although not disgusting.
There are rocks in the arum section of the sea, so noone swims there...but its no bother and it means you can walk along the shoreline edge bit without dodging any dripping wet swimmers.

Restaurants/Bars
We don't eat out (stay hb and dont need lunch) so cant comment on food, other than we have not noticed any complaints in any restaurants, and it smells absolutely gorgeous!
Linda Bar (opposite Hemera on Side-Kumkoy road)...cheapest bar weve drank in, NEVER spent more than 40lira here on a lot of drinks for four people, and the people are great. A little quieter this year, although started to busy up with the british summer holidays starting....this has been our favourite bar for years, in fact last july we only ever went to this one.
(Golden Fizz next to Linda Bar is apparently very expensive, daughter went in there and had to come back to get more money to pay for two drinks we had alrewady given her 20 lira....and when we have walked by not going in they have been rude...we also find Yusefs which is a little closer to the arum on the same road not to be very friendly).

running out of space will carry on in new post

Ok....sorry about that but hate it when you can't see what you're typing.

Royal Castle, part of the zone, Side. Quite expensive, on average spent around 70 lira in a night here, but great atmosphere, live music, and good disco/dancing later in the night/early morning. Toilets good, although lights were blue and made you feel a little drunker than you were...although the actual toilets wereso far up i couldnt touch the floor

Alremu along the beach....very friendly (the owners wife comes from the same area as us....and the job she recently left is the one my daughter has just started we believe). Great drinks, although the tequila sunrise came out warm and strongly alcoholic....oth problems sorted with an extra handful of ice. Toilets very clean.

Golden Star (next door but one to Alremu), sat by here on beach during day in october and loved the atmosphere and friendliness, but at night we felt unwelcome there. Staff seemed preoccupied, but the dog (Suzi) did have newborn pups and passers-by were getting a little too friendly with their flashing cameras so staff spent most of the night trying to keep them away. Toielts weren't so pleasnt.

Sorry about the toilet reports.....but its good to know these things. Will carry on with excursiosn in next post....

Excursions/Trips.

We have done the Manavgat boat trip, involving boat trip, lunch, trip to waterfalls and several markets. Enjoyed this immensely, food provided was very good, although waterfalls were disappointing. Booked through Thomas Cook.

Have been to Troy waterpark, whcih I think is in Belek. Not bad, good selection of slides, and the scariest black hole I have been on...was not impressed with the dolphin place joined on to this, and the monkey being walked around on a chain with people forcing you to have photos with. Lifeguards were slightly overfriendly with my then-14 year old...who wasn't confident to laugh it off at the time. Now at 16 she would probably feel more comfortable as she was very self concious and nervous....they weren't too inappropriate but she just felt uncomfortable, and I probably wouldn't adivse girls to wander around without adults/boyfriends/partners there. Lunch was good there...word of advise is to wrap your soft drink bottles in your towels so they arent taken off of you.

Haven't booked any trips with operators other than Thomas Cook, simply because we haven't been on many organised trips (friends out there have shown us places briefly).

Ok think I have covered it all....anything I havent let me know.

CloClo thank you so much for taking the time to write all that, I am just going to make a coffee and read through it.
It is really good that people on this site give their feedback to help others.
Thanks once again.
Hope all your crisisis are over.

Hi Cloclo, can I also ask you if they had a kettle and hairdryer in room also do they supply pool towels.Just thinking of ways I can cut back with packing.lol.
Thanks once again.Hope all well with you.

Hairdryer...yes they do but the aircon is stronger Seriously do not bother with the hotels hairdryer, dd1 tried to use it and half an hour later he was was still dripping wet She was not amused as we told her it would be fine and she could leve hers at home

Kettle...all our rooms have had one, but apparently some don't. They all have a fridge and normally its empty and you can ask them not to fill it with mini-bar good so you can put orange juice etc inside. I'd take a travel kettle just in case...but I'm pretty sure if you asked for one they'd get you one.

And they provide (yellow) pool towels...can be changed at two times, one in morning, one in evening, as many times as you like. Apparently lost towel fee gets quite expensive though. Towels in bathroom are excellent quality, you get loads of them, and they are a good size (nothing as bad as trying to dry yourself with only a small towel!). They also have huge bathrobes, although these are usually hidden at the top of the wardobe.

We still haven't booked for next year